Believe it or not athletes don't wear tight clothing just to make themselves look good. No, the main reason is to improve muscle performance and recovery by increasing blood flow around the important muscles. This helps to reduce fatigue and reduce injury.
This technology is now moving into other areas such as workwear and PPE equipment to help in the workplace where workers are physically active for long periods.
DVT stockings have been around for a long time and health experts have always advised wearing them on long haul flight. The reason these help to stop deep vein thrombosis, DVT, is due to the pressure applied to the blood vessels below the skin reducing their diameter. This in turn increases the speed the blood passes through the veins stopping clots from forming.The same theory is used with compression fabrics, they reduce the size of the blood vessels, increase the speed the blood moves through the body but rather than reducing the risk of clotting its purpose is to get re-oxigenated blood pumped back to the mussels that are needing it as quickly as possible.
Although compression workwear isn't being encouraged by many companies there is evidence that these products could improve output and wellbeing within the work area.
University of Technology Sidney has done testing in this area.
Compression Workwear
