Can You Trick Your Brain to Help You Run Farther?
Recent studies have shown that runners wearing a cooling collar were able to run 13.5% farther in hot conditions (87 F or 30.5 C) than runners who didn’t wear a cooling collar.
Scientist believe that the cooling collars cool the blood in the carotid artery in the neck. When this cooler blood reaches the runner’s brain, it interprets this as a signal that it is OK to continue to run. Body core temperature and heart rate continue to increase, but the brain apparently ignores these signals to stop or slow down.
Continuing to exercise when you have a high core temperature can be dangerous and can lead to heat stroke, so runners considering using a cooling collar should proceed with caution.
There are several cooling collars of different designs on the market, including the Black Ice Cool Collar, Cool Collar Neck Coolers, and the Ice Bandana.
Have you tried any of these cooling collars? How did they work for you? Tell me in the comments.
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