Knee Wraps/Support

Something I have been noticing lately with my boarding is that my knees seem to be holding me back somewhat.  I have had a few issues with them in the past, tore a medial ligament surfing a few years ago but that has been fine ever since really.  I just find when I’m riding that after about 4 hours my knees are kinda over landings and also are painful when it comes to getting ready to pop. 

I think it is a result of a few things, number one being I’m tall and have long legs, I’m also quite heavy at around 107kgs.  Due to my efforts in the gym I’m probably a fair bit heavier than I would have been without hypertrophy training.  My legs are not that strong as I have a trouble training them, I get to around a 90degree bend in the leg and it starts to get a little painful around the sides of my kneecap.  I don’t get fluid buildup or anything like that but they crack and pop when I squat down even with just bodyweight.

From ther forums I have read that a lot of people have success working around these sort of problems by using knee wraps.  They allow them to hold the knee together and give it support to allow their muscles to get stronger around it.  I wanted to know if anyone here has used knee wraps while riding or any other sort of support?  When I did my medial I was wearing a brace for a few weeks that was quite good but is too bulky and cumbersome to wear boarding.  If anyone has any links to products etc it would be appreciated.

I am considering it might be worthwhile seeing someone about it to ensure there are no underlying problems with the knee.  I have started a fairly comprehensive training regime, something I have neglected and seems to be helping.  I am trying to strengthen the muscles around it and doing bodyweight exercises as well as cutting my losses and deciding to trim down to under 100kgs in an effort to help.  I’m weighing up my priorities and I get more joy out of snowboarding and surfing rather than being a big unit so it’s function over “fashion” from here on I reckon.

I don’t think wraps or compression is the answer to your problem. when you bend you bring the knee cap inwards and any more compression will just add to that. it sounds like there is just quite a bit of mechanical strain on the knees. sometimes you can’t categorize every knee problem into “patellar tenosynovitis” or “mcl strain” etc, sometimes they are just simply overused or overstressed resulting in micro trauma that is just not healing up. my suggestion for the long term, since you are already a work out oriented person (it seems) is to work on shedding some mass and increasing the functional ability of your legs. by that i mean engaging in rigorous stretching of the illiotibial band, quads and hamstrings (tons of good stretches on YouTube) and strengthening the muscles as well. i wouldn’t do squats or any major power exercises like that, snowboarding is not a power sport its an endurance one. i would do leg extensions (one leg at a time) 20 -25 reps to failure, and hamstring curls as well.

also, yes i would definitely go to someone to get the knees assesssed, over the internet our info is incomplete so any recommendations we make are of course very general.

Here is my 2 cents..
I agree, I dont think the a knee brace/support will help with the underlying cause. If anything, it may slightly help symptomatically- your knee may feel supported. But, that’s all!
I would go to a physiotherapist and get it assessed. The physio will do specific tests on your knees to diagnose the problem. If its a biomechanical problem, thats amenable to physio as well.
Strengthening is always good- just ensure your technique is correct. Some leg strengthening exercises, if not done correctly, can increase the load through your knee joint, instead of loading the quadriceps muscle.
Keep me posted.

Thanks for the input guys, I think it might be time to put my private health insurance to some use, been paying for it for the last few years but as yet haven’t claimed anything much at all.  Not to sure on a decent sports physio in Melbourne, any recommendations would be appreciated.

As far as strengthening my leg muscles go I’m leaning towards bodyweight exercises although when I start doing them it’s a little painful until the joint is warmed up.  Normal leg session used to look something like this

5 mins on the erg to warm up

Squats
1x 10 with barbell only
1 x 8 with 40kgs
1 x 8 with 80kgs
2 x 8 with 100kgs

Stiff Legged Deadlift
1 x 10 40kgs
1 x 8 80kgs
2 x 8 100kgs

Standing Calf Raises
4 x 20 50kgs

Leg press
3 x 8 160kgs
1 x 8 120kgs

Leg Extension
4 x 8 60kgs

Seated Calf Raises
3 x 8 70kgs
1 x 8 50kgs

Leg Curl
4 x 8 40kgs

After that I had trouble walking out of the joint without my legs shaking but my legs grew better than they ever had before.  The downside being my knees were starting to not enjoy it so much.  Squatting I only ever did to parallel as any lower was somewhat painful.  I noticed a little bit of discomfort with leg extension as well, I personally don’t feel like it does your knees any favours as there is nothing that you would do naturally in that ROM with load.  The same could be said of leg curls but these don’t hurt.  Since I was getting knee issues I pretty much quit doing legs heavy and then came around to just using bodyweight.  When I do legs these days it looks something like this.

Start off with some standing dynamic core work to get the blood pumping, swinging from side to side, the hand in the air and other hand sliding down towards your knee (dunno the name) and some hip rotations (my girlfriend thinks these are hilarious)

50 aside high knee lifts (seems to be good for the adductors and getting some ROM through the knee without load)

20 wide stance squats

60 calf raises (10 slow, 10 fast)

20 walking lunges (10 aside)

10 burpees

I do 3-4 rotation of this treating the lot as one set with no rest between the different exercises.

Afterwards I do about 15 mins stretching.  I have been doing this once sometimes twice a week for the last 6 weeks or so but before that hadn’t really trained legs much for about 5 months.  It seems to be helping somewhat but I still have some pain, I hadn’t been stretching for a long time prior to this and am very tight when it comes to stretching out my quad and the knee area.  I’m thinking that stretching everyday would probably be of some benefit as it’s pretty bad right now.

Any ideas on other exercises or possible stretches I should be doing would be helpful.  I’m still thinking that some support couldn’t hurt when boarding even if it is just hiding symptoms for now.

nthnbeachesguy - 23 September 2009 11:58 AM

Thanks for the input guys, I think it might be time to put my private health insurance to some use, been paying for it for the last few years but as yet haven’t claimed anything much at all.  Not to sure on a decent sports physio in Melbourne, any recommendations would be appreciated.

As far as strengthening my leg muscles go I’m leaning towards bodyweight exercises although when I start doing them it’s a little painful until the joint is warmed up.  Normal leg session used to look something like this

5 mins on the erg to warm up

Squats
1x 10 with barbell only
1 x 8 with 40kgs
1 x 8 with 80kgs
2 x 8 with 100kgs

Stiff Legged Deadlift
1 x 10 40kgs
1 x 8 80kgs
2 x 8 100kgs

Standing Calf Raises
4 x 20 50kgs

Leg press
3 x 8 160kgs
1 x 8 120kgs

Leg Extension
4 x 8 60kgs

Seated Calf Raises
3 x 8 70kgs
1 x 8 50kgs

Leg Curl
4 x 8 40kgs

After that I had trouble walking out of the joint without my legs shaking but my legs grew better than they ever had before.  The downside being my knees were starting to not enjoy it so much.  Squatting I only ever did to parallel as any lower was somewhat painful.  I noticed a little bit of discomfort with leg extension as well, I personally don’t feel like it does your knees any favours as there is nothing that you would do naturally in that ROM with load.  The same could be said of leg curls but these don’t hurt.  Since I was getting knee issues I pretty much quit doing legs heavy and then came around to just using bodyweight.  When I do legs these days it looks something like this.

Start off with some standing dynamic core work to get the blood pumping, swinging from side to side, the hand in the air and other hand sliding down towards your knee (dunno the name) and some hip rotations (my girlfriend thinks these are hilarious)

50 aside high knee lifts (seems to be good for the adductors and getting some ROM through the knee without load)

20 wide stance squats

60 calf raises (10 slow, 10 fast)

20 walking lunges (10 aside)

10 burpees

I do 3-4 rotation of this treating the lot as one set with no rest between the different exercises.

Afterwards I do about 15 mins stretching.  I have been doing this once sometimes twice a week for the last 6 weeks or so but before that hadn’t really trained legs much for about 5 months.  It seems to be helping somewhat but I still have some pain, I hadn’t been stretching for a long time prior to this and am very tight when it comes to stretching out my quad and the knee area.  I’m thinking that stretching everyday would probably be of some benefit as it’s pretty bad right now.

Any ideas on other exercises or possible stretches I should be doing would be helpful.  I’m still thinking that some support couldn’t hurt when boarding even if it is just hiding symptoms for now.

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CTi® knee braces provide the ultimate combination of stabilisation and protection of the knee joint.

Top knee protection choice of athletes

Introduced in 1983 the CTi concept has evolved over time, the core philosophy remains unchanged - a static support system consisting of a rigid frame that will hold the bones in correct alignment, providing high levels of control to prevent instability. The constant development and improvement of this classic design is why the CTi remains the top choice of athletes and leading Clinical Specialists around the world.

Available types and versions of the CTi ligament brace

The CTi is available in Custom and off the shelf (OTS) models, with an additional “PCL” (posterior cruciate ligament) option for combined ligament instabilities. In addition, there is a choice of frames available for the Custom and OTS. The Custom is available in, Standard, Vapour, Pro Sport, Super Short and O/A.

The difference between the Standard and Pro Sport models of the CTi Off-the-shelf model

The OTS is available in Standard and Pro Sport models only. The main difference with the various models is in the number of layers used to construct the frames. The Pro Sport is designed for contact sports and thus has extra layers, whereas the Vapour is designed to be lighter in weight and thus has fewer layers.

The materials of the CTi knee braces

CTi is derived from the original materials it was constructed from, a Carbon fibre hand laminated rigid frame, with Titanium hinges. With the introduction of new patented “accurately tracking” hinges, “Accutrac®” titanium was replaced with stainless steel.

All models are made with non corrosive materials, making them ideal for water sports

Check these out NBG I have a pair and before I used CTi,s my days on the slopes were limited . Now I have no knee problems at all while wearing CTI,s