Can a $5 Solution Enhance Athletic Performance Better Than a Million Dollar Government Project?

Wired Magazine reports that DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is a US Government agency that creates world-changing technology.

DARPA has begun efforts to make soldiers stronger, smarter, faster and more able to increase athletic performance, or help save lives. Their technology consists of a “coffee-pot” shaped glove that can cool or warm an individual’s core temperature. This allows them to stay “temperature neutral”, remaining alert and able to function in freezing cold, or cooling them to increase endurance and physical performance by many orders of magnitude.



The endurance aspect is illustrated by a Stanford lab technician who was able to increase physical performance. He increased his number of pull-ups without getting tired, his last pull-up as strong as the first. He was able to increase his endurance as well, after several weeks he went from 100 pull-ups per workout session to 180, then to 600 per workout. After 4 months of using the “glove” this individual was able to perform 1,000 pull-ups per workout.

Volleyball, and other athletes, could achieve similar results by having a bucket of ice where they workout and simply placing their arms in the bucket between workout intervals to aid recovery.