Hand Cooling Recovery Machine

[Roy]

A steal at $3000. So much better than having a cooler full of ice water and a couple of towels.

[pfw]

I saw this years ago in a Wired article. They were talking about how it could be used to rapidly warm/cool someone who was hypo/hpyerthermic without causing the usual responses to rapid warming cooling (blood vessels contracting/dilating, etc). They also claimed that it allowed them to recover better during exercise, to the point where they said it was "better than steroids". Some bodybuilder on their staff used it to train and do more pullups than he could before.

The theory goes that if you're doing very strenuous exercise one of the limiting factors of your in-between set recovery is dissipating heat in your muscles. If you can dissipate that heat quickly, you can recover better for your next set, essentially increasing your work capacity during a given workout, while helping you recover for the next one.

Here's a maybe bullshit youtube video of some guy in a leg press: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2yzItjfWyw

The concept was interesting and I like to tinker so I thought about buying one to fiddle with or improve. Turns out they're $2,000+ and I think they only sell to gyms/sports teams. This strikes me as a bizarre business plan for something which is better than steroids, and which can probably be built for $50 or less. If it actually works, then everyone would want it, but they seem to have done little in the way of commercialization or advertising.

[Draft]

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...ore&topic_set=

Cool stuff. Read about something similar years ago.

[jtorres3]

This was published in the peer-reviewed journal DUH.

I love that journal. Apparently so do exercise science researchers

[Mark Rippetoe]

If I had an ice machine available now I would do the same, especially in summer.

Helgi, it is 52 degrees in Reykjavik.

Here's a maybe bullshit youtube video of some guy in a leg press: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2yzItjfWyw

This makes my day. Amazing. I'm gonna git me one of these here Core Coolers.

[DoctorWho]

A couple of things I don't understand. The heat transfer rate between my hand and the cuff thing likely isn't high as that for sticking my hand directly in a bucket of ice water, so what is the point of the machine? Also, a 200 pound person using a 32 ounce coolant reservoir (assuming cold water is the coolant) would raise the temperture of the coolant by 30 degrees for a 0.3 degree body temperature change. (I think I remember hearing the body has a heat capacity very similar to water, but somebody can correct this if it's wrong). I picked 0.3 degrees out of the air, so maybe the goal is much less, but does a muscle really respond to tiny temperature changes? I have no studies to back it up, but don't people perform OK with a temperature that's elevated by a degree or so, like it common with a cold?

If the reservoir includes half ice and half water, assuming half the ice melts during the few minutes that the device is turned on (which seems like a stretch), then the coolant temperature would still go up by about 9 or 10 degrees, and the machine would have to be filled with ice every several minutes. Maybe there is some exotic phase change material in the thermos, but I didn't see any machine to remove heat from the thermos.
BUT the bodybuilder in the video DOES drastically increase his reps AND he states a couple of times that it's not a placebo effect, so there must be something to it. I can't think of a better way to destroy the product's credibility than this video. Even if your goal was to destroy the product's credibility, it's hard to imagine that you could make video that would be more effective.

[Mark Rippetoe]

BUT the bodybuilder in the video DOES drastically increase his reps AND he states a couple of times that it's not a placebo effect, so there must be something to it.

Pretty much anybody who states that "this is definitely NOT a placebo effect" is probably experiencing a placebo effect. But this is a priceless video. Most amusing.

[MPE]

Darn, I had this concept right in front of me for nearly 25 years, but I failed to capitalize on the idea! Back in the 80's I was working on a concrete forming crew, and one sweltering Florida day I dumped water over my head while trying to cool off. Some grizzled old man on the crew scolded me and told me to pour the water over my hands and wrists to "cool my blood". All these years I had the latest breakthrough technology right there waiting to be taken to market.

Ah well........I have been working on this idea of for a personal gym system with progressive resistance power rods that will gives amazing results in just 4 weeks.

[hbriem]

Helgi, it is 52 degrees in Reykjavik.

I'll take your word for it although I don't do F. ;-) However, I train inside and the gym often gets a lot hotter than that when the sun is shining. The windows are huge.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I'll take your word for it although I don't do F. ;-) However, I train inside and the gym often gets a lot hotter than that when the sun is shining. The windows are huge.

You guys that far North need all the Vitamin D you can get!