Increased Thermoregulatory Strain When Wearing an Upper Body Compression Garment During Moderate Exercise in Trained Older Adults

Abstract

The efficacy of the use of an upper body compression garment (UBCG) as an ergogenic aid to reduce thermoregulatory strain in older adults remains unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of UBCG on thermoregulatory, cardiorespiratory, and perceptual responses during cycling in a temperate environment (~25 °C, 66% rh) in trained older adults. Twelve cyclists aged 66 ± 2 years performed an intermittent 1-hr cycling trial at 50% of the peak power output followed by 10 min of passive recovery. Participants were provided with either commercially available UBCG or a control garment in a randomized order. UBCG increased thermoregulatory strain during exercise, as indicated by a significantly higher core temperature (38.1 ± 0.3 °C vs. 37.9 ± 0.3 °C; p = .04), body temperature (36.9 ± 0.2 °C vs. 36.7 ± 0.2 °C; p = .01), and thermal sensation (8.0 ± 0.4 vs. 7.5 ± 1.0; p = .02). These results suggest that the use of UBCG in trained older adults does not reduce the thermoregulatory strain during moderate exercise.

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

“…No studies reported negative effects of compression on blood pressure, cardiac output or stroke volume. Compression literature investigating changes in mean arterial pressure [109,176,178,183] and total vascular conductance [176] has reported no effect of compression. Additionally, there is mixed evidence on the effects of compression garments on other cardiovascular measures.…”

“…Thirty-seven studies investigated cardiorespiratory outcomes related to compression garments (refer to Table S5 of the ESM). The majority of studies involved running (n = 23, 62%) [7,12,17,28,47,52,64,102,115,119,127,132,133,135,143,145,147,162,164,166,177,180,181] or cycling (n = 10, 27%) [5,22,100,109,123,165,171,178,183,185] as the primary form of exercise. However, activities relating to alpine skiing (i.e.…”

“…Additionally, there were a range of different tests that were used to induce changes in cardiorespiratory responses whilst wearing compression garments. These involved tests to exhaustion (n = 7, 19%) [12,28,132,133,135,165,181], tests that were sub-maximal (n = 15, 41%) [7,35,52,64,119,143,145,147,162,164,171,178,180,183,185], and distance or time trials (n = 9, 24%) [15,17,22,47,102,108,115,123,127]. Furthermore, six studies [5,49,100,109,166,177] used a combination of tests (e.g.…”

“…Of the 37 studies that investigated the effects of cardiorespiratory responses when wearing compression garments, 29 demonstrated non-significant or trivial responses [5,7,12,15,17,22,28,35,47,49,64,100,102,108,109,115,119,123,127,135,143,147,162,165,171,178,180,181,183], two potentially negative outcomes [166,185], while six studies [52,132,133,145,164,177] suggested positive improvements. From these six studies, it was demonstrated that improved running economy may occur at low submaximal intensities (e.g.…”

“…Nineteen studies have investigated thermoregulatory outcomes in response to the use of compression garments during, or following, exercise (Table S7 of the ESM). Exercise included running (n = 6, 32%) [40,107,115,166,180,194], cycling (n = 8, 42%) [14,106,123,171,178,[183][184][185], a half ironman (n = 1, 5%) [93] and motorised treadmill crosscountry skiing (n = 1, 5%) [36]. Additionally, two studies [39,50] completed a range of exercises (i.e.…”