Nike undergear on sale

[Mau]

This might be the most comprehensive post on compression gear on the Internet.

Not exactly.

The compression may impede blood flow to the muscle but the benefits of helping evacuate blood from the muscle are still a net gain. The continuous exertion of a rider with a 'death grip' on the bars or the repeated flexing of the right forearm from a rider who is hard on the brakes often (think TMP, a track with several hard braking zones) will cause the forearm muscles to swell. All of our muscles are encased in inelastic sacs. If the muscle continues to swell it can expand to fill this muscle sac. At this point the swollen muscle itself is what is restricting blood flow. Now your heart is unable to pump as much blood into the muscle to flush it out and you get arm pump.

Proper fitting compression gear acts to prevent this. Blood is supplied to the muscle tissue deeper below the skin, the effects of the compression gear are less pronounced the deeper you go so the effects of external compression while flexing are relatively limited. Once the muscle is relaxed the external compression helps push blood from the tiny capillaries closer to the surface of the skin into the larger faster flowing blood vessels. Given that the time between braking zones is relatively constant, if you can evacuate lactic acid and blood from the muscle faster it is less likely that your muscle will swell to the extent that it fills the muscle sac and restricts blood flow.

Does that help?

[john bickle]

Short story; helps reduce lactic acid buildup and 'pump.'

Long story: http://www.active.com/triathlon/Arti...on-Clothes.htm

Thanks Rob,,kind of what I was looking for ,here's a quote,
"Manufacturers claim that wearing compression stockings can optimize blood flow, reduce leg fatigue, reduce muscle soreness, prevent injury, help remove metabolic byproducts, dampen muscle vibration, and thereby increase endurance and improve running performance.
More research needs to be conducted to substantiate or refute these claims and determine whether it is worthwhile to use these garments before, during and after exercise. For now, all we can do is rely on reports from athletes wearing them in the running and triathlon communities."

[caboose483]

Would like to see a medical study proving that "compression" garmets work and would not impeed blood flow. Anybody point me in that direction?

My confusion stems from the fact that ,,okay,,like a bike,, no air in no exhaust out. So the muscle needs blood which has fuel,oxygen and carries the waste bi products of muscle exhertion,lactic acid away.
Forearm pump is basicaly from lack of physical conditioning,,,or reaching the end of your conditioning. There is no way any form of elastic will fix your forearm. The muscle is retricted from expelling blood from the death grip you mention. The only thing that can fix that is relaxing the grip and conditioning.
Lactic acid is only in the blood vessels of the muscle, it is a bi product of muscle exhertion. So the capilliaries near the surface would not have lactic acid. Muscle stiffness is a result of lactic acid build up. Post sports stretching and cool down is primarily the way to get rid of lactic acid.

Oh so you were just asking a question you already knew the answer to. I don't like it when people do that.

That's not exactly what arm pump is. Look up Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome. The sacs I'm referring to are fascial compartments.

Veins operate at a lower pressure and have thinner walls than arteries do. When the muscle swells to fill the fascial compartment the veins constrict or collapse long before the arteries do. At the onset of arm pump conditions there is little or no restriction on blood flow TO the muscle but blood flow FROM the muscle can be greatly impeded, this only compounds the problems of arm pump. For the same reason this is why external compression has less of an effect on incoming blood than it does on outgoing blood.

Edit - More info.

Maybe I can explain the theory behind compression gear a bit better. Sometimes I'm not the best at organizing my thoughts.

First off, external compression only helps to prevent or delay arm pump. If a rider is already experiencing arm pump conditions then it's too late. The compression gear won't do much to help that.

Now, i don't know the exact pressure numbers so don't focus on that but for the purposes of illustrating the theory it doesn't really matter. There are three pressure levels that are of interest when looking at this.
1) Blood pressure - blood is supplied to the muscle tissue at whatever pressure the heart and arteries are able to provide. Roughly 2.5psi. This is only the pressure in your arterial system. Once the blood enters the muscle tissue there is a pressure drop.
2) Vein collaps pressure - if the muscle does swell to fill the fascial compartment there will be a big pressure rise within the compartment. if the pressure rises above a certain level veins start to constrict and/or collapse which restricts blood flow out of the muscle. Roughly 2psi
3) External compression - this is the pressure that comes from whatever fancy compression garment you're wearing. Roughly 1/2psi.

As the muscle is flexed and released it swells. If the frequency of flexing is high enough then your natural blood flow will not be able to flush fast enough and there will be a lactic acid build up and the muscle will continue to swell. If the muscle does swell enough it will eventually fill the fascial compartment. Due to the inelastic nature of the fascial compartment there is a very quick and significant pressure rise within if the muscle does swell to fill it. If the pressure inside the fascial compartment rises above 2psi the smaller veins start to constrict or collapse, restricting blood flow from the muscle tissue. At this point tho blood pressure is still higher than the pressure inside the fascial compartment so as the rider continues to flex (or try to) the forearm muscle more blood will be pumped into the muscle resulting in an even higher interal pressure resulting in even more vein constriction thus exacerbating the problem. If this continues the pressure inside the fascial compartment will continue to rise until the heart is unable to pump fresh blood into it. With no oxygenated blood supplied to the muscle it is unable to do any work. This might sound familiar to some of you, that feeling when your hands are numb, stuck in 'the claw', and you have zero grip strength but your forearms are rock hard. The only way to alleviate the problem now is to rest and let the blood slowly drain.

Now consider compression gear. Normally depleated blood is flushed from the muscle tissue by the inflow of new fresh blood. Once the fresh blood leaves the arterial system and enters the muscle tissue the pressure is relatively low so there's not a lot of pressure pushing the depleated blood from the muscle tissue. If external compression is applied such that the resulting internal pressure does not result in vein constriction or collapse then it will increase the rate of blood flow from the muscle. If depleated blood can be evacuated from the muscle tissue faster then it's less likely that a rider will get lactic acid buildup and muscle swelling that results in arm pump. Yes, the external compression would act against the heart supplying blood to the muscle but the gains still out weigh this.

That's my current understanding of the theory.

Of course this is just a tool. It's not a magic blue pill that will eliminate muscle fatigue and arm pump, all it does is help prevent it. Even while wearing it I do sometimes have to remind myself to keep a soft grip on the bike. If a rider wears compression gear but still maintains a death grip on the bars they will still get arm pump.. the onset will just be later. Maybe it's just in my head (i doubt it) but I do notice a difference even between the cheapo UA compression gear and my VnM.

[john bickle]

Oh so you were just asking a question you already knew the answer to. I don't like it when people do that.

.

No,, I was asking a question! I was looking for another reason other then the lactic acid theory. Personally I know enough medicine to get myself in trouble. So I was "assuming" maybe,, somebody here had some medical data that would prove the lactic acid theory worked. Regardless of my background I still wish to broaden my viewpoint. SO NO I do not allready know the answer. But was giving reasons why I thought it might not work,,,as you have given your reasons why you think it does work. I would say there are some valuable points on both sides. Rob has forewarded a link which confirms that there is no medical proof it does or does not work to date of the article. So it now boils down to "we agree to disagree" until someone can prove one of us right or wrong.

[caboose483]

No,, I was asking a question! I was looking for another reason other then the lactic acid theory. Personally I know enough medicine to get myself in trouble. So I was "assuming" maybe,, somebody here had some medical data that would prove the lactic acid theory worked. Regardless of my background I still wish to broaden my viewpoint. SO NO I do not allready know the answer. But was giving reasons why I thought it might not work,,,as you have given your reasons why you think it does work. I would say there are some valuable points on both sides. Rob has forewarded a link which confirms that there is no medical proof it does or does not work to date of the article. So it now boils down to "we agree to disagree" until someone can prove one of us right or wrong.

Ah ok. I apologize for my incorrect inference.

If you google it you can find lots of information about arm pump and compression gear. There's a lot of published articles in dirty bike mags but I wasn't able to find much in the way of published medical journals.

[Wingboy]

Great reading.Thanks guys.But i wear it so that i can wriggle in and (more importantly) out of my leathers by myself.

[Rob MacLennan]

No,, I was asking a question! I was looking for another reason other then the lactic acid theory. Personally I know enough medicine to get myself in trouble. So I was "assuming" maybe,, somebody here had some medical data that would prove the lactic acid theory worked. Regardless of my background I still wish to broaden my viewpoint. SO NO I do not allready know the answer. But was giving reasons why I thought it might not work,,,as you have given your reasons why you think it does work. I would say there are some valuable points on both sides. Rob has forewarded a link which confirms that there is no medical proof it does or does not work to date of the article. So it now boils down to "we agree to disagree" until someone can prove one of us right or wrong.

I wouldn't say no medical proof, but there certainly isn't a wealth of it and there needs to be a real study or ten done. I wonder if I could drop a word or two in the ears of someone in our Research and Innovation Department? Probably better if someone at a school that has a medical programme did it though.

Most of the supportive documentation comes from anecdotal accounts, from people who use it. It might be wishful thinking. It might be the result of sponsorship pressure. Either way I use and like the stuff. I'm not doing track days, these days, so the primary benefits are from the ease of getting in and out of gear, and the wicking properties.

[john bickle]

Personally I don"t like the compression fit products,but maybe it wasn"t the right size and was too tight. But I do like the products that have a high content of Coolmax. I will use PUG and UA's basic products as my experience. But the one of those that has the highest content of Coolmax works really well on really hot days. Regardless, they all help getting n and out of leathers.
I asked a question about the Coolmax and do any compression products have it?

A lot of the compression medical documnets I have found are realated to therapy and not related to sports.
I can state that with sports if the product makes you feel better,then psychological benefits would mask or tant any real data. So if some one wears something and really likes it real time data will be hard to tabulate. So regrdless the end result would be beneficial,, in most cases.

[Rob MacLennan]

"Buyer's Remorse Placebo Effect"

[reciprocity]

I wear it because it makes me look sexy!

[Rob MacLennan]

I wear it because it makes me look sexy!

........


I got nothin'

[reciprocity]

........


I got nothin'

Speechlessness is often a problem!

[john bickle]

I wear it because it makes me look sexy!

same,,,nothing

[john bickle]

The visual is just painfull! Geez,,,how does one get that out of your head?

[caboose483]

The visual is just painfull! Geez,,,how does one get that out of your head?

Whiskey.. and lots of it.

[sonnythebull]

I wear it because it makes me look sexy!

So it covers your face too?

[Wingboy]

Just remember this comes from a guy that changes tires with his teeth,but can't change the oil in his car!

[sircastic]

So it covers your face too?

Applause

[Yamaha_Gurl]

So it covers your face too?

Well done...well done.

[reciprocity]