You know compression sportswear is tight, right? But so are skinny jeans, so what’s the big deal? Do SKINS really improve performance and speed up recovery? How? Can you prove it? Here’s a quick lesson in compression to answer your questions and squeeze out those doubts.

All the Gear, No Idea?

We’ve all seen those guys that rock up at trail runs in their calf tights and compression socks and wondered if all that extra gear is really worth it. The short answer is yes, and we’ll explain why in a moment.

Think back to the last time tired and sore muscles got in the way of your performance – there are valid reasons for that. On a normal day when you’re sitting at your desk or lounging on the couch, your heart pumps oxygen-rich blood around your body with relative ease. But when you’re out exercising and your heart’s beating a whole lot faster than usual, your muscles don’t fuel up as effectively as they should. Throw some impact vibrations and lactic acid build-up into the mix, and it’s no wonder your muscles give up during a vigorous session. If only there was a way you could naturally improve muscle performance, right? Cue compression.

The Compressed Guide to Compression

Compression sportswear applies compressive pressure to active and recovering muscles to boost performance and speed up recovery. How? “The applied pressure facilitates faster blood flow and muscle support to help you exercise harder or for longer,” says compression scientist Nicholas Morgan. To put it simply, the squeeze from compression gear boosts your muscles’ natural ‘pump’ function, which drives blood flow – much in the same way you’d squeeze a tube of toothpaste to get it to flow out the top. For compression to effectively improve performance, it has to be applied gradually: the further away the muscle is from the heart, the higher the level of compression.

Performance Benefits

But what does all that mean for performance? By supporting muscle groups to limit vibrations, and improving blood circulation to boost oxygen delivery and reduce the build-up of lactic acid, compression is scientifically proven to improve endurance, increase muscle power and stamina, and speed up recovery after exercise. While we won’t ever claim that SKINS will give you superhuman powers, they do make you feel a bit like Superman when you put them on. Wear them during warm-up, workout and recovery and they’ll soon become your secret weapon for sporting success.

SKINS Compression Sportswear

With so many compression brands out there, what makes SKINS so special? Well, we’re the guys that invented it. Not compression itself – that’s been around longer than your great grandmother – but compression in sportswear, that was all us. For 20 years, we’ve designed, redesigned and refined our technology to create compression ranges for team sports, fitness training and endurance exercises like running, cycling and triathlons. And we must have been doing something right because it didn’t take long for others to catch on. Today there’s a whole handful of compression brands out there, so why choose SKINS? Because no other compression brand has had the same amount of independent research and testing done on their garments to prove their benefits as SKINS have. Fact. We might not be as big as they are, but we’ve got a whole lot more scientific evidence on our side.

Sounds like something your workout wardrobe needs? SKINS men’s and women’s ranges for endurance exercise and team sports will give your performance a kick in the right direction so you can reach your fitness goals sooner.