Compression wear

[Edoardo Roberto Cagnola]

What's GB take on compression wear (sleeves, pants/ calves mainly).

A couple of weeks ago I was doing a little hike and I met this guy that was doing a competition (Tour Mont Blanc, just in case you happen to know what that is) and, as a lot of the other guys involved, he was using compression socks. He told me that they really make a difference as far as fatigue goes (which isn't surprising) but also he uses them to recover. So he will put them on the night after a long hike to help reduce soreness, and they seem to work great! I don't really see an application in the GB training itself, but still I would like to hear what you all think about it

[Ryan Libke]

I first heard about compression wear when reading Kelly Starrett's book, Ready to Run.  He did not argue that compression socks were necessarily helpful while running, but did endorse them for recovery.  Out of curiosity, I purchased some compression socks, and can state only that it felt comforting to wear them after runs.  It seemed to help with recovery, but I really could not say for sure.  I have no reliable means of quantifying or qualifying the difference.

 

I would be less convinced that compression wear would be helpful to recover from strength training as compared to a prolonged activity like running, or even sprinting.  I have not really considered compression wear as a means of recovering from GST workouts, but I really don't know.  I also note that there are circulatory difference between the feet and lower legs, as compared to the arms and trunk, so I wonder if that would not also make a difference in the ability of the compression wear to help with recovery.  

[Douglas Wadle]

There is good data for compression improving recovery.  Fairly low level improvement from just compression socks, though.  the good data uses very expensive sequential compression devices that provide a fairly robust improvement in recovery.  this is what all the tour de france riders put on after their race days.  There is no data to my knowledge supporting its use during running.  it seems to be a personal preference thing.  among the top level runners, only a small proportion, perhaps 10-15%, wear them during competition. Certainly if you have trouble with varicose veins or other forms of venous insufficiency, and your legs/feet tend to swell during long runs, I would highly recommend them.  This is really their primary use.