Half-time body cooling strategies for men’s lacrosse players wearing protective equipment during competition in the heat.

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effects of half-time body cooling strategies using FAN_wet （fan with skin wetting）, ice slurry （ICE） ingestion, FAN_wet + ICE ingestion, and cold drink ingestion on subsequent thermoregulatory responses and the players’ perceptual responses during intermittent exercise performed to simulate a men’s lacrosse match while wearing protective equipment in the heat. Ten physically active men performed the following four cooling interventions in random order: FAN_wet, ICE, MIX （FAN_wet + ICE）, and CON （cold drink ingestion）. The rise in rectal temperature since half-time, skin temperature, thermal sensation, thermal comfort, and rating of perceptual exertion were lower under the FAN_wet and MIX conditions; however, there was no significant difference between the MIX and FAN_wet conditions. These results indicate that a body cooling strategy using FAN_wet is a feasible and effective cooling strategy during men’s lacrosse matches in the heat. However, cooling effects of ICE ingestion and additional cooling effects of combined FAN_wet and ICE ingestion were small in this study.