SynthesisSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2024
Performance Benefits of Pre- and Per-cooling on Self-paced Versus Constant Workload Exercise: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effectiveness of cooling strategies for emergency personnel: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Cognitive Neuroelectrical Activity During Preparation for Exercise Under Hyperthermia.Exercise and sport sciences reviews · 2026Review
- Mental fatigue accompanied by whole-body surface cooling is associated with the impairment of subsequent endurance exercise performance.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Effect of body mass on physiological and time-trial performance responses to mixed-method cooling applied between exercise bouts in the heat.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- The Effects of Palm Cooling on Repeat Sprint Ability Following a Fatigue Inducing Protocol in Collegiate Female Athletes.International journal of exercise science · 2025Article
- Mixed pre-cooling improves thermal strain but not running performance in female endurance athletes exercising in the heat across the menstrual cycle.Temperature (Austin, Tex.) · 2025Article
- Nourishing Physical Productivity and Performance On a Warming Planet - Challenges and Nutritional Strategies to Mitigate Exertional Heat Stress.Current nutrition reports · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectiveExercise in hot environments impairs endurance performance. Cooling interventions can attenuate the impact of heat stress on performance, but the influence of an exercise protocol on the magnitude of performance benefit remains unknown. This meta-analytical review compared the effects of pre- and per-cooling interventions on performance during self-paced and constant workload exercise in the heat.
methodsThe study protocol was preregistered at the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/wqjb3 ). A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, and MEDLINE from inception to 9 June, 2023. We included studies that examined the effects of pre- or per-cooling on exercise performance in male individuals under heat stress (> 30 °C) during self-paced or constant workload exercise in cross-over design studies. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for randomized trials.
resultsFifty-nine studies (n = 563 athletes) were identified from 3300 records, of which 40 (n = 370 athletes) used a self-paced protocol and 19 (n = 193 athletes) used a constant workload protocol. Eighteen studies compared multiple cooling interventions and were included more than once (total n = 86 experiments and n = 832 paired measurements). Sixty-seven experiments used a pre-cooling intervention and 19 used a per-cooling intervention. Average ambient conditions were 34.0 °C [32.3-35.0 °C] and 50.0% [40.0-55.3%] relative humidity. Cooling interventions attenuated the performance decline in hot conditions and were more effective during a constant workload (effect size [ES] = 0.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.44-0.81) compared with self-paced exercise (ES = 0.30, 95% CI 0.18-0.42, p = 0.004). A difference in performance outcomes between protocols was only observed with pre-cooling (ES = 0.74, 95% CI 0.50-0.98 vs ES = 0.29, 95% CI 0.17-0.42, p = 0.001), but not per-cooling (ES = 0.45, 95% CI 0.16-0.74 vs ES = 0.35, 95% CI 0.01-0.70, p = 0.68).
conclusionsCooling interventions attenuated the decline in performance during exercise in the heat, but the magnitude of the effect is dependent on exercise protocol (self-paced vs constant workload) and cooling type (pre- vs per-cooling). Pre-cooling appears to be more effective in attenuating the decline in exercise performance during a constant workload compared with self-paced exercise protocols, whereas no differences were found in the effectiveness of per-cooling.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.