Keeping your hands cool while exercising has been shown to extend the length of your workout. If you are like me and not a big fan of working out when it gets hot, this is great news. Especially now since the warmer weather is pretty much here and the temperature will only continue to rise.
A current study by Stacy Sims, a research scientist and exercise physiologist at Stanford University School of Medicine, began when she wanted to see if cooling the hands of obese women would allow them to exercise longer.
The results showed just that, by keeping the hands of the obese women cool, it helped them overcome the fatigue and overheating that usually occured while exercising.
“If you think about adipose [fat] tissue, it’s a great insulator,” Sims said to Philly.com. Therefore causing people who have a higher content of adipose tissue to become uncomfortably hot quicker, which may cause them to stop working out sooner.
Research on high-tech devices used to control core temperature for professional athletes have been going on for a while with very positive results. However, for the average person, not as many research studies have been conducted. So this is a pretty exciting study to see for the rest of us.
In the study Sims used a high-tech device called The Avacore Rapid Thermal Exchange. The basic idea behind this high tech gadget is simply that by keeping your hands cool you will help keep your core temperature down as well, allowing you to go longer or push harder.
This expensive cooling device will set you back several thousands of dollars. If that is a little out of your price range the good news is that you can get the same results for just a few bucks. You can use either ice packs, or frozen water bottles. Simply hold on to them and if you are using the water bottles you have something to sip on as well.
It should also be pointed out that this method is really only helpful in warm environments. During winter or in a cooler environment you might not get the same kind of results.