One of the biggest talking points around this year's World Cup has been the heat. Players from countries with very temperate, cool climates, like Norway and England, have had to play back-to-back games in hot and humid conditions, placing enormous stress on their bodies as they struggle to keep their core temperature down.
When core temperatures rise, fatigue isn't far behind. Research has shown that elevated internal body temperatures cause fatigue during prolonged exercise in hot environments, even for trained athletes. Staving off exhaustion by staying cool is therefore crucial.
Enter Therabody, maker of some of the best massage guns, which has supplied Thomas Tuchel's England squad with a novel new device: the Therabody CryoTherm Palm. It looks a little like a dumbbell, but it's not for lifting; instead, you simply place your hands on the nodes, and the CryoTherm Palm, Therabody says, uses these contact points to cool down your whole body using the company's 'Cryothermal technology'.
It sounds too good to be true — but the England players are reportedly making the most of it. We asked Therabody's Chief Science Officer, Tim Roberts, exactly how the technology works.
"Your palms are natural radiators — hairless skin packed with special vessels that bring a lot of blood right to the surface," says Roberts. "It’s why gloves keep your whole body warm in winter.
"CryoTherm Palm cools that surface, pulls heat out of the blood passing through, and that cooled blood circulates back to lower your core temperature faster than cooling almost anywhere else."
So, in theory, the cold blood passing through your hands works to regulate the rest of your body's internal temperature. Clever. According to Roberts, there's a psychological effect too, as "it also dampens the thermal signals your brain uses to judge effort", so exercising feels easier.
Roberts points to a study conducted at the IMG Academy in Florida, in which footballers using the device between sprints saw positive results.
"In our IMG Academy soccer study, players using CryoTherm Palm between sprints felt 60% cooler, held 2.45% higher top speed and preserved sprint velocity 4.7% better across repeated efforts," says Roberts. While he does concede that "none of this replaces basic heat sense — hydrate, respect genuinely dangerous conditions, and back off when you need to," those numbers suggest it can make a difference.
I wouldn't be doing my due diligence if I didn't point out that in a Therabody press release, the IMG Academy was referred to as a Therabody partner. However, the science seems sound, and the CryoTherm Palm might just be your secret weapon to keep cool during your next workout, especially in very hot weather.
The device is available now, priced at $399.99 / £349 / around AU$600. I'm looking forward to testing, especially if the heatwaves we're experiencing here in the UK continue.
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