The Truth About Compression During Exercise: What 10-40mmHg Actually Does to Your Cardiovascular System

Understanding how compression affects your body's cardiovascular and metabolic systems during exercise provides essential insights for anyone considering compression socks for athletic performance or everyday activity. A comprehensive study examining multiple compression levels reveals important findings about when external pressure supports or doesn't enhance your body's natural responses to physical activity.

Comprehensive Research Design

Researchers conducted a thorough investigation to test whether different compression levels affect cardiovascular and metabolic responses during exercise. The study included fifteen well-trained male endurance athletes with an average age of 22.2 years and impressive cardiovascular conditioning.

Each participant completed five separate test sessions using knee-high compression socks with different pressure levels:

• No compression (0 mmHg)
• Light compression (10 mmHg)
• Moderate compression (20 mmHg)
• Higher compression (30 mmHg)
• High compression (40 mmHg)

This comprehensive range covers all compression levels available in commercial compression socks, from everyday support to medical pressure.

The test protocol required participants to perform submaximal running at approximately 70% of their maximum oxygen uptake – moderate intensity representing typical training or recreational exercise levels.

Comprehensive Physiological Monitoring

During each test session, researchers monitored multiple cardiovascular and metabolic parameters:

• Heart rate and cardiac index
• Stroke volume
• Arterio-venous oxygen difference
• Oxygen uptake
• Arterial oxygen saturation
• Heart rate
• Blood lactate levels

Clear and Consistent Findings

The research revealed remarkably consistent results across all measured parameters. None of the compression levels – whether light, moderate, higher, or high pressure – affected cardiovascular or metabolic responses during submaximal exercise.

Heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, oxygen uptake, oxygen saturation, and lactate levels remained unchanged regardless of compression level worn.

These findings suggest that during moderate intensity exercise, the body's natural cardiovascular and metabolic adaptations are highly efficient and don't require external compression support for optimal function.

Implications for Daily Compression Use

This doesn't diminish the established benefits of compression socks for running in other contexts, such as:

• Recovery periods: After exercise, compression can provide circulatory efficiency support
• Travel situations: Long airplane or car sitting
• Individuals with circulation challenges: Older adults or people with special needs

For individuals engaging in moderate intensity exercise – like brisk walking, recreational running, or gym workouts – cardiovascular and metabolic benefits will come primarily from the exercise itself, not from external compression.

Travel and Occupational Applications

The findings help clarify why medical compression socks for flying provide clear benefits despite showing minimal effects during exercise. Air travel combines prolonged immobility with cabin pressure changes – conditions very different from active exercise.

Similarly, compression socks for people standing all day in occupational settings can provide continuous circulatory support.

Practical Guidelines for Users

The research provides clear guidelines for optimizing compression socks use based on scientific evidence:

✓ Use compression during:

• Travel
• Work (sitting or standing)
• Recovery after exercise
• Daily activities

✗ Compression during exercise:

• Doesn't improve cardiovascular responses at moderate intensity
• Body's natural systems are already optimally efficient

For people with sedentary lifestyles or circulation challenges, compression socks can provide valuable continuous support for maintaining circulatory efficiency during daily activities.

Findings also suggest that moderate compression levels are sufficient for most applications, as higher pressures don't provide additional cardiovascular or metabolic benefits.

About the Research:

This research was conducted by Sperlich, Haegele, Krüger, Schiffer, Holmberg, and Mester, who investigated how five different compression levels affect cardiovascular and metabolic responses during submaximal exercise in fifteen well-trained male endurance athletes.