Background: Compression garments (CGs) are a popular tool that may act on physiological, physical, neuromuscular, biomechanical, and/or perceptual domains during exercise and recovery from exercise, with varying levels of efficacy. While previous reviews have focused on the effects of CGs during running, high-intensity exercise, and exercise recovery, a comprehensive systematic review that assesses the effectiveness of garment use both during and after exercise has not been recently conducted. Methods: A systematic search of the literature from the earliest record until May 2022 was performed based on the PRISMA-P guidelines for systematic reviews, using the online databases PubMed, SPORTDiscus, and Google Scholar. Results: 160 articles with 2530 total participants were included for analysis in the systematic review, comprised of 103 ‘during exercise’ studies, 42 ‘during recovery’ studies, and 15 combined design studies. Conclusions: During exercise, CGs have a limited effect on global measures of endurance performance but may improve some sport-specific variables (e.g., countermovement jump height). Most muscle proteins/metabolites are unchanged with the use of CGs during exercise, though measures of blood lactate tend to be lowered. CGs for recovery appear to have a positive benefit on subsequent bouts of endurance (e.g., cycling time trials) and resistance exercise (e.g., isokinetic dynamometry). CGs are associated with reductions in lactate dehydrogenase during recovery and are consistently associated with decreases in perceived muscle soreness following fatiguing exercise. This review may provide a useful point of reference for practitioners and researchers interested in the effect of CGs on particular outcome variables or exercise types.

Background: While iron deficiency is commonly discussed in populations of professional female athletes, less is known about highly trained, sub-elite female athletes (e.g., those winning international age-group competitions) who generally have less access to medical and allied health support. Methods: Thirteen non-professional highly trained female endurance athletes provided training diaries and completed a blood test, where iron markers of haemoglobin (Hb), haematocrit (Hct), C-reactive protein (Crp), serum iron, serum ferritin, and transferrin were assessed. Resting metabolic rate (RMR) and body composition using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) were also obtained. Participants were classified as iron deficient (ID) if serum ferritin was <30 ug/L serum ferritin. Results: Six of the 13 females were classified as ID. Serum iron, ferritin, Hb, Hct, and ferrin were greater in the ID group (p < 0.05). Crp resulted in large to very large correlations with serum iron (r = −0.72), serum ferritin (r = −0.66), and transferrin (r = 0.70). Conclusions: In this population of highly trained female athletes, 46% were diagnosed with sub-optimal iron levels, which could have lasting health effects and impair athletic performance. The need for more education and support in non-professional athletes regarding iron deficiency is strongly advised.

The sport and athletic performance industry has seen a plethora of new recovery devices and technologies over recent years, and it has become somewhat difficult for athletes, coaches, and practitioners to navigate the efficacy of such devices or whether they are even required at all. With the increase in recovery devices and tools, it has also become commonplace for athletes to overlook more traditional, well-established recovery strategies. In this narrative review, we discuss recovery strategies in relation to the hierarchy of scientific evidence, classifying them based on the strength of the evidence, ranging from meta-analyses through to case studies and reports. We report that foam rolling, compression garments, cryotherapy, photobiomodulation, hydrotherapy, and active recovery have a high level of positive evidence for improved recovery outcomes, while sauna, recovery boots/sleeves, occlusion cuffs, and massage guns currently have a lower level of evidence and mixed results for their efficacy. Finally, we provide guidance for practitioners when deciding on recovery strategies to use with athletes during different phases of the season.

Recent academic focus has been on reducing the sex data gap for women in sport and exercise research. However, ‘women in sport’ is often narrowly represented by female athletes/participants, though there are numerous other positions in sport which are also threatened by a sex data gap. In this paper, we propose a six-pillar framework of sport to draw attention to the key areas that women can contribute to within a sporting organisation. In this paper we cover the current state of play of female participation across these pillars, identify some of the challenges and implications of women being a minority, and look at the benefits of taking a wider whole-of-sport approach to women in sport beyond just as participants. By conceptualising women in sport across this wider sporting context, we encourage readers to avoid ‘gender blindness,’ and we provide specific recommendations to help raise the profile of women in sport.