Football places significant physiological and neuromuscular demands on players due to repeated high-intensity actions. During exercise, a large portion of metabolic energy is released as heat, triggering the body’s thermoregulatory mechanisms.

In recent years, infrared thermography has established itself as a fast, non-invasive tool for assessing the spatial distribution of skin temperature in athletes. Today, we analyze the recent scientific paper "Sex-Related Differences in Skin Temperature Responses Induced by Small-Sided Games Assessed Using Infrared Thermography", which explores whether differences exist in the thermal responses of male and female football players.

The Study: Thermography and Small-Sided Games in Football

In football training, Small-Sided Games (SSGs) are among the most widely used methods because they replicate the physical and tactical demands of a real match.

For this study, 46 collegiate football players (22 women and 24 men) were evaluated. All participants performed a standardized 4 vs. 4 Small-Sided Game. Thermographic images were taken at three key time points:

• Before exercise (Pre).
• Immediately post-exercise (Post).
• After 10 minutes of passive recovery (Post_10).

Key Results: Skin Temperature and Asymmetry

The findings of this paper provide highly insightful data for athlete monitoring:

• Greater thermal response in women: Female players exhibited significantly larger increases in skin temperature than male players following exercise, particularly in the anterior and posterior regions of the thighs and lower legs.
• Optimal evaluation time point: The largest differences between sexes were recorded after 10 minutes of recovery. This indicates that a 10-minute post-exercise evaluation is the most sensitive timeframe for detecting physiological differences using infrared thermography. Understanding measurement timing is crucial, as previously noted when analyzing leg circulation and post-exercise thermography in running.
• Stability in thermal asymmetry: Despite differences in absolute temperature, bilateral thermal asymmetry (the temperature difference between the right and left leg) showed no significant differences between sexes across any region or evaluated time point. This stability reinforces the utility of thermographic asymmetry—also linked to factors such as body composition—as a highly reliable metric.

Practical Application: Workload Management with ThermoHuman

At ThermoHuman, we know that objective metrics form the foundation of peak performance. The findings of this study demonstrate that the athlete's sex must be taken into account when interpreting exercise-induced changes in skin temperature.

However, the fact that thermal asymmetry remains stable and comparable between women and men validates and reinforces the reliability of automated analysis with ThermoHuman software.

Conclusions

• Female football players demonstrate a greater acute thermoregulatory response than males following a Small-Sided Game, particularly during the early recovery period.
• Despite temperature differences, thermal asymmetry remains stable and independent of sex.
• These findings indicate that sex is a factor that must be considered when interpreting exercise-induced skin temperature responses.
• The research suggests that an evaluation conducted 10 minutes post-exercise is the most sensitive time point for detecting physiological differences using infrared thermography.
• The results of this study support incorporating sex-specific reference values and utilizing recovery-based evaluation protocols when using infrared thermography to monitor athletes.

References

Moya Ortega, M., Estrada Ocampo, E., Fernández Villada, J. D., Garcia Tamayo, J., Gómez Bedoya, D., Martínez del Águila, A., & Gómez-Sánchez, W. (2026). Sex-Related Differences in Skin Temperature Responses Induced by Small-Sided Games Assessed Using Infrared Thermography. Preprints.org.doi:10.20944/preprints202607.2336.v1.