Do toning pants help to give you a better workout?

Athletes have been wearing compression clothing (e.g., shorts, tights, or stockings) for many years in attempts to prevent injury, aid performance, and help recover after exercise. More recently, a number of manufacturers have developed compression garments which they market as “toning apparel.” Most of these garments incorporate elasticized “toning panels” which are designed to provide resistance as the user moves through a given range of motion. This added resistance purportedly increases muscle activation, which would result in greater energy expenditure and muscle toning benefits compared to exercising in regular exercise clothing. We believe that the validity of these claims has never been verified. The purpose of our study was to determine whether wearing toning capris had an appreciable effect on the physiological, perceptual, or muscular responses during exercise. Sixteen moderately active, female volunteers (21.4 ± 1.86 yrs, 1.67 ± 5.37 m, 61.3 ± 6.53 kg) were fitted with toning capris (Fila USA; www.fila.com). After providing written informed consent, each subject completed one testing session. Subjects walked for 5 minutes at each of three speeds: 4, 4.8 and 5.6 km·hr (2.5, 3.0, and 3.5 mph, respectively). This sequence was repeated twice; once while wearing the toning capris and once while wearing regular athletic shorts. The order was randomized for each subject and 5 minutes of rest was given between trials. During each trial VO2 was measured continuously using open circuit spirometry (AEI Inc., Pittsburgh, PA), heart rate (HR) was measured each minute using radiotelemetry (Polar, Woodbury, NY), and Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) were determined every 5 minutes (after each stage) using the 6-20 Borg scale. Additionally, EMG was recorded from the gluteus maximus, vastus lateralis, and biceps femoris during the last 15 seconds of each 5minute stage. The average EMG for each muscle, at each speed, was “normalized” to the maximal EMG obtained during a previously recorded maximal isometric contraction (MVIC). The average EMG from each exercise trial was presented as a percentage of MVIC for each muscle. Physiological responses to walking at each speed in regular athletic shorts and toning capris are presented in Table 1. There were significant increases in HR, VO2, energy expenditure and RPE with increasing speed when wearing both athletic shorts and toning capris. However, there were no significant differences in HR when wearing toning capris as opposed to athletic shorts at any speed. Overall, there was a significantly higher VO2 when wearing toning capris versus athletic shorts (15.3 vs. 14.9 ml·kg·min). Further analysis revealed that this difference was only significant at 4 km·hr. Similarly, test results showed a significantly higher energy expenditure when wearing the toning capris versus athletic shorts (4.66 vs. 4.57 kcal·min). Again, pairwise comparisons revealed that this difference was only significant at 4 km·hr. Finally, there was also a significantly higher overall RPE when subjects wore toning capris compared with athletic shorts (9.2 vs 8.8). Here, however, pairwise comparisons revealed that this increase in RPE was only significant at 4.8 km·hr.