Effects of Compression Garments on Oxygen Consumption and Heart Rate

Abstract

For my thesis, I will be examining the influence full-leg compression garments have on oxygen consumption and heart rate. It is speculated that compression garments assist with blood flow velocity as well as increasing oxygen delivery to the muscles. It is well known that compression garments aid in recovery and are widely used in the diabetic community to reduce pooling in the lower limbs. What has not been well explored are the benefits to performance during running. Studies show that compression garments reduce muscle oscillation, as well as soft tissue movement (Bringard et al. 2006; Doan et al. 2003). It has been theorized this reduction creates lower stress at the joints and a reduction in injury risk. It is reasonable to question that if compression garments reduce muscle oscillation, then muscle activation time will also be reduced because the muscles will not have to work as hard to counteract the additional oscillating stress at impact. If muscles are not active for as long, then the muscles will not need to produce as much energy or use as much oxygen. With an increase in blood flow and reduction in muscle activation, the heart will not have to work as hard to circulate oxygen and similar effects may occur for heart rate. However, very few studies have examined full-leg compression garments while performing a submaximal endurance run. Therefore, we are testing subjects in full-leg compression garments while performing a 40-minute submaximal effort run to determine the effect on oxygen consumption and heart rate. From a runner's perspective I am intrigued with this topic because I am always looking for new ways to enhance my performance during competition and compression garments could be that next step. By gathering results from this research, it could potentially give us more information on enhancing running performance. In the future we could expand on this research by looking at more variables such as maximal oxygen uptake or examining the effects for longer endurance runs like marathons.