Scientific Explanation for Compression Clothing

Compression clothing can be a lot of marketing buzz. The only studies I have seen with demonstrable physiological benefits have been with compression socks/calf sleeves and arm sleeves. These products have been used in clinical settings for years to treat lymphdema, complications from diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, etc. They work by creating a pressure of gradient of higher pressure at the extremity and gradually decreasing the pressure created closer to the body.

With compression tights, shirts, etc, it is nearly impossible to create a true pressure gradient. Particularly with the shirts - they just squeeze the abdomen. The look cool - like you are in the future, but I do not think you will get much of a benefit from the tights and shirts.

Stick to the socks and calf sleeves for post-workout recovery.

let me know if you need more info or recommendations.

Here it is:

advertizing + rich yuppie runners willing to believe anything= HUGE profits

So at the risk of asking a monumentally dumb question, how does this compression know which way to push the blood?

Imagine you've got a plastic hose with some water in it. If you wrap it with some tight rubber, it's not going to help that water get thru the hose. If done just so it might push the water a little as you put it on, but nothing after that.

towhee wrote:

So at the risk of asking a monumentally dumb question, how does this compression know which way to push the blood?

Imagine you've got a plastic hose with some water in it. If you wrap it with some tight rubber, it's not going to help that water get thru the hose. If done just so it might push the water a little as you put it on, but nothing after that.

Blood already flows a certain way, you're not going to reverse that direction with a little pressure.

To keep with your analogy, imagine having a hose that is "on", with water flowing through it. Now imagine that a section of the hose was substituted for a piece of hose with a smaller diameter. Water will flow through that section of hose much quicker, without needing to increase the overall flow rate. If the water were delivering nutrients to the hose (like blood does to muscles), the narrow section would be receiving them at a quicker rate.

I always wonder if the Kenyans worry about this stuff. Or, do they just run a lot of miles?

Also, most veins have valves that prevent backflow.

Here you go: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18523736

Also:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9405013

CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that lightweight compression stockings can have a significant effect on venous haemodynamics. They decrease the residual volume fraction and by inference ambulatory venous pressure. This is the result of an increase in the ejection fraction with a decrease of reflux. The results offer a possible physiological explanation on the relief of symptoms experienced when patients with varicose veins wear lightweight stockings.

Kenyans would love to use this tech, but no one makes them in that small of diameter.

runn wrote:

I always wonder if the Kenyans worry about this stuff. Or, do they just run a lot of miles?

what is the supposed benefit DURING runs?

runn wrote:

I always wonder if the Kenyans worry about this stuff. Or, do they just run a lot of miles?

False dichotomy police! Just because they don't worry about it doesn't mean it wouldn't help them run even faster. Think of the potential progression of running as a giant jar of change spilled on the floor. That un-picked up change is the stuff that we either don't know or aren't doing. The Kenyans are richer than us now and clearly, Americans need most to worry about picking up the quarters, be it through accumulation of higher mileage or whatever else, but to the extent that it doesn't impact our ability to do so, picking up the pennies is also beneficial. Less marginally beneficial for sure, but as running knowledge/ability accumulates, it will get increasingly more important because running's future is one of increasingly smaller edges. Right now we make jokes about compression socks or criticize Al Sal for tinkering with people's form and none of these modifications are individually going to make the difference, but they all add up. The more we learn about optimal training methods, the bigger a role things like compression socks and tiny form improvements will play.