Effects of cooling the legs on performance in a standard Wingate anaerobic power test.

The possibility that peripheral hypothermia may impair muscular performance in various sports led us to assess the usefulness of the Wingate anaerobic power test in subjects with normal and cooled leg muscles. Using this test without modification, peak power, average power output, and cumulated work to the point of fatigue were all decreased by cooling, although the fatigue index (the declining rate of change of power output) was less. It is concluded that this test could usefully be employed in field studies to assess the possibility that muscle chilling may influence a person's potential for producing maximal bursts of muscular work.