Calf and forearm compression garments incorporating “AF pads” significantly increases reaction times for esports

Aims:Video gaming (e-gaming|) is a wide-spread pastime with over 3 billion regular gamers, which continues to grow. Esports (competitive e-gaming) is very lucrative for top players with one competition recently topping $40 million in the prize pool. Anything that might improve a gamer’s performance would have wide appeal. We studied the effects of arm and calf compression sleeves lined with patented ‘AF pads’ (Anatomic Focus, West Sussex, UK) on e-gamers.Methods: 38 gamers (M:F 31:7, age range 16-18 years) played the same video game for 6 hours continuously, on two separate occasions, at least 48 hours apart. For the first session, the gamer wore their normal clothing, without any compression on their limbs. During the second session, the gamers wore fitted compression sleeves lined with AF pads, on both arms and legs. The gamers measured their reaction times before they started to play, and then after each hour of play up until 6 hours. Results: Before the game was started, as would be expected, there was no significant difference in reaction times. However, after 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 hours of gaming, there was a significant improvement in reaction times when the gamer was wearing the compression sleeves lined with AF pads. Improvement in reaction times failed to reach statistical significance at only one time period, at 4 hours, for no apparent reason. Conclusion: Compression sleeves lined with AF pads worn on the arms and legs during esports significantly improves reaction times in e-gamers. We suggest that this improvement may be due to the improved venous return (and hence, circulatory enhancement) from the limbs during these games when the gamer is largely sedentary for hours at a time.