- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,499
...is there any scientific merit in them whatsoever, or are they just another pointless fashion trend, a la lycra shorts, Breathe-Right nose strips, that will disappear over the horizon within a year or so?
Every football, cricket and rugby match you see now is guaranteed to have at least a couple of players poncing around in their skintight, fitted "performance base layer". And looking at a sports gear website, there now seems to be an entire section devoted to such items, so somebody's making plenty of money out of them:
Skins™ is body-moulded compression performance equipment manufactured from the finest Lycra and Meryl Microfibre, scientifically engineered to provide support and muscle alignment to the smart-fabric covered area of your body. Skins™ will definitely change the way that you train and play as well as speed your recovery. You will feel fresher after heavy bouts of exercise and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) will be minimised.
Nike, meanwhile, claim their garments will make you feel "empowered, for enhanced athletic performance".
And from adidas: Enhanced Protection:
Controls muscles vibration - less vibrations lead to less muscle tears.
Enhanced Compression:
Spatial Awareness - increase of skin receptors firing. Heightened sense of body position through an increased number of skin receptor triggering.
Possible aid to post exercise recovery:
Minimises the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) during consecutive training days.
They're just shirts, FFS. Any scientific boffins care to enlighten me as to whether these claims are remotely credible, or is it just a load of marketing shite, designed to persuade 15 stone pub players to fork out £45 for a piece of figure-enhancing polyester composite in which to strut their stuff?
Every football, cricket and rugby match you see now is guaranteed to have at least a couple of players poncing around in their skintight, fitted "performance base layer". And looking at a sports gear website, there now seems to be an entire section devoted to such items, so somebody's making plenty of money out of them:
Skins™ is body-moulded compression performance equipment manufactured from the finest Lycra and Meryl Microfibre, scientifically engineered to provide support and muscle alignment to the smart-fabric covered area of your body. Skins™ will definitely change the way that you train and play as well as speed your recovery. You will feel fresher after heavy bouts of exercise and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) will be minimised.
Nike, meanwhile, claim their garments will make you feel "empowered, for enhanced athletic performance".
And from adidas: Enhanced Protection:
Controls muscles vibration - less vibrations lead to less muscle tears.
Enhanced Compression:
Spatial Awareness - increase of skin receptors firing. Heightened sense of body position through an increased number of skin receptor triggering.
Possible aid to post exercise recovery:
Minimises the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) during consecutive training days.
They're just shirts, FFS. Any scientific boffins care to enlighten me as to whether these claims are remotely credible, or is it just a load of marketing shite, designed to persuade 15 stone pub players to fork out £45 for a piece of figure-enhancing polyester composite in which to strut their stuff?