Do neoprene braces help an ache?

By Therese Iknoian

A longtime runner and sports enthusiast, Chris Newbound knew about how to work out smart. He was entrenched in fitness day-in and day-out as editor of a regional sports magazine, and that got him through the Los Angeles Marathon in March 1992 at age 33 without a hitch.

Surprises happen. It was a mere tweek he felt in his knee four months later while playing with his baby daughter. Nothing more. No big deal. He just skipped running for a couple of days.

A week later, the athlete's nightmare struck. During a friendly basketball game, Newbound was driving down the court to the basket. Then he stopped. At least most of him stopped.

"It felt as if my knee kept going, and my body stopped," he recalls. Next thing he knew he was on the ground in incredible pain. Long story short, he'd severed his anterior cruciate ligament. That's the thick cord of fibrous material that's mostly responsible for holding together your knee.

Newbound's injury is not an unusual one. The knee, it seems, just isn't built to withstand the impact, pressures, turns and twists we apply. There isn't even a regular, sturdy, bone-to-bone connection. Here we have our whole body being supported and propelled by a thigh bone sort of balanced on top of the lower leg bones, all of which is held in place by a few muscles, tendons and ligaments.

One wrong move, like Newbound's, and the whole contraption goes haywire. Our fragile knees are in fact the most frequently injured part of our bodies, according to an American Physical Therapy Association survey.

Overuse injuries or strains sneak up on unwitting victims who do too much, too soon, too often, or just repeat the same activity too many times. On the other hand, traumatic injuries, such as ligament tears, happen all at once, heralding their arrival with a sharp pain.

With proper care, both can be avoided. A little extra TLC when you've got a minor strain can kept it from becoming a major nightmare like Newbound's.

You've seen those neoprene braces with little windows for your kneecap on runners and gym rats alike. They seem to help steady the kneecap, or patella, and help you if you have a really minor strain or mild nagging ache.

The sleeves help in two ways: through the skin's sense of touch and because of the warmth provided.

• First, the body can respond to sensations without you consciously telling it to do something. If you're wearing a knee sleeve, a natural tension is placed on the knee, and your body responds by keeping it in line. That's the same reflex as with high-top shoes. The shoes don't support your ankles as much as they provide a subconscious remainder to straighten up.
• Second, anytime you cover up, you stay warmer. The sleeves, in this case, work like knee gloves, keeping your soft tissue supporting the knee joint warm and pliable. The best treatment is to keep your knees strong and your thighs (front and back) flexible. Try partial wall sits to strengthen the muscles that keep the knee cap and leg bones in place. Here’s how:
• Stand with your back to a wall and your heels a foot or two from it. Lean back against the wall and slide your back straight down. The angle behind your knee should not be less than about 130 degrees; that's where your quadriceps muscle in the front of your thigh does the most work. Hold for a few seconds or until you start to feel the muscle. Release and repeat.

Those, knees. Fragile joints that can turn on you in a moment. Don’t take them for granted.