Sports knee support

[Mudball]

Have taken up squash and find it absolutely thrilling & exhausting. As the months have progressed, i am becoming more aggressive and am able to get to balls in deep area. This week played a few league games and took them to the distance. Played more than an hour yesterday. Unfortuantely, I am noticing that my knee is not loving it. My legs are built to carry weight around, not for speed. So not surprised that i now have a niggling pain just below the knee cap. It aches while i climb stairs or bend at the knees.

I notice a few of the players wearing knee supports. What is the advice here.. Can it be used for preventative measures?

 

[Canary_Yellow]

I had knee pain recently and wore a support for a little bit, just to give me confidence that it had sufficient stability and I wasn't going to damage it further.

I googled where I was feeling the pain, and based on that, you can get a rough diagnosis (amateur admittedly) of what the cause of the pain is. This might help guide you as to whether a support is likely to help. Obviously, a support is really there to improve stability where there is some kind of weakness. The best thing to do if there is some instability would be to speak to a physio and get exercises to strengthen to prevent injury, maybe in combo with a support.

The short answer though, is yes, supports can be used as a prevention measure, but it might not work if the support is not aiding the issue that is causing the pain!

 

[PJ87]

supports can help but must be a good fit

mine kept falling out of place and actually hurt my quad due to it

I gave up using it

however if you can get a decent one that stays in place they are a god send

 

[RichA]

Try and get a proper diagnosis. Relying on a knee support can cause more harm than good, especially if it's helping you hide the problem, rather than fixing it. Knees are complicated.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Give up squash

My knees are worn out after 40 years of crawling round on peoples kitchens floors. I can now feel pain on the inside edge of my left knee. I do wear a strap with 4 magnets inset into it just below the knee when playing golf. Call it snake oil, but without it 3 holes is enough to get my knees screaming. With the strap I can do 18 easily.

 

[Dando]

Sorry but getting your balls deep made me chuckle far too much!

I really must try and act my age

 

[clubchamp98]

Squash is just bad for your knees full stop.
A support might help short term but in the long term your knee will be thrashed.
I loved squash but gave up for the reason I could hardly walk the next day.

 

[greenone]

Play racketball instead less stressful on knees.

 

[Rooter]

No sport is bad for your knees, joints etc, sorry but that's just bad/old advice/wivestale. It hurts because you are stressing it in a way it is not used to. So you need to strengthen it. You may need to add in some rest for it to recover obviously and not flare up more, but I suggest you go see a physio, discuss your pain points and they will give you a program to fix it.

Supports and strapping etc are a short-term bandaid fix only masking or potentially even making the issue worse.

 

[spongebob59]

I suffer with VMO and one of the exercises the physio suggested was squats but it hurt too much to do them

 

[chrisd]

Knee supports do help. I snapped my ACL at football about 40 years ago, and couldn't play anymore but with a knee support with metal hinges down the sides I was able to play club tennis to a reasonable standard for about 12 years after that and before having surgery to fix it and then a move to golf

 

[spongebob59]

That backhand shot come in useful at golf ??

 

[HeftyHacker]

No sport is bad for your knees, joints etc, sorry but that's just bad/old advice/wivestale. It hurts because you are stressing it in a way it is not used to. So you need to strengthen it. You may need to add in some rest for it to recover obviously and not flare up more, but I suggest you go see a physio, discuss your pain points and they will give you a program to fix it.

Supports and strapping etc are a short-term bandaid fix only masking or potentially even making the issue worse.

Despite having a multitude of knee injuries over the years I'm firmly in this camp.

After dislocating my knee, tearing my meniscus and rupturing my ACL I used to strap my knee for every rugby training session and match and I started then tearing my hamstrings (which I'd put down to the surgeon having removed some to use as my new ACL).

Then I started to forget to strap it and noticed it felt miles better, less restricted and stronger etc. After that I never strapped it again and had the longest injury free period for years.

 

[Rooter]

Despite having a multitude of knee injuries over the years I'm firmly in this camp.

After dislocating my knee, tearing my meniscus and rupturing my ACL I used to strap my knee for every rugby training session and match and I started then tearing my hamstrings (which I'd put down to the surgeon having removed some to use as my new ACL).

Then I started to forget to strap it and noticed it felt miles better, less restricted and stronger etc. After that I never strapped it again and had the longest injury free period for years.

I have torn the cartilage 3 times in my left knee when I played rugby. Its why I stopped! I started running and everyone was 'oh you wont be able to' 'your knees wont take it' I now run approx 2000 miles a year... Knees have never been stronger! OK, it took me a while to build up to that! I didn't run over 5k for almost a year, I had to ice my knee after almost every run, but slowly and surely it got stronger.

Quick fix, or long term gains?

 

[spongebob59]

Bump.

Any recent recommendations?

 

[3offTheTee]

Not a recommendation but do not buy “we relieve” which is on Facebook and check for anything similar on Facebook. There are glowing recommendations but red Trust Pilot first

 

[Ians_sporting_bro]

I have torn the cartilage 3 times in my left knee when I played rugby. Its why I stopped! I started running and everyone was 'oh you wont be able to' 'your knees wont take it' I now run approx 2000 miles a year... Knees have never been stronger! OK, it took me a while to build up to that! I didn't run over 5k for almost a year, I had to ice my knee after almost every run, but slowly and surely it got stronger.

Quick fix, or long term gains?

That's a very disiplined approach, that I don't believe many would be prepared to persist with. Squash, which I note you haven't mentioned is a far more demanding form of exercise and I've known many who have simply had to give up recreational, or even serious come professional, squash because of knee issues! There are recreation sports with lower impact issues, such as Tennis (particularly Doubles) and Badminton, which also tend to provide a more social environment.

 

[Rooter]

Bump.

Any recent recommendations?

Fixing the problem is a million times better than masking the pain. What have you done to your knee?

 

[spongebob59]

Nothing, it just aches so I'm assuming wear and tear.