Submitted on October 10, 2007
Accepted on April 23, 2008
The effectiveness of hand cooling at reducing exercise-induced hyperthermia and improving distance-race performance in wheelchair and able-bodied athletes
Victoria L Goosey-Tolfrey1*, Michelle G Swainson2, Craig Boyd3, Greg Atkinson4, and Keith Tolfrey3
1 United Kingdom; Research Institute for Health and Social Change, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
2 Exercise and Sport Science, Manchester Metropolitan University, Alsager, United Kingdom
3 Research Institute for Health and Social Change, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
4 Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: v.l.tolfrey{at}lboro.ac.uk.
Purpose: To examine the effectiveness of reducing core temperature in post-exercise hyperthermic subjects and to assess if hand cooling (HC) improves subsequent timed distance performance. Methods: Following a detailed measurement check on the use of insulated auditory canal temperature, 8 wheelchair (WA) and 7 male able-bodied (AB) athletes performed two testing sessions, comprising a 60-min exercise protocol, 10-min recovery, followed by a performance trial (1-km and 3-km; WA and AB respectively) at 30.8 (0.2)°C and 60.6 (0.2)% RH. In a counter-balanced order, HC and a no cooling condition was administered during the 10-min recovery period prior to the performance trial. Results: Non-significant condition x time interactions for both WA (F(15,75) = 1.5, p = 0.14) and AB (F(15,90) = 1.2, p = 0.32) confirmed that the exercise-induced changes in Tac were similar prior to each intervention. However, the exercise-induced increase was evidently greater in AB compared with WA (2.0 vs. 1.3 °C change respectively). HC produced ∆Tac of -0.4 (0.4)°C and -1.2 (0.2)°C in comparison (WA and AB, respectively), and simple effects analyses suggested that the reductions in Tac were noteworthy after 4 min of HC. HC had an impact on improving AB performance's by -4.0 (11.5)s (p<0.05) and WA by -20.5 (24.2)s (p>0.05). Conclusion: Extraction of heat through the hands was effective in lowering Tac in both groups and improving 3-km performance in the AB athletes and trends towards positive gains for the 1-km performance times of the WA group.
