I had a great opportunity to test Skins' Travel and Recovery Tights this Fall during my cyclocross season. I'm a category two racer for our DKNY/Signature Cycles team, and spent many of my weekends this past Fall traveling the region to compete in the bizarrely entertaining sport of cyclocross. I do my training rides on weekday mornings before coming to work here at Signature Cycles in Greenwich, where I often find myself on my feet for a good portion of the day. That doesn't make for the best recovery from the morning's VO2max intervals! I was excited to try these tights because they promised to help me reduce fatigue and recover faster and more effectively from my workouts and races. If what they claimed proved true, I would be able to train harder in my next workout, thereby increasing my fitness.
Skins says they accomplish these goals by increasing circulation as a result of their gradient compression technology. What that means is the amount of compression your muscles experience increases the farther the distance from your heart (calves and forearms experience the greatest compression). “What about sizing, since people are such different shapes?”, you ask. Their long tights, as an example, are available in 13 sizes based on a body mass index (BMI) algorithm. I could go on to explain all the benefits of Skins, but they’ve already done so, and have a short video to go along with it: http://www.skins.net/us/en/HowSkinsWork
Since I only had a pair of Travel & Recovery Tights to wear during my cyclocross season, (rather than the long tights without the foot stirrups) I couldn't test them during my races. I suppose I could have, but my feet wouldn’t have been very comfortable with the stirrup in my shoes. What I found when using the Travel & Recovery Tights after an intense hour of cyclocross was that my legs were tired and heavy feeling before I put them on, but that my legs immediately felt lighter and fresher with the Skins. The effects of the increase in circulation is immediate, so it’s no wonder I felt better so quickly, but it still feels almost magical every time I put my tights on.
To test the Travel part of the Travel & Recovery name, I wore them on a recent flight from New York to San Francisco. Skins claims that when worn during “periods of forced inactivity”, (which for a lot of people means most of the workday), the tights will reduce swelling, especially in your feet and ankles, and decrease dehydration. Mine wasn’t exactly an unbiased test, since you’ve already read what I think of the same tights as a recovery aid. My experience on the flight and afterwards was a good one. I’m not a person that can easily sit still for long periods of time, so the effects of sitting in a coach seat for hours takes a pretty heavy toll on me. During the flight, I felt zero discomfort or overheating from the tights. Walking through the airport to the baggage claim after the flight, my legs simply did not feel like I’d just sat on an airplane for five and a half hours. I felt normal, not tired and dragging. To put it simply, I won’t fly without my Travel & Recovery Tights again.
I’m excited to try the Skins line of cycle-specific bottoms that have an excellent chamois built in. The cycling line will be available in March ‘09. Increased circulation means improved clearing of lactic acid and other byproducts of metabolic activity, which means a longer time to fatigue during physical exertion. Yes please!
The important point in all this is that, yes, they work fantastically for recovery from cycling, which has been my experience with them. Moreover, they work equally well during and after any athletic activity: running, weight lifting, soccer, basketball ... you name it, the benefits are there.
When talking with people about using Skins, the most common apprehension that comes up is that since some of the models are 1) long tights and long sleeves, and 2) black, they will be hot. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. The wicking properties of the fabric are truly amazing, keeping your body cool and dry. The fabric is UPF 50, and that’s not a treatment so it can’t wash out. I’ve actually used my long sleeve top while riding an indoor stationary bike trainer and felt nice and cool with just a light breeze from a fan. When you take them off, they dry incredibly quickly. Oh, and they’re available in white if you can’t get over wearing black.
If you’re looking to increase your performance while training for a certain event, a season, or a better quality of life, you're missing out if you’re not wearing Skins.
Soren Klingsporn
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