Runners have long treated compression gear as a recovery tool — something to pull on after a hard effort while the legs repair themselves. A new study says that habit might be backwards.
Research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research put 56 trail runners into three groups ahead of a 26-kilometer race. Nineteen wore compression shorts during the race, 17 wore them only afterwards, and 20 — the control group — wore none at all.
To measure the effect, researchers tested each runner's jumping power and muscle stress at three points: before the race, immediately after, and two days later. They used countermovement jumps and drop jumps from a platform roughly 20 inches high to calculate each athlete's reactive strength index, a gauge of lower-body power. Blood samples tracked creatine kinase, a biomarker that signals muscle damage.
The results were clear on one front: control-group runners showed bigger creatine kinase spikes, suggesting more muscle damage than either compression group. But the during-race group got the real edge. Their jumping power improved significantly right after the race and stayed stronger two days later. The post-race wearers saw some benefit too, just not enough to be statistically meaningful.
Julia Farid, an exercise physiologist at Hospital for Special Surgery Rehabilitation and Performance in West Palm Beach, who wasn't involved in the study, told Outside it challenged the standard assumption that compression gear belongs only in the recovery phase.
There are caveats. The study covered trail runners only, so the findings may not transfer to other athletes — and, as Farid pointed out, wearing tight compression kit through hours of racing simply isn't comfortable for everyone. Her advice wasn't a blanket shopping recommendation, either. But for endurance athletes, trail runners and hikers, the study suggests trying compression during training is safe and potentially worthwhile.
For travellers, the takeaway is handy: if you're heading off on a running or hiking trip — a mountain race, a long trekking week — packing compression wear and wearing it on the trail itself, not just back at the hotel, may do more for your legs than saving it for the evening. That could mean fresher legs for day two of an itinerary, which is exactly what most active holidays demand.
