Effects of compression pants on hip proprioception and dynamic balance during intermittent half-marathon running

The study aims to examine how the compression pants affect hip proprioception and dynamic balance at three consecutive 7 km intervals in half marathon runners. Eighteen runners completed an intermittent treadmill half-marathon (3 × 7 km segments with standardized 5-min breaks) wearing either full-length compression pants or normal shorts. Hip extension proprioception, dynamic balance, RPE, heart rate and blood lactate were assessed before running and after each 7 km portion. There were no differences between the compression pants and normal shorts in terms of RPE, heart rate and blood lactate. Repeated measures ANOVA showed that the garment main effect was not significant for both hip proprioception and SEBT. Polynomial trend analysis showed a significant linear downward effect for hip proprioception scores across the four tests (F = 8.862, p = 0.01). Paired samples t-tests showed that when wearing normal shorts, hip proprioception dropped significantly after running 14 km (p = 0.03). In contrast, hip proprioception held equivalent to baseline when wearing compression pants (p = 0.93). These preliminary findings suggest wearing compression pants did not show any benefit in maintaining dynamic balance of half-marathon runners, however, compression pants may help maintain hip proprioception during runs up to 14 km in recreational runners, though larger studies are needed to confirm these effects.