Flouris AD, Webb P, Kenny GP. Noninvasive assessment of muscle temperature during rest, exercise, and postexercise recovery in different environments. J Appl Physiol 118: 1310-1320, 2015. First published March 26, 2015 doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00932.2014.-We introduced noninvasive and accurate techniques to estimate muscle temperature (Tm) of vastus lateralis (VL), triceps brachii (TB), and trapezius (TRAP) during rest, exercise, and postexercise recovery using the insulation disk (iDISK) technique. Thirty-six volunteers (24 men, 12 women; 73.0 Ϯ 12.2 kg; 1.75 Ϯ 0.07 m; 24.4 Ϯ 5.5 yr; 49.2 Ϯ 6.8 ml·kg Ϫ1 ·min Ϫ1 peak oxygen uptake) underwent periods of rest, cycling exercise at 40% of peak oxygen uptake, and postexercise recovery in three environments: Normal (24°C, 56% relative humidity), Hot-Humid (30°C, 60% relative humidity), and Hot-Dry (40°C, 24% relative humidity). Participants were randomly allocated into the "model" and the "validation" groups. Stepwise regression analysis generated models that accurately predicted Tm (predTm) of VL (R 2 ϭ 0.73-0.91), TB (R 2 ϭ 0.85-0.93), and TRAP (R 2 ϭ 0.84 -0.86) using iDISK and the difference between the current iDISK temperature and that recorded between 1 and 4 min before. Cross-validation analyses in the validation group demonstrated small differences (P Ͻ 0.05) of no physiological significance, small effect size of the differences, and strong associations (r ϭ 0.85-0.97; P Ͻ 0.001) between Tm and predTm. Moreover, narrow 95% limits of agreement and low percent coefficient of variation were observed between Tm and predTm. It is concluded that the developed noninvasive, practical, and inexpensive techniques provide accurate estimations of VL, TB, and TRAP Tm during rest, cycling exercise, and postexercise recovery. intramuscular; insulation disk; vastus lateralis; triceps brachii; trapezius DURING EXERCISE, LARGE AMOUNTS of heat are produced in the exercising muscles, leading to increased muscle temperature (Tm) (22). This occurs within the first few seconds of repeated muscle contraction, confirming that Tm is a robust indicator of muscle metabolism. In this light, the strong link between Tm and exercise performance is not surprising. Indeed, a number of studies have shown that Tm is the most important factor in determining the outcome of exercise performance, especially during short-term high-intensity exercise (36 -38, 41). In addition, a 2-5% variation (depending on the contraction type and velocity) in performance has been proposed as a consequence of a change in Tm by 1°C (41). Therefore, knowledge of Tm during work and exercise is crucial to attain performance enhancements. In addition, Tm data have both clinical [in terms of assessing and refining postexercise recovery interventions (39)] and physiological [in terms of improving the assessment of thermometrically derived mean body temperature (26)] value, representing a much-needed source of information in human physiology.At present, measurement of Tm is a time-consuming, invasive, and expensive techniq...