Knee Braces?

I ran a donjoy or whatever they're called after I had my ACL done a few years back. I guess it helped. I still use it skiing. I'd say there's better, less bulky, lighter ones out now. Check motocross and skiing stuff.

I'm running a CTI. Pretty nice. Insurance covered it.

3 months is pretty quick to start putting in jeopardy IMO.

CTI for sure, and I highly agree with Tomacdaddy. I waited about 6 months and made sure that I was really comfortable on it. Just because it doesn't hurt anymore does not mean that it is ready for the stress and strain of DH riding.

I have had a complete knee blowout, i.e. knee went backwards and I kicked myself in the face. I have also torn, ripped, snapped, strained, dislocated, snapped kneecaps, etc. Basically whatever you can do wrong to a knee, I have done.

Quad and hamstring strengthening for sure, get a bike for the road and do some decent miles, obviously building up mileage, and take proper care of it.

The knee is one if the worst joints to rush and is very prone to re-injury.

CTI braces are usually covered by insurance, especially since you had reconstructive surgery.

I hated the knee guards, i had a donjoy as well, it worked fine, but IMO (not a doctor) it wasnt worth the risk, so i ditched it and run knee pads (which i prefer) I am not convinved the donjoy will save my ACL with what i do, so id rather protect it from the normal crashes i get. Also tried a bregg, i thought it was worse than the donjoy

I had my right knee reconstructed. acl, mcl, minuscuses and had my knee cap shaved. I liked my donjoy. People can say what they want, but keep wearing it. Three months is still pretty early to be full blown dh riding. I did A LOT of road riding to get my muscles back and to keep my full rom.

I used a CTI2 with a modified 661 kyle strait knee pad(all the side padding removed) and it worked awesome. Used the knee brace for the first year of recovery and haven't used it since.

Yes, get one. You want to prevent re-injuring it. Like others have said insurance will cover it. Or if you have a high deductible plan, you'll probably meet your deductible.

Ossur bought CTI, but it is still called the CTI brace.

http://www.ossur.com/lisalib/getfile.aspx?itemid=12669

I jacked my PCL so I require an additional piece over the calf which doesn't allow me to bend my knee as much as I'd like for MTB. Otherwise they state: "CTi has no rigid components across the posterior (back) side of the brace, so you won’t experience pinching or cramping when pedaling." Plus they have a patella cup which is like wearing a knee pad.

I think it makes my knee more stable and gives more confidence than without.

They are fully custom to your leg. Don't even bother with OTC brands....if you value your knee.

Oh, and in addition to strength building, you need to stretch, too. Very important! I found a lot of pain went away after properly stretching after working out.

i cant read this thread... every post made me cringe! Heal fast guys!

has anyone used the patella cup? Would love to know if it offers sufficient protection...

Speedgoat9 said:

has anyone used the patella cup? Would love to know if it offers sufficient protection...

Click to expand...

I use it and yes it offers sufficient protection. I've crashed a few times on it (not too hard). You obviously don't want to crash very hard on your injured knee. This is the only pic I can find w/ me wearing my brace that you can actually see the brace...

I had a Townsend made when I was rehabing from my ACL reconstruction. But I didn't like riding with it. Still, I stuck with it for a year, but after that, the reconstructed ligament is full strength and a brace is useless.

I seem to remember an older thread on here where where people were talking a lot about a custom Astrisk moto brace. From what I remember on their site, it's similar to my Townsend, with a clip-on protective knee cap/cup... look em' up. Come to think of it, I think that's what Barel used a couple of years ago when he came back from his knee injury.

Oh, and the best prevention is aggressive rehab. really really aggressive (as in lots of high quality rehab, not violent exercise)

As others have said, 3 months is way too soon to be doing something like downhill. I was told that 3 months out, the graft is pretty much at half strength and it is much easier to re-tear. As for knee braces, I use a donjoy skiing and it seems to work great...I've never needed it though, knock on wood.

+1 for Astrisk if you can't get insurance to buy you a CTI brace. I wore an Astrisk when riding moto and it was very comfortable and protective.

I ride moto with the POD K700 (distributed by Fox here in the states) and it's comfy enough that I could ride dh in them. The tracking patella guard offers good protection, and its removable if you wanted to come up with your own custom protection.

http://www.podmx.com/