“The colder the faster”: skin temperature and performance in elite athletes

? Top thermography research publications about performance

?️ Thermohuman brings you the latest scientific outcomes, today: skin temperature and performance

? This publication made by Sebastian Racinais, Marco Cardinale, George Havenith and other renowned colleagues from @aspetar and other international institutions, analyzed the? hydration and ❄️ cooling in elite ?athletes during the last IAAF World athletic championships in Doha, Qatar (2019)

?️ This event was organized under extreme hot conditions (around 32ºC and 80% relative humidity).

Among other conclusions, the authors found that “pre-race skin temperature was correlated with faster race completion (r=0.32, p=0.046)”

Racinais et al. (2021)

?️ In addition to that, skin temperature was higher in non-finishers (33.8°C±0.9°C vs 32.6°C±1.4°C, p=0.017)

? ? The authors concluded that skin temperature modulation should be incorporated into pre-race strategies. Therefore, infrared thermography is an interesting tool to evaluate athletes and the cooling strategies before competition.

Evaluate the fatigue through thermography is another way to use this tool as a monitoring strategy to ensure a correct recovery. The role of thermography in exercise control has been discussed since Fernandez-Cuevas et al. (2012) analyzed three types of training and the thermal response immediately after and 8 hours after the exercise.

If you want to know more access to this introduction course about thermography and sports performance in a free way to learn how to apply thermography in health and monitoring.

REFERENCE

Racinais S, Ihsan M, Taylor L, et al. Hydration and cooling in elite athletes: relationship with performance, body mass loss and body temperatures during the Doha 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships British Journal of Sports Medicine Published Online First: 12 February 2021. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-103613