Stanford researchers have developed a vacuum cooling glove that
rapidly cools body temperature, greatly improves exercise recovery, and could help explain why muscles get tired.
Why a glove? There you have a special network of veins.
These networks of veins, known as AVAs (arteriovenous anastomoses) seem exclusively devoted to rapid temperature management. They don’t supply nutrition to the skin, and they have highly variable blood flow, ranging from negligible in cold weather to as much as 60 percent of total cardiac output during hot weather or exercise.
Why is it better than Ice baths?
The method is more convenient than, say, full-body submersion in ice water, and avoids the pitfalls of other rapid palm-cooling strategies. Because blood flow to the AVAs can be nearly shut off in cold weather, making the hand too cold will have almost no effect on core temperature.
I think their title is pretty exaggerated. ‘Better than steroids’ I doubt that. But hey, that’s how you get in the news.
Redditor sylvain_soliman dug up the study they mentioned (PDF).
TL;DR:
Palm cooling allowed to get more volume (in an already volume-oriented workout), so the gain is an endurance gain. No data on strength or mass gains…
Build your own with this instruction 🙂
Shut up and take my money ! Where can I buy one ? Awesome site btw.
“Better than steroids” is just advertising hype. I’ll believe it when I see guys trading in their Test E, EQ, and deca for cooling machines. However, I do think this is an awesome concept. I want one! Kind of makes you wonder about that whole KStar “stop icing” thing. I realize that this is about cooling down core temperature, and KStar’s comments were directed at injury treatment, but it makes me wonder if you could use that vacuum to keep the capillaries open in other parts of the body as well, would ice then have an even more beneficial effect? I obviously have no way to prove or disprove that, but it’s just a thought.
This is old news. I thought I read about this before…..
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1108776/index.htm