The effects of palm-cooling on physiological and metabolic responses, exercise performance and total volume during high-intensity bench-press exercise in resistance-trained men

Previous research suggests cooling distal to the working agonist muscles during the inter-set rest periods of high-intensity resistance exercise may facilitate improved performance via improving metabolic conditions of contractile machinery. However, these studies haven’t directly measured indicators of metabolic conditions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare two palm-cooling conditions to a thermoneutral condition during high-intensity resistance exercise and subsequent effects on physiological and metabolic responses and exercise performance. Eleven healthy, resistance-trained, young males (20-36 years old) performed four sets of bench press exercise to exhaustion at 80% 1RM each separated by three minutes of passive recovery. Palm-cooling (10oC [TEN] or 15oC [FTN]) or thermoneutral (28oC [CON]) conditions were applied for sixty seconds during the recovery interval of each set in a randomised, double-blind fashion, with four days recovery between experimental conditions. There were no differences (p>0.05) in volume-load between experimental conditions across all sets. Mean repetition velocity and force of the bench press declined significantly following set 1 in all conditions (p0.05) between any of the conditions. Palm cooling at either 10 or 15oC had no observable effects on physiological and metabolic responses during exercise, nor any effect on bench press performance or volume-load compared to a thermoneutral condition. Therefore, cooling cannot be currently recommended as an ergogenic strategy to enhance acute bench press performance or mitigate fatigue during high-intensity resistance training.