I read something the other day that got me thinking. It sounds odd, and quite frankly, I can’t think of why they would have researched this in the first place…. But just humour me for a second and allow me to share.
The Times Colonist newspaper recently posted an article all about how cooling down your palms during weight training can actually give your muscles a boost. Say whaaa…?
This is what they reported:
“Cooling muscles between weight-lifting sets has shown in some studies to be helpful in tamping down muscle fatigue. But researchers wanted to know if similar results could be achieved by cooling an area that doesn’t include active muscles — the palms.
The study included 16 men in good health. For the exercise portion of the study, the participants did three series of bench presses at 85% of maximum effort. In one scenario, in between sets their palms were cooled, in another they were heated, and in another they went through no changes in temperature.
The men were also asked to rate how hard they thought the workout was. Gel electrodes were places on various muscles to determine their electrical activity.
Cooling the palms between sets allowed the participants to significantly increase bench press repetitions to exhaustion compared with the other scenarios. Having cooler palms also resulted in lower heart rates and a lower level of perceived exertion than the other conditions.”
Fancy that! I can see how having cooler palms would help potentially improve grip, but beyond that, I’m dubious. I wonder if there’s actually any truth to this… What do you guys think?
Today’s Workout:
Buy In -Coach led dynamic warmup
WOD – “Craziness”
And the Burpee Week continues!!!
For Time:
- 1000M Row
- 10 Burpees
- 800m Run
- 50 Pullups
- 800m Run
- 10 Burpees
- 1000M Row
Zone 4 – Scale pullups to 30 reps
Zone 3 – Scale to assisted pullups
Zone 2 – Scale Row to 750M, Run to 500M, 20 pullups
Zone 1 – Scale as needed
Cash Out – Mobility WOD led by the coach
