REF-113 · Bongers et al., 2017 · Temperature, Vol. · Paper

Cooling interventions for athletes: effectiveness, mechanisms and practical considerations

C+thin evidenceMeasured on a mixed groupWritten before October 2026, being re-checked

Bongers, Hopman & Eijsvogels give an overview of cooling applied before (pre-cooling), during (per-cooling) and directly after (post-cooling) exercise. Exercise raises core temperature, which can impair performance and lead to heat illness; cooling may limit that rise and so protect performance.

The review covers (1) the effectiveness of cooling interventions, (2) the physiological mechanisms and (3) practical considerations for the different techniques, tries to identify the optimal technique, and compares whether cooling-induced benefits differ between cool, moderate and hot ambient conditions. The abstract reports no effect sizes or protocol numbers.

Key Findings

Three windows: pre-cooling, per-cooling (during), post-cooling (directly after).
Aim: limit the rise in core body temperature → maintain performance and reduce heat-illness risk.
Scope: effectiveness, mechanisms, practical considerations, choice of optimal technique, and benefit by ambient condition (cool / moderate / hot).

Practical Application

Cooling can be applied before, during and directly after exercise; the review's frame is that limiting the rise in core temperature is what protects performance, and that the benefit and the practical choice of technique depend on the ambient conditions — cooling matters most when it is hot.
Not from this paper: effect sizes by test type (prolonged exercise d = 1.91, sprint impaired) are in Tyler 2013 REF-111; effect by method (cold drinks, packs, cooled room, vest, spraying) in Wegmann 2012 REF-112.
Not from this paper; the base's own race-day sequence: ice slurry (about 7.5 g/kg) 60-30 min before the start; an ice vest on the torso in the last 30-10 min; cold water on head and neck every 15-20 min during the race where available; alternate warm and cold drinks. These timings and doses are house practice assembled from the cooling literature, not figures reported by this review.

Limitations

Narrative overview, 2017; no systematic search or pooled analysis; effect sizes must be taken from the meta-analyses it draws on.
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level

regraded 2026-09-27 from B+: narrative review without systematic method; no numbers in the abstract

Content correction 2026-09-27
The entry presented its race-day protocol (7.5 ml/kg ice slurry 60-30 min before, vest 30-10 min before, head/neck water every 15-20 min) as this paper's recommendation -> the abstract carries no numbers; the protocol is kept as the base's own practice, labelled as such.
Title changed to the paper's title; summary rewritten from the abstract (pre-, per- and post-cooling; mechanisms; ambient-condition comparison). Level B+ -> C+ (narrative review).