Intermittent Palm Cooling’s Impact on Resistive Exercise Performance

Abstract To examine palm cooling’s (15°C) impact, subjects performed 3 four-set leg press workouts in a randomized sequence. Per workout they received 1 of 3 treatments: no palm cooling, palm cooling between sets, or palm cooling between sets and post-exercise. Dependent variables were examined with three-way ANOVAs; average power underwent a three-way ANCOVA with body fat percentage as the covariate. Simple effects analysis was our post hoc and α=0.05. Left hand skin temperatures produced a two-way interaction (no palm cooling, palm cooling between sets>palm cooling between sets and post-exercise at several time points). A “high responder” subset had their data analyzed with an additional three-way ANOVA that again produced a two-way interaction (palm cooling between sets>no palm cooling>palm cooling between sets and post-exercise at multiple time points). Blood lactate results included a two-way interaction (no palm cooling>palm cooling between sets, palm cooling between sets and post-exercise at 0 min post-exercise). Average power yielded a two-way interaction (palm cooling between sets, palm cooling between sets>no palm cooling for the fourth set). Intermittent palm cooling hastened heat removal and blood lactate clearance, as well as delayed average power decrements.