Standard thermals are designed to retain heat and move sweat away from the body. Compression gear is different in that it is super firm fitting and made from slightly altered materials to thermals. They’re designed to shorten recovery time and reduce muscle soreness. They do this by assisting invenous return: that is the return of the products of muscle metabolism (carbon dioxide and that sort of stuff) back to the heart and so the injured area does not get puffy and swollen. They also increase the temperature of the tissue locally which enhances blood supply and prevents stagnation of fluid around the injured area (injured areas are prone to this swelling particularly during exercise). Physiotherapists rate them highly, especially for peripheral areas like the calf which have a relatively poor blood supply being that bit further from the heart. The physios I spoke with said that for cold weather sports compression garmets are terrific.

So that is the technical advantage of the compressions gear – what about practical application? For that, I dropped a line to Robbie Walker to get his thoughts. He said, “I’ve been wearing compression tights for the last five years, I can’t remember the last time I snowboarded without them. They’re great in spring because you don’t get too hot and they keep your bum covered when you’re slanging your pants all steezy. Plus it’s the only time you can wear lycra and get away with it.”

2XU sent us out some samples of their gear to take a few photos with – you can see Emily and Zac above sporting the gear. For more 2XU compression specific information, hit up their site here. Thanks to physiotherapist Julia Hill and snowboarder Robbie Walker for their time and answers on this. And a huge thanks to Julius Kellar for the epic photos. Any questions, post them in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them (or find answers).

Photo Credits:
Photographer: Julius Kellar
Hair and Makeup: Meg Guthrie
Male Model: Zach Small
Female Model: Emily VW (Viviens)