Supercharge Exercise Performance & Recovery with Cooling | Huberman Lab Podcast #19

Cooling Surfaces

Cooling specific body surfaces like the palms, feet, and face can significantly enhance athletic performance. Andrew Huberman explains that cooling these areas helps manage body temperature more effectively than cooling the core, which can lead to vasoconstriction and reduced cooling efficiency 1. He suggests practical methods such as using a cold can or water to cool the hands and feet, which can improve endurance and strength 2.

You can see a considerable improvement in endurance, in strength and in all kinds of explosive power type output in athletics by using these surfaces of the hands and bottoms of the feet and face.

--- Andrew Huberman

This approach is already being adopted by athletes and sports teams to boost performance.

   

Glabrous Skin

Glabrous skin, found on the palms, soles, and face, plays a crucial role in thermoregulation due to its unique vasculature. Andrew Huberman describes how these areas contain arterio-venous anastomoses (AVAs), which allow for rapid heat exchange, making them ideal for cooling the body efficiently 3. This specialized vasculature bypasses capillaries, enabling faster heat dissipation and cooling of the core 4.

These AVAs allow more heat to leave the body more quickly and more cool to enter the body more quickly than other venous arterial capillary beds throughout the body.

--- Andrew Huberman

Understanding this mechanism is key to leveraging these areas for improved physical performance.

   

Practical Cooling

Incorporating cooling techniques into workouts can dramatically enhance performance and recovery. Andrew Huberman highlights that cooling the palms, feet, and face is more effective than full-body immersion in cold water, which can hinder muscle growth by blocking pathways like mTOR 5. He shares data showing that athletes using these cooling methods significantly increased their exercise output, achieving up to 600 pull-ups in a session, far surpassing those using anabolic steroids 6.

Cooling the core, I want to be very clear that it's not cooling the muscle, wasn't about cooling the chest alone or just cooling the palms, it was about allowing cold to pass through the palms because of the unique vasculature that's there.

--- Andrew Huberman

These findings underscore the potential of targeted cooling for enhancing athletic performance.