A while back the people at
SKINS sent me some gear to try out.
SKINS A400 Women's Compression 3/4 Tights
I trained for one week with without them, choosing three non-consecutive sessions I knew would give my legs grief:
1. a full-body weights session including pull throughs and split squats (12-rep sets)
2. a full-body weights session including squats and Romanian deadlifts (12-rep sets)
3. a 45-minute run including hills
Straight after doing my first weights session my glutes felt shaky. Twelve hours after I could start to feel DOMs in my hamstrings. Twenty-four hours after, DOMs had well and truly set in to my hamstrings, which ‘grabbed’ every time I moved. Forty-eight hours after I still had DOMs and it was time to train again. The second session didn't seem to have as much effect, possibly because the exercises were a similar style to the ones I had done in the first session and my muscles had adapted already.
The run hurt in a different way - tiredness in my quads and calves afterwards, then painful aching in my quads the next day. In a way, this was worse than the pain in my hamstrings, because they ached constantly, whether I moved or not.
I had a break from training for a couple of weeks while I was renovating, then I replicated the training sessions wearing the SKINS A400 Women's Compression 3/4 Tights.
After not training for a couple of weeks, I expected to feel similar effects from my weight-training sessions. Indeed, straight after doing my first weights session my glutes felt shaky. I decided to wear the tights for the rest of the day after training. Twelve hours after I could start to feel DOMs in my hamstrings. I decided to sleep in the tights. Twenty-four hours after, the DOMs in my hamstrings was only marginally worse, and forty-eight hours after it had diminished and I was ready to train again. So an improvement on the results without the tights. Once again, the second session didn't seem to have as much effect.
The run was where I noticed the biggest difference though. My legs didn’t tire as quickly, and even though I got changed out of the tights straight after my run, my legs didn’t feel as tired after the run as they did in the session without the tights. They next day there was no painful aching in my quads. One of the first things I noticed when putting the tights on was that they were quite firm around the knees, and I think that this compression effect made a big difference in helping my legs during and after the run.
I’ve worn the compression tights several times since for my runs, and would be happy to recommend them to others for the same purpose.
