Ok no, he's wearing compression gear, and it's becoming increasingly popular. After asking around the athletic community, it's a mixed review. Some think they're generally useless while others swear by their squeeze me ever so gently powers.
The idea is that compression clothing can improve performance by reducing movement and therefore focusing the muscle's awesome force (this is great if you like to punt random objects, like footballs, or babies). They are also claiming to reduce recovery time by assisting the cardiovascular system in delivering new oxygenated blood to exercised muscles. What causes soreness is actually muscle tearing by the way, NOT LACTIC ACID... so just like Pluto, you can tell you're 7th grade teacher to "shove it" on this one too. The blood flowing to your torn muscles will assist in repair and voila, it's as if you never did that 73 mile bike ride!!! Ok, no, but it may help.
I got myself a pair of the blindingly yellow zensah's...wore them after workouts, during a ride and also for the hell of it during a humpaerobics session (I call em my "business time socks"). They feel genuinely good and I look like I could jump into a flash dance at any minute. When I tested out just having one leg on at a time, I could swear I felt my muscles regenerating...but then again I also read a lot of comic books so that may be unreliable data.
For now though, I say thumbs up...get a pair for muscle repair and anytime you've got a newly waxed tile floor you'd like to make a grand entrance on.
