External heating garments used post-warm-up improve upper body power and elite sprint swimming performance

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of using an electrical heating garment during 34The overall results demonstrated a trend of a relevant (>0.4%) improvement in the 50m 35Freestyle performance of 0.83% (P = 0.06) in HEAT vs. CON. In male participants, 36 performance in the 50m Freestyle significantly improved by 1.01% (CON 25.18 ± 0.5s vs. 37HEAT 24.93 ± 0.4s; P < 0.05), whereas female participants only showed a trend for an Muscle heating garment use before sprint swimming 4

Transition phase clothing strategies and their effect on body temperature and 100‐m swimming performance

“…Similar findings were seen where the use of passive heating, via heated trousers, during a 30-min recovery phase, attenuated the post warm-up drop in muscle temperature, compared with a non-heated control (Raccuglia et al, 2015). Wilkins and Havenith (2017) provide an interesting insight into the benefits of heated garments during passive recovery, reporting a 2.3°C higher skin temperature post recovery period and a 0.8% improvement in 50 m swimming performance, following the use of a heated jacket during a passive recovery transition phase, when compared with a standard tracksuit jacket.…”

“…Although interestingly, no difference in core temperature post recovery period was reported between the conditions. Land-based warm-ups alone and when combined with the use of passive heating, have previously been shown to attenuate the decline in muscle and core body temperature during a transition phase, leading to improved exercise performance (Faulkner et al, 2012;McGowan et al, 2016;McGowan et al, 2017;Wilkins and Havenith, 2017). Heated clothing garments may not be affordable for all swimmers, furthermore at national and international competitions swimmers must report to the call room ~15-20 minutes before the scheduled start of their race time (FINA, 2015a;McGowan et al, 2015).…”

Sports and environmental temperature: From warming-up to heating-up

“…In this setting, maintaining T core and T m via dry-land exercises may benefit performance, and using heated jackets in addition to conducting sports specific dry-land exercises can further improve performance. 219,220 Naturally, event duration plays a pivotal role in the decision to apply heating elements. It is proposed that for a 1 C rise in T m at depths between 1-4 cm, improvements of 4-10% in peak power output (PPO) could occur.…”

Improved 2000-m Rowing Performance in a Cool Environment With an External Heating Garment

“…Generally, after the warm-up period, rowers must be in the marshalling area ~10-15 minutes before the start of a race and transition phases between warm-up and the beginning of a race can be as long as 20 to 25 minutes. It appears that there is an increased risk of a decline in core temperature (Tcore) with longer transitions 4 and a reduction in this time has been found to attenuate the overall decline in Tcore, significantly improving performance times 5,6 . However, there is little scope to alter rowing competition schedules by a large margin.…”

“…Recent literature has combined an active warm-up followed by heated tracksuit pants in the marshalling period before a sprint cycling race which improved core and muscle temperature maintenance, along with time trial (TT) performance (~2%) 8 . More specifically, a combination of an active swimming warm-up followed by use of an upper body passive heating device in the "call room", improved maintenance in core and muscle temperature and overall swimming performance to a similar extent 5,9 . However, although those studies observed significant improvements in performance, few studies have determined the physiological outcomes of a passive warm-up during long duration exercise performance (≥5 minutes), this is partly due to the fact that there are detrimental physiological factors which negatively impact performance in such circumstances.…”