Athletic Braces?

[Melinda]

Kinda of a weird question but for those of you who play spots out there, what kind of braces do you wear for past injuries (if you wear any at all) I wear a knee brace, I tape both of my ankles and I wear an ankle brace on my right foot over top of the tape job. Haha depending on the sport I also tape my wrists and wear wrist supports (though not many sports require me to do this)

I've dislocated my right knee skiing and reinjured it in a car accident a year ago, done severe ligament damage to both my ankles including fracturing the right one playing basketball and I have tendonitis in both of my wrists from cheerleading in high school. I'm a walking disaster on any given day but for most of the sports that I was a trainer for in high school, there were a whole bunch of football players/basketball players/and wrestlers that I had to do tape jobs for or they had braces of their own

So I pose this question...what do you tape/brace and why?

[Gonthro]

i dont tape or brace anything, never had anything broken, torn, fractured or sprained, worst i have had is bruises, and once i had a black eye... sounds like you've been through alot of pain.

[Melinda]

Haha yeah I play alot (or I used to before my accident) and I have not always been lucky with injuries lol...oh well, minor adjustments :)

[B17a]

Just imagine when you're 50 years old how those joints will feel! I used to wear a brace on my knee to prevent injury, ironically enough, I still managed to tear a ligament and now I don't wear one anymore. I tried on an ankle brace and just couldn't get comfortable with it.

[Melinda]

Yeah haha you'd be shocked if I told you how much cold weather and other stuff like that already affects them! LOL my knee and wrists ache with weather change, it's disgusting!

[Gonthro]

Originally posted by Melinda
Yeah haha you'd be shocked if I told you how much cold weather and other stuff like that already affects them! LOL my knee and wrists ache with weather change, it's disgusting!

and then trying to hold up 30Lbs of lens on top of that :P

[Melinda]

Originally posted by Gonthro


and then trying to hold up 30Lbs of lens on top of that :P
I carry two wrist supports in my camera bag alone lol. They get very sore after a full day event. Guess I picked the wrong career eh? LOL

[nosegrindR]

apparantly it's not too good of an idea to use braces unless you seriously need to use them. what happens when you use braces is that your body starts to rely on the assisted support so on days that you don't use a brace you become more prone to injuries. My doctor told me this when i sprained my ankle (it's been sprained 6 times now) for the first time. It's better to get a near-full recovery instead of using an ankle brace, I guess the same is supposed to go with all joints and limbs.

[Melinda]

Originally posted by nosegrindR
apparantly it's not too good of an idea to use braces unless you seriously need to use them. what happens when you use braces is that your body starts to rely on the assisted support so on days that you don't use a brace you become more prone to injuries. My doctor told me this when i sprained my ankle (it's been sprained 6 times now) for the first time. It's better to get a near-full recovery instead of using an ankle brace, I guess the same is supposed to go with all joints and limbs.
Yes I know, and after each one of my injuries I've spent countless hours in physio and at the gym training my body back to the strongest I can make it. For my knee during this past injury from the car accident, I have taken a year and 2 months so far from any seriously strenuous activity and I've been working out a little in the gym, doing physio and excersizing and stretching at home. I generally use braces when I'm putting heavy strain on them, like going all out in a sport. I dont usually wear them when they're sore or anything, I'll tough it out then. Just for when I play hard, mostly to prevent reinjury :)

[hockeybronx]

A couple years ago I tore up parts of my ACL, MCL, and LCL, just because of wear and tear through a hockey season and badminton tryouts.

I had to take a month off everything except stretching and did rehab, but the tears grew back incorrectly which ended up tearing a good portion of the cartilage on the front of my knee around the miniscus.

Another month of rest and rehab grew it back correctly. I still play hockey, and golf competitively and have no problem with other sports.

I don't wear any braces, I stretch my whole body for 25 minutes three days a week and ice whatever hurts when it does.

I guess I've been pretty luck so far!

[hockeybronx]

Just to add to the above:

In late 2002 I was hit from behind in hockey head first and suffered stress fractures in three thorasic vertebrae.

The doctor told me not to play hockey again, instead I stretched my back continuously for the next week and slept on my floor flat on my back and was able to return to my team in the next couple weeks.

I'm still pretty careful and if I feel anything tweaking in my back I take it easy.

[SwitchBlade]

haha i thought u meant like teeth braces :rofl:

[PGTze]

My right ankle is perma fucked, I used to wear an ankle brace on my right foot, but I like a tape job better. Earlier in the lacrosse season this year I got both my shins taped too, but I found it too restictive. So now I just load them up with Tiger Balm and take a few Motrin.

[Melinda]

Originally posted by PGTze
this year I got both my shins taped too, but I found it too restictive.
Hmm the shin splint tape job shouldnt be restrictive at all...what kind of tape job do your trainers do when they tape you?

[PGTze]

Originally posted by Melinda

Hmm the shin splint tape job shouldnt be restrictive at all...what kind of tape job do your trainers do when they tape you?

I got them taped all the way to the knee, and also have tried just the bottom part of the leg. Just didn't like it when givin'er full tilt.

[bigboom]

ive sprained ankles and have bad knees from basketball and running. for basketball i just use the knee straps that keep it warm and tight whenever my knees give me problems.

i try to not rely on braces and stuff and just let it strengthen itself through working out and what not.

something that i do as well is ice my knees and ankles a couple times a week just to get old blood and stuff out of there and promote circulation to get new blood in there to help healing...