Just got this in the mail. We don’t publish press releases on the front page, but I thought I’d share in case anyone was interested. I’ve been swamped with other stuff for the site, but I’m supposed to get them to send me some of this stuff when I actually have time to write about it. Anyway, to quote Coffee Talk, “talk amongst yourselfs.”
**ZOOT SPORTS COMPRESSRX TIGHTS SHOWN TO INCREASE RUNNING ECONOMY BY MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY **
An independent study at Montana State University (MSU) has concluded that Zoot Sports’ CompressRx tights improve running economy. This study entitled ‘The Influence of Lower Body Compression Tights on Markers of Economy During Steady State Running’ by Bakken B., Borgen K.A., Willis S.J., Heil D.P. (2009) is the first of its kind to show positive results using medical grade compression in the active phase of sport. The results of the study were released late January and findings were announced at the American College of Sports Medicine Northeast Conference in early 2009.
CompressRx was launched as a test this past September to the endurance sports community and word about the product’s performance caught on beyond athletes that swim, bike and run. As a result, Zoot, a global leader in multisports, opened the innovative line of compression apparel to the entire community in January of 2009.
Athletes wearing CompressRx include triathlon World Champions Samantha McGlone and Luc Van Lierde, as well as team sports athletes from the Columbus Crew, Chicago Fire, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Steelers, and several Pro cycling teams, including Team Ouch, led by Floyd Landis. “I think it is, by far, the best compression clothing available. The other manufacturers produce a product that, to me, looks and feels like an overpriced set of tights. Zoot CompressRx looks, feels and performs like a state of the art performance clothing system. ”
CompressRx is the only medically developed compression sports apparel on the market. It has been scientifically tested and proven to reduce perceived effort and also to increase recovery times after hard workouts or races. CompressRx provides three distinct advantages over any other compression line on the market: ZoneRx: Varying degrees of muscle- specific compression based on a muscle group’s individual needs.
**CRX **– Each garment guarantees a 20% reduction of compression form ankle to waist, speeding bloodflow back to the heart to be re-oxygenated. SynchroRx – Each garment is constructed with a lightweight Poly-Pro blend with anti-microbial Silvertech for moisture wicking and odor protection that fights 99.9% of the bacteria that causes odor.
“We are extremely excited by our internal testing and encouraged by our published white paper showing the performance benefits of CompressRx. Clearly, athletes of all kinds are experiencing that benefit both during and after sport,” said Chris Bohannan, Zoot BioMechanist and CompressRx Product Manager.
For specifics on the study, please contact chris@zootsports.com.
Visit www.zootsports.com to learn about the CompressRx difference, view the test results and watch the CompressRx video.
I agree. I don’t have any answers for you though. Hopefully someone from Zoot will come on. These sort of questions are also why I think this forum is the right place for this sort of stuff, rather than the homepage. I knew there would be questions. Now let’s hope there are some answers…
Who cares? If some people think they help - then they do. You can take any study, a drug study for instance where people getting a placebo will swear buy a medication…if it helps them, then good on them.
Studies are intended to provide answers and sometimes provide more questions that need to be answered. Without credible studies advancement is not possible and charlatens are free to sell their products. Yes there are good studies and bad studies and yes all companies that fund studies hope that they will show benefits for their products including drug companies.
Consumers have a right to expect that the claims made by salespeople have some credibility and protect you from buying sanke oil.
I care and so should you that companies have responsibitly to their customers to not make false or exaggerated claims.
And I am anything but “the opposition.” I own a few pieces of compression gear that I use for different reasons.
This study compared the effects of compression garments on recovery of evoked and voluntary performance following fatiguing exercise. Eleven participants performed 2 sessions separated by 7 days, with and without lower-body compression garments during and 24h post-exercise. Participants performed a 10-min exercise protocol of a 20-m sprint and 10 plyometric bounds every minute. Before, following, 2h and 24h post-exercise, evoked twitch properties of the knee extensors, peak concentric knee extension and flexion force were assessed, with blood samples drawn to measure lactate , pH, creatine kinase (CK), aspartate transaminase (AST) and c-reactive protein (C-RP). Heart rate, exertion (RPE) and muscle soreness (MS) measures were obtained pre- and post-exercise. No differences (P=0.50-0.80) and small effect sizes (d<0.3) were present for 20-m sprint (3.59+/-0.22 vs. 3.59+/-0.18s) or bounding performance (17.13+/-1.4 vs. 17.21+/-1.7m) in garment and control conditions. The decline and recovery in concentric force were not different (P=0.40) between conditions. Full recovery of voluntary performance was observed 2h post-exercise, however, evoked twitch properties remained suppressed 2h post-exercise in both conditions. No differences (P=0.40-0.80, d<0.3) were present between conditions for heart rate, RPE, , pH, CK or C-RP. However, 24h post-exercise a smaller change (P=0.08; d=2.5) in AST (23.1+/-3.1 vs. 26.0+/-4.0) and reduced (P=0.01; d=1.1) MS (2.8+/-1.2 vs. 4.5+/-1.4) were present in the garments. In conclusion the effects of compression garments on voluntary performance and recovery were minimal; however, reduced levels of perceived MS were reported following recovery in the garments.
This is another good study. The thing I liked best about it was that they used semi-pro athletes for the study and not weekend warriors or couch potatoes.
The effects of contrast bathing and compression therapy on muscular performance. French DN, Thompson KG, Garland SW, Barnes CA, Portas MD, Hood PE, Wilkes G.
English Institute of Sport, North East Region, Gateshead International Stadium, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, UNITED KINGDOM. duncan.french@eis2win.co.uk
Contrast bathing (CB) and compression garments (CG) are widely used to promote recovery. PURPOSE: To evaluate CB and CG as regeneration strategies after exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD). METHODS: Baseline values of muscle soreness, serum creatine kinase (CK) and myoglobin (Mb), joint range of motion, limb girth, 10- or 30-m sprint, countermovement jump (CMJ), and five repetition maximum squat were completed by 26 young men who then undertook a resistance exercise challenge (REC) to induce EIMD: 6 x 10 parallel squats at 100% body weight with 5-s one repetition maximum eccentric squat superimposed onto each set. After the REC, subjects were separated into three intervention groups: CB, CG, and control (CONT). Forty-eight hours after REC, the subjects exercise performance was reassessed. CK and Mb were also measured +1, +24, and +48 h post-REC. RESULTS: CK was elevated at +24 h ( upward arrow140%; upward arrow161%; upward arrow270%), and Mb was elevated at +1 h ( upward arrow523%; upward arrow458%; upward arrow682%) in CB, CG, and CONT. Within-group large effect sizes for loge were found for CB at +24 h (0.80) and +48 h (0.84). Area under the curve was lower in CB compared with CG and CONT (P < or = 0.05). At +48 h, significant differences from baseline were found in all groups for CMJ (CG, downward arrow5.1%; CB, downward arrow4.4%; CONT, downward arrow8.5%) and soreness ( upward arrow213%; upward arrow284%; upward arrow284%). Soreness transiently fell at +1 h compared with post-REC in the CB group. At +48 h, midthigh girth increased in CB ( upward arrow1.4%) and CONT ( upward arrow1.6%), whereas 30-m sprint time increased in CG ( upward arrow2%). CONCLUSION: No hierarchy of recovery effects was found. Neither contrast bathing nor compression acted to promote acute recovery from EIMD any more effectively than passive conditions, although contrast bathing may transiently attenuate postexercise soreness.
Saying I have a study that proves it means nothing to me without seeing the study in it’s origins.
I don’t find the article on PubMed.
When I search the authors, I learn:
Only article by B Bakken is about MI’s in Norway. There is a BH Bakken who seems to do a lot of hummingbird research.
KA Borgen seems to be either an infectious disease physician or epidemiologist, based on past publicatons
SJ Willis has either written nothing or nothing since publishing in a jursing journal in 1978
DP Heil seems to be a well established physiologist with a lot of publications
In addition, there is no “northeast” chapter of ACSM. There is a New England, but here is the information about their chapter meeting for 2009 from the ACSM.org website:
New England
Spring Meeting-
2009 TBD
Fall Meeting-
November 13-14, 2008
TBD
Providence, RI
Not saying they are lying. Just poiting some stuff out.
I think the origin was in the corner of a small office somewhere while consuming a few cases of beer.
It’s kinda like the “cute baby”. No matter how ugly the kid really is, mommy and daddy will always love what they made.
I am the physiologist/product manager for CompressRx line and this study was done by an independent physiologist. This study is being presented at the Northwest American College of Sports Medicine Conference at the end of next month. All inquiries into the study that Rappstar listed are to contact Dr. Dan Heil at Montana State University. Here is the reference and the contact information.
Bakken B., Borgen K.A., Willis S.J., Heil D.P. (2009). The Influence
of Lower-Body Compression Tights on Markers of Economy During
Steady-State Running. Montana State University, Bozeman, MT. Posterpresentation at the annual Northwest American College of Sports
Medicine meeting (Seattle, WA, Feb. 20-21, 2009). For more
information about the study contact Dan Heil at dheil@montana.edu.
I welcome anyone and everyone to contact Dr. Heil as this was a study that he chose to do after reading about our initial findings. He was extremely skeptical at first about medical grade compression and it’s effects on steady-state running.
Thank you for the information. I just sent an email off to Dr. Heil. I look forward to hearing about his findings. It’d be great to have a study that gets us a little closer to a solid answer in this area.
I am gonna hold out for the publication to appear in a peer-reviewed physiology journal before I comment or even bother contacting the senior author.
A little curious about YOUR title, though:
Before this gets out of hand, I am not here to toot my horn or sit here and say Zoot products are the best in the world. I will always try to stay very objective and true and honor the creed of being a researcher first and product manager second. I am just a very fortunate physiologist who got to follow his hobby and make a career out of it doing research and product design. Most guys like me end up working with stroke victims or in a cardiac rehab center. I know how things get on Slowtwitch where it seems to always be a battle of the wits and inevitably it gets very heated and personal. I am not here to partake in any of that. I just wanted to help people get in contact with the right person. So to quell the inquiry, here are my credentials.
I have a Masters from the University of Kansas in Exercise Physiology. I did my Thesis studies on hand angle and its effects on freestyle swimming. I worked in conjunction with Honeywell/Fluent when they were conducting studies with Speedo designing Fastskin. In addition, I am the former assistant director for the Serotta International Cycling institute. Is there anything else you would like to know?