"Cool" Studies for Athletes

Cooling during exercise has a positive effect on exercise performance and capacity. Keeping your body’s core temperature down while you exercise allows you to exert yourself more, for a longer period of time, before feeling the negative effects of heat from your internal body temperature.

The Study: Runners were tested while running for 90 minutes at a self-selected pace on a treadmill. First they were wearing no cooling neck collar, then a cooling neck collar and finally, a cooling neck collar that was refreshed every 30 minutes.

The Results: Athletes wearing just a cooling neck collar while running increased their performance by up to 7.3%.  After 90 minutes, the athletes wearing a cooling neck collar were performing at a higher level than those without any cooling. The athletes with a cooling neck collar ran further and their selected pace was higher at the end of the trials than those not wearing a neck collar. 

Deluxe Cooling Neck Wrap with Kool Max® Pack

Cooling the body helps with recovery after a workout or event (also known as "post-cooling")

BENEFITS OF POST-COOLING: 

• Slows nerve impulses 
• Constricts blood vessels which helps to treat pain and swelling 
• Speeds up heart rate which helps to clear waste products like lactic acid 
• Decreases recovery time for acute injuries 
• Reduces pain after intense activity or workouts 
• Increased energy

A 2003 study found that over the 15-minute post-exercise period during which cooling was applied to athletes, the Respiratory Exchange Ratios were lower in the athletes being cooled vs. the ones who weren’t cooled.

Conclusion: Athletes who were being cooled after exercise recovered their muscle’s oxidative capacity to regain energy faster than those who weren’t. 

Cool Comfort® Performance Vest, Neck Wrap and Polar Cooler 

Polar's Recommendation for Athletes: Our Cool Comfort® Performance Vest and Neck Wrap can be activated and then frozen prior to an athletic event. The frozen garments can be transported to the event in a Polar Cooler and put on immediately after activity for immediate full body cooling. 

Sources: 

1. Tyler, Christopher James and Sunderland, Caroline. “Neck Cooling and Running Performance in the Heat: Single versus Repeated Application.” 2011.
2. http://titintech.com/physical-effects-icing-workout/ 
3. Tenforde, Adam. “The Effects of Cooling Core Body Temperature on Overall Strength Gains and Post-Exercise Recovery.” 2003.

PRECOOL for Improved Athletic Performance

Precooling the body during warm-ups has become a popular method of combating the debilitating effects of heat-induced fatigue and to extend the period in which an individual can tolerate a heat-gaining environment. 

Polar's Kool Max® Zipper Front Vest with
patent-pending spinal cooling pack placement
is a great choice for cooling before athletic events!

WHY PRECOOL?

Cooling one’s body prior to a sporting event allows you to begin activity with a lower core body temperature and therefore extends the amount of time you are able to perform at a high level before your core temperature begins to increase and your performance begins to decrease.

THE RESEARCH

Interest in precooling prior to sporting activity has increased dramatically over the past few years, but is by no means a new concept. Researchers have been studying the effects of precooling a person’s body since the late 60’s, as shown in the table below.

The majority of the studies have concluded that cooling one’s body before activity improves performance. In a 2003 study, athletes who precooled before their 5k run on a treadmill decreased their times by up to 13 seconds.

Marino, F. E. “Methods, advantages and limitations of body cooling for exercise performance.” 2002.

Additional Recent Studies:

• “Precooling Methods and Their Effects on Athletic Performance.” Megan Ross, et al. 2013.  Provides a comprehensive review of different precooling strategies.
• “The effect of cooling prior to and during exercise on exercise performance and capacity in the heat: a meta-analysis.” Christopher James Tyler, et al. 2013. Focuses primarily on external cooling. 

Shop Polar's NEW Cool Comfort® Performance 

Line for Athletic Cooling!

Polar’s Cool Comfort® Performance line is constructed of a lightweight, antimicrobial, high-performance fabric with superior moisture-wicking characteristics. These vests and accessories are ideal for precooling, cooling during athletic cooling or post-cooling.

Cool Comfort® Performance Vest

Cool Comfort® Performance Half Vest

Cool Comfort® Performance Neck Wrap

Put Your Brown Adipose Tissue to Work (And Lose Weight!)

By cooling the body to approximately 57°F with our Cool Flow® Heavy-Duty Vest and Arctic Chiller Reservoir System, a Harvard University study found that brown fat - also known as brown adipose tissue - becomes stimulated. Once activated, this brown fat begins to burn calories at a high rate within the body, resulting in weight loss.

Polar Products was directly involved with a research study through the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard University and the findings from this study have been recently published in the book The Diabetes Reset, by George L. King, M.D.

Find Polar Products mentioned on page 144.

In The Diabetes Reset, Dr. King writes about a program to help combat Type 2 Diabetes by adopting a regimen of dieting, exercise and activating the body's brown fat. Our Cool Flow® Heavy-Duty Vest and Arctic Chiller Reservoir were used by Harvard University to help determine the benefits of body cooling and activating brown fat in a person's body, and our garments are still being used for research today.

Polar Products' Cool Flow® Heavy-Duty Vest

                            
Since this first study from Aaron Cypess, M.D., Ph.D. in May of 2010, Polar Products has worked with numerous other universities and hospitals including Vanderbilt University, John Hopkins Medical Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital. Click here for a comprehensive list of studies with Polar Products.

Here's what Harvard's Joslin Diabetes Center had to say about our vest:

"We have had great success with your cooling system." 

- Lauren Weiner, Joslin Diabetes Center

"We like the cooling vest system so much we're going to order a second one!" 

- Aaron Cypess, formerly Joslin Diabetes Center, currently at the National Institutes of Health

Polar Products' Arctic Chiller Reservoir System

The Diabetes Reset also recommends another useful cooling garment from Polar Products: our Kool Max® cooling vests. When used in conjunction with regular diet and exercise, it was found that cooling the body can help assist with weight loss and management of Type 2 diabetes*.

Our most popular Kool Max® garment: the zipper front vest.
It also come in khaki, light blue and pink!

In addition to helping individuals overcome heat sensitivity, our products can also be used to achieve the body temperature shown to help manage weight loss. Polar Products is proud to have our products used for diverse research studies and we continue to be excited to see evidence of the many ways body cooling is beneficial.

Pick up a copy of The Diabetes Reset today and look for Polar Products on page 144!

*The Diabetes Reset, page 142

COOL DOWN for a better workout!

According to a new study, using a combination of cooling techniques - like wearing a cooling vest - before or during exercise helps athletes perform better in the heat!

Before working out, the athletes in the study used cooling methods like wearing a cooling vest or cooling packs, immersing themselves in cold water, drinking cold water or an ice slurry, or a combination of several techniques.

The result? Using cooling techniques before or during exercise improved performance and combining the two worked best. Researchers found that the most effective method was wearing a cooling vest during exercise and a combination of all the techniques before exercise.

Polar's CoolFit® Kit
Ideal for pre-cooling and cooling during exercise!

“More blood will be available for oxygen transportation to the exercising muscles, which enables a better performance,” said Dr. Thijs M H Eijsvogels, of the physiology department at Radboud University Medical Center in The Netherlands. 

Cool Comfort® Hybrid Deluxe Sports Vest

How does body cooling help? 

Cooling methods may reduce the amount of energy the body needs to use to stay cool, so the body has more energy for the exercise itself. Exercise increases core body temperature, which can diminish performance. The study found that pre-cooling decreased peak core body temperatures from 102.4 degrees Fahrenheit to 100.6 degrees. 

Above: Kool Max Wrist Wraps and Kool Max® Ankle Wrap

Read the full article on Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/30/us-cooling-techniques-athletes-idUSKBN0DG1IH20140430

Find the study results at the British Journal of Sports Medicine:

http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2014/04/19/bjsports-2013-092928.abstract

Visit our website to see our full selection of cooling vests and accessories for athletes.