Who else wears preventative knee braces

I know the Randall does. Im thinking about buying some this year, i have never really hurt my knees other than tweaking one once but would like to prevent this injury from ever happening. What is the best type for wakeboarding.
thanks

Do a search for knee braces for types and opinions it has been discussed to death. I prefer CTI's.

yeah it would be nice for everyone to just go and pick up some CTIs but the price tag is to much when insurance doesn't cover it. Look at the motocross braces evs web, fox pod mx, asterisk cell. they are all off the self but are very good quality braces.

I tweaked mine a few months ago too and it put a little scare into me. I've been looking at the neoprene sleeves, They are obviously less protective, But a far less expensive knee protector.

X2 for the EVS WEB nice off the shelf carbon fiber brace for around $400.00.

just a reminder to the kids out there, always have your brace fitted by a doc, otherwise you are doing more harm than good.

i thought randall blew his knees. didnt know they were preventative

I started a thread about this last summer. My knees started hurting at night and one day I tweaked one a bit. So I asked about preventative knee braces. What i gathered is that if you are going to do the brace get it fitted by a doctor or you risk breaking a leg or somthing from improper fit. I also learned that the braces reached up into the thousand dollar range to get a good one (do not remember if that was for a pair or a single brace). From what I understood a brace would help against blowing out a knee more than cumulative impact damage, although it did help with both. I chose the less expensive option and got two sleeves for ten each. My primary concern was knee soreness from cumulative impacts and I was told the sleeve would help with that at least. I am just hoping I do not completly land wrong.
Anyhow, I would suggest at the very least getting some sleeves. If you dont have impact issues yet you will. They helped my knees not be sore at night. As far as the brace.... If you have the money go for it. I would if I could.

just to add to this because my knees have been my primary focus over the last two years:

1. the bulk of the protection (>90%) of a custom fitted brace is to prevent catastrophic knee failure (read hyperextension or dislocation) on knees that do not have an acceptable level of stability and/or strength

2. knees that have (as deemed by a doctor through a number of standardized tests) sufficient stability and strength may or may not be aided by the addition of a knee brace. Studies have shown that knee injuries after an initial ACL surgery are about equal between those wearing braces and those without (wish I had the reference, but I don't and I don't have the time to search, maybe tonight). Other studies have shown that in a number of cases major ligament damage can be caused by improperly fit or improperly installed braces on impacts that would have otherwise likely yielded no injury.

3. Any comfort or treatment provided by a neoprene brace is 100% a result of the compression the knee brace provides. This type of knee brace is as similar to a CTI style brace as wakeboarding is to golf. They offer none of the same protection. However, in many cases this compression offers significant pain relief by restricting blood flow and decreasing swelling.

4.I've found that icing my knees every night after riding along with a strong preseason base of strength training (squats, lunges, hamstring curls, NO LEG EXTENSIONS, and dead lifts) have gotten my knees into the best shape ever, even post ACL surgery. I've taken hits no 26 year old knees were ever designed to withstand (20 footer onto flat ice for example) on the ski hill. My icing routine is pretty simple- 20 pound bag of ice into a trash can. Fill it up with water. Stand in it for 12 minutes. It sucks, but I never miss a night.

If you want to keep your knees, get in the gym, don't get a brace.

Whats wrong with leg extensions???

Sorry for the hijack.

One last thing, this has been such a routine since recovery that I don't even think of it as out of the ordinary. If your not doing plyometrics, it's time to start. On a 1-10 scale if a knee brace is a 1, flexibility is a 7, and strength training is a 5, plyometrics is a 10 no doubt.

Here's a reference:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8947398

You'll find over 100 funded research papers on this topic if you google it. This one isn't up for debate, ask any girls soccer coach.

Box jumps, lateral jumps, one legged bounding, figure 8s (not really a plyo), etc. Shouldn't be doing this more than twice a week- I try to limit my touches (jumps) to less than 150 per week.

EDIT: Just saw the leg extensions comment. First, leg extensions are a totally unnatural movement, in no sport do you ever fire your leg muscles in that fashion (hamstring curls and squats simulate wakeboarding to a T). Second, leg extensions put a high amount of strain on the knee ligaments to accomplish any real muscle work (because the quad is so much stronger than the hamstring- this is one reason why hamstring curls are still ok- dead lifts are better for you than hamstring curls though, but then you bring back problems into the equation). Third, they only isolate your quads, which usually are too strong in relationship to your hamstrings anyways.

I AM NOT A DOCTOR. TAKE EVERYTHING I'VE SAID WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. I'M JUST A GUY WHOSE SPENT 2 YEARS THINKING ABOUT HIS KNEES EVERYDAY.

(Message edited by joe_crawley on February 10, 2009)

Great info Joe. thanks a lot. plyometrics sounds like a much better deal than $1000 per knee brace.....on a side note this issue seems to be similar to the topic of whether wearing a helmet is good or bad......

I am not a fan of the preventative knee braces. I looked into this quite a bit a number of years ago. Things may have changed, but back in the 90s the feedback I got was that it will cause more damage than it prevents. The braces will tend to hold you leg in the twisted position rather than letting it return to its normal allignment. In the end causing much more damage than you would have if you were not wearing a brace.

Best bet is to strengthen your legs and stabilizing muscles.

Thank you for typing preventive and not preventative in your title. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. Call it obsessive, but I hate when people can't use correct grammar and spelling in their posts.

Carry on.

i wear a brace. my friend is a doctor and treats the worlds greatest athletes. olympic, nhl,nfl,mlb, boxing, you name it. i tweaked mine last winter. he told me to get one. if you have no injuries, plyos and working out should be fine w/o a brace. if you have a slight injury, get one.

As a strength coach who works with lots of athletes everyday I have to second everything Joe said, especially the leg extension. Its not that its a bad exercise/machine, its that you just don't need it. Spend more time on natural movements: squats, lunges, step ups, the things your legs are designed to do. I personally don't like leg curls much either, I prefer RDL's, olympic lifts and glute/hams to activate the hamstrings. Strengthen the muscles around your knees and you will have a longer career on the water. It won't completely prevent but it does help.

Out of curiosity, if its so bad to wear them as a preventive measure why do many of the college football linemen were them? What's the rational, is it that much different than Wakeboarding?

i think it because of the impact from the other players.my friend tore his acl, pcl, and mcl playing football because one of his own guys fell on him, he said a second earlier or later his foot would have been in the air and he would have been fine. if you wear a brace it makes you weaker. ive been at seminars where doctors have proven this on stage. that being said, that more sleeve/wrap types. the csi holds the knee joint in place, not the muscles.... so in my opinion, its not as bad

"if its so bad to wear them as a preventive measure why do many of the college football linemen were them?"

Those dudes are huge, at least 265. They are pushing other ~300 pound guys and the strains their knees see isn't anywhere near the strains ours see. However, that's not why they wear them.

The reason they wear them is because they have people falling awkwardly on their knees very frequently. They never see the impact before it happens so they have no time to prepare for it. The knee brace takes away agility but in their case it is well worth it to protect against dislocations.

You'll notice that no athletes that rely on their agility will be wearing one on the football field- running backs, d back, receivers, etc.