Effects Of Different Pressure Compression Garments On Oxygen Uptake And Blood Lactate

Abstract

Compression garment (CG) has now been viewed as a potential tool for enhancing performance and recovery. CG may boost lactate removal and enhance oxygen supply. However, there are only a small amount of research supporting usefulness of CG. PURPOSE: To determine the effect of different pressure CG on oxygen uptake during running and lactate removal after exercise. METHODS: 12 recreational male long-distance runners (age 22.5±1.9 y, height 1.78±0.04 m, mass 70.7±4.9 kg) participated in this study. Subjects performed 3 maximal incremental exercise test (the Bruce protocol) on a treadmill with 3 different garments. The subjects performed experimental trials with a high pressure CG (HCG, 17.5 mmHg at the middle of thigh), low pressure CG (LCG, 8.0 mmHg at the thigh), or without a CG (CON condition). The 3 tests were assigned in a random order under a cross-over design, and were conducted at the same time of the day, 3-5 day apart. Oxygen uptake were continuously determined using the METAMAX 3 system. Fingertip blood samples of 20 μl were taken at 1, 4, 7 and 10 min after exercise. The lactate concentration was determined by EKF Biosen C-Line Clinic system. An ANOVA with repeated measures followed by Bonferroni pairwise comparisons were used to analyze the differences in 3 conditions. All tests were two-tailed and a .05 probability level was considered significant. RESULTS: The Oxygen uptakes were significantly lower with CG at 6 min time point (P < .05, HCG 22.0±1.5 , LCG 21.3±2.0 vs CON 23.2±2.7 ml/min*kg ), and there were no significant differences on VO2 between 3 conditions at any other time point. There were no significant differences on the maximum lactate and lactate elimination rates between 3 conditions at any time point. CONCLUSIONS: Different pressure CGs have no significant effect on the maximum oxygen uptake during running, but it is possible to reduce oxygen consumption during exercise at low intensity. CGs have no significant effect on the removal of blood lactate after running.