Many factors affect physical performance. The human body performs well within a small temperature range. Thermoregulation, or maintaining a core body temperature within a certain range, allows one to get more out of any physical performance, including exercise performance.
Highlights
- The science behind palm cooling which helps in muscles reactivates the enzymes into an active state,
- Cooling body temperature activates Pyruvate Kinase, facilitating the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which helps in muscle contraction,
- The palm cooling technology is still new, one method is to use cooling pads in between workouts.
Exposure to heat beyond a specific limit is detrimental to how the body functions. While enzymes work best within specific temperature ranges, excessive heat stops cause the enzymes to function optimally, and this has a cascading effect in terms of cells not being able to create energy and then stopping functioning entirely. Exercising naturally, too, increases body temperature. As the muscles become hot, they lose their efficiency and, when overheated, completely lose their ability to produce force.
Is it possible to reduce body temperature so one can perform better and even surpass one’s limit? There is science-backed evidence that sheds light on the fact that reducing one’s core body temperature can not only improve exercise performance and endurance by many times but also reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
What is the best way to thermoregulate or dump heat while performing any physical activity? Skin is a very good insulator—cooling just any part of the body without proper thought will not only fail to work but may also prove counterproductive.
Studies have shown that three regions in the body—the palms, the upper part of the face and the soles of the feet—are the best places to expel heat from and improve athletic performance. The hands, specifically, the palms, are probably the most convenient for using the cooling method. This technique is currently being used in the United States by the military, the National Football League (NFL) and professional soccer teams.
The science behind palm cooling
Pyruvate Kinase (PK) is an enzyme that facilitates the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which helps in muscle contraction. PK is very temperature-sensitive, and if muscular temperatures reach 40 degrees, PK activity completely shuts down—this is a self-regulation system for muscles so they don’t get cooked and self-destruct. Cooling the core body temperature and the muscles reactivates the enzymes into an active state, keeps PK functioning efficiently which then enables the muscles to start functioning normally.
Craig Heller and Dennis Grahn discovered that almost all mammals have hairless areas in their bodies—found in the palms, the soles of the feet and the upper part of the face in humans—that act as radiators. Referred to as glabrous, it is seen that vasculature in these hairless areas is very different from the rest of the body and is covered in arteriovenous anastomoses (AVAs). AVAs are direct connections between small arteries and small veins and facilitate increases in peripheral blood flow and allow rapid heat loss. And so these areas containing glabrous skin are best suited for cooling or heating the body.
Here below we discuss some of the ways in which researchers assessed the effectiveness of palm cooling during exercise.
Example 1:
Eight subjects did two sessions, separated by one week, in a hot environment. In the first session, the subjects ran on a treadmill until their core temperature reached a temperature of 39°C. Subjects performed four sets of barbell bench-press repetitions three minutes after this, until failure (meaning the inability to complete a repetition), with a 40 percent one-rep max load. Subjects took a three-minute rest between sets. An average of 36 repetitions were done over four bench-press sets.
During the second session, the subjects’ palms were cooled while they ran on the treadmill. A custom-built perfusion device was used, into which the palms were inserted through a foam sleeve that formed a flexible airtight seal. Water was circulated at 15–16°C through this device. The cooling reduced the subjects’ core temperature to 38.4°C.
Similar to the first session, three minutes after the run, subjects did four sets of barbell bench-press repetitions, to failure, with a 40 percent one-rep max load. The subjects were able to perform an average of 42 repetitions over four barbell bench-press sets—six more repetitions as compared to the first session.
Example 2:
Seven experienced subjects did pull-up training over a period of six weeks. They performed ten sets of pull-ups until failure. They had three minutes of rest between sets. The palms of one group were cooled during the three-minute rest period, while the other group did not receive any cooling.
The group that had their palms cooled were able to perform an average of 13 more repetitions per session, while the non-cooled group had an average of six more repetitions per session.
A similar exercise was conducted by doing the barbell bench-press exercise with 17 subjects training twice a week. Eight of the subjects had their palms cooled, while nine received no cooling. They did a total of five sessions. The subjects performed six sets of bench-press repetitions per session, until failure, with a 50 percent one-rep max load. They had 3 minutes of rest between sets.
Similar to the earlier experiment, the palms of one group were cooled throughout the resting period, while the other group’s were not. The former group did an average of 62 repetitions over six sets, and were doing an average of 86 repetitions by the fifth session. The latter group had an average of 53 repetitions over six sets, and by the fifth session, their average increased to only 60 repetitions.
The way to go about it
Since palm-cooling technology is still nascent and yet to trickle down to consumers, one might have to devise their own method of cooling. One way to go about this is to use a cooling pack between sets. It is ideal to keep the temperature at 15–16°C, not too cold. Cooling palms too much may lead to vasoconstriction (the narrowing/constriction of blood vessels by small muscles in their walls) and will make it difficult for you to expel heat.
Conclusion
Our willingness to push through a workout directly relates to how we perceive the difficulty of a particular exercise. The body’s endurance is directly linked to how much effort is being put in. There is conclusive evidence of the benefits of cooling palms during exercise or athletic activity. It is also notable that cooling will just make it easier to push further and achieve more from your workout.
DOMS is related to microtears that happen during exercise. It has been noted that cooling actively alleviates these issues and aids in better recovery.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are for general information and educational purposes only. It neither provides any medical advice nor intends to substitute professional medical opinion on the treatment, diagnosis, prevention or alleviation of any disease, disorder or disability. Always consult with your doctor or qualified healthcare professional about your health condition and/or concerns and before undertaking a new healthcare regimen including making any dietary or lifestyle changes.
References
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265632130_Enhancing_Thermal_Exchange_in_Humans_and_Practical_Applications.
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15879169/.
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22076097/.
- https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/vasculature.
- https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002338.htm.
