You may have seen your favourite footballer players or elite athletes wearing them…  The question is do we really need to spend up to $300.00 on the latest compression garments or Skins to wear during exercise?

The knowledge of compression therapy is growing popular with the widespread use of compression sportswear within our elite athlete circles. 

The use of compression garments originated in the medical field and was limited to patient use only. They were designed to help post-operative patients carry out their daily routines, reduce swelling and promote leg health.

The sporting world caught on to the idea of using compression garments to aid faster healing and promote blood circulation.  Therefore, the same principles were applied to clothing for athletes to help improve their performance as well as recovery. 

Over time, there have been some significant additions to the purpose of these types of garments.  This includes: the reduction of drag, created from wearing loose fitting clothing as well as reducing muscle movement and vibration.  The experiments brought positive results and the researchers came to the conclusion that by using compression clothing, the athletes can maintain their power output during their efforts in sport as well as reduce their recovery time.

The reasons that elite athletes would wear compression tights, for example, leggings during training sessions are numerous:

1. To improve repeated jumping performance.

2. Maintaining body temperature.

3. Reducing the build up of creatine kinase (an indicator of muscle tissue damage)

4. Resist fatigue

The reasons that the same athlete would wear them after a session are:

1. To reduce the amount of muscle soreness during the recovery phase.

2. To speed up the actual recovery time.

All this is good if you are an elite athlete.  You also have to remember that whilst we all want to be the best that we can be, most elite athletes are pushing their bodies to the extreme and wanting to get back on the field in record time.

Compression clothing comes in all shapes, sizes, styles and brands, and at around $120 to $300 for a pair of leggings alone they are certainly not cheap!

So think about if you are buying them to emulate your sporting hero or the practical reasons listed above.