The Effects of Palm Cooling on Power, Strength, and Endurance: An Investigative Study
Henningsgard, K., Mattheis, R., & Stolz, S. (2024). The Effects of Palm Cooling on Power, Strength, and Endurance: An Investigative Study. University of North Dakota. https://commons.und.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1787&context=pt-grad
Introduction: Modern day athletes are continuously searching for ways that they can find a competitive advantage over their peers. This study aimed to assess if palm cooling was effective in increasing power, strength, and/or endurance during exercise.
Methods: After completing a warmup, 24 participants (11 males,13 females; age 22.75 ± 1.36) were assessed on two separate occasions where they performed three separate exercises: vertical jump to analyze power, isometric knee extension to analyze strength, and Queen’s College Step Test to analyze endurance. On the first day of testing, participants were randomly assigned into a cooling or non-cooling group. Thus, completing all three exercises using Game Ready® GRPro® 2.1 device palm cooling on one occasion, and without on the other separate occasion. Participants in the cooling group were given 3 minutes of palmar cooling before the first set and between sets for power and strength testing. For the Queen’s College Step Test, participants completed the testing while palm cooling the entire time.
Results: The results showed that palm cooling did not produce statistically significant results regarding an increase in power, strength, or endurance. Interestingly, males showed a decrease in maximal vertical jump during cooling conditions, while females showed an increase. This differing
response between the genders was notable, but not significant (P = 0.058).
Conclusion: In conclusion, this study does not support the use of palm cooling for improving endurance, power, or strength. However, this concept is novel, and more research is needed to contribute to this study’s findings.
In Simple Terms:
This study tested if cooling the palms during exercise could improve jumping, leg strength, or endurance. Overall, palm cooling did not lead to better performance in any area. Men jumped slightly lower with cooling, while women jumped slightly higher, but the difference wasn’t strong enough to matter. More research is needed to understand how palm cooling affects different people.
Uploaded by Braeden Ostepchuk, creator of the CEU-approved course 0th Law of Physiology, co-founder of Kuhler Technologies, and inventor of Kühler.