How Wearing the Right Socks Makes Long Distance Running Easier
Long-distance running is an effective way to lose weight, strengthen the heart and lungs, improve your memory, and even help combat bad moods. But it’s also a sport that’s incredibly taxing for an athlete’s muscles.
This is where compression socks for runners can make a real difference. Consistent stress and impacts on the lower legs and heels can cause ankle sprains, heel spurs, leg swelling, and muscle fatigue which are all issues that the right compression socks can help relieve.
The Stresses Running Can Cause
Long-distance runners are at risk for stress fractures, shin splints, Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, runner’s knee, muscle and tendon strain, dehydration, and heat-related illnesses. Muscle overuse is one of the largest contributors to strain and stress injuries such as these and running, in particular, can be difficult on the joints, muscles, tendons, and bones of the legs due to the impact forces that are sent reverberating up through the leg every step of the way.
In fact, stress fractures occur when those same forces are transferred from weary muscles to the bones to create tiny cracks throughout the leg bones damaging them and making them increasingly fragile over time.
Other issues such as shin splints, Achilles tendonitis, and plantar fasciitis are rooted in the inflammation and swelling that causes pain and comes from consistent wear and tear on your muscles and tendons. Shin splints, which are more common for women, happen when the tissue that connects your calf muscles to your shin bones becomes inflamed due to the impacts and repeated use from running and jumping.
Achilles tendonitis is a condition with two types, the type that runners need to worry about is called insertional Achilles tendonitis. This is when repeated use or overextension of the tendon causes inflammation and swelling where the tendon attaches to the heel bone. Finally, plantar fasciitis is when repeated heel impacts cause inflammation in the tissue that connects the toes to the heel, called the plantar fascia.
These stress injuries can make standing, walking, and even sitting upright very painful. However, they can also be mitigated or avoided entirely by taking the right precautions. Before and after running, be sure to stretch.
Hydration is incredibly important for muscle and heart health. Wearing the right gear is evermore important for comfortable distance running. Running shoes with the right support can help absorb those harmful impact forces and add a layer of protection around the sensitive tendons and muscles in your feet and lower legs.
Finally, be sure to get a pair of compression socks for runners. Specialized compression socks can help prevent common foot and ankle injuries while providing the support that your muscles need to stay healthy and keep you moving.
What Do Compression Socks Do for Runners?
Compression socks for runners add much-needed padding and support to help stabilize the heel and ankle while promoting fluid movement. Leveraging compression therapy, these running socks are designed to align an athlete’s leg, ankle, and calf muscles during exercise to ensure more natural movement and help reduce a runner’s risk for pulled, sprained, damaged, inflamed, and torn muscles in the lower leg. They also help protect the ligaments and bones from damage by mimicking ankle taping patterns while adding arch and heel support which will protect the sensitive tissues that cause plantar fasciitis as well as Achilles tendonitis.
Running socks are also effective for injury treatment. These socks use compression therapy to activate and support the leg muscles. This improves circulation in the area while reducing some of the pain and irritation caused by extensive muscle use. In working to support your muscles and tendons while adding therapeutic pressure, runner’s socks can help your muscles get the rest they need. This speeds up recovery and reduces inflammation faster.
Much of the pain and discomfort from sports injuries come from swelling and blockages caused by the damaged tissues. The consistent and even pressure added by specialized running socks can keep the veins flowing as they should and stop fluids from building up and creating swelling. That’s why compression socks can be so useful in relieving injury symptoms and ensuring proper healing.
In addition to helping runners avoid and treat injuries and muscle fatigue, compression socks for runners can increase an athlete’s running capabilities. Supporting the ankle, these socks work to increase speed, lower strike time, and even prolong sprint endurance.
This is because running socks add stability and protection to the feet and ankles while promoting more natural movement. By keeping the muscles of the lower legs aligned throughout each movement, these socks ensure that your muscles and ligaments are working together effectively to both improve your performance and increase your muscle endurance.
Making Better Performance Possible
On top of protecting an athlete’s legs and feet from stress and injury, compression socks can help improve athletic performance altogether. By supporting the muscles of the lower legs, ankles, and feet, athletic socks promote healthy and natural movement. This improves endurance, speeds up recovery, reduces muscle pain, damage, and inflammation, enhances muscle function, and protects against common sports injuries such as ankle sprains and plantar fasciitis.
Keeping your muscles safe and protecting against inflammation is important, but compression socks can also be used to improve your overall endurance. They do this by reducing the impact and stress of running on your body. As the compression promotes circulation, it takes some of the demand for oxygenation and blood flow off of the heart.
Additionally, the built-in support works with the compression levels in the sock to keep the muscles of the legs moving smoothly. This means that they reduce the amount that the leg muscles have to work to complete each step which helps your muscles do their job without getting as tired as quickly.
Lastly, compression socks add even pressure which forces your muscles to move naturally. With everything working as it’s supposed to, your movements become smoother and more streamlined which lowers the stress of running on the body overall.
In fact, compression socks for runners have been proven to help your muscles reach their maximum potential as well as aid in avoiding fatigue and improving circulation. Circulation to the legs and feet is important for athletes because it allows your muscles to work well.
Over the calf and ankle compression socks also help keep your muscles warm by adding pressure that keeps them activated even as you slow down or rest. This same function can even help you avoid leg cramps by keeping your muscles loose and veins free of blockages.
Running Socks that Go the Distance
At Lasso, your health and fitness goals are our priority. That’s why we leverage our patented TrueCompression™ technology to add support for the ankles, arches, feet, and heels. Additionally, we designed our running compression socks to be easy to put on so that they’ll never slow you down.
Our athletic gear is specifically designed to help your body move as it was made to. Mimicking ankle tape, without any of the application difficulty, we have been able to create athletic gear that helps your muscles to work harder and more efficiently than ever before.
With Lasso socks, athletes can run, jump, and sprint with confidence and security. Get your pair today.
