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I wore one one season after I sprained my ankle. But as soon as my ankle was no longer weak I stopped wearing it. I agree with you, you shouldn't have to permanently wear one.

That being said - when I was in college all of the linemen (or some group on the football team, I forget who) wore full blown knee braces like you would wear after an ACL surgery, but I think it was preventative.
Yea, those are usually preventative and they are made slightly different than ones you wear after an injury. I don't remember what the specific differences are though.
 
Knee braces are a bit different since there are ones that are kind of restrictive which are made out of neoprene and ones that hinged so they prevent hyperextension and dislocation. When you tear MCL, ACL, LCL, Meniscus or PCL it's kind of a must especially when tumbling since the chance of re-injury is so high. I have to tape my ankle usually as well because I broke my ankle and it healed wrong and I have scar tissue that makes tumbling hurt like a b.

I'm prone to ankle sprains on the Right ankle which is the one I also broke and I used to wear reeboks 99/early 2000s and they were great. Good support as a flyer/tumbler and jumping in them was fine. And they were affordable!! $29 woohoo [emoji106][emoji106]
 
Knee braces are a bit different since there are ones that are kind of restrictive which are made out of neoprene and ones that hinged so they prevent hyperextension and dislocation. When you tear MCL, ACL, LCL, Meniscus or PCL it's kind of a must especially when tumbling since the chance of re-injury is so high. I have to tape my ankle usually as well because I broke my ankle and it healed wrong and I have scar tissue that makes tumbling hurt like a b.

I'm prone to ankle sprains on the Right ankle which is the one I also broke and I used to wear reeboks 99/early 2000s and they were great. Good support as a flyer/tumbler and jumping in them was fine. And they were affordable!! $29 woohoo [emoji106][emoji106]
There are things you can do to make a knee brace not necessary. I know plenty of people who have returned to high level sport post ACL/MCL/etc tear without a brace, it usually is not needed. There are obviously outliers who may need it, but that's not the norm. A typical post-ACL reconstruction patient should only need the brace for 6-9 months after the surgery. But I see people continue to wear it for years and that just makes your knee even more prone to injury.
 
There are things you can do to make a knee brace not necessary. I know plenty of people who have returned to high level sport post ACL/MCL/etc tear without a brace, it usually is not needed. There are obviously outliers who may need it, but that's not the norm. A typical post-ACL reconstruction patient should only need the brace for 6-9 months after the surgery. But I see people continue to wear it for years and that just makes your knee even more prone to injury.

I know others who have strengthened and cleared to not use brace and then they re-tear their ACL and need another reconstruction. I personally wouldn't not wear mine but then again I'm a different case since I hyper extend really badly and always have and it only got worse when I hurt my knee and the only thing to stop from making it even worse and it not snapping back is my donjoy.
 
I know others who have strengthened and cleared to not use brace and then they re-tear their ACL and need another reconstruction. I personally wouldn't not wear mine but then again I'm a different case since I hyper extend really badly and always have and it only got worse when I hurt my knee and the only thing to stop from making it even worse and it not snapping back is my donjoy.
Those people typically do not continue to strengthen their knee after they are cleared. It's not something that you can just stop doing. To each their own, I'm just putting it out there that continuing to wear your brace longer than needed weakens the muscles around the joint and further increases the risk of injury. The PT in me is coming out strongly, I apologize lol.
 
Those people typically do not continue to strengthen their knee after they are cleared. It's not something that you can just stop doing. To each their own, I'm just putting it out there that continuing to wear your brace longer than needed weakens the muscles around the joint and further increases the risk of injury. The PT in me is coming out strongly, I apologize lol.

Haha that's ok! I can strengthen all I want and I'll still hyper extend lol I was born that way. I know some people don't continue with physio but I know 2 people who did and still retore. But could be other factors..I know there are a few different ways to fix an ACL so that could have been a factor.

I did physio for everrrrr for my ankle and it didn't help one iota. I probably would have been fine if they went in and cleaned out the scar tissue but this is canada lol
 
So talking with another coach I remembered (I think, so I apologize if I mess this up) a couple of Debbie Love's 'joint' lessons. Your body alternates between stability joints and mobility joints.

Going up your body:
ankles - mobility
knees -stability
hips - mobility
thorassic- stability
shoulders mobility
elbows stability
wrists mobility

So you can see they alternate purpose. The reason Debbie didn't like ankle braces is it made a mobility joint a stability joint. It gave it less motion and flexibility. So where does that force mobility to happen? Your knees. This seems like it would be the same issue.
God, she is good.

And wiggling each body part as you go down the list makes for an interesting dance.
 
My daughter has had 2 MCL tears, fractured and dislocated knee cap (same knee) by 11yr old. She was twisting and came down on a broken floor board at her old gym. She had a hard time w front tumbling forever after she was cleared and wore her brace for only practice when doing front tumbling. We got her out of that thing ASAP. Just weakens the muscles around the joints making them more susceptible to tear. She is also a bit flat footed like her dad making her ankles weak. If it's been a long week, we will once in a while tape it. I know girls in the gym who have a brace on every joint all season. SMH


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I landed funny once in an aerial and hurt my knee and someone suggested I wear a knee brace until it was healthy- bad advice. I couldn't NOT wear it. And I had to suffer through the pain of not wearing it, and ended up in physical therapy for 3 months. I did something to a ligament but it wasn't bad enough to have surgery. I have only wore my knee brace once since that and that was when I busted a tuck in warm ups and i could barely walk and needed to compete in 2 minutes. So I slapped it on for 2:30 minutes then ripped it right off ASAP. Currently easing myself off of my wrist brace after breaking my hand...


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My daughter has had 2 MCL tears, fractured and dislocated knee cap (same knee) by 11yr old. She was twisting and came down on a broken floor board at her old gym. She had a hard time w front tumbling forever after she was cleared and wore her brace for only practice when doing front tumbling. We got her out of that thing ASAP. Just weakens the muscles around the joints making them more susceptible to tear. She is also a bit flat footed like her dad making her ankles weak. If it's been a long week, we will once in a while tape it. I know girls in the gym who have a brace on every joint all season. SMH


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Is she wearing inserts? I have extremely flat feet and have to wear my orthodics for cheer. When your feet are flat, it actually tilts your ankle so instead of being straight across, they are offset, which in turn can make your knees twist inward and cause more knee problems, hip, and back problems. My physical therapist thought I was going to tear my ACL in cheer before I was going to do anything else to hurt myself, so I've been proactive with that and making sure I have my inserts

Go figure, the one time I didn't have them, I tore a tendon in my foot and was in a boot.
 
I find this conversation interesting because I did something to my knee toward the end of the season and bought a brace just to wear @ cheer so I could still stunt (stopped doing everything else). When I went to the doctor he told me he didn't know what was wrong, but I should wear the brace all the time until I could go to PT and they could figure out what was wrong.
On another note, PT finally contacted me a MONTH after my initial appointment... When I went in I was struggling to walk on it... Luckily the problem kind of fixed itself and just slowly got better (I wasn't actually wearing the brace). But if i had a more serious problem, it's ridiculous that it takes that long for them to get in touch with me.
 
I started PT in January 2 weeks after I hurt my knee and I'm still doing PT and it isn't really helping much. My ROM is good but I have pain all the time which sucks.
 
Is she wearing inserts? I have extremely flat feet and have to wear my orthodics for cheer. When your feet are flat, it actually tilts your ankle so instead of being straight across, they are offset, which in turn can make your knees twist inward and cause more knee problems, hip, and back problems. My physical therapist thought I was going to tear my ACL in cheer before I was going to do anything else to hurt myself, so I've been proactive with that and making sure I have my inserts

Go figure, the one time I didn't have them, I tore a tendon in my foot and was in a boot.
What type of inserts are you using that fit in cheer shoes? CP is very flat footed and already broke her ankle once in addition to stress fractures in both shins. Turns out it all relates to her flat feet.
 
What type of inserts are you using that fit in cheer shoes? CP is very flat footed and already broke her ankle once in addition to stress fractures in both shins. Turns out it all relates to her flat feet.
Orthodics!! Makes a huuge difference! I have extremely flat feet and its caused me so many problems as a gymnast and cheerleader. Although you can use like drug store shoe inserts, the wont be doing what your daughter needs. Custom orthodics can be a little pricey but its honestly so worth it. Realistically, us with flat feet should be wearing them in EVERY shoe, but of course i choose fashion over comfort most of the time and only wear them in cheer shoes :p
 
What type of inserts are you using that fit in cheer shoes? CP is very flat footed and already broke her ankle once in addition to stress fractures in both shins. Turns out it all relates to her flat feet.

I don't have orthotics, though if that's what she needs, get them cos they will make a world of difference. If she doesn't need them, I use super feet insoles in my evolutions, the lime green pair. I wore through the insole in those shoes way too long ago and didn't want to buy new ones, so they got me through the season. I also wear them in my ball cleats, hiking boots and my snowboard boots (pink ones). You can get them at camping/hiking and sporting good stores up here. I no longer have knee/ankle pain from running around everywhere on worn out insoles
 
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