Jack Is Trying.com

Since increasing my mileage with running I have found it more important to try and maximise my recovery between sessions. The main two components of this being sleep and diet. Sleep is the time where the body gets to rest and recover from the challenges of the day. The fuel we give are body to repair and build during this rest period is critical to ensure that it can do this in an effective manner. Having improved my sleep hygiene and improving my diet to a maintainable 80:20 split of nutrient dense to dopamine dense choices both of these areas are in a good place. Outside of this there are a range of other options to try squeeze that extra few percent from recovery. One area of interest for me has been compression clothing.

Whilst we are all probably familiar with the lycra-clad cyclist is there any real benefit to this not so flattering attire. My investigation of the subject led me to an article by Cath Somerville for Victoria University. The research carried out a study on subjects who used compression compared to those who did not, but with the added caveat of splitting the groups by if they believed in the benefit of compression in recovery or not. This aimed to remove any bias of a placebo effect that could skew the results. Shane O’Riordan’s study found that ‘wearing compression for at least four hours after exercise is enough to see a recovery benefit, and it is not due to the placebo effect’. Although the scientific reason for this is not fully understood there is potentially a benefit to be found in compression clothing.

This led me to trial two different compression products:
Compression legging – similar to yoga pants or neoprene tights, these compress the whole leg and are reported to give the best results from a recovery point of view.
Compression socks- these are like the socks you can buy in the airport for long-haul flights, they compress the feet and up the calf to just below the knee.

Over the next 4 weeks I am planning to test the effectiveness of these items by wearing the compression leggings for at least 4 hours following any training of the lower half of the body, and by sleeping in the compressions socks each nigh. Following the 4 week trial I will report the findings and if I have felt a significant improvement in recovery.