Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 17, 2026
Using an Ingestible Telemetric Temperature Pill to Assess Gastrointestinal Temperature During Exercise
Published on: October 7, 2015
Practical Cooling Strategies During Continuous Exercise in Hot Environments: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Alan Ruddock1, Brent Robbins2, Garry Tew3
1Centre for Sport and Exercise Science, Sheffield Hallam University, A016 Collegiate Hall, Sheffield, S10 2BP, UK. a.ruddock@shu.ac.uk.
Background:
Performing exercise in thermally stressful environments impairs exercise capacity and performance. Cooling during exercise has the potential to attenuate detrimental increases in body temperature and improve exercise capacity and performance.
Objective:
The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of practical cooling strategies applied during continuous exercise in hot environments on body temperature, heart rate, whole body sweat production, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), thermal perception and exercise performance.
Methods:
Electronic database searches of MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, Scopus and Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) were conducted using medical subject headings, indexing terms and keywords. Studies were eligible if participants were defined as 'healthy', the exercise task was conducted in an environment ≥25 °C, it used a cooling strategy that would be practical for athletes to use during competition, cooling was applied during a self-paced or fixed-intensity trial, participants exercised continuously, and the study was a randomised controlled trial with the comparator either a thermoneutral equivalent or no cooling. Data for experimental and comparator groups were meta-analysed and expressed as a standardised mean difference and 95 % confidence interval.
Results:
Fourteen studies including 135 participants met the eligibility criteria. Confidence intervals for meta-analysed data included beneficial and detrimental effects for cooling during exercise on core temperature, mean skin temperature, heart rate and sweat production during fixed-intensity exercise. Cooling benefited RPE and thermal perception during fixed-intensity exercise and improved self-paced exercise performance.
Conclusion:
Cooling during fixed-intensity exercise, particularly before a self-paced exercise trial, improves endurance performance in hot environments by benefiting RPE and thermal perception, but does not appear to attenuate increases in body temperature.
Related Concept Videos
01:14Mechanisms of Heat Transfer
Conduction, accounting for approximately 3% of body heat loss at rest, is the process of exchanging heat between molecules of two materials in direct contact. This can result in both heat loss and gain. For instance, when the body is submerged in water, which conducts heat 20 times more effectively than air, it can either lose or gain significant...
01:19Mechanism of heat transfer
01:22Methods of reducing fever
Pharmacological Methods of Reducing Fever:
01:26Requirements for Human Life
Oxygen
Atmospheric air is only about 20 percent oxygen, but that oxygen is a key component of the chemical reactions that keep the body alive, including the reactions that produce ATP. Brain cells are susceptible to a lack of oxygen because they require a...
01:25Body Temperature
01:07Body Temperature
The average body temperature is approximately 37°C (98.6°F) and typically ranges from 36.1–37.2°C...