This guy used to be a model

Welcome to the bane of the fitness world… spandex! We have all seen people in it. I don’t care how fit you are, spandex is just not attractive. Add this to the fact that most people that DO wear it are those that definitely should not be.
 
The one that kills me is bicyclists (sorry to those of you). I have nothing against cycling but it seems that more and more people just take it to a competitive level that is not needed for a casual Sunday ride. I mean, is shaving that tenth of a second of your time down to the local grocery store and back really worth subjecting me to the sight of you in spandex? Oh yeah… and get the hell out of my car lane! That is why the city built a bicycle lane right next to it… but I digress, that is another issue.

So does wearing compression clothing at the gym, on the bicycle, at the track, the grocery store, or even target really offer you up any of sort of an advantage?

Well I found a study published in October of this year that tested exactly that. This study was conducted by the School of Human Movement Studies at Charles Sturt University in Australia. They took a look at the effects of wearing compression clothing on the effectiveness of both exercise and recovery. The mode of exercise used in the test? HIIT (Our favorite! I thought that was pretty cool).

Participants performed a 10-min exercise protocol of a 20-m sprint and 10 plyometric bounds every minute. Blood tests were conducted to measure all sorts of good stuff at intervals before exercise, after exercise, 2 hours after exercise and 24 hours after exercise.

What did they find? Well, practically nothing. The only difference at all between wearing compression garments and not was at the 24 hour mark where a barely noticeable (and I mean barely) increase in muscle recovery was detected. Interesting to note however is that after 24 hours, participants did report a small reduction in perceived muscle soreness.

The SoG’s conclusion, ditch the spandex!

What are your thoughts?.