Saw a random email on a recovery device that EF Pro are using CoolMitt to recover on the team bus after stages. Read some literature and saw some YouTube on some testing that was done a long time ago. Just curious if anyone has experience with it? Have heard things like game changer but again people will try and sell anything…especially in triathlon (compression socks, 3D printed sandals, red light therapy, Zwift training plans). Kind of happy to hear about it in cycling as I have more trust in pro tour teams than I do in triathlon. Supposedly device has only been offered to professional teams and military with a long wait time for the everyday consumer. Interesting use cases have been proposed but so far not a lot of wide adoption. Of course it is ridiculously expensive for something that is essentially a neoprene glove, a pump, and a thermostat but again just curious or is this something that has already been widely discussed in this forum?
If you think snake oil sales stop at world tour bike racing or the military, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
You sir are 100% correct. Snake oil/ magic elixir knows no bounds. I was merely trying to give some context.
You sir are 100% correct. Snake oil/ magic elixir knows no bounds. I was merely trying to give some context.
Ha ha! Of course.
I think this one would fairly fall under the “wait and see” one kind of like the leg massage machine things. More widely adopted, more folks buy, more real or more trustworthy tests then we can judge.
I kind of don’t understand, it’s a cooled glove for the hands. Not the legs?
You can read about it here. https://www.coolmitt.com/
I first read about it from an email sent from The Feed. Yes, I have ordered through there before. Idea being that cooling your palm will allow cold blood to be recirculated throughout your core. Didn’t believe it but then read that EF Pro and other world tour teams are doing it. Lots of articles to back up the science. I don’t have any background in it so I can’t tell whether it is real or not. Looks slightly off but then compression boots also do not have a lot to back up their claims. At least from what I have read.
Funny enough, my younger brother was one of the test subjects for study on cycling performance w/ cooling mitts at the University of Georgia, probably a decade or so ago.
Don’t have a link to the study (I’ll have to ask him) but I recall the gist was: no significant gains.
Andrew Huberman has done a few podcast where he’s talked about these devices. He goes super in-depth in explaining how the body cools itself thru specific areas in your hands, feet and upper face and also talks about how these devices work. He doesn’t have anything to gain from talking about them, but everything he says there seems to be good evidence in them working.
Saw a random email on a recovery device that EF Pro are using CoolMitt to recover on the team bus after stages. Read some literature and saw some YouTube on some testing that was done a long time ago. Just curious if anyone has experience with it? Have heard things like game changer but again people will try and sell anything…especially in triathlon (compression socks, 3D printed sandals, red light therapy, Zwift training plans). Kind of happy to hear about it in cycling as I have more trust in pro tour teams than I do in triathlon. Supposedly device has only been offered to professional teams and military with a long wait time for the everyday consumer. Interesting use cases have been proposed but so far not a lot of wide adoption. Of course it is ridiculously expensive for something that is essentially a neoprene glove, a pump, and a thermostat but again just curious or is this something that has already been widely discussed in this forum?
I remember reading about DARPA funding a project using this type of cooling glove. I would guess a decade ago, but found this Wired article from 2007 which may be what I originally read.
I first heard about the powerful effects of cooling through the palms, soles of feet and forehead through Huberman as well. He really made it sound revolutionary, and had me thinking about cooling grips for TT bikes and shoe inserts with a cooling device in them (not to mention those funny looking omius headbands).
But then the more I thought about it, the more I questioned “why hasn’t this been thoroughly tested by real athletes?”. The original study is from ages ago and not much has been done or said about it since. We have a HUGE amount of indoor cyclists training in controlled environments at controlled power, all the data on recovery etc., surely we can figure out if these cooling devices are effective in real life applications.
I’m still curious, but mostly skeptical.
So me and my team have one, we are still collecting and aggregating data from our field tests that we have done since we received the device. As someone pointed out above - Andrew Huberman recorded and excellent podcast on the effects of palm cooling & body cooling, which this device simply extrapolates & utilizes. So I would not call it a “snake oil” device, as it uses human physiology at its core principle of use and that is where you benefit it from. Few short insights of tests (our team consists of 800m runners, long distance runners, long course triathletes like myself), we have used it during workout sessions and as a recovery device in junction with other parameters, which we measure performance against, i.e. lactate, HR, HRV/RHR & the outcomes of an interval, etc…:
- During indoor season for track athletes, there was no diminishing return on running all out efforts (for 800m runners), when palm cooled, while not palm cooled - there was an observable drop-off from the sprints, where n+1;
- Like for most of us here, winter season and turbo season collide into brain melting sessions. TLDR: heating in my room does not drop down, due to other rooms being close, so usually have to do turbos in 25C/77F degrees with only a fan, so you end up with no air circulation at some point and overheating. Palm cooled sessions were much easier to withstand and numbers to hit - both mentally and physically
- As above, in a session with 15x30sec max effort/45sec rest on a turbo, I managed to either keep consistent effort for all the 15 tries, or in some cases up the wattage in the last 3-4 intervals (f.e. most of 30secs - 450W; last ones - 480-490), where previously I’d fall out significantly in the later intervals.
- Recently with my volume going up in training, I have less and less time to chill between sessions and recover, I started using Coolmitt almost daily between session and before falling asleep - this allowed me to recover well (have positive HRV trend, despite the training load being 25-30hrs/week), compared to lower volume weeks, but without palm cooling between or during bedtime
- Unfortunately, other quantifiable data does not seem to budge in relation to palm cooling (this is where we need more data analysis), f.e. lactate numbers do not get affected (and in a way, they should not be) by it - doing intervals, lactate fluctuates as per usual and there is no significant decrease when palm cooled
Happy to answer any questions if you have any and once more - Andrew’s podcast is the place to start on this device imho.
Take care <3
I used to see one of EF’s team doctors. They were looking into core cooling back then (~5+ years ago now) and those glove things were on their radar. At that point he told me the best thing they had found was a slushy (I’m sure they had something a bit more scientific, but he told me just a slush puppy from the store would be fine) while the rider was warming up.
It’s been my go to ever since, I can be shivering in 90+° days in the south before my start. Plus…slush puppy.
That’s my n-1 anyways
I used to see one of EF’s team doctors. They were looking into core cooling back then (~5+ years ago now) and those glove things were on their radar. At that point he told me the best thing they had found was a slushy (I’m sure they had something a bit more scientific, but he told me just a slush puppy from the store would be fine) while the rider was warming up.
It’s been my go to ever since, I can be shivering in 90+° days in the south before my start. Plus…slush puppy.
That’s my n-1 anyways
that’s awesome. more about the slushpuppy protocol? how long do you do this? sorry to overcomplicate something that’s awesome in its simplicity.
I wouldn’t say its for “recovery” in a specific sense. It’s just cooling your body down and using your palm as a heat sink to dump heat on. Using the mitt will just cool your body down. Im sure a cold shower does the same thing, but where that isn’t available I can see this helping.
I actually tried this yesterday in fact. I was running threshold intervals, and during the rests I soaked my hand in cold water. It felt like it really cooled me down; much quicker than just sitting there in the heat.
I used to see one of EF’s team doctors. They were looking into core cooling back then (~5+ years ago now) and those glove things were on their radar. At that point he told me the best thing they had found was a slushy (I’m sure they had something a bit more scientific, but he told me just a slush puppy from the store would be fine) while the rider was warming up.
It’s been my go to ever since, I can be shivering in 90+° days in the south before my start. Plus…slush puppy.
That’s my n-1 anyways
that’s awesome. more about the slushpuppy protocol? how long do you do this? sorry to overcomplicate something that’s awesome in its simplicity.
I read a few studies (google ice slushy core body something cycling etc and you should get a bunch of results) - of course still n-1 but what I came away with was drink the slushy before/during your warmup, but be done with it a few minutes between then and start time. Ideally you want to lower internal temp but not get to the point where your body isn’t sweating/dissipating heat naturally. There are studies of people using ice slurries in place of regular water bottles during exercise in which it was shown to be detrimental to performance. I remember something about a menthol mouth rinse also being a valid alternative (not 100% sure about that but I jotted it down in my notebook as something to look into…which I never did… but will now 
)
Thanks again, Chris. Most helpful, as always.
Thank you for the information! Honestly mostly curious about the sleeping benefits. Have heard that people use it right before going to bed and right after a workout to promote recovery. Would love to see a few people on here say they use it to “cool down” before going to sleep and their is improved. A very simplistic way of putting it but what I am most interested in.
Funny enough, my younger brother was one of the test subjects for study on cycling performance w/ cooling mitts at the University of Georgia, probably a decade or so ago.
Don’t have a link to the study (I’ll have to ask him) but I recall the gist was: no significant gains.
I don’t expect a “significant†gain from something like this. The question I have is…. Was it “statistically significant� Even if they don’t cool, they look like a great super aero addition to a Tri kit that every triathlete should be sporting!!
CoolMitt on today’s episode of The Move
WEDU endorsement: Make or Break?