What is compression gear and what does it bring to the table? And what’s the difference between compression shorts, compression sleeves, and compression socks? For men, women, and kids, compression gear isn’t just any ordinary garment. It can be designed to provide support for your arms, legs, and feet to varying degrees and it’s built with special technology that’s made to improve your circumstances in a variety of situations, activities, and events. Here’s the scoop on what compression gear will and won’t do for you.
Compression Technology
Compression socks for men and women are definitely not just any ordinary socks. They are designed to apply pressure around the feet and lower limbs. Compression gear in general runs on the same concept. For example, compression shirts and shorts will wrap around the torso, core, buttocks, and thighs to create a feeling of firmness around the areas they cover. Compression sleeves hone in a specific joint or part of a limb like the elbow or knee and help to keep muscles and joints in line with the motion they are made to execute. The technology behind this gear works to improve circulation and promote blood flow in the areas they cover by applying a certain amount of pressure to the blood vessels.
Many compression socks for men and women have a graduated compression technology design. This means that more pressure will be applied to one area and as the fabric moves up the limb towards the heart, pressure may decrease. For example, over-the-knee, graduated compression socks for running might be tighter around the feet and ankles and decrease pressure as it moves up the calf. This can promote the most ideal blood flow to the areas of interest.
What Compression Gear Will Do
Compression socks for men, women, and kids, athletes, servers and medical patients alike, can be very beneficial in different ways. Depending on the type of compression gear you’re wearing, compression socks can meet your individual needs. At a minimum, compression gear will promote comfort and circulation. This is what is innately made for. Compared to normal, everyday socks and clothing, this is where the difference happens. Compression gear will apply pressure (measured in mm HG, which is millimeters of mercury), in varying degrees.
For leisure activities, like traveling or sitting at an office desk for long periods of time, a lower mm HG compression sock can do the trick. Opt for around 10 – 20 mm Hg compression. This can apply a subtle amount of pressure to the encased blood vessels to promote better circulations for limbs that haven’t moved for a long period of time.
Another factor you want to consider is the size of the person wearing the compression socks. Logically speaking, compression socks for children will differ in pressure when compared to compression socks for men. At the same time, the reason you’re using this special garment matters as well. Compression gear can be used to support sports performance, assist in active recovery from surgery or act as a preventative measure for patients with chronic disease.
For athletes, using compression gear may help you reach your optimal performance level. Football players, for instance, might choose to wear a sleeve to keep their muscles aligned and in place so that when flexed and relaxed, these muscles move in the intended path. Someone who has recently gotten out of knee surgery, on the other hand, may want to wear a compression knee sleeve as they continue to heal and rehabilitate. As for medical patients, such as those with diabetes, compression socks can actually protect vulnerable places such as the feet from injuries that can be extremely detrimental to the health of diabetics.
What Compression Gear Won’t Do
While there are so many great thing compression socks for men and women can do, they aren’t the fix-all solution. Compression gear won’t make a person an athlete overnight, but it will help someone reach a more optimal performance level and assist in recovery. While compression socks for men running long distances do provide support, they won’t directly make them run faster. However, you could argue that the support could help someone run to their best ability and indirectly make them faster than without compression socks at all.
In terms of compression gear’s effect on physical appearance, it won’t ultimately make you lose weight or build muscle. On the flip side, you can enjoy the way the special clothing can make you feel as it smooths out the shape of your body—it’s an automatic confidence booster, at the very least.
For those using compression gear to recover from injury, it isn’t a guaranteed fix that will heal you right away. It does help, however, in the healing process and can get you back on your feet sooner, thanks to the increased blood circulation.
Compression Socks for Men, Women, and Kids
There are so many different reasons to wear compression gear and compression socks. For men and women, the best compression socks will work to improve your circulation and provide you with maximum comfort. The added benefits they bring to athletes, people who work on their feet, travelers and patients in recovery or suffering from pain can also be a major reason to wear the special gear. While they may not magically or directly fix a problem, they can provide the support and assistance needed to get to the end goal. The key to get the most out of compression gear is figuring out what your long term strategy and objective is and how compression technology can be incorporated.
PRO Compression offers the best compression socks for men, women and kids. Check out our top-notch selection and experience for yourself, what compression gear can do for you.