Wearing (Compressive) Braces

[Skilzat85X]

My knees still haven't healed, mostly cause I keep just sliiightly hurting them a little more by like, walking a lot, or going up stairs a lot, having to catch myself, etc.

Generally, wearing a knee brace alleviates much of the pain and discomfort and seemingly helps keep them from getting re-injured.

I try to spend lots of time with my knee braces off however. I know that relying on them can lead to a degradation of connective tissue strength lol.

But I'm sliiighty sick of my injury haha. So I ask the question: would there be any serious negative drawbacks to wearing my braces, all the time basically? Keeping this constant compression and support on (along with the other given precautions, of course) my knees until healing is complete.
Do you think this would result in any considerable improvement in healing time, and/or making it less easy to re-injure before the healing is complete?

I realize this will result in decreased joint strength/stability, so I will have to afterward progressively condition and rehabilitate my knees back into shape before I attempt resuming my athletic activities.

[ChAku]

you're basically going against the notion which you brought up :

relying on braces results in degredation of tissue strength( i believe this also )

your best off strengthening it and only using the brace when engaging in physical activity ie: tricking

wearing the brace while doing nothing is :bad: in general

[anfeyd]

My feelings: the tissue will heal under the context that you force it to. So if you wear your braces all of the time your body will heal under that context making it weaker, and therefore really easy to re injure. However, this is often what casts are for and then you can just strengthen them after the cast is off--so it depends on the injury at hand.

Just quickly, what injury and what kind of braces are we talking about here?

[Skilzat85X]

Tissue strength is irrelevant to me somewhat at this point, what I need is for the tissue to be restored, which means I, in part, have to a) prevent further stress to it and b) help expedite healing through whatever means, i.e. compression, diet, etc.

You see I'm not wearing the brace just for the sake of preventing injury. In fact tricking with a brace is going to make you more prone to injury when you trick without it haha.

The thing I first brought up is that the compression of the brace provides me with relief, and a decrease in inflammation. This is why I wear them mostly, preventing other injury is just a helpful side effect.
So, what I'm wondering is if the additional compression is going to be of benefit in healing, or if it's not. I only brought up tissue degradation so people know I realize the consequences involved.

[Skilzat85X]

My feelings: the tissue will heal under the context that you force it to. So if you wear your braces all of the time your body will heal under that context making it weaker, and therefore really easy to re injure. However, this is often what casts are for and then you can just strengthen them after the cast is off--so it depends on the injury at hand.

Just quickly, what injury and what kind of braces are we talking about here?
I strained my knee doing a particular leg exercise improperly, and quite stupidly I might add. I believe it is meniscus, definitely not ACL. I have a full range of motion in my legs.

The kind of knee brace is only elastic.
http://www.kneeshop.com/db_images/royceopenelasticmini.jpg
http://pics.drugstore.com/prodimg/13446/200.jpg

The brace gives me similar compression to a compressive wrap bandage, but more comfortable/softer, and does not impair my range of motion.

[Karlnold]

How long are we talking here? Unless you're not sleeping with them on and this isnt taking months and months I'm not against it at all.

Edit: Or am I?

[The Laughing Man]

Get some rehband knee sleeves, and you can wear them every training session, They provide very mild compression, and warmth which keeps the joint warm and provides some stability and eases pain. These are very good for injury prevention, many strongmen, weightlifters and powerlifters train with them.

[anfeyd]

Skilz, explain the injury as best as you can (how it happened and what motions it hurts).

I have been battling a meniscus injury since August, I finally think I'm getting the upper hand on it.

[Skilzat85X]

Get some rehband knee sleeves, and you can wear them every training session, They provide very mild compression, and warmth which keeps the joint warm and provides some stability and eases pain. These are very good for injury prevention, many strongmen, weightlifters and powerlifters train with them.
Ah yes, that's very similar to the ones I have now. But I'm not tricking or putting any impact stress whatsoever on my knees until they're healed hehe. :smile:
Skilz, explain the injury as best as you can (how it happened and what motions it hurts).

I have been battling a meniscus injury since August, I finally think I'm getting the upper hand on it.
It happened because I was trying to do a very awkward shin exercise, haha.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/TibialisAnterior/LVSeatedReverseCalfPress.html
It was somewhat foolhardy to try this with locked knees, and my form was not good at all, so I stressed my knees while locking them and putting pressure resistance on the weight. There wasn't really much pain until after a day or two.

Since then, pain can be triggered around the top of the patella where it connects to the quads by locking my knee very tightly, or certain other awkward movements. Usually, the pain is more "residual", and can sometimes bout up for a little while if I'm just walking, and then go away while I'm still walking haha. So the is generally not sharpened by any regular motion.

It's more like "soreness" or sorts, more strain-ish. On this diagram...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Knee_diagram.png
...I'd say the areas where I feel pain (not all at once) would be the Articular Cartilage towards the Lateral Condyle, and the Meniscus towards the sides of the Patella/Patella Tendon.
And occasionally around where the Quadriceps tendon meets the Patella, but only after I've done something to strain it. :punched:

[Ashtar]

These are okay if you've been injured and are slowly easing back into activity you are unsure about, but once you've progressed to a certain degree, drop back to an easier amount of work without the brace and work your way back up.

[Phil D]

why dont you just see a physio and stop trying to work things out for yourself?? if the pain didnt come until a day or 2 afterwards then its not really an acute injury so you need to uncover the underlying cause.

[Melf]

Since when do you have problems with your knee? Did id get any better at all? Did you go to a doctor already ( probably not ).
If you've never been to a doctor and the knee is making problems for quite a while, you should definitely go to a doctor, I'd even say go to more than one to hear different opinions.

[Leonardo]

I really don't know if I'm right about this, but meniscus is something where the blood doesn't flow, so it can not heal by itself, right? So if you have something with your meniscus, time won't heal it. So even if you have that brace or not, it's not gonna heal...

Please correct me straight away if I'm wrong about this.

I've had torn Meniscus + torn ACL... I had to go and have surgery so they could get that piece of meniscus out, cause it was floating and that's what gave me the pain in the knee. And it couldn't heal by itself so it had to be taken out. If I understood correctly.
I don't know any other cases of meniscus being torn or stretched or whatever, so maybe it's just me.

[tricker383]

well i tore my meniscus and its been about 3 weeks to nearly a month now and my knee is perfect again no pain loss of stretgh so i have natraully assumed i have healed an unhealable part again first a bone with no blood flow now cartalige with no blood flow LOL

Skillz go to a doctor man at least for a check and if you have a soft knee support wear it when you need it otherwise dont thats what i did :)

[Phil D]

if you dont seek profesional help and its causing you alot of trouble then you are an idiot.