The Effect of Compression Garments on Muscle Endurance in Trained Individuals.
In recent years there has been a development of public acceptance that compression garments have a relationship with muscle performance in athletes. This can be seen through the marketing of compression garments, from companies such as Nike and Adidas, as well as being seen on professional athletes. Muscular endurance can be defined as the muscle’s ability to maintain a contraction or to continue repetitive contraction over a long period of time. Increased muscular endurance is thus associated with increased athletic performance. With medium length distance runners, one could see how increased muscular endurance could benefit their performance in a competitive setting …show more content…
Based on previous findings, the authors discuss that the use of compression shorts resulted in enhanced repetitive maximal jump performance in both men and women (Kraemer et al., 1996). In the 1998 experiment, a compression garment and a controlled garment were used on one group of 10 men and one group of 10 women. All participants were considered recreationally trained. A squat movement was performed, using their own volitional pace, and subjects performed as many repetitions as they could in a continuous set at 70% 1-RM. For both subject groups, no differences were observed between the compression short and the controlled garment. The primary finding was that the use of compression shorts did not have any negative effects on the muscles in the lower body, while performing repetitive, high-intensity, force production movements. It was also indicated that compression garments had no impact on the performance of the thigh muscles, even under conditions of extreme fatigue. This suggests that compression garments have a better effect on muscle endurance during longer, aerobic endurance exercises, as shown in the results of Bringard and colleagues (2006), in comparison to resistance training exercises, such as the squats performed in the Kraemer et al. (1998) study. A possible …show more content…
It appears as though for every study that claims there is a certain advantage of wearing compression garments, there is another viable study claiming the opposite. An athlete who wants to maximize his running potential while running for longer distances might look to compression garments for an increase in theses abilities (Bringard et al., 2006). However, in tasks of resistance training, little effect may occur (Kraemer et al., 1998). It is also possible that psychological factors, such as the Placebo Effect, may increase performance (Duffield & Portus, 2007). Although the findings on compression garments are mixed in nature, one constant remains in the majority of the studies; there seems to be little to no negatives of wearing these garments, besides the issue of comfort. For this reason, there seems to be no reason why an athlete should not at least try compression garments in their bouts of exercise in an attempt to increase muscular
In recent years there has been a development of public acceptance that compression garments have a relationship with muscle performance in athletes. This can be seen through the marketing of compression garments, from companies such as Nike and Adidas, as well as being seen on professional athletes. Muscular endurance can be defined as the muscle’s ability to maintain a contraction or to continue repetitive contraction over a long period of time. Increased muscular endurance is thus associated with increased athletic performance. With medium length distance runners, one could see how increased muscular endurance could benefit their performance in a competitive setting …show more content…
Based on previous findings, the authors discuss that the use of compression shorts resulted in enhanced repetitive maximal jump performance in both men and women (Kraemer et al., 1996). In the 1998 experiment, a compression garment and a controlled garment were used on one group of 10 men and one group of 10 women. All participants were considered recreationally trained. A squat movement was performed, using their own volitional pace, and subjects performed as many repetitions as they could in a continuous set at 70% 1-RM. For both subject groups, no differences were observed between the compression short and the controlled garment. The primary finding was that the use of compression shorts did not have any negative effects on the muscles in the lower body, while performing repetitive, high-intensity, force production movements. It was also indicated that compression garments had no impact on the performance of the thigh muscles, even under conditions of extreme fatigue. This suggests that compression garments have a better effect on muscle endurance during longer, aerobic endurance exercises, as shown in the results of Bringard and colleagues (2006), in comparison to resistance training exercises, such as the squats performed in the Kraemer et al. (1998) study. A possible …show more content…
It appears as though for every study that claims there is a certain advantage of wearing compression garments, there is another viable study claiming the opposite. An athlete who wants to maximize his running potential while running for longer distances might look to compression garments for an increase in theses abilities (Bringard et al., 2006). However, in tasks of resistance training, little effect may occur (Kraemer et al., 1998). It is also possible that psychological factors, such as the Placebo Effect, may increase performance (Duffield & Portus, 2007). Although the findings on compression garments are mixed in nature, one constant remains in the majority of the studies; there seems to be little to no negatives of wearing these garments, besides the issue of comfort. For this reason, there seems to be no reason why an athlete should not at least try compression garments in their bouts of exercise in an attempt to increase muscular