HARDER, STRONGER, FASTER
CAN COMPRESSION WEAR SPEED UP RECOVERY TO HELP YOU TRAIN MORE EFFECTIVELY NEXT TIME AROUND? WE LOOK AT THE SCIENCE TO FIND OUT…
Want to train hard, recover faster, maximise gains and take your triathlon to the next level? Of course you do. Well, you’ll be pleased to know you can, as this performance enhancement comes in an affordable, proven package – compression wear.
Scientifically-supported compression wear, from the likes of world-leaders 2XU, deliver myriad physiological benefits to make you a stronger, faster triathlete. These include reducing muscle damage and flushing out fatigue, whether that’s with shorts, tights or arm guards.
PROTECT AND PERFORM
How does it achieve this refresh and repair nirvana? Let’s start with reducing muscle damage. If you watch a slow-motion video of a triathlete running in 2XU compression wear compared to solely shorts or tri-suit, you’ll notice a stark difference. Without, you’ll see the muscles moving around a lot. With compression, the muscles are better aligned. And if alignment’s better, muscle efficiency is better, which means less muscle tear and less muscle damage.
When it comes to flushing out fatigue, that’s down to accelerating the clear-out of toxins from training hard and accelerating the flow of freshly oxygenated blood. 2XU’s compression wear achieves this through what’s termed ‘graduated pressure’. By applying greater pressure at the ankles than the calves, for example, femoral bloodflow’s increased, pumping the blood faster to the heart for improved recovery.
RECOVERY AND MCS
2XU delivers a range of compression wear to improve your performance but broadly this is split into ‘Recovery’ and ‘MCS’. The
Recovery range is 2XU’s extra-firm range of compression and features socks, tights, arm sleeves and leg sleeves. All of these items can be worn beneath your casual or office attire so you can recover faster and better while getting on with your normal day.
The MCS range stands for Muscle Containment Stamping and is designed to be worn during intensive exercise, like fartlek and hill sessions. This range includes shorts, calf guards, tights and arm guards, and features a host of innovations to maximise your performance, including:
MCS is a revolutionary fabric support system that traces over key muscle, tendon
and fascia groups to support major muscles against fatigue and strain.
Lightweight PWX fabric with circular knit 360° stretch reduces muscle movement and damage while compression boosts bloodflow to muscles.
Durable, moisture-wicking yarns cope with the hardest of training blocks while keeping the skin cool and dry.
This material technology is why 2XU is the compression manufacturer of choice for the world’s best triathletes, including Sarah Crowley and Aaron Royle, while the legend that is Gwen Jorgensen, 2016 Olympic triathlon gold medallist, continues to wear it in her running career. But this gear isn’t the sole preserve of the elites. Thousands of age-group athletes enjoy the benefits of 2XU compression wear, helping them to maximise each and every training session between work, family and day-to-day life.
APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE
It’s high-tech stuff and, like many sporting technological advancements, has its roots in a clinical setting as, since the mid-20th century, doctors have used compression garments to treat patients who were recovering from deep vein thrombosis. Then, in a 1987 study in the American Journal of Physical Medicine, doctors Michael Berry and Robert McMurray revealed that athletes wearing compression stockings recovered faster than athletes not wearing them. The seeds were sown but only now, thanks to the likes of 2XU, has compression wear become a staple of triathletes looking to enjoy easy gains.
‘This is all well and good, but where’s the supporting evidence,’ we hear you ask? Well, numerous studies have shown that compression wear is much more than just marketing spin. Take research by arguably the world’s leading expert in the field of recovery, Shona Halson, and professor Matthew Diller, who examined this field in their paper, The effects of lower-body compression garments on recovery between exercise bouts in highly trained cyclists.
Halson and Diller had 10 cyclists, whose average VO2 max came in at 66.6ml/kg/min, perform two 30-minute efforts on a cycling ergometer – 15 minutes at a fixed power output, 15 minutes at time-trial pace – separated by a 60-minute passive recovery period where either lower-body compression garments or loose-fitting shorts were worn. The two tests were three days apart. The results? After wearing compression wear for recovery, the subjects could generate an average 2.15% greater power output than after ‘recovering’ in those loose shorts.
With the 2022 tri season reaching its finale, now is the perfect time to reflect and plan for a faster, stronger and more enjoyable 2023. And for all levels of multisporter, that could involve recovering stronger with 2XU’s range of compression wear.
"I really like 2XU's compression socks after hard runs. And during the UK winter I live in their compression tights" – Aaron Royle Commonwealth Games medallist and Olympian