Athletic Performance in a Cold One

As an athlete, I am always looking for ways to increase my physical performance, both in the gym and while playing. I was therefore interested in this article about enhancing physical performance through cooling. There is also a similar article here that relates to enhancing the physical performance of soldiers. According to the researchers quoted, muscles don’t wear out because they use up stored sugars. Instead, muscles tire because they get too hot, and sweating is just a backup cooling system for the lattices of blood vessels in the hands and feet. If the body could be cooled more efficiently, muscles would not wear out as quickly. Enter, The Glove. The coach of Stanford's track team was looking to enhance his athletic performance - without drugs. Quoting from the Stanford article, he used The Glove to see if it really worked: Using the device to lower his core body temperature between sets, he was able to lift 495 pounds in four sets of squats instead of his normal two. He usually does squats only on Mondays, but he decided to try a second series a few days later. That Friday, he was able to increase the weight to 545 pounds. “I was surprised the sets felt so good,” he says, but adds that the real test came the following Monday. Weir, 44, expected to see significant performance degradation due to the extra Friday workout. Not only did he not see the decay, he increased weight with every set. It certainly seems to work for this guy, at least. Science seems to support this conclusion, as seen in The Journal of Applied Physiology. The government is funding many similar projects, all designed to improve human performance. The chart in WIRED Online shows some of them. Athletes will certainly take advantage of the government's hard work, I'm sure.