We have taken a slight 'left turn' from our knicks reviews to offer you an overview of compression tights. Very similar to knicks, only longer, and they compress . . . You have probably read some of the debate on compression garments. I have been reading, wearing, researching, riding, wearing, testing, and flying about in compression clothing for some time to bring you this comprehensive personal opinion. . .

The 2XU Elite Compression Tights - action pose optional . . .

• Name/model: 2XU (Two Times You) Elite Compression Tights
• Company website: http://www.2xuhk.com/
• Features: Circular high guage knit structure, high guage dernier rating, 50/70 dernier fabric as well as Dupont Lycra
• Compatible with: Your legs hopefully. . .
• Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price: 1,100 HKD or 195 Singapore Dollars

To be frank, without a million dollar laboratory and a group of athletes at your discposal (as 2XU does) it's difficult to come to a scientific and empiracle conclusion on this product. After a great deal of work testing this product, I wish I could offer you a "THIS PRODUCT WILL INCREASE YOUR PERFORMANCE by 15%" kind of review. . . but I can't. I am nonetheless amazed with the product from 2XU as well as the customer service I have received. We are huge fans of companies that treat their customers well, and companies like Lake Cycling Shoes and 2XU are truly setting the bar in the local Asia market.

History
2XU was founded in January 2005, in Melbourne, Australia to create products to 'advance human performance'. The garments have already been worn by multiple world champions, as well as being endorsed by sports institutions including the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), The Cervelo Test Team, Team Garmin Slipstream, and many others the world over. According to 2XU, compression has been used for medical applications for more than 100 years, however it has only been recently that people have become aware of the sports performance benefits of compression. The company is Chaired by clothing veteran Clyde Davenport, Co-Directed by former world triathlete Jamie Hunt, as well as marketing specialist Aidan Clarke.

Marketing

"Faster warm up and enhanced overall circulation. Graduated compression of the limbs actively encourages and increases venous return to the heart and lymph to lymph nodes"

Reality
Well 2XU throws around some pretty hefty science there . . . lets discuss the product and how it works; to supplement my experience I have also included a running commentary from cyclingnewsasia coach Matt McNamara.

In the wearing, testing, flying about category (real world) I used the tights to assist only in recovery for flights and hard workouts. I had a 36 hour flight to Mexico, a 12 hour flight to Canada, a four hour flight to Toronto (and a couple of others including Malaysia and Singapore) to test these tights on. Picture: You are flying around in an airplane, your body is subject to huge changes in pressure, you are sitting most of the time and you body is doing very little by way of exercise. This is all well and good, however for me the challenge comes when I need to get off the plane, stand up, and get my legs to continue to function in some form of athletic event. Typically my legs feel like blocks of wood for the first 24 to 48 hours of arriving in a new place due to the immobility of flying and even worse, flying after races where most people will have an engorged venous system.

My experience was very, very positive. I can report legs that were not only ready to ride with an hour of flights, and can also report a noticeable reduction in swelling from flights. This was amazing: after a 36 hour flight I was out on my bike less than two hours after deplaning - my legs literally felt like I had simply walked out the front door of my house for a sunday morning roll around the park. I experienced no stiffness, or discomfort (amazing). To try to make this more consistent I continued to wear the tights for approximately one hour prior to flight departure and left them on for approximately 1-3 hours after flights. I consistently found similar positive results to what I have reported above. What about cycling recovery?

I made sure I put the tights on immediately after hard training including about 10 W.O.B. workouts, and always after the local Cyclocross races. I also used them for sleeping after hard work outs, large volume weeks and on evenings following races. Without being able to specifically measure or quantify my recovery, I can say that I definitely 'felt' better. Is this psychological? Hard to say, but I definitely wasn't feeling achy or puffy as I sometimes do. In particular to Cyclocross recovery, this is unique in that athletes need to run hard for short periods and ride hard as well. The runs can be quite high impact, and if you ask any 'crosser, they will certainly report some muscle pain. I did get some pain from my first workouts but by my second race (using the 2XU Elite Compression Tights) I can report no noticeable muscle pain or delay onset muscle soreness. This is purely anecdotal, but after using the 2XU tights in the lead up, and training for cyclocross season I posted results far better than ever before - however I can't prove it was the tights . . .

For the benefit of our readers; after a seven month hiatus from running, I put on these tights and went for a long run (think muscle damage) to see how my legs would feel the next day. Whenever I 'make a return to running', it is always very uncomfortable and I always get a good amount of muscle pain and damage for the first seven to ten days. I can report that despite looking like a fish out of water (or a roadie off his bike) I had almost no discomfort after my first long run and certainly nothing I would report as 'damage'.

So what is it that 2XU compression tights do to help, and what studies have been done; what do the experts say?
The Journal of Sports Science and Medicine reported on "Compression Garments and Recovery From Eccentric Exercise" reported that:

The data suggests that wearing compression garments in the recovery from eccentric exercise may alter the inflammatory response to damage and accelerate the repair processes inside of the muscle.

Unfortunately for me they used that little word 'may'. So we kept digging. We then found a more reader friendly study by Andy Harrison (A physiologist who works with the English Institute of Sport) and Kevin Thompson (a physiologist who works as a regional manager for the English Institute of Sport) on Speed Training, which stated:

The use of compression clothing appears to provide an economical and effective strategy that offers a practical alternative or additional recovery method. However, as with other recovery interventions, the optimal duration and combination with other methods requires further investigation.

Once again they used another word: 'appears'. Most of the research is done on weight bearing athletes like runners, weight lifters and those tricky shot put guys . . . So what does Coach Matt have to say? Matt:

Hi - I'm not sure how quotable I will be here, but basically compression decreases O2 (oxygen) saturation, so for your body it provides a 'perhipheral hypoxic affect' . . .  what this means is that compression clothing could have training effects similar to an altitude tent. Right now this is pretty much anecdotal, and there has been nothing published that I know of, though I did hear about a masters thesis on this. . . The post ride effects are mixed and based on the dernier of the fabiric, how much area is covered, etc...among other things.

What we have found during this test is that there are a huge number of people that are very excited, and strongly support compression clothings ability to increase athletic performance. The tricky part we have found is proving the performance increases.

Looks
Well, you can buy the 2XU's in black with silver stripes or black with silver stripes. A bit limited, however they look pretty good. We liked the look, but we can't comment a lot more - if you don't want that colour combo . . . . .

The bottom line . . .
It seems that if you are considering buying a compression garment you need to be picky. You need to have a product that is high quality, with a very specific type of fabric; you need to be picky about quality, technology, sizing and you need to choose a proven brand. All we can say is that at the moment it is pretty hard to ignore how positive the results have been.

Our suggestion would be to try them out and see if you have as positive a result as so many others. Go and get a pair and if they feel good before, during or after riding, for training and/or recovery then use them for that - but definitely try them out.

Pros . . .

• Well constructed
• Hold their shape

Not so pros . . .

• Not cheap . . . .
• Limited colour choices
• The Jury is out

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