Abstract
Compression garments are widely used in a variety of different fitness and sports settings to improve physical performance, mitigate fatigue responses, and enhance recovery. PURPOSE: This research study was designed to determine the potential effects of calibrated lower-body compression tights on recovery following an acute bout of exhaustive exercise. METHODS: Ten college-aged participants (6 males and 4 females) who were deemed physically active according to the criteria provided by the American College of Sports Medicine participated in this research. After providing informed consent, each participant completed a PAR-Q and an ACSM-AHA health questionnaire. Each participant's physical data was collected and included height, weight, body composition. Participants were placed in an experimental group in a counterbalanced method to ensure equal group size and distribution of participates by sex. The groups were designated as either the lower body compression tights group (CG, n = 5, 3 males and 2 females) or the loose clothing group (CON, n = 5, 3 males and 2 females). Data was collected in pre-posttest design before a fatiguing bout of acute exercise and again following 24-hours of recovery wearing either compression tights or loose-fitting clothing. The participants completed a familiarization trial and returned for the first data collection trial following a 24-hour recovery period. A 10-minute dynamic warm-up was performed before each trial. After the dynamic warm-up participants performed a vertical jump test, a broad jump test, agility T-test, and a 40-yd sprint. Participants were then given a 2-minute recovery prior to participating in the fatiguing bout of exercise which included a 20-meter Beep Test. Following another 2-minute recovery participants repeated sets of 5 consecutive squat jumps followed by a 30-meter sprint until volitional fatigue. Participants then wore the garment designated by the group for the next 24 hours. After this recovery period the participants reported to the lab for follow-up testing. Percent change was calculated for pre-to-post scores on all tests and multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used for statistical analysis between the groups with significance set at p £ 0.05. RESULTS: The MANOVA did not indicate any statistically significant differences between the groups (p = 0.704). CONCLUSION: Although not statistically significant, between groups data indicated less decrement in performance for the CG group for vertical jump, horizontal jump, agility T-test, and 40-yd sprint. The primary limitation of this research is the small sample size.
Recommended Citation
Neff, Daniel; Whitehead, Malcolm T.; and Drew, Richard
(2025)
"Effect of Lower Body Compression Tights on Recovery from an acute bout of Exhaustive Exercise,"
International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings: Vol. 2:
Iss.
17, Article 156.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol2/iss17/156