Cooling the Palms to Keep Athletes from Slowing Down
Therabody's CryoTherm Palm cools the hands between training efforts, using the body's own blood vessels to pull heat out and delay fatigue during exercise.
Photo source:
therabody.com
Cooling the Palms to Keep Athletes From Slowing Down
Therabody,
the US-based recovery technology company known for its Theragun massage
devices, introduced CryoTherm Palm on June 8, 2026, calling it the company's
first thermoregulation performance device. Unlike Therabody's earlier products,
which are built around recovery after exercise, CryoTherm Palm is designed to
be used during a workout or competition itself, in the short rest periods
between sets or sprints, to help an athlete keep performing at a high level for
longer.
Why the Hands Are the Target
The
device works by cooling the palms rather than the whole body. According to
Therabody's Scientific Advisory Board member Dr. Robin Thorpe, the palms
contain specialized vascular structures called arteriovenous anastomoses, which
allow a large volume of blood to pass close to the surface of the skin.
Combined with glabrous, hairless palm skin that dissipates heat quickly, this
makes the hands one of the body's most efficient points for exchanging heat
with the outside world. Cooling the palms cools the blood passing through them,
which in turn lowers core body temperature and reduces how hard an effort
feels, according to the company.
Cold, Heat or Both at Once
CryoTherm
Palm is a cordless, battery-powered device with a dual-surface design, one
cooling or warming surface for each palm. It offers three modes: cold therapy
between training efforts, heat therapy for warming the hands on the sidelines
or in cold-weather conditions, and a contrast mode that delivers cold to one
side and heat to the other at the same time. Cold runs at three settings,
46.4°F, 53.6°F and 60.8°F, calibrated to pull heat out efficiently without
triggering the blood vessels to constrict and work against the cooling effect.
Heat runs at 98.6°F, 104°F and 109.4°F. A built-in LCD display includes a
stopwatch timed to the one-to-three-minute cooling windows used in Therabody's
own research, and an anti-roll shape keeps the device steady on a bench or
sideline table.
Built to Move With the Athlete
The
device measures 238 by 120 by 120 millimeters and weighs 1.14 pounds, made from
PC and ABS plastic with aluminum cooling surfaces. A full charge through its
USB-C port lasts up to 120 minutes of use, or around 60 minutes when used
cordlessly away from a power source. It ships with a travel pouch and a USB-C
to USB-C charging cable, is TSA-compliant for travel, and is registered as a
Class 2 medical device in the United States and Canada.
What Two Studies Measured
Therabody
backed the device with two controlled studies before launch. One, run with 22
highly trained male soccer athletes under 19 at IMG Academy in Florida, used a
randomized crossover design: each athlete ran two sets of six 30-meter sprints
twice, a week apart, once cooling their palms with CryoTherm Palm between sets
and once with the device powered off. With cooling, sprint velocity declined by
6.9% across the sets compared with 11.6% without it, a 4.7% difference, and
top-end sprint velocity came in 2.45% higher. Athletes also rated their
perceived effort lower, and reported feeling 60% cooler, while heart rate
showed no meaningful difference between the two conditions. A second study,
conducted with Division I athletes at the University of Southern California
during upper-body resistance training, found a 28% increase in total work
volume and 58% more repetitions completed in the final set when palm cooling
was used between sets.
You have exceeded your free limits for viewing our premium content
Please subscribe to have unlimited access to our innovations.
Get The Latest In Innovation
Join Our Newsletter
Where bold ideas find bold readers.
