You see, I have a love/hate relationship with compression of all types. Personally, I don’t think any brand of compression clothing does much for me while working out. Yes, I know many of y’all swear that it makes you faster and stronger during runs, etc., and I know that Will wears compression socks on every single run because it helps prevent knots in his calves. For me, however, I don’t notice a difference. In this instance, I felt the same way about these arm sleeves. Did they make my Crossfit workouts easier? Nope. Do my arm muscles grow less fatigued while wearing them? Nope.
However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t think they’re effective! Like I mentioned, I am a true believer in compression for recovery. I regularly wear compression socks and/or shorts after long runs and intense Crossfit workouts when I suspect my legs are annihilated. Since I am just easing back into Crossfit, I decided now would be a great time to test these arm sleeves for recovery.
Friday’s Crossfit WOD was a brutal one for me, and looked like the following:
I managed to finish 14 rounds plus 1 rope climb, 10 push-ups, and 1 sit-up of my 15th round. In short, I completed 150 push-ups along with a lot of rope work. I woke up Saturday morning to find my arms and abs screaming at me!
I put on Zensah’s arm compression sleeves and wore them all day long while cleaning. The soreness in both my upper body and my stomach increased as the day went on, so I was starting to think I wouldn’t be able to lift my arms for coffee on Sunday morning! However, I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up Sunday morning with insanely sore abs…..and completely recovered arm muscles.
Compression is a tricky thing because I can’t FOR SURE say that these Zensah compression sleeves are the reason my arms recovered so quickly. However, they were the only variable between my arms and my abdominals, so I personally think they were the reason for my pain-free Sunday!
I was provided with these compression sleeves at no charge to myself. All opinions expressed are my own.
10 Comments
that’s good to know! i’ve been thinking about trying out compression sleeves for awhile now. i’m a big fan of socks and a HUGE fan of compression shorts… but haven’t tried sleeves.
I’m thinking placebo for most, but if it works, why not?
I agree with you – I find no difference in my performance while wearing them, but I find that recovery goes much faster. I wear them in some races not because I think they’ll help me that day, but because I hope to be back at training in a day or two and don’t want the race to put me on the sideline for days.
Great review! I love my compression 😉
I know we already had this discussion, but I’m with you…nothing during but I do prefer to wear them after. Love the purple!
WEll, I gotta tell you that I do love my compression sock sleeves. They helped me last year. I do believe they helped me run faster, they helped me recover quicker & when I fell, my calves didn’t get all scratched up. That was a bonus!
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Funny, as I just blogged about my compression socks today 🙂 hehe
I LOVE compression! I don’t have any compression arm sleeves, yet, but I will. My husband has some and he loves them. I wear my compression before, during, after.. I’m addicted.
I love compression and I know the science is iffy, but for me I notice a difference in my recovery/soreness when I wear them. On really long runs, I notice less soreness during the workout. Shorter stuff, it’s more about prevention if I’m already sore. And I almost always wear calf sleeves or socks on airplane trips. 🙂