Effect of Compression Garments on Physiological Responses After Uphill Running

Abstract

Limited practical recommendations related to wearing compression garments for athletes can be drawn from the literature at the present time. We aimed to identify the effects of compression garments on physiological and perceptual measures of performance and recovery after uphill running with different pressure and distributions of applied compression. In a random, double blinded study, 10 trained male runners undertook three 8 km treadmill runs at a 6% elevation rate, with the intensity of 75% VO2max while wearing low, medium grade compression garments and high reverse grade compression. In all the trials, compression garments were worn during 4 hours post run. Creatine kinase, measurements of muscle soreness, ankle strength of plantar/dorsal flexors and mean performance time were then measured. The best mean performance time was observed in the medium grade compression garments with the time difference being: medium grade compression garments vs. high reverse grade compression garments. A positive trend in increasing peak torque of plantar flexion (60º·s-1, 120º·s-1) was found in the medium grade compression garments: a difference between 24 and 48 hours post run. The highest pain tolerance shift in the gastrocnemius muscle was the medium grade compression garments, 24 hour post run, with the shift being +11.37% for the lateral head and 6.63% for the medial head. In conclusion, a beneficial trend in the promotion of running performance and decreasing muscle soreness within 24 hour post exercise was apparent in medium grade compression garments.

Putting the Squeeze on Compression Garments: Current Evidence and Recommendations for Future Research: A Systematic Scoping Review

“…Nonetheless, there were a number of studies reporting beneficial effects on jump [3,27,31,39,69,73,85,86,91,103,[117][118][119][120][121][122], time trial/race [5,17,72,[123][124][125][126], sprint [22,73,[126][127][128][129], and agility [73,130,131] performance. A similar pattern was identified with time to exhaustion/ fatigue, as compression is reported to improve [8,132] or have no effect [9,12,36,133,134] on time to fatigue.…”

Predicting Compression Pressure of Knitted Fabric Using a Modified Laplace’s Law

“…Graduated compression has been used in diverse medical applications for several years [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Compression garments are believed to assist in relieving ailments by providing evidence for their use in the sporting business [ 4 , 5 ]. However, the interface pressure applied by garments has not been accurately measured in the majority of research papers in this area [ 6 , 7 ].…”

Effects of 24 h Compression Interventions with Different Garments on Recovery Markers during Running

“…When the same participants were grouped according to their perception of the efficacy of compression stockings (being classified as believers or not), the runners with a stronger belief in the effects of compression showed improved running performance after 1 h compression compared to those with a neutral or negative perception of compression effects [ 9 ]. When 4 h compression was administrated during and after intense running, there were beneficial trends in performance and reduced muscle soreness in the following 24 h post-exercise period [ 10 ]. Soccer athletes also reported reduced perception of muscle soreness under conditions of cumulative exercise and use of compression garments [ 11 ].…”