People going in for sports perefer compression clothing thinking that it improves performance during exercise and speed recovery. But new studies raise new questions whether garments can really help people exercise better. Abigail Stickford (lead researcher) from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas says this may be caused by placebo effect. Compression clothing supposedly increases blood circulation and thus oxygen delivery for improved sport performance, reports Newsmax.com citing The New York Times.

People also think  clothes refine someone’s sense of how the body is positioned in space, which can improve the efficiency of movement and reduce the number of muscles that need to be activated, making exercise less tiring.

However, a new research claims a different thing.

Researchers tested the use of compression gear in 16 competitive male distance runners. It turned out, compression clothing had no statistically significant differences in running efficiency or biomechanics, that is, people can have the same success without garments, too.

It should be noted that other studies on efficiency of compression clothing have produced similar results.