Does anyone wear knee braces as a preventative?

AbiH

AbiH

Active member
I’ve talked to multiple different people about knee injuries, and it seems almost inevitable…. Has anyone ever worn metal supported, hefty knee braces as a preventative? Pros and Cons of it?
 
i don’t know, but I don’t think it would be good for your knee to get used the support you might get from a knee brace
 
Yeah i have them. I went to Walgreens and bought them they're only like $20 and I feel like they've helped, my knees feel a little more stable. I don't know if they would do much to help me if I were to get in a bad crash though. I don't see any cons in them, I heardly even know that they are on while i'm skiing. Hope that helps

**This post was edited on Aug 20th 2022 at 11:33:51pm
 
I completely folded my knee in, tore everything, playing football a few years before I picked up skiing. My first season I wore a pair of fabric knee supports that had a metal/hard plastic support on the medial and lateral sides but honestly I think it was more of a mental brace than physical. The last couple seasons I've been focusing on pistol squats, stepups/downs, single leg straight deadlines, and hip mobility/strength stuff and I feel like that has provided far more protection than those fabric supports did.

Now you question asked about metal braces, after my knee injury I used a full metal donjoy brace while I played football and it was super supportive and gave a lot of confidence, but I moved from strong safety to d end. I was way slower and had far less agility. I've seen donjoys ski version of the metal brace and the main difference is a hyperextension prevention piece added to the joint. I would imagine that the ski metal brace is just as big of a blocker to agility and mobility as the football one was. Would not want to use it skiing personally

*single leg, straight leg deadlifts* couldn't edit that line for some reason

**This post was edited on Aug 20th 2022 at 11:42:05pm
 
I work with orthopedic surgeons and one of their favorite things to tell patients is to "stop wearing that brace". We get people that buy top of the line bracing (Donjoy, Hyperice, Bauerfiend) for simple sprains and twits... it's all in your head unless you've had or are going to have surgery.

Flexibility and ROM are often overlooked when it comes to strengthening your connective tissues. If your quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius, and tibialis anterior/posterior are tight AF or outta whack, how can you expect your knee to preform its best?
 
Okay original poster this is what's up. Had knee surgery at 21. Full acl meniscus and some bone frag clean up from lightly overshooting and over tasting a 3 on a 20 foot jump. Ya pretty dope I know! Wore a 1,000 plus dolla do not brace until the season i turned 28 and really felt it was holding me back and my shit felt real strong. A lot of gym and pushing and skiing and confidence so I took that shit off and replaced it with a 20 dollar Walmart brace with the like carbon stringers on the sides or whatever the fuck they are. For both knees by the way.........once you have surgerys both knees seem to suck for whatever reason. Over use of the hood one I think by babying the bad one subconciously. So anyway skid all season and had the best season as a skier progression wise probably of my life but at least sense that season where i blew my when I was 21. Fast forward to closing day. Power blow out on by edge underfoot front coming up slightly short on a rail get on. Fuck it last day ski it out get new skis next year. Fast forward to liftie called last run. Chattin it up with a homie about how I'm going to hit the last 2-3 feats as we are halfway down stopped trying to make it last. Still kind of mid chat gently slide into the roller landing that I'm standing on top of sideways letting my edges slip while lifting my front leg ( basically a on snow backslide) only to catch my popped out underfoot edge real hard! Mind you homie is going like 4-6 mph at the moment so no bigger. Go to throw my front foot down to catch myself and somehow someway. POP. No mcl ........ no acl. Some shady doctor shut where they initially got my diagnosis wrong for 8 months or so and next thing you know another knee repair, 2 seasons on snow missed and a brand new 1,000 plus dolla bring for the left knee (same knee) I think I've skiid 2 years sense that? Maybe 3? I'm not sure I have 3 kids and work a good amount so it all goes so damn fast. But yea fuckin braced up for life.........or for now anyways. Gotta find a way to get more gym time man! O yea also..........that closing day ended up being a bluff because of a surprise March storm (Ohio guys) and they were open the next two weekends back to back. I had other older skis I could have rode that would have been alright at least.

There's not a best way to go about things.........just good luck man. But either way it's a fun ride enjoy the shit out of it !!!
 
If you ski scared to hurt yourself, it's likely you will hurt yourself. Worrying about getting hurt is never going to help you out and wearing knee braces with no knee previous knee injury is not necessary and potentially will have a negative impact. Knee braces wont save your knees and you will ski like you're invincible, that's not the way to do it IMO
 
14456628:Quaggy said:
I work with orthopedic surgeons and one of their favorite things to tell patients is to "stop wearing that brace". We get people that buy top of the line bracing (Donjoy, Hyperice, Bauerfiend) for simple sprains and twits... it's all in your head unless you've had or are going to have surgery.

Flexibility and ROM are often overlooked when it comes to strengthening your connective tissues. If your quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius, and tibialis anterior/posterior are tight AF or outta whack, how can you expect your knee to preform its best?
Click to expand...

I skied with my donjoy for like 6 years after my knee injury and I regret it. After I stopped wearing my knee brace, I realized how much it was holding me back and my knees felt stronger than ever when I gave up my brace.

Knee braces will live in your head rent free, as soon as you are strong enough to ski you should be skiing without a brace to strengthen your leg muscles and increase your confidence, the latter is the most important IMO.
 
Nah it's counter preventative as your body gets used to the brace taking a share of the different stresses and adapts to become more efficient (weaker in this case). Typically this looks like bones and ligaments becoming less dense and strong, increasing the chance of injury. For more information, look up stress shielding
 
I folded really awkwardly and heard a pop during 7 on 7s this year and have had knee pain ever since but it hasn’t affected my performance yet so I’ve just been going with it, I haven’t seen a trainer or doctor or anything yet either ☠️

14456623:NutsToRail said:
I completely folded my knee in, tore everything, playing football a few years before I picked up skiing. My first season I wore a pair of fabric knee supports that had a metal/hard plastic support on the medial and lateral sides but honestly I think it was more of a mental brace than physical. The last couple seasons I've been focusing on pistol squats, stepups/downs, single leg straight deadlines, and hip mobility/strength stuff and I feel like that has provided far more protection than those fabric supports did.

Now you question asked about metal braces, after my knee injury I used a full metal donjoy brace while I played football and it was super supportive and gave a lot of confidence, but I moved from strong safety to d end. I was way slower and had far less agility. I've seen donjoys ski version of the metal brace and the main difference is a hyperextension prevention piece added to the joint. I would imagine that the ski metal brace is just as big of a blocker to agility and mobility as the football one was. Would not want to use it skiing personally

*single leg, straight leg deadlifts* couldn't edit that line for some reason

**This post was edited on Aug 20th 2022 at 11:42:05pm
Click to expand...
 
When I tore my acl my surgeon told me skiing was one of the few cases where studies showed that wearing a brace post surgery caused your re-tear rate to go down. So I wear mine and it doesn’t really bother me
 
Dude for your future selfish sake, get it checked out. If you're doing 7 on 7 I'm guessing high school, if you want your knee to function in 5-10-15 years you will want to spend time recovering correctly. Hopefully without surgery

SchizoSkierI folded really awkwardly and heard a pop during 7 on 7s this year and have had knee pain ever since but it hasn’t affected my performance yet so I’ve just been going with it, I haven’t seen a trainer or doctor or anything yet either ☠️
 
A traditional knee brace would kinda suck and for most people being strong throughout a full range of motion is more then enough. Things that can help is being aware of common ways of injuring your knee like phantoms foot. I would also check out a company called Stoko that makes base layers that have cables that tighten to support your knees.
 
14457088:GYRO_LTD said:
A traditional knee brace would kinda suck and for most people being strong throughout a full range of motion is more then enough. Things that can help is being aware of common ways of injuring your knee like phantoms foot. I would also check out a company called Stoko that makes base layers that have cables that tighten to support your knees.
Click to expand...

What’s phantoms foot?
 
If I had a custom brace I would wear it sometimes for jibbing. I wear a fairly nice off the shelf for dual sport dirt biking, you know, sometimes. I don't think absolutism is good, black/white. Hindsight works great here as usual, if you get hurt you shoulda worn it. ...or stayed home or changed something anything.

I think the others did a good job outlining pro/con, it will affect your psych.
 
Don't carry too much weight.

Hiking downhill is way worse on your knees than skiing.

Don't knuckle huge jumps either or overshoot them also.
 
Skiing is straight up tough on the whole body. Lots of good information in this thread and I agree with it all. Ive injured both knees(ACL in both and MCL once) on separate occasions skiing all while wearing braces. Im not going to tell you to wear them or am I going to tell you not to wear them but leg strength, stability is what it comes down to. Stay active, stretch, eat a decent diet, ski and most likely you will be okay. Injuries will happen and you will think, I shouldve done this, I shouldve done that, believe me, Ive been there. Best to do what you can do to keep fit and just enjoy skiing.
 
Had a weird crunch in my one knee the one day after landing off a rail. Didn't hurt, but any time I gripped a rail for a FS trick my knee would hurt. Bought a $20 brace from cvs and it made the pain go away. That was two years ago and I still wear the brace but should probably get my knee looked at since it hurts once in a while if I turn weird.
 
I really wish in my early years of skiing someone stressed the importance of exercises that strengthen your knees to keep them much more injury resistant. It was never something I worried about and now my knees sound like cement mixers when I stand up.
 
Does anyone wear knee sleeves to keep their knees warm? I've always wondered if by doing so you could keep your knees "hot" similar to when a pitcher in baseball wears a jacket on their throwing arm between innings to stay warm. Any thoughts?
 
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