Experience From - Hank ?, Suzanne Williams,
Subject: Gain 10% Performance By The Pants You Wear?
The October MastersSports newsletters has an article on "performance clothes." They report research at Penn State that purports to show that "shorts made to these DuPont-certified Lycra Power specifications not only reduced fatigue, they increased force and power production, as well as accuracy of movement." !!! Ten to twenty percent improvement reported. Best I can figure out these are the compression shorts that you see under NBA players' baggy shorts. More quotes: "Excessive muscle vibration, it seems, can be a major contribution to muscle fatigue. Securely held muscles don't vibrate while you're running, or playing tennis, or driving down the basketball court. On top of that, the garment's compression gives you better 'body feel,' increasing feedback from the proprioceptive receptors in skin, muscles, and joints, so your brain has a keener sense of your body's movements. That, in turn, keeps your efficiency higher, your movements more exact, and your strength, power, and speed up." 7 October VeloNews had a similar article.
Jump on the bandwagon at your own risk.
Subject: Gain 10% Performance By The Pants You Wear?
Very interesting. I experienced this "excessive muscle vibration" at the 93 mile point of Wasatch this year. The race finishes on an 8 mile road, and the muscles in my legs were so sore from fatigue and the vibration that 100 miles puts on them, that I could barely run. My pacer suggested wearing tights, and once I put them on, I was able to comfortably finish the race. The tights held my muscles in place and reduced the vibration, thus reducing the horrible pain I was feeling. If you've ever had that sensation of someone sticking needles under your quads, tights help eliminate this problem and are a good option.