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I’m not sure that using braces for injuries is the best way to go about ‘getting better’ after an injury. In fact, I’d highly recommend not using a brace if you can avoid it. I understand depending where you are in life, you may feel a brace necessary.

Kinda funny and hard to understand if you weren’t an athlete but, some athletes wear braces simply because it makes them stand out a little, it makes them feel cool. Which I understand doesn’t sound possible or accurate but spending most of my life as an athlete I can tell you from experience.

Then of course when we have any type of injury the first thing we look for is relief of any kind. A brace is usually the easiest and first recommendation from friends and family but one I’d say to stay away from.

Now I’m not saying go against your doctor or any recommendation from a physiotherapist. I don’t know your exact situation or circumstance. What I’m commenting on here is the average type of person that tweaks a muscles and feels the need for a brace which actually does more damage than good.

Think about a back brace for example while lifting weights, in this case I’m not talking about power lifting or even protecting yourself from injury. I’m saying some people wear braces from prevention, however in this case, you are actually weakening your back muscles by wearing this brace.

I have 5 more tips in the show that include:

• Go to rehab. The best thing you can do is work through your injury, and stop avoiding your physiotherapist.
• braces are expensive, take up ups space and even take extra time to put on and take off. Now this isn’t any type of excuse to use if you need one, however I strongly feel most that wear braces don’t actually need one.
• You weaken the muscles around the injury by wearing a brace instead of letting your body naturally heal as one unit.
• If you absolutely need a brace on one side of your body (knee for example), wear a brace on the other side too, so you can prevent injury from the over compensation of the other side.
• You body will become reliant on the brace, which is another reason to try to stay away from them.

Once again, I’m not saying ‘don’t wear a brace’ if you doctor of physio told you to wear one. What I’m saying is, if you have any kind of tweak (which isn’t always a full blown injury) do your best to stay away from a brace if you can. You may find, in the long run a brace does more damage than good.

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