What are Hand Coolers for Athletes?
You may have seen athletes holding on to a strange device during rest periods and wondered, “what the heck are they doing?!”
The answer is: They are cooling their hands… well technically, they are cooling their palms. Which leads us to the next question… Why are athletes cooling their hands during workouts or games?
It turns out our palms are incredible portals for thermoregulation. By cooling your palms you improve performance and accelerate recovery. Its applications in sports are plentiful:
- increase your training volume
- gain strength faster
- reduce fatigue during competitions
- heat stress mitigation
In fact, palm cooling is an incredibly valuable tool for mitigating athletic and occupational heat stress.
Palm cooling works by boosting the body’s natural ability to offload heat. When we exert effort and generate heat, localized blood flow in our palms, soles of our feet, and cheeks can be up to 10X greater than other skin regions. By cooling our palms, we can reduce our core body temperature and allow ourselves to push harder longer. However, to get the benefits of palm cooling you want to hold something cool (not cold), with excellent thermal conductivity, and a way to avoid thermal barriers.
We designed our palm cooling device to meet these parameters in a portable and easy-to-use device. Some people call them hand coolers, some call them palm coolers, or a palm cooling device. We call ours the Narwhals! If you are curious, learn how to make a DIY palm cooling device and what to look if you purchase one.
