You're running a marathon...

Under a spicy Aussie summer sun.

Red-faced. Sweating bullets. Going's tough.

A shaded drink stop a few hundred metres ahead keeps you moving forward.

Get to it.

Cool towel around your neck. Bitta water. Fuel. Time to keep going.

The thing is...

Overheating is terrible for our performance. We've all felt the drain it can have on us.

But that cool towel is only really cooling our neck muscles. We wanna lower our core body temp!

Enter, glabrous skin surfaces.

They're specific parts of the body (palms, forehead and soles of feet) where the veins and arteries are wired a bit differently from the rest of the body.

They're like magic portals that (when cooled) can actually lower our core body temp.

So we actually wanna throw that cool towel on our forehead or between our palms. It'll quickly (within seconds) cool the blood there, send it back to the heart and out to cool our other muscles.

Early research is suggesting the effects are seriously significant for strength and endurance (+25% !!).

Strength (May 4 = no cooling, May 8 = cooling) 👇

Endurance (max effort test: white dots = no cooling, black dots = cooling) 👇

📝 Note: A cool towel is perfect. Ice or anything too cold that tightens the veins (vasoconstriction) won't work. Blood flow is crucial.

Pro teams are even using tools like this.

So next time you're playing in the heat and the cool towels come out, slap one on your forehead and press your palms against it.

Or even just hold a chilled bottle of water in your hands for a minute when you're out and about on a hot day.

❓And a bit of trivia... It's also how you'd help cool someone suffering from hyperthermia (overheating).