The effect of hand cooling during intermittent training of elite swimmers

The aim of this paper was to determine the effects of using intermittent hand cooling during high intensity, intermittent training on thermoregulatory, performance and psychophysical variables in elite level swimmers in a training pool (30.5±0.5 °C).

Randomized cross-over design. Following a standard warm-up, ten male swimmers (20.3±3.2 years) were instructed to maintain the fastest 100-m time (on average) for an 8 x 100 m freestyle swimming set performed either in a training pool with cooling (TPC) or a training pool with no-cooling (TPNC). Time at 100 m, core temperature (Tc), heart rate (HR), ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), thermal comfort (ThC) and thermal sensation (ThS) were recorded following each repetition. Participants were cooled during the 90 s rest interval between repetitions using the Rapid Thermal Exchange System (RTX) (AVAcore Technologies Inc., Ann Arbor, MI, USA).

There was a better performance when comparing 100 m time (1.50±1.98 s faster) for the final repetition in the TPC condition compared to the final repetition in the TPNC condition (P<0.05). There was no significant difference between Tc, HR, RPE, ThC and ThS (P<0.05).

There was a performance benefit in the last set of the training block in the TPC condition that could not be attributed to any of the physiological and psychophysical measures used in the study.