As a sporting enthusiast, you already know that what you can achieve is linked to a number of factors. You probably know that the major stars of baseball, football, tennis and many other sports control their diets carefully, exercise, and practice day in and day out with carefully developed training regimes.
If you had the time then you could probably do all of that, but when you’re fitting your sporting enthusiasm into a busy life, you could do with a little help to up your game. There are several options you could explore, and in particular you could look into compression clothing and wearable technology.
Compression clothing explained
It wasn’t that long ago that if you went down to the gym for a workout, you and your fellow trainers would have worn baggy tracksuits or loose-fitting shirts and vests. Loose clothing seemed to be the right thing to wear, apparently letting the air circulate to help keep your body cooler when you were working up a sweat.
Today, however, compression clothing is used by many athletes, especially runners, so it’s useful to get a handle on how it works.
Firstly, compression clothing covers a number of parts of the body. If you check out the Tommie Copper official website, you’ll get a good idea of what this type of copper compression apparel can do. Many people initially tend to think of compression socks for legs and feet or something for the arms, but as well as targeting these areas, there are also compression garments for the back, the hands, and the upper body.
Take, for example, two types of running you might do: sprinting and long distance. Sprinting is anaerobic exercise, fast and focused, and leads to a quick build-up of lactic acid, which occurs when your muscles have used up what they normally use for energy but still need energy. Lactic acid build-up can give you pain in your muscles and thus affect your performance. Compression clothing may help to clear the lactate from your muscles more efficiently, allowing you to continue your training at a higher energy level.
When you’re doing distance running – aerobic exercise – you don’t generally build up lactic acid until you increase the pace at which you’re running, but when you do, you may get those burning sensations as your muscles use this to keep going. Lactic acid doesn’t remain in your system for very long after you’ve finished your activity, but wearing compression clothing can give you relief much faster than you might otherwise get.
Wearable tech
Technology marches on, and for the sporting enthusiast, it’s fascinating to see what is coming onto the market to help improve performance. Take the potential for smart sneakers that will have microchips to keep an eye on your steps, how you run or play, and a range of other metrics; or look at wearable bands that measure a whole array of data, including the number of steps you have walked.
The tech is here to stay
Keeping fit and active means you can enjoy a healthy life, and the technology to help you monitor how well you do it is either here already or just around the corner.