We’ve all seen baseball players wearing those skin-tight compression sleeves on their arms when they play, and for the uninitiated, you might wonder why do they wear them?
They have become immensely popular over the past decade and are now considered a crucial component for many players – something they’ll never play without. While they are most commonly seen worn by pitchers and catchers, you wouldn’t be surprised to see other players sporting them as well, often in the color of their team kit.
They are a great example of how modern sports science has evolved and how players are taking cutting-edge research and applying it to their gear in order to optimize their performance.
With this in mind, let’s look at why baseball players wear compression arm sleeves:
Injury Prevention
Improved Performance
Faster Recovery
Preventing Injury
In simple terms, these compression sleeves compress the muscles in the player’s arm and helps to maintain good blood circulation.
Faster Blowflow = More Oxygen For Your Muscles
When worn correctly, they can speed up blood flow to the heart and significantly improve the oxygenation in the blood.
This support is welcomed by those arm muscles and it gives the arm more robustness against strain and injury. The increased oxygen and blood flow defer muscle fatigue for longer meaning that there are fewer opportunities for injury to creeping in. In fact, some studies have even shown that beyond the blood and oxygen benefits, compression sleeves can also assist with the removal of waste fluids from elbow tissue – helping to avoid some of the more debilitating elbow injuries that are all too common in the sport.
They really seem to have a myriad of benefits in keeping players sharp and injury-free game after game.
Positive Side Effect: Avoid Turf Burn
Beyond that internal benefit, there’s also the very practical benefit of avoiding turf burn when you’re sliding into base or diving for a catch. We’ve all had those moments where we leap across the turf only to get up and realize that we’ve left a couple of layers of skin on the ground where we dived. These sleeves help to protect that skin and avoid some of the nastiness – allowing players to throw themselves across the ground with reckless abandon.
Improving Your Game
The increased circulation above also has the effect of improving performance. With the increased oxygen levels in the blood thanks to the compression, the arm has a more fluid range of motion and this directly impacts how well that arm performs when playing. With more motion and more fluidity, you’re able to accomplish much more precision and power than you would without a sleeve.
Delayed Fatigue
This becomes even more important towards the end of games when your body starts to fatigue. This is when you need an extra boost to make those clutch plays and compression sleeves help you do that.
Warm Muscles = Happy Muscles
The second way it improves your performance is by regulating temperatures. On cold days, the sleeve can be instrumental in keeping your pitching and/or catching arm warm so as to maintain its flexibility and overall performance. By keeping things tightly wound up, you give yourself the best chance of staving off the cold air and keeping your arm in peak condition.
This is especially useful when you’ve been out of the action for a while and all of a sudden need to make a key play to turn the game around. In those moments, you need your arm to be warm and ready to perform.
Trust us, your future self will thank you.
Recover Better
Lastly, the compression sleeve can even be useful after the game is over. In a similar way that athletes will use compression tights to help their bodies recover after intense exertion, the sleeve can also help with post-game recovery by working on the blood circulation through the arm.
Reduce Inflammation
They can reduce any inflammation and swelling that might have shown up because of the repeated throwing and hitting motions inherent in the sport.
By increasing the blood flow – they assist in how efficiently and how quickly you can recover from a game or a training session. For players who are consistently pushing themselves to the brink, the importance of recovery is something that should not be underestimated – and compression sleeves can be very helpful in that regard.
Reduced Muscle Soreness
Over a long season, many players will start to feel the adverse effects of their efforts. Muscle soreness, little injury niggles, sustained swelling – all of this can throw a spanner into late-season games if you aren’t taking care of yourself.
Compression sleeves not only help the immediate recovery but improve robustness over a long season. They provide those compounding benefits that might be negligible at first, but a couple of months in really start to pay off. That’s why if you get into the habit of using compression technology – you can really squeeze out the very last dregs of performance from your body – allowing you to play at your best for longer.
bottom line
So, there you have it! The humble compression sleeve turns out to be much more useful than what meets the eye. It’s not just to look cool. It’s a very effective piece of performance gear that can bring the best out of you and ensure that you play through the whole season ahead, injury-free.
If you’re looking to get your hands on one, make sure to get the right fit. It needs to be tight enough to compress your muscles, but without interfering with your natural movement. Try a couple and find what feels right for you. It’s also a bonus to get one with breathable material so that the sweat is just wicked away.
We’re big fans of baseball compression sleeves, and we think you’ll be too.