WHATEVER SPORT YOU are playing, it is natural to want an edge. You’ve likely tried out the usual suspects — advanced sport-specific training methods like yoga, boxing, HITT, and calisthenics; diets like Keto and veganism; and even hi-tech recovery procedures such as cryotherapy. Often though the simplest methods are the most effective, which is why you might want to invest in a pair of athletic compression socks.
Originally designed for medicinal use, compression garments help improve blood flow for people with circulatory issues. Ultimately, athletes started using compression garments for that very same reason, and improved blood flow is advantageous to those who play sports.
So, here are 5 ways wearing compression socks can improve your performance:
Improves Endurance
A study titled ‘Is There Evidence that Runners can Benefit from Wearing Compression Clothing?’ suggests that wearing compression clothing (e.g., socks) enhances endurance — albeit slightly only — by facilitating improvements in running economy, biomechanical variables, perception, and muscle temperature. While such enhancement may not be as significant as you would like it to be, the fact that it can prolong tiredness, even for just a bit, is reason enough for you to try wearing a pair in your next race or game.
Reduces Muscle Pain, Damage, and Inflammation
The same study also suggests that wearing compression garments helps reduce muscle pain, damage, and inflammation, because compression improves blood flow. This improved circulation helps remove the lactic acid that builds up in your muscles during physical activity. Lactic acid causes soreness and decreases muscle performance.
Hastens Recovery Time
This benefit is directly related to the reduction of muscle pain, damage and inflammation. By limiting swelling, pain, and damage, compression socks and garments effectively hasten recovery from injuries or post-exercise strain.
Enhances Muscle Function
Keeping oxygenated blood flowing to your muscles is also crucial for exceptional performance, and wearing compression socks and similar garments can help in that regard. Improved blood flow means oxygen reaches your muscles in a more efficient manner, and the more oxygen your muscles have, the better they will function.
Helps Reduce Ankle Injuries
We explained in ‘How Compression Socks Can Help Reduce Inflammation and Pain?’ that wearing compression socks can help prevent ankle injuries, and any athlete would agree that this is an important benefit. Most compression socks, especially those manufactured by Lasso, provide ankle support. Our impressive compression socks, in particular, “provide reactive support, strength and stability to the ankles.” They are also made of soft fabric that is “reinforced to pad strike areas without sacrificing comfort or motion ability.”
Not convinced yet? Then consider the case of LeBron James, far and away the best basketball player on the planet and one of the world’s most handsomely paid athletes, according to Ladbrokes’s list of highest-earning sports stars. With all the money he earns, the 33-year-old superstar can pretty much afford anything that will help keep his body in tip-top shape, and that is exactly what he has been doing his entire career. Recovery, in particular, is of utmost importance to The King, whose post-game regimen, as described by Stack, is nothing short of remarkable. Integral to his routine is what the 33-year-old veteran wears after every game: a pair of snug-fitting compression tights that helps the Akron, Ohio native "recover from game to game." James, in fact, is such a believer in compression garments that he helped design his own line of compression tights. He even uses a pair of hi-tech boots that use air pressure to compress parts of his lower body to fast track his recovery even more.
If an athlete of that stature, with that much money, relies on compression gear to improve his game, then it only means one thing: Wearing compression garments has its benefits!