Compression clothing has becoming extremely popular over the years with athletes, but what exactly do compression clothes do, and are they actually beneficial?
You may have noticed more and more athletes wearing compression clothing while partaking in sporting events and workouts. These tight-fitting articles of clothing are said to have many benefits when working out, doing physical activities, and even after exercise. They are said to help everything from blood flow to reduce muscle fatigue during and after workouts.
What Are Compression Clothes?
Compression clothing is designed to be tight-fitting garments that target specific areas of the body during workouts. You may have heard of, or experienced, wearing compression socks when you’re going to be in a sitting or laying down position for long periods of times (long airplane flights or hospital stays). Those compression socks are designed to help with blood flow to prevent blood clots. And while athletes aren’t wearing them to help prevent blood clots while exercising, the increased blood flow can help with other types of fatigue that may occur.
The most common types of compression clothing you’ll see are socks, shorts, upper body shirts, and arm sleeves. These articles of clothing provide the support and compression to the areas of the body that will benefit most.
What are the Benefits of Compression Clothes in Athletes?
We know what compression clothes are, essentially tight-fitting, spandex-type, clothing that can be worn on most places on the body, but what exactly do compression clothes do and how do they help while exercising?
According to the clothing manufacturers, compression clothing is supposed to help your blood flow and muscles while working out or exercising. They offer more support for your muscles, which helps you to reduce muscle fatigue and reduce your chance of injury, while supposedly increasing blood flow, which helps deliver oxygen to your muscles more efficiently.
But is all of this true?
There have been
studies conducted on runners wearing leg compression clothing and it was found that these compression clothes resulted in no notable increase in running economy with or without the compression clothing on their legs. Which means there was no noticeable different in performance in runners that were wearing compression clothing versus those that weren’t. But that doesn’t mean this type of clothing isn’t effective in other ways.
There has been some results that have shown that compression clothing can help in recovery after exercising or working out. The compression clothing puts light pressure on your muscles which can help minimize delayed onset muscle soreness. Compression clothing can also help raise the temperature of your skin, which can promote an increase in blood flow and healing similar to how heat therapy works.
So while compression clothing hasn’t shown clear cut benefits during certain activities, that’s not to say they aren’t helping you.
Holding your muscles in place and supporting areas like your groin, can help improve the quality of your workout or exercise, thus leading to the notion that they are helping even though the science doesn’t always support those theories.
The placebo effect can cause you to believe that your workouts are more efficient, or your game is that much better, when you’re wearing compression clothing than without. And despite not being able to scientifically measure these enhancements, that doesn’t mean they aren’t there in your head. If you believe that you can do something more efficiently by changing up your clothing, then there’s a chance that your body will react to what you believe, and you could see the benefits.
Compression clothing is advertised as being beneficial to your performance as well as your recovery when it comes to sports and exercise. The compression on the muscles in your body is a great way to help prevent injuries as well. And while the science doesn’t always support the benefits of compression clothing while exercising or playing sports, it does show scientific promise of helping your recovery time after physical activity.
So while compression clothing definitely has its benefits, keep in mind that a lot of what you hear from these companies is designed to get you to buy these types of clothes.
We still love our
compression clothing and like the way it feels, and if it makes you feel better after physical activities then there is no harm in wearing them.
