Cold hands = better performance

5 min reading

Can cold hands really make you stronger and faster? This article explores how local cooling, especially of the palms, might impact performance by reducing perceived pain and central fatigue. Is it feasible to "trick" the brain by activating temperature receptors, thus enabling a bit more during high-intensity training? It appears that the effect is most pronounced during high-intensity intervals and in the heat, whereas the results over longer distances are more uncertain. So, while cold hands aren't a magic fix, they're simple, inexpensive, and can offer a slight advantage when it truly matters. Let's delve into more detail!

Why Cold Can Reduce Pain

As a child, mom always blew on where it hurt, and immediately it felt much better. Children have vivid imaginations and trust their mom—mom is always right. When a mom tells the child that the blowing will make the pain go away, well, of course, it will feel better. But there is actually a valid physiological explanation for how this works. So to make it more practical: here's how you, as an athlete, can use cold to enhance your performance.

Mom is always right, after all

The reason the child in the story above feels less pain when someone blows on the wound is because new receptors (sensory cells) are introduced into the mix. We have receptors for mechanical pressure, temperature, smell, sight, hearing, and pain. Your brain prioritizes certain signals over others. For instance, if someone lightly pokes you with their finger while another person pricks you with a needle, you'll almost exclusively feel the pain from the needle. The pain signal is stronger than the pressure signal, and the sensation of pressure becomes secondary. Pain typically overrides other sensations and dominates.

When mom blows on the wound, thermoreceptors are activated, sending signals to the brain. The brain is already registering the pain from the wound, but when new signals from the thermoreceptors arrive, the sensitivity to pain signals decreases slightly, making the pain feel less intense. The signals compete for attention in the brain, and their relative intensity decreases when more types of signals are introduced.

Cold hands = fast legs!

Running or pedaling intervals on the treadmill or bike is challenging, as it should be. It's during these moments that we push our limits and enhance our oxygen uptake capacity. However, it's often our mind that gives up before our muscles are fully fatigued during these intense efforts. The question is: how can we train our mind to stop interfering when we're giving it everything we've got?

Simple – cool down your hands

Several studies have researched the concept of cooling down the palms between each interval. The theory suggests that by activating thermoreceptors, which compete for space in the brain, you can reduce the sensitivity of pain receptors, making any discomfort feel less intense. This allows you to push your body a bit further during each interval. We have reviewed multiple studies from 1992 to 2014 that examined different aspects of palm cooling.

What does the research say?

The key points are:

The research is somewhat divided, but most studies found no effect during longer running distances (1). However, there is a study where participants' lactate levels decreased, and they performed better in a 30 km cycling test (2).
It does not significantly affect your body temperature (core temperature) (1,3).
It seems to have a positive effect during high-intensity training regarding the subjective perception of exertion (6, 7).
Has a positive effect during training and competition in heat (3,5). 'Heat' refers to temperatures around 30 degrees, where pre-cooling leads to an average 5.7% performance improvement and cooling during activity results in a 9.9% performance increase (3). This primarily applies to cooling with a vest, but the effects also largely apply to the hands.

Another factor to consider is that a study found the heart rate increased by an average of 5 beats per minute for about 30 seconds due to the hands touching a colder object (4). This is something we do not want during interval rest. However, this was very short-lived, and it took only 30–60 seconds for the heart rate to return to normal levels. There is too little data to say anything definitive, but our recommendation is that the rest period should exceed 90 seconds when using any form of hand cooling device.

Also, remember that we are mainly discussing the cooling of palms here. For the best effect, especially in warmer climates, a cooling vest seems to be the preferred cooling device (http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2010/12000/Effect_of_Body_Cooling_on_Subsequent_Aerobic_and.39.aspx). However, a cooling vest is not as practical, and since we rarely experience 30-degree heat here in Sweden, we will skip it in this article.

Practical Application in Interval Training

In practice, we recommend trying two bottles of cold water (8–14 degrees) that you grab and hold during rest. In intervals like 4×4 and similar, where the rest exceeds 1.5 minutes, this can be a small detail that helps you climb the performance ladder.

Possibly, performance improvement may also occur with shorter rest, but this is not yet confirmed. However, it's a cost-effective test – all you need is a couple of water bottles and some cold water.

Local intermittent cooling during short-term, high intense exercise may provide possible beneficial effects; firstly, by pain reduction, caused by an "irritation effect" from hand thermal receptors which block pain sensation, or secondly, by a cooling effect, whereby stimulation of hand thermal receptors or a slight lowering of blood temperature might alter central fatigue (7).

The effect also seems to be present in high-intensity anaerobic training such as powerlifting.

Palm Cooling from 35 degrees C to 20 degrees C temporarily overrides fatigue mechanism(s) during intense intermittent resistance exercise. The mechanisms for this ergogenic function remain unknown (6).