Effects of wearing a full body compression garment during recovery from an ultra-trail race

Abstract

In sport disciplines with high levels of muscle damage such as an ultra-trail competition, full body compression garments (FBCG) may have an ergogenic effect during the recovery process. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of FBCG worn for 24 h immediately after a 107-km ultra-trail on delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), muscle damage, inflammatory and renal response. Thirty-two athletes (19 males and 13 females; VO_2peak: 54.1 ± 5.2 ml O2/kg/min) participated in the study. The following blood markers were analysed before, immediately after, at 24 and 48 h post-race: lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, C-reactive protein and creatinine. The glomerular filtration rate was also calculated. Delayed onset muscle soreness was evaluated before, immediately after and at 24 h post-race. On arrival at the finishing line, athletes were randomised into one of two recovery groups (FBCG and control group). The results showed that wearing FBCG did not influence the evolution of any of the blood markers up to 48 h after the race (p > .05). However, FBCG group presented a lower increase in posterior leg DOMS (11.0 ± 46.2% vs 112.3 ± 170.4%, p = .03, d = 0.8). Therefore, although FBCG is not useful for reducing muscle damage and inflammatory response after an ultra-trail race, its use may still be recommended as a recovery method to reduce muscle soreness.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03990259.

Keywords:

• Musculoskeletal
• recovery
• biochemistry

Acknowledgements

This research was carried out thanks to the collaboration of the Vithas Hospitals group, Penyagolosa Trails and Catedra Endavant Villarreal CF de l’Esport. Authors are also grateful to all the staff involved in the organisation of the race and all runners and volunteers participating in this study. In addition, the study has been undertaken with the collaboration of Aitex (Textile Research Institute) that provided the FBCG and is involved in the TPTex project, supported by the Valencia Regional Government through IVACe, and co-granted by FEDER (Reference: IMDEEA/2019/53). The sponsors had no involvement in the study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, writing of the manuscript or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Vithas Hospitals Group, Penyagolsoa Trails organization, Catedra Endavant Villarreal CF de l'Esport, Valencia Regional Government through IVACe, and FEDER [Grant Number: IMDEEA/2019/53].