Effects of Compression Socks on Muscle Recovery after Induced Fatigue

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of the compression on muscle recovery after sports. Four kinds of gradient pressure socks were randomly ordered into 24 groups. Each subject needed to complete six experiments of all. The experiment was divided into two parts including a fatigue induced experiment and an intermittent fatigue induced experiment. The vertical jump height, blood oxygen saturation, local hemoglobin, blood flow, and Visual Analogue Score (VAS) were tested in each experiment. It was found that high pressure level has a significant effect on the vertical height after intermittent induced fatigue; however, the analysis showed no difference among sock pressure levels on blood oxygen saturation, local hemoglobin, blood flow, or VAS subjective feeling evaluation. The effect of compression socks was better than that of non-pressure socks. If the exercise intensity is strong, high-pressure socks can make contributions on recovery. If the exercise intensity is low, low-pressure socks contribute to greater comfort. This study concluded that different exercise intensities required different sock pressures to promote the muscle recovery after sports.