T Nation

'Cooling Glove' Better Than Steroids and Legal?

Off Topic
#1

There was a TV program on the other night (in the UK). I was busy and just caught little snippets.

Basically they seemed to be saying that researchers have discovered that fatigue is actually the result of a core temperature rise. As you workout, core temperature goes up and when it hits a certain level your brain starts making you experience fatigue to shut you down. As you age, core temperature rises more quickly (or the mechanism for shutdown gets more sensitive - can’t remember which), which is why older athletes tend to fatigue more quickly.

My first thought was - rubbish - if that were true we’d be able to do more in cold weather. But I think the reason why that doesn’t hold true is that in cold weather our body still tries to maintain core temperature. So we’re colder on the surface but not at our core?

Anyway, they did all sorts of tests and found that whether it was lifting weights, sprinting or running distances recovery improved drastically by cooling the core using a special glove.

I had an online search today to see if I could find any reference to it. I found this:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/august/cooling-glove-research-082912.html

Does anyone know more? Tried it even? Is it something you can do yourself or does it require this special glove?

#2

It’s interesting… To break it down shotgun style, if you get too cold in your hands, feet, face you cut off or slow circulation. The glove is about keeping the temp just right to take advantage of the bloodflow that can quickly lower our core temp. We have certain circulation systems in our hands, feet and faces that act like radiators… So, the device is sorta the equivalent of a water cooling system for a computer, except the heatsink hooks up to your hand. Boasts all kinds of benefits that rival hormones.

So, it’s probably amazing for recovery, especially short term. It might be one of those things that guys start using during various types of competitions in between rounds. Something like this might be great for bodybuilders to use inbetween exercises, possibly sets depending on whats being done.

But what I wonder is, it seems to be interrupting the inflammation process. It’s effects on fatigue are going to be immediate and obvious, I wonder the hormonal benefits of not letting ones self overheat, or have the ability to cool down so quickly will be? People will be able to put up huge workloads. I think it’s probably more similar in effect to epo on performance, but obviously way different system.

#3

I am skeptical that it is possible to lose that much heat through your hands. I’m also skeptical that core temperature is the only factor in fatigue (or even the most important factor).
–If your body is really that efficient at moving heat to your hands, why do we end up with cold hands sometimes?
–If this really works, how come soaking your hands in ice water doesn’t have a similar effect?
–Why don’t ice baths eliminate fatigue? If cooling your hands works, surely immersing your body in ice water would work even better.

#4

LOOOOOOOL

Anyone who thinks this is “better than steroids” has no fucking clue what steroids actually do.

#5

[quote]Silyak wrote:
I am skeptical that it is possible to lose that much heat through your hands. I’m also skeptical that core temperature is the only factor in fatigue (or even the most important factor).
–If your body is really that efficient at moving heat to your hands, why do we end up with cold hands sometimes?
–If this really works, how come soaking your hands in ice water doesn’t have a similar effect?
–Why don’t ice baths eliminate fatigue? If cooling your hands works, surely immersing your body in ice water would work even better. [/quote]

Here’s what happens: if your hands get TOO cold, the body, instead of continuing to circulate blood, draws blood towards the center of the body (the vital parts). So, at least in response to your second question, ice water is TOO cold. I saw something about this at least 4 years ago, and the temperature they talked about using was higher than 50 degrees F. I think it was like 61. But I’m not sure. So this is the same as with an ice bath.

In response to your first question, who knows. Perhaps it’s the most practical of the various places they could put this. Because I know that the neck and ears and groin are great places to try and cool people down but they aren’t really practical if you’re exercising.

#6

If you read the article, the quote “better than steroids” isn’t attributed to anyone. If you read the actual paper there is correlation drawn between body temperature and heart rate, using treadmill sprint/walking intervals, with fatigue being attributed to reaching 50% vo2max.

The part in the article about improving chin ups also includes the caveat “after training for 6 weeks”. He also claims to do over 680 chinups a session. Though a session isn’t defined, nor was that part of the study. I frankly don’t believe that.

There is a claim in the abstract that this cooling is more effective than anabolic steroids, without have a steroid control group?

“Endurance at a workload that produced fatigue in controls
at only 15 to 20min. was minimally improved by palmar
cooling”

"endurance at a workload that produced fatigue
in 60min. in controls was doubled by palmar cooling. "

Even the correlation, is incredible low, p < 0.01 in many cases.

Take away.
If you walking for at least an hour, your hr will be lower with palm cooling. Stick with your drugs.

#7

sex, music and pizza are the only things in the world better than steroids.

#8

But bacon is next

#9

I am not convinced that this actually works yet. But, this is the type of breakthroughs that I am hoping that modern science comes up with.

[quote]Silyak wrote:
I am skeptical that it is possible to lose that much heat through your hands. I’m also skeptical that core temperature is the only factor in fatigue (or even the most important factor).
–If your body is really that efficient at moving heat to your hands, why do we end up with cold hands sometimes?
[/quote]

I believe that this is saying that by applying the vacuum to your hand it is pulling even more blood into the hand. Then the blood is cooled down by the ice water. Then the blood is released and it is rapidly brought back to the core and thus rapidly cooling core body temperature. If you were to just stick your hand in ice water it would have a minimal cooling effect, because the amount of blood sent to your hand would start to reduce?

[quote]
–Why don’t ice baths eliminate fatigue? If cooling your hands works, surely immersing your body in ice water would work even better. [/quote]

Immersing your body in ice water does work. But, this is doing the core body cooling by concentrating an excess amount of blood in one area cooling it and then releasing it. Easier, quicker and more convenient I believe is the thought.

#10

[quote]derf wrote:
But bacon is next[/quote]

And things fried in bacon grease.

#11

OP thanks for sharing. Fascinating stuff if this is for real.

#12

Aren’t AAS’ legal for personal use in the UK? Why the hell wouldn’t you want to just do that?

#13

“Scientists hate them…” lol

It’s too bad that the only quantification is with the pull-ups and even that is ambiguous. (Like someone else said, 680 pullups in a “session”?) If they were really serious about showing the promise of it, they could just do before and after with max pullup count or max bench, and stating those concrete numerical results that we can actually relate to would not hurt either.

“Better than roidz” aka every single Mike Chang sex pack supplement ad in my FB news feed…

#14

My take away from this is not to masturbate after a work out.

#15

[quote]mbdix wrote:
I am not convinced that this actually works yet. But, this is the type of breakthroughs that I am hoping that modern science comes up with.

[quote]Silyak wrote:
I am skeptical that it is possible to lose that much heat through your hands. I’m also skeptical that core temperature is the only factor in fatigue (or even the most important factor).
–If your body is really that efficient at moving heat to your hands, why do we end up with cold hands sometimes?
[/quote]

I believe that this is saying that by applying the vacuum to your hand it is pulling even more blood into the hand. Then the blood is cooled down by the ice water. Then the blood is released and it is rapidly brought back to the core and thus rapidly cooling core body temperature. If you were to just stick your hand in ice water it would have a minimal cooling effect, because the amount of blood sent to your hand would start to reduce?

What this guy said. Think about having the equivalent of an ice bath without the discomfort, and the convenience of putting on a glove?

As for the comparison to steroids, I’m more looking at it as something LIKE EPO which is going to give performance increases. If it can double your workload, which it claims, then the next real questions are what effect does it have on recovery, and how would it be best utilized in conjunction with steroids?

#16

[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
Aren’t AAS’ legal for personal use in the UK? Why the hell wouldn’t you want to just do that? [/quote]

ya

#17

The vacuum doesn’t draw more blood into the hand, it is just enough vacuum to keep the body’s shunting process from occurring - it keeps the capillaries in the palm open and blood circulating through, allowing for heat transfer between the palm and the cooling surface in the glove.

I’ve been looking at this product for years. My question with the pullup improvement is not ‘what is a session’, but the fact that it is basically anecdotal since it was only one of the researchers doing this, not any kind of structured study. It also brings to question how long the increased work capacityu benefit stays with you, ie, I train for 6-8 weks preparing for a deployment, drastically increasing my strength and conditioning workload during that time because the rapid cooling effect of the glove aided me. Now I deploy overseas, and I am working somewhere I don’t have access to power and ice on a regular basis…how long will the training benefit remain when I can no longer use the glove to cool myself as needed?

Where it really shines though, is in core temp reduction. I recall reading info on the website, and one of the studies they actually did do was working groups of people until they were near overheating (sweating, flushed, increased body temp, etc - not necessarily approaching heat exhaustion). One group then went and stood in an air conditioned room at (if I recall) 68 degrees while the other geroup used the glove, and both groups were monitored for changes in core temp. The air con group saw a minor reduction in temp, but it remained elevated for over an hour (again, if I recall - it was a decent amount of time). The glove group saw their temp drop steadily until it leveled out barely above normal. I don’t recall all the parameters, you would have to go look on the site. But that is pretty good heat reduction in my book. And if it really assists in intra-workout recovery, then all the better.

I am actually planning on purchasing one in the near future, for my wife to use (I will obviously use it some as well). My wife has suffered from migraines for approx. 15 years, and one of her triggers is heat. My thought is to get her back in the gym (even CrossFit, it does wonders for the female body;), and use the glove periodically to keep her heat down and stave off migraines.

This brings another question to mind: if your body heat is kept low, what does this do to your metabolism? I won’t claim to know all the ins and outs of the human metabolism, but I wonder if keeping body heat down during exercise might blunt fat burning efforts.

#18

BTW, the company who is licensed to sell the glove for Stanford (Stanford holds the patent, which has kept the price up) is Avocare. A brief google search will net you the website.

#19

Hospitals have a difficult time cooling patients whose temperatures reach 40 C (104 degrees F). With cooling blankets and the cooling immersion you’d see a 5 degrees C reduction in an hour to 35 C (95). That cooling needs to be performed rapidly, an hour to reduce temperature won’t necessarily help. So you won’t see a significant drop standing in a cold shower for an hour.

If you’d want to really cool yourself after a work-out and you are a professionally athlete, you’re better off doing liquid ventilation breathing in perfluorocarbon/oxygen mixture with heat-exchange that takes place between the environment and the blood within the capillaries of the lungs. Darwin and Dr. Steven B. Harris at Critical Care Research are looking into this in an attempt to save lives. But the science exists out there that ice after exercise increases testosterone levels and recovery etc. And as Meadows and Starnes have said, 2% from there or here assists those who are not genetically gifted. It seems more fun than taking an ice-bath, that’s for sure.

So the glove probably works to increase vasoconstriction of blood vessels pushing out all of the metabolic garbage produced during exercise and allowing fresh oxygenated blood to jump-start the recovery process. I assume that this would increase metabolism because you’re turbo-charging the recovery process which requires ATP to be generated to fuel cellular repair mechanisms.