Athletes wear compression clothing after hard sessions to speed recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage. The claim covers several different things at once: how damaged the muscle is, how it feels, and what it can do. A meta-analysis separated them.
They help with some and not with others. , the standard damage marker, was unaffected, and blood lactate was higher with compression. Compression did reduce lactate dehydrogenase, and perceptual measures, and the power and strength analyses indicate faster recovery of muscle function.
The aim was to identify the benefits of compression garments used for recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage. The September 2015 search covered Medline, Cochrane, Web of Science and Scopus, with risk of bias assessed by Cochrane Collaboration guidelines.
The caveat comes before the results in the paper itself. Most results obtained had high , so the authors say their interpretation should be careful, which is the right order to read them in.
The markers split. Creatine kinase was unaffected across nine studies, and blood lactate concentration was actually increased across five. Compression did reduce lactate dehydrogenase, muscle swelling and .
Function looks better than chemistry. Analyses of power across five studies and strength across eight indicate faster recovery of muscle function after exercise, and the conclusion is that compression clothing may aid recovery, with findings that need corroboration.
wat. The damage marker did not budge; swelling, soreness, power and strength did.
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Recovery claims usually travel as one bundle, and this is what happens when the bundle is unpacked outcome by outcome.
How do we know?
Marqués-Jiménez and colleagues searched Medline, Cochrane, Web of Science and Scopus in September 2015, assessed risk of bias by Cochrane guidelines, and pooled continuous outcomes with a random effects model.
What is still unknown
Most results had high heterogeneity, so the authors say their interpretation should be careful and the findings need corroboration.
Learn something?
Where to next
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