Best Cooling Vests: Complete Beginner’s Guide & TOP 13 Vest Reviews 2024

Does intense summer heat prevent you from working out?

A cooling vest may be what you need!

Wearing a cooling vest while working out can help to keep you feeling cooler and more comfortable in hot weather conditions, and in some situations can make recovery faster.

This article will review the best cooling vests on the market right now and help you to choose the best cooling vest for your needs.

TOP 13 Best Cooling Vests Reviewed 2024

Why Do I Need a Cooling Vest?

When it’s already hot outside, our bodies have to work extra hard to keep us cool when we workout.

We know that overheating isn’t good for our workouts. The body performs best within an optimum temperature range, and going over this can be dangerous.

It can lead to serious complications including heat stroke and eventual loss of consciousness.

A lot of people cut their workouts short in the summer, or only exercise in areas with adequate air conditioning.

But, this can be limiting.

Also, workouts in hot weather are generally harder to perform, involve lots of breaks, and may not last as long, reducing their level of effectiveness.

One of the easiest ways to make these workouts more comfortable is with an adequate cooling system.

Rather than relying on fans or a cranked up air conditioner, a cooling vest will allow you to keep your body feeling cool and comfortable.

Not only does this help fitness buffs, but it also helps people who have medical conditions that make high levels of heat physically unbearable.

What Can a Cooling Vest Do For Me?

There are 3 primary reasons that active people wear cooling vests:

1. To prevent the body from overheating when working out in hot conditions: This effectively makes working out easier and means you recover faster than if your body had to expend energy keeping you cool.

2. To keep the body cooler in normal conditions: This is kind of the opposite of above, and aims to make your body work harder to keep you warm, using more energy and so burning more calories.

Challenging your body by exposing it to a more extreme range of temperatures than we typically get in our day to day lives contributes to better overall health.

Other benefits of working out in cold conditions include increased endurance and a stronger cardiovascular system.

3. To alleviate heat related medical symptoms from conditions such as MS.

Speed Up Post-Workout Recovery

After an intense workout, it’s normal to feel sore. You’ve put a lot of stress on your muscles, causing small tears in the tissue.

These tears repair themselves, ultimately leading to bulkier muscles. The entire time you’re working out, your body is attempting to figure out how to repair the tears in your muscles.

As it’s doing that, it’s also attempting to cool you off and regulate your metabolism.

It won’t be able to tend to all three processes with maximum efficiency. That’s why wearing a cooling vest is a great idea.

If your body doesn’t have to put so much effort into regulating your temperature, it’s free to use that energy to do the other things it needs to do.

This means your metabolism will work better, and your muscles will heal faster. You’re less likely to feel as sore the next day if you’ve taken some of the workload off of your body with a cooling vest.

Reap Benefits from Deliberate Cold Stress

Numerous studies are coming to light as to the benefits of exposing our bodies to a wider range of temperatures.

Our lives have become a little too comfortable, with heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.

Forcing our bodies to adapt to colder temperatures when exercising actually has some great health benefits.

You’ll burn more calories, your body will be more resilient, tougher and faster to adapt to different conditions in the future, and your heart health can be improved from exercising in colder temperatures.

If you don’t live somewhere with harsh winters, recreating some cold stress by wearing a cooling vest and taking cold showers can have numerous health benefits.

Assist With Symptoms of Certain Medical Conditions

Cooling vests are used as a medical device by people with certain chronic conditions – especially those with multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis, also known as MS, attacks the body in waves. There are a variety of factors that can cause this phenomenon, known as MS flares.

One of the most common triggers is the increasing temperature in the warmer months of spring and summer.

The body responds to the temperature increases with immense pain, making people afflicted with MS virtually immobile.

The use of a cooling vest can make everyday activity a little more bearable. For people with MS, going for a short walk or even something as basic as grocery shopping can seem to be impossible tasks.

A cooling vest will help regulate the temperature of the core without requiring an immediate response from the body, making these activities far more tolerable.

If you have MS and you want to get in a little more exercise, a cooling vest is a perfect solution. You’ll be able to do low intensity cardio for short periods with ease if you’re wearing a cooling vest.

It may not be as efficient as going for a hike or a lengthy run, but small steps count for a lot when taken over an extended period of time.

The 4 Different Types of Cooling Vests

Cooling vests vary depending on the mechanism used to keep you cool and the materials they’re made out of.

Water-Activated Evaporative Cooling Vests

These are the least expensive cooling vests available. To use them, the wearer will soak them in cold water then gently wring them out.

Over time, the evaporation of the water will keep you cool. Once the water is gone, you’re left with a plain, bulky vest.

Though they may not stay as cold as other cooling vests, there is a distinct advantage to this type of cooling vest: they don’t need to be frozen.

Almost everywhere you go, you’ll be able to find a sink with cold, running water. If you need to replenish the vest while you’re out, this option is the easiest.

Once it loses its cooling powers, it will only take you a few minutes and a trip to a kitchen or bathroom to get it fully operational again.

Phase Change Cooling Vests

Phase change cooling vests are among the most expensive. While other freezable vests are filled with traditional ice packs or gel packs similar to those found in medical contexts, these vests are filled with something very different.

The cooling substance in these is actually a combination of oils and fats, and they’re closed into pockets that cannot be opened.

They freeze faster than water or gel, and the materials inside retain their temperature relatively well for extended periods of time.

You’ll get a few hours of use out of a phase change vest before you need to re-freeze it, and it will re-freeze in a much shorter time span than other vests.

Ice Pack Cooling Vests

Ice pack cooling vests undoubtedly last the longest out of any cooling vest configuration.

The inside of the vest is lined with dozens of removable ice packs that will stack neatly in your freezer.

Once they’ve frozen, you simply slip them back into the mesh lining of the vest when you’re ready to wear it.

Even on the hottest day, these vests will still last for hours outdoors.

The only downside to the ice pack cooling vest is that you shouldn’t wear it directly against your skin. You need to make sure there’s an adequate barrier between your skin and the ice packs.

A combination of an undershirt and a t-shirt may provide enough protection. Moisture wicking shirts may be most comfortable, as they’ll help to absorb the condensation from your melting ice vest.

Gel Pack Cooling Vests

These are the middle of the line when it comes to freezable cooling vests. Rather than being loaded with a multitude of ice packs or immovable packets of organic matter, this vest is kept cool by lengthy, lightweight gel inserts.

You remove the gel inserts from the vest, freeze them, and stick them back in. The process is quick and simple, so the vest is not complicated to prepare.

They’ll take a little longer than a phase change vest to freeze, but they’ll get colder. They won’t get as cold as a regular ice pack vest, and they also won’t last as long.

This means gel pack vests are a little bit of a compromise.

If you need something colder than a phase change vest or an evaporation vest, get a gel pack vest. If you find ice pack vests cumbersome or a little too cold, these are a great alternative.

Which Vest Will You Choose?

At the end of the day, everyone will benefit from a well-made cooling vest.

Even if you don’t use it all the time, it can be safely stored until the warmer months roll back around.

They’re a one-time investment that will help keep you comfortable, cool, and motivated to workout in even the most uncomfortably hot weather.

They’re good for your body and reasonably priced for the benefits they provide.

All you have to do is decide on the best cooling vest for your needs.

Please comment below if you’ve used a cooling vest for your workouts and noticed a difference, or if you’ve tried one of the vests above.

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