In the last two decades, players’ fitness levels have skyrocketed across all sport types – cricket, football, basketball, swimming, and beyond. It is because, for performance enhancement, a lot has been invested in science.
Science is not only studied in terms of diet and workouts but also in the sportswear players choose such as choosing the right innerwear, or when a player should wear shoulder wrap.
Compression clothing is a new range of clothing in the sports industry that helps players enhance performance without investing additionally in training. So, let’s dive deeper into the importance of compression clothing.
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What Is Compression Clothing?
You must have seen athletes or sportspeople wearing skin-tight clothes beneath their shorts or their shirts. Those are compression clothing.
Many people have a misconception that skin-tight clothing are tight and revealing clothes that must be uncomfortable. It is far from the truth.
Compression clothing has a purpose. Compression clothes have a wicking property that disables too much sweat pooling and keeps the body warm. These clothes have calculated tightness to enable blood flow. Even though they look tight, they’re developed to give smooth movement to the players.
You must have observed fast bowlers in cricket wearing a shoulder wrap. A shoulder wrap helps the bowlers prevent injuries while assisting them in maintaining good blood flow, also reducing excessive sweating on the arms.
Compression clothing varies on the type of fabric, player’s size, weather, and several other factors. The clothing became popular due to its excellent quality of improving recovery and augmenting the performance of athletes.
How Does Compression Clothing Work?
Compression clothing works on providing pressure to the body, which maintains a steady blood flow. A shoulder wrap is the most common clothing seen to be used by cricketers, hockey players, badminton players, and more.
The proper compression clothing helps increase oxygens levels on the working muscles and reduce blood lactate levels, resulting in better, more effortless performance levels. The clothing is said to improve the delivery of blood and nutrients to the muscles.
Benefits of Compression Clothing
There are various benefits experienced by players who wear compression clothing. However, the results are not scientifically confirmed. The professionals who have experienced benefits do use them.
Following are the benefits.
Better Performance
Various speculative studies have shown that compression wear increases players’ performance compared to their regular performance.
The players experience the following:
- Better oxygen levels in the working muscle
- Lesser exhaustion over time
- Agile and smooth movements on the field
Enhanced Recovery
Training implies that your muscles fatigue after a certain period. However, professional players require faster recovery so they can show up on the field again. Compression wear reduces blood lactate levels, which ensures more rapid healing of the muscles at work.
Protection From Injuries
Professional athletes perform explosive and heavy workouts, which is bound to cause injuries. Issues like a tennis elbow or a golfer’s elbow are common. In such cases, a shoulder wrap with the full sleeve appearing beneath a player’s t-shirt is an excellent way to prevent injuries.
Better Comfort
Players depend on the comfort of the sportswear to excel in their movements on the field. Even though compression clothing looks extra tight and uncomfortable externally, they’re built to offer extra mobility and comfort to the players.
Wrapping Up
You must try compression clothing like shoulder wrap, compression socks, compression legging, or compression shorts if you’re an athlete. Even though the science behind it is inconclusive, it’s worth a try because they have zero side-effects or downsides.
You’re all set!