1. Introduction
The compression garments are massively present on every sport like running, trail, triathlon or team sports. They contribute on plenty profits to athletes during exercise. But the compression products don’t affect directly the performance (Kerhervé et al. Citation2017). The performances’ improvement is obtained with a better recovery after an exercise (Allaert Citation2017), by delaying the muscle fatigue (Hintzy et al. Citation2017), or in injuries’ prevention (Kim et al. 2017). Doan et al (Citation2003) observed a significant reduction of muscle oscillations with compressive clothing on calf or thigh against non-compressive garments. These muscle oscillations, also called vibrations, lead to a stress bringing to a lot of musculoskeletal injuries like periostitis or tibial stress fracture.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the contribution of a new mesh concept on a compressive sleeve on the vibrations during a Squat Jump exercise. The new calf sleeve’s objective is to limit the shock wave’s propagation during the ground impact thanks to an alternating meshes (rigid/semi-rigid/flexible) and ultra-flexible meshes, called breakthrough mesh, placed throughout of the sleeve.
2. Methods
A crossover control and randomized study was realized on 13 fitness sportsmen (5 womens and 8 mens, 10 hours of sport on average per week). Participants had to perform 3 maximal barefoot Squat Jump (SJ) in 4 conditions: No compression (NC), with a heddle compression sleeve (HC), with a selective compression sleeve (SC), and with a selective compression sleeve with a breakthrough mesh (SCB). A 15 seconds recovery was placed between each jump. 2 Triaxial accelerometers AX3 (Axivity®, UK) were used to collect acceleration data (sampling frequency: 200 Hz). Triaxial accelerometers were placed on the gastrocnemius center (GA) and the tibialis anterior (TA). The placement was defined by the special features of the compression sleeve. This analysis consisted to calculate the resultant of the 3 accelerations data (x, y, z) and to calculate the standard deviation around the maximum peak of acceleration during 0,25 seconds for each jump in accordance with Romain et al. (Citation2017). For each participant, the mean of the previous data for the 3 SJ is calculated to obtain a value of vibrations.
A statistical analysis was realized with an ANOVA Repeated Measures to evaluate the effects of the meshes on the vibrations and a Scheffé post-hoc test to compare the different conditions of sleeves.
3. Results and discussion
The statistical results show the vibrations values of SCB against the other conditions.
The present study is the first to investigate the effects of mesh on a compression calf sleeve during exercise. The results show that there is a significant mesh effect (p < 0.001) and a position effect (p < 0.005) on the intensity of vibratory constraints during exercise. But there is no combined effect (p = 0.2). This means that the meshes of a calf sleeve will have an impact on vibration reduction. These results are consistent with Doan et al. (Citation2003) and especially Lussiana et al (2014). The authors want to verify the effects of the heddle compression sleeve on the muscular oscillations in walking and to determine a dose-effect response. The authors found that the muscular oscillations decrease with compression sleeves and they are more important with a high compression (30 mmHg) than a low compression (15 mmHg). Also, it can be observed that the muscular position has an importance on the vibrations. It makes sense for the position effect because the GA have a greater muscular mass than TA, so the vibrations are lower for TA.
The compression has an important role to play in reducing vibrations in SJ. First, with the pressure exert that will help muscle support, specifically with muscle oscillations which are responsible for several pathologies. And then with the knitting technique which has an effect on the surface path of the shock wave. More a calf sleeve will have a specific alternation of mesh stiffness, ultra-flexible and rigid, more it will reduce vibrations during an exercise.
This can be seen with the results showing that the SCB reduces the vibrations on the GA (16%, p < 0.001) and on the TA (17%, p < 0.001) during the ground impacts against NC. These results are consistent with Romain et al. (Citation2017) on a short with selective compression with the same protocol. These results show a significantly vibrations’ reduction with a selective compression short in comparison to a classic compressive short. The authors indicate that the selective compression allows to limit the shock wave’s propagation during the ground impact thanks to an alternating meshes (rigid/semi-rigid/flexible). To explain this difference, Abercromby et al. (Citation2007) are interesting about the journey of the vibratory wave. They found that a low knee flexion angle (26–30°) allows to reduce significantly the head accelerations. This reduction of the vibratory wave was observed by the non-linearity of its itinerary in accordance with Romain et al. (Citation2017) on a selective compression short. A calf sleeve with different levels of compression on different parts goes in this direction. On the surface, the vibratory wave meets a non-linearity thanks to the alternation of meshes specifically with the ultra-flexible mesh. This can be compared to a wave that will encounter a dike, the wave is disturbed and reduced in intensity.
Anatomically, Dubuis (2001) observed the pressure field transmitted by the elastic compression on soft tissue of the leg with 3 D tomographic images. These images show that the intensity of maximal pressure received by the soft tissues of the leg was inversely proportional to the thickness of the adipose tissue. That shows the SC uses its properties to limit the muscles movements during ground impacts of an exercise and to have a better recovery after an exercise (Allaert, Citation2017). This suggests the addition of an ultra-flexible meshes on a SC allows to improve the reduction of vibrations (15% GA, p < 0.001, and 11% TA, p < 0.05). It should also be noted that HC reduces less the vibrations than a SCB (19% GA, p < 0.001, and 15% TA, p < 0.001). This is why is important of the ultra-flexible meshes in alternation of the other meshes. It would seem that a HC with no alternation of meshes opens a fast path to the upper level of the body.
Some methodological limitations are to discuss in relation to the results. The SJ was chosen to focus solely on the impact and in consequence on the vibrations. This protocol allows to limit the many bias like foot strike pattern, the shoes, the ground, the speed or the course. The foot strike pattern has an importance on the muscle oscillations. All participants had the same reception after the SJ to avoid bias. The sampling frequency also needs to be more important for a jump test like 1000 Hz (Hintzy et al, Citation2017). And the performance wasn’t collected due to the fact that compression products don’t’ affect directly the performance (Kerherve et al, 2017). But it could be a good way to control the SJ.
4. Conclusion
This study shows a mesh effect and a position effect on the intensity of vibratory constraints during exercise on the calf and the shin. The SCB allows to reduce significantly the vibrations on the GA and on the TA during ground impacts against NC. It was observed the importance to wear a SCB to limit the vibrations’ propagation with significant reductions of 16% and 17% respectively for the GA and the TA against NC.
Table 1. Presentation of the vibrations during SJ.
Acknowledgments
The author, Julien ROMAIN, carries out a thesis in Conception and Validation of Sports Products in collaboration of Laboratory PSMS (University of Reims) and BV Sport (Saint-Etienne).
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