Cooling vest for air conditioned gym

[asmitty]

Hi all,


Three questions if anyone has a moment

1. I need a some supplemental cooling for the gym(weights and elliptical) and summer/fall runs. Right now I can't afford the highly reviewed Glacier Tek vest. The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America(MSAA) has a Polar vest and Steele vest that use ice packs; both can received for free via a scholarship. I've tried a polar evaporative vest for running in the heat and that was essentially useless. Does anyone have thoughts on which is better, and how much more useful these are in comparison to the evaporative vest I tried?

2. I was thinking of buying a Fros-T shirt as I could afford one right now. Does anyone have any experience here. I.E. would it work much better than dipping a polyester shirt in water/ not cause chaffing, etc....?

3. My right leg tends to get warm and numb when exercising despite the relative cool that my upper body may be experiencing . Does anyone have ideas on how to keep this area cool at the gym?

Thanks for everyone's thoughts. I'm a first time poster and can't express how useful this site is to a younger man who wants to maintain a positive life experience physically and emotionally despite having MS. :-)

[ActiveMSers]

Glad you found us, asmitty. First question: where do you live? If you live in a humid area, evaporative vests won't work. I'll try to answer your Qs and hope others join in.

1. Crud, I don't know. None are ideal for exercise, and none are good for running. But free is free.

2. Yes, it's better than wetting a poly shirt. Great for runs (best, actually). In the gym, may be fine. Worth a flyer at $50.

3. It's your core temp increasing and that's common (my eyesight goes wonky, but chilling the optic nerve is futile). Vests only help so much with an overheated core. And target chilling your leg won't do much of anything. A full-body soak in a cold tub pre workout would help as would ice drinks and targeted breaks (cool down, stretch, then get going again).

Hope this helps!

[asmitty]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply

I live in Santa Barbara, Ca. I like running outside but even 68 degrees of direct sunlight is unbearable. So far my best solution is to use the beach too cool myself down as a I run :-)... for outdoor runs at least. I looked into the humidity info as well and it averages 40-60 percent. Perhaps you would know if the Fros-T would be acceptable in these conditions? Also, do you think it would be useful on the elliptical in an air conditioned gym?

On a side note I emailed them Wed. night asking if they had Larges in their T-shirt and if the coupon code was still valid at check out and they didn't get back. I want to give them a shot but their company service department may be severly understaffed, which concerns me. Curious if you had an overall good customer service experience with them?


Regarding point 1; kinda figured that :-(. Oh well, as you say free is better than nothing and I need something for the gym. Suppose I'll do the free thing and then save for a glacier tek, which i'm salivating over after your review....

So one other thing i'm curious about. I still like to exercise at super high intensity and mentally I'm unwilling to give that up right now. I don't mind the leg and arm numbness(yet) which I had described... as they desist when i cool down. I've heard mixed medical opinions on whether its just temporary or may cause cumulative trauma. Any thoughts?

Thanks again Dave for the advice and for getting back to me

[KyleH]

Vests only help so much with an overheated core. And target chilling your leg won't do much of anything. A full-body soak in a cold tub pre workout would help as would ice drinks and targeted breaks (cool down, stretch, then get going again).

This is exactly what my cousin is doing for quite a while now.

As for the glacier tek, I suggest ask someone you know first who has it and see if it's worth the investment.