There are many ways to aid your body in performance and muscle recovery whilst on your fitness journey. It’s so important to stretch, hydrate, warm up, cool down and use certain recovery tools to help you body bounce back even better for the next training session. Rolling out on a foam roller and targeting certain muscles with a massage gun are two tricks to increasing blood flow and circulation to muscles.
Another great option is through compression. Compression arm sleeves keep your muscles engaged and arms stable when performing strength exercises. Whether you’re recovering from an injury or are trying to prevent one, an arm compression sleeve is an easy-to-use tool to help you get there. All it takes is slipping it on before your workout, and you’re good to go.
The Best Compression Sleeves
Athletes use compression sleeves to reduce wear and tear on their body, minimize downtime, and even enhance their performance. But, your job doesn’t have to be on the court or gridiron to experience the same benefits.
Check out these compression sleeves and see how they might be able to help you on or off the field. They’re suitable for men, women and athletes of all identities — and they come with an affordable price tag that everyone can appreciate.
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B-Driven Compression Red Arm Sleeve
This premium B-Driven arm sleeve is made of pro-fit material with 10-15mmHG of compression built in, with a reinforced elastic silicone band. The material is moisture-wicking, has flat-seam stitching, and is printed with advanced HD technology. The sleeve will keep your arm warm in the winter, cool in the summer and comes in a wide range of sizes and styles for multiple compression types. Protect your arm from the inside out with this high-quality, versatile compression sleeve.
Copper Compression Elbow Brace
This Recovery Elbow Sleeve claims to have the highest copper content guaranteed. And, of course, that helps support stiff and sore muscles and gives the support you need to soothe golfer’s elbow, tennis elbow, arthritis, osteoporosis, and more.
BUCWILD SPORTS Compression Arm Sleeve
The Bucwild Sports Compression Arm Sleeve is perfect for athletes of all stripes, whether you’re slam dunking or carefully putting. They feature a no-slip silicone band that ensures your sleeve stays put, while its moisture-wicking material keeps your arms dry and your muscles warm.
SHINYMOD UV Protection Sleeves
Keep cool when your game’s heating up. Shinymod UV Protection Arm Sleeves are made of cooling protofilament that protects you from overheating and helps prevent sunburns.
Kunto Fitness Elbow Brace Compression Support Sleeve
This is technically just an elbow support sleeve, but it can provide critical support for your entire arm by keeping the muscles around your elbow in place. It applies even pressure across the elbow joint, which can ease symptoms of an injury and keep you in the game without pain from tennis elbow, tendonitis, joint inflammation, etc. It’s made of a tight, form-fitting fabric that’s breathable but provides great support. It’s not too constricting, but it also won’t slip — providing the right form fit each time.
CompressionZ Compression Arm Sleeves for Men & Women UV Protection (Black, M)
The CompressionZ Arm Sleeve provides gentle compression along the forearm, elbow, and biceps to help reduce swelling and inflammation. And it increases circulation to support tired, sore, and injured muscles.
BeVisible Sports Arm Compression Sleeves
The BeVisible Sports Compression Arm Sleeve helps improve your injury recovery time to get you active again sooner. That’s because they use true graduated compression to help boost arm circulation. And if you’re not injured, it can help you achieve higher performance by preventing your muscles from hurting while you exercise.
OutdoorEssentials UV Sun Protection Compression Arm Sleeves
A little bit of sun protection goes a long way when you’re outdoors running around, so it’s nice to know you can keep your arms safe and sound while still getting the compression effect you’re looking for. These sleeves are fairly well-priced too, and come in an array of colors.
Sparthos Arm Compression Sleeves
These compression sleeves have a cool design on the elbow, are designed for comfort along with compression, and can be used with ease. They’re not doing anything fancy, but they’ll help get the job done.
How Do Compression Arm Sleeves Work?
The best compression sleeves, and really just any compression bit of clothing, are designed to help promote good blood flow and sometimes a bit of support too. Basically, the pressure exerted by the compression sleeves helps convince your arteries and veins to be a little bit more efficient by giving them more support.
What this means is that your whole body will benefit from a more efficient blood flow, and you should have a slightly easier time when running or doing other more aerobic-focused exercises. You’ve then also got the more overt style of support some offer as well.
We’ve all gone a little too hard in the gym at some point and found ourselves feeling sore because of hyperextension or something similar, and having a bit more structure around a key joint can ensure you don’t overdo it anymore. This is especially useful for people prone to hyperextension, like those who are hypermobile. All-in-all, while compression sleeves aren’t for everyone, they are incredibly useful to those who need them.