The key to recovery after 90 gruelling minutes? Returning your body to its pre-workout temperature, which is why the dreaded ice bath is a necessary evil in today’s game. Spending five minutes submerged at 8°C is the post-match norm for an elite footballer these days, but not every athlete regulates his or her internal boiler the same way.
To help sports scientists design recovery plans for players, French boffins BodyCap have developed an ingestible pill that monitors and records an athlete’s core body temperature for up to 16 hours, wirelessly transmitting the results to a monitor every 30 seconds.
About twice the size of a Tic Tac, the e-Celsius Performance has been used already by Ligue 1 side Nantes. “The data will help introduce recovery programmes for players based on weather conditions, their position and their capacity for recovery,” says club physio Philippe Daguillon, who is also founder of ice bath specialists Cryobain.
In other words, the pill means football clubs will be able to identify players who only need a quick dip in the ice bath to bring down their core temperature, from those who need an extended soak. Brrrrrrrrr!
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