Running Performance While Wearing a Heat Dissipating Compression Garment in Male Recreational Runners

Abstract

Leoz-Abaurrea, I, Santos-Concejero, J, Grobler, L, Engelbrecht, L, and Aguado-Jiménez, R. Running performance while wearing a heat dissipating compression garment in male recreational runners. J Strength Cond Res 30(12): 3367-3372, 2016-The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a heat dissipating compression garment (CG) during a running performance test. Ten male recreational runners (mean ± SD: age 23 ± 3 years; V[Combining Dot Above]O2max 55.8 ± 4.8 ml·kg·min) completed 2 identical sessions wearing either CG or conventional t-shirt (CON). Each trial included a 45-minute run at 60% of the peak treadmill speed (PTS) followed by a time to exhaustion (TTE) run at 80% of the PTS and a 10-minute recovery period. During the tests, thermoregulatory and cardiovascular responses were monitored. Participants wearing the CG displayed an impaired running performance (508 ± 281 vs. 580 ± 314 seconds, p = 0.046; effect size [ES] = 0.24). In addition, a higher respiratory exchange ratio (1.06 ± 0.04 vs. 1.02 ± 0.07, p = 0.01; ES = 0.70) was observed at TTE when wearing the CG in comparison to CON. Changes in core temperature did not differ between garments after the 45-minute run (p = 0.96; ES = 0.03) or TTE (1.97 ± 0.32 vs. 1.98 ± 0.38° C; p = 0.93; ES = 0.02) for CG and CON, respectively. During recovery, significantly higher heart rate and blood lactate values were observed when wearing CG (p ≤ 0.05). These findings suggest that the use of a heat dissipating CG may not improve running performance in male recreational runners during a running performance test to exhaustion.

Influence of compression sportswear on recovery and performance: A systematic review

“…The only beneficial effect found was a decrease in blood lactate concentration in the study by Sperlich et al [29]. There were no changes in the perception of comfort [28] or fatigue [29] when comparing the experimental group with the control group. No significant improvements were found in the performance parameters.…”

“…No significant improvements were found in the performance parameters. Indeed, while the distance covered in the incremental kayaking test was similar both with and without the compression garment [30], the time to exhaustion was actually significantly reduced in the group wearing compression shirts compared to the control group [28].…”

“…For compression shirts, three protocols involved endurance tests: 45 min of treadmill running [28], series of 3 min skiing [29], and an incremental kayaking test [30]. No significant improvements were found in body temperature or weight [28], heart rate [28,30], blood lactate concentration [28,30], muscle strength [28,29], blood flow [29], or oxygen consumption [29,31]. The only beneficial effect found was a decrease in blood lactate concentration in the study by Sperlich et al [29].…”

“…In this context, MacRae et al [27], Sperlich et al [29], Venckunas et al [36], and Born et al [41] using a compression full-body suit, shirt, tights, and stockings, respectively, obtained results indicating no change in any of the aforementioned parameters. Indeed, no study analysed found any significant improvement in the heart rate [28,30,36,41,[46][47][48]51]. Exceptionally, there was one study which found improved muscle oxygenation [52], although this result seems to have been influenced by the repetitive exercise of the protocol.…”

“…When compression garments were applied in the recovery phase, only detrimental effects were found in lactate accumulation [15,20,22,23,33]. But when they were applied during exercise, both beneficial [29,42,48] and detrimental effects [13,28,30,31,51] were recorded. The variability of the data therefore does not allow any clear conclusion to be drawn on which compression garment is most suitable for reducing the blood lactate concentration, but the data do point to an improvement in endurance.…”