The ultimate healer

In this post I'd like to shout out to Abby, Diana, and Alex - my non-triathlete friends who sometimes read this. I love that you read this! <3

It has been a while since I've updated about anything. I'm sort of in a tri-lull. Working hard, but focusing more on my upcoming half marathon than triahtlons, BUT that doesn't mean I didn't go on a 2.5 hour bike ride yesterday... or that I didn't fall off my bike and have a stupid bump on my leg. Yeah, it was a good day.

But, the topic of the day, folks is compression wear. This stuff boggles me. I see it everywhere, don't really know what it is, what the point of it is. I don't think it is triathlete specific, but I still see it sold by multisport sellers constantly. As I sit here, taking my rest day a day early (trying not to put weight on my weird bruises and bumps) I am thinking about compression wear because apparently it is used to expedite recovery. Which I apparently need since I'm so good at falling off bikes!

Compression clothing comes in all shapes and sizes. It's fun for your entire body! You can buy sleeves, or socks, or shorts, or pants, or shirts, or calf guards...(?) As I said before, it is used to aid in recovery, but it also prevents muscle fatigue, increases blood flow, and increases your athletic performance. I don't know how much I buy the last one, but it's used by pros, so unless it causes some serious placebo effect, it must be doing something right.

Now what confuses me is that there are many types of compression clothes. There's graduated compression, direct compression, zone specific compression and compression from things like kinesiology tape. So basically what all these variations mean is that they put pressure on different areas. So while one may put varying levels of pressure over your muscle, another may focus pressure on a specific place in the muscle. It seems like which is "best" is highly contested.

Here's an article that makes sense but is very long if you're super curious.

Now, kinesiology tape. From what I understand the actual effects of this stuff is sort of contested and many people claim it is only a placebo effect that makes people feel better. It apparently is mainly used to treat sprains, strains, and injuries... and to aid circulation (or you know, aid recovery, kind of like compression wear).

I don't know if I buy that "tape" can do that, but Olympic athletes use it. It seems a little "miracle tape"-ish to me. Well, can't knock it 'til I try it, right?

For my next endeavor?