Endurance capacity impairment in cold air ranging from skin cooling to mild hypothermia

Abstract

We developed a novel protocol that cooled skin temperature, or skin plus core temperature (Δ−0.5°C or Δ−1.0 °C), to determine a dose-response of cold exposure on endurance capacity at 70% peak power output. Skin cooling significantly impaired exercise tolerance time by ∼31%, whereas core cooling led to a further reduction of 30%–40% with no difference between Δ−0.5°C and Δ−1.0°C. Overall, simply cooling the skin impaired endurance capacity, but this impairment is further magnified by core cooling.