The next time someone suggests tells you to chill, you might want to take their advice, literally. The Los Angeles Times reports on research suggesting that cooling the palms of one's hands reduces fatigue in muscles throughout the body, and allows those muscle to push harder. The study, published in the journal Medicine
& Science in Sports & Exercise, included 16 men who had done regular,
intense weight training for at least five years. The participants did three series of bench presses
at 85 percent of maximum effort. In one scenario, in between sets their palms
were cooled for 2 1/2 minutes at 50 degrees, in another they were heated
at 113 degrees, and in another they went through no changes in
temperature.
The men were also asked to rate how hard they thought the workout was. The researchers found that cooling the palms between sets allowed the participants to significantly increase bench press repetitions. Having cooler palms also resulted in lower heart rates and a lower level of perceived exertion than the other conditions.
Health, fitness and lifestyle tips for people over 50 who still like to play hard
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Cool! (Sorry, I could not resist the temptation of the moment and a good straight line…).
The cooling of the hands, wrist and forearms have long been known to help dramatically cool the rest of the body and you can see pro sports using the same with cooling misters on the sidelines and not as many of the big, bulky fans that didn’t do as much good.
In Australia, the kangaroo like their forearms to cool off in the outback, etc.
Amazing that it took the scientist this long to catch up.
One interesting aspect was that apparent subjective nature of some of the questions they asked the participants (i.e., do you feel…). thankfully they also counted the reps.
namaste