Effect of Compression Garments on Exercise Performance Following Acute High Intensity Exercise

Participants: Eighty recreationally active (1-5 hrs per week) healthy participants between the ages of 18 - 35 will visit the Neuromuscular Research Laboratory on 6 separate occasions, with 4 of those occasions also requiring a visit to Health services for a blood draw.

Procedures (methods): During pre-screening, each participant will complete an informed consent document, a health history questionnaire, and have their stature and body mass assessed. A familiarization session will then be conducted on a separate day where all participants will practice the strength assessment, eccentric isokinetic protocol, and ultrasound assessments. Participants will be assigned to 1 of the 4 treatment groups based on their initial maximal isometric strength values using a matched-participants design. The first experimental session will then begin 2-10 days later, where the participants will perform the repeated eccentric exercise protocol (10 sets of 15 eccentric contractions 210 deg/sec with 3 min of rest between sets) with the non-dominant leg following a 60 min rest period where they will wear the apparel and perform a 5 min warm-up on a cycle ergometer. Follow-up blood draws and strength and ultrasound assessments will be obtained at 24 and 48 hours post-exercise. Each participant will also complete a visual analog scale at baseline, 24, 48, and 72 hours post-exercise to examine perceived muscle soreness.