Speed River Partners With CEP And Entrix Sports

[Chris Moulton]

The Speed River Track and Field Club is pleased to announce it has reached an agreement with CEP Sportswear and Entrix Sports to be the official compression product of the club.

Based in Guelph, Ontario, the competitive club is one of North America's premier distance training groups for collegiate and post-collegiate athletes. Speed River TFC offers Olympic-level development to athletes by providing resources to train and compete both nationally and internationally. Headed by National Team Track and Field and Cross-country coach Dave Scott-Thomas, Speed River Track Field Club counts among its members some of Canada's brightest middle distance running stars, including Olympians Eric Gillis and Taylor Milne as well as World Championships team members Rob Watson, Reid Coolsaet and Hilary Stellingwerff.

"A number of our athletes had been using a variety of compression products, in looking into the market we determined that CEP was the industry leader and in talking with Entrix Sports we knew the fit was ideal. Our athletes have been using the product for a few weeks now and the feedback has been phenomenal." commented Speed Rivers Director of Communications, Chris Moulton

Entrix Sports is based in Calgary, Alberta and specializes in innovative, performance driven brands. "We are excited to be working with such an elite group of athletes and a well-organized club like Speed River. CEP compression has had an outstanding start in Canada and we see this as a very positive step for us," says Entrix Sports President, Chris Jones. CEP Sportswear was founded in Germany by medi, the world leader in medical compression. Entrix Sports acquired the Canadian rights in May 2009 and has focused mainly on the running, triathlon and football markets. CEP works by increasing the circulation in the lower legs, which allows the athlete to perform longer before exhaustion and can reduce pain from many ailments. Whether it be running, cycling, jumping, skiing, skating or recovering from these activities, the CEP products has helped these athletes do it faster and with less pain. For more information on CEP Sportswear, visit the web site at www.cepsportswear.com or contact Entrix Sports at 1-888-966-6565, [e-mail].

[pq]

"the official compression product of the club..."

Sorry, that makes me smirk a bit to read that.

Congrats on scoring a new sponsor, and congrats to the sponsor for getting associated with Speed River.

But still, the idea of an "official compression product" just comes across to me as a little bit funny, no offence intended. (although I understand some may be caused - just calls 'em like I sees 'em...)

[feens]

Found this as one of the 5 reasons to choose CEP (on their site):

3. Clinically proven to increase running times by 5% * 10 minutes in a marathon

I don't know about everyone else, but I certainly am not looking to increase my race times.


Silly/funny or not, it seems like a smart move by Speed River. They found a need, and filled the gap.

[wrestlerun]

These socks are $90 each!?!?!?

[pq]

Uh oh, now you've given me reason to shift away from idle amusement to something more like incredulity coupled with disdain:

Feb 10, 2010 14:01:31 GMT -5 feens said:

3. Clinically proven to increase running times by 5% * 10 minutes in a marathon

Hmmmmmm... looks like snake oil. Smells like snake oil. Tastes like snake oil. Maybe it's snake oil?

I'd sure love to see some peer reviewed proof that socks can cut 10 minutes (or 5%, whatever that is) off my marathon time. Anyone got some?

[pq]

BTW, if I'm being unfairly critical, and someone can point me to a peer reviewed source of this clinical proof, I will happily pony up the 90 bones for a set of my own compression products and post pics of myself running in them.

[feens]

Feb 10, 2010 14:10:32 GMT -5 pq said:

I'd sure love to see some peer reviewed proof that socks can cut 10 minutes (or 5%, whatever that is) off my marathon time.

I was actually pointing out the fact that they listed at as an increase in the marathon time, not a decrease.

As for medical proof, at least from what I've read thus far, proven benefits for compression socks thus far are for recovery, not during performance. But it seems to be a relatively new concept, so I'm sure there is more research is being done.

[pq]

Feb 10, 2010 14:17:34 GMT -5 feens said:

...I was actually pointing out the fact that they listed at as an increase in the marathon time, not a decrease.

I know that's what you meant, but clearly, inaccurate English aside, they aren't bragging about making times slower, they are claiming these things will make your race times 5% faster.

[ahutch]

Feb 10, 2010 14:15:13 GMT -5 pq said:

BTW, if I'm being unfairly critical, and someone can point me to a peer reviewed source of this clinical proof, I will happily pony up the 90 bones for a set of my own compression products and post pics of myself running in them.

Well, here's a study from last year in which runners lasted longer in a progressive treadmill test to exhaustion while wearing compression socks:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19057400

It's not the only study to find a performance boost for endurance athletes; of course, there are several other studies that failed to any performance benefit. And it's extremely difficult to control for the placebo effect when studying compression gear.

My sense is that there are real physiological effects produced by compression gear, but that we don't yet know enough to reliably harness them (exactly how tight they should be at different parts of the leg and so on). And even then, 5% is fairly optimistic.

So will you still get some and post photos?

[pq]

Feb 10, 2010 15:12:10 GMT -5 ahutch said:

So will you still get some and post photos?

Find me the proof I'm after, and I'll post 'em up!

The study you quoted (thanks for that) does appear to show some measurable performance improvements in a treadmill test, but far less than claimed on that website. The improvements are:

+ 1.5% velocity at AnT
+ 2.2% velocity at AeT

While not insignificant, even if those translate to real improvements in race times (maybe, maybe not), they don't hardly point toward a 5% improvement in marathon performance.

Was this the most optimistic result you've found in support of these compression products? You mention other studies failed to find any measurabl benefits.

[kristjanh]

different company but similar results...
www.skins.net/ca/en/Research/Studies/default.aspx

[ahutch]

Pete, don't misunderstand me -- I laugh just as heartily as you at the 5% / 10 minute claim, and at the words "clinically proven."

It's been almost a year since I looked into compression garments (for the article linked to here: sweatscience.com/?p=151), so I don't know if there have been any new noteworthy studies. In general, the kind of results I found were like these two:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19223669
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19675482

The first looked at one-hour cycling time trials, and found increases in power output at AnT and muscle oxygenation efficiency, but no improvement in performance. The second looked at recovery from muscle soreness (the reason a lot of distance runners wear them for long runs) and found improvements in blood markers like creatine kinase, as well as perceived muscle soreness, but not in any functional measurements.

The conclusion for me (as I said above) is that there are probably some real physiological effects (along with significant placebo effects), but we don't yet know how to harness them, let alone how significant those effects might prove to be -- notwithstanding the inflated claims made by CEP and every other manufacturer of compression gear. But I still think you should buy some, try them, and post pics.

[francisccm]

More partnering like this is what the sport of running needs in Canada. Good on ya speed river!!
Benefits of compression socks aside...

[spaff]

I got some comression socks to try out and have only used them a couple of times for actual runs. I didn't really like the feel, even though they may have been beneficial, for use while running.

Where I did notice a huge difference was in recoveries from really long runs. I run ultras and found that my calves were considerably less sore after a long run if I wore compression socks to sleep in as opposed to if I didn't. I was a huge skeptic, but now use them after all my long runs.

I also noticed that a period with a chronically sore achilles was alleviated by wearing the compression socks to sleep in.

[spaff]

BTW...I think the pink ones would look great on you pq!

[cda]

Speed River partners with CERA?

[feens]

Feb 10, 2010 19:19:01 GMT -5 spaff said:

Where I did notice a huge difference was in recoveries from really long runs. I run ultras and found that my calves were considerably less sore after a long run if I wore compression socks to sleep in as opposed to if I didn't. I was a huge skeptic, but now use them after all my long runs.

That's what the research says as well...the biggest gains are recovery. And if you think about it, it makes complete sense: the original purpose of compression socks were in the medical industry, to increase blood-flow.

[Steller]

regarding the abstract:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19057400

I have the full paper, so just email me ([e-mail] ) and I can forward it to you.

It is a decent study, and published through the peer reviewed process. I have also seen many other abstracts presented at scientific conferences I attend showing different types of results-- something is happening, I am just not absolutely sure of the mechanism yet.

Regarding this study, it was good that it was cross-over, but as AHutch pointed out-- how do you get ride of the placebo effect of wearing tight socks. (as subjects came in twice: once with the socks and once without any socks). It is a shame that they did not do a third trial where subjects came in and just wore long cotton socks that "looked" like the other socks, but not having near the compression factor.

The performance test was time to exhaustion, which is not the same as a time trial (races are time trials -- there is not olympic sport based on time to exhaustion, or called "last man standing"). This is where the 5% "claim" comes. However, I was more impressed the the velocity improvements at subthresholds--- this would indicate that if they had done a Time Trial it might have been significantly improved as well. Finally, as with most trials, it was done in 40min 10k guys-- and not elites.

I hope this gives a bit more insight...

[CoachM]

This article explains some potential reasons why compression shorts improve performance:

www.physicaleducationupdate.com/public/461.cfm