For racing and training in the heat, is there any experience and/or evidence to support rubbing a menthol based lotion onto your legs, neck and/or back to help stay cool? Cooling muscle rubs like tiger balm and biofreeze are normally used for post-workout recovery, but what if it was used during training or racing to reduce RPE? Also, would this cream the limit the evaporative cooling your body is doing naturally?
It doesn’t have any actual cooling effect, it just tricks your nerves into feeling cool. There were studies about 5 years ago that suggested a positive performance benefit from ingesting menthol or swishing a menthol mouth wash pre-race, but that seems to have fizzled out and there’s zero evidence that topical menthol aids performance. It may even hinder performance.
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