To examine palm cooling's (15 °C) impact, subjects performed 3 four-set leg press workouts in a randomized sequence. Per workout they received 1 of 3 treatments: no palm cooling, palm cooling between sets, or palm cooling between sets and post-exercise. Dependent variables were examined with three-way ANOVAs; average power underwent a three-way ANCOVA with body fat percentage as the covariate. Simple effects analysis was our post hoc and α=0.05. Left hand skin temperatures produced a two-way interaction (no palm cooling, palm cooling between sets>palm cooling between sets and post-exercise at several time points). A "high responder" subset had their data analyzed with an additional three-way ANOVA that again produced a two-way interaction (palm cooling between sets>no palm cooling>palm cooling between sets and post-exercise at multiple time points). Blood lactate results included a two-way interaction (no palm cooling>palm cooling between sets, palm cooling between sets and post-exercise at 0 min post-exercise). Average power yielded a two-way interaction (palm cooling between sets, palm cooling between sets>no palm cooling for the fourth set). Intermittent palm cooling hastened heat removal and blood lactate clearance, as well as delayed average power decrements.

BACKGROUND: ß-Alanine aids exercise performance by increasing intracellular carnosine content. Added carnosine should buffer more H + produced from exercise and evoke a higher blood lactate concentration ([BLa − ]) before a person succumbs to fatigue. OBJECTIVE: With a within-subjects design, we compared the effects of placebo (maltodextrin) and ß-alanine administrations on [BLa − ] and average power (AP) values derived from repetitive bouts of lower body supramaximal activity. METHODS: Over separate 30-day periods, sedentary subjects (n = 10) ingested placebo, followed by ß-alanine (3 g · day −1 ), capsules. After each period, subjects performed two four-set leg press workouts. [BLa − ] values were measured before, and zero-, five-, ten, 15-and 20-minutes post-exercise. [BLa − ] data underwent a 2 × 6 ANOVA, with repeated measures per independent variable. AP values were compared with a 2 × 4 ANCOVA, with repeated measures per independent variable. RESULTS: AP and [BLa − ] results each included a two-way interaction. ß-alanine elicited higher set two and four AP values versus the corresponding placebo values. [BLa − ] values at zero-minutes post-exercise were significantly higher from ß-alanine, versus the placebo, treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Greater AP and [BLa − ] values from ß-alanine suggest exercise likely was able to proceed to a greater extent without increasing intracellular acidosis due to a heightened buffer capacity.