To wear or not to wear knee pads, sleeves or braces? Knee Health

A few years back it was announced that all NFL players were required to wear knee and thigh pads whether they like it or not, because wearing of these pads will boost the player safety. This NFL decision caused huge debate among athletes and the NFL because not everyone were satisfied with this decision. But if the NFL rules that their players must wear knee pads or they cannot play it begs to question the grounds for this decision. So I thought it would be smart to look at what the research says which will help us determine if knee pads, sleeves and braces actually are that effective at protecting our knees and if we all should think about wearing them.

  • A study done in 1995 which was published in Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine proved that guards in this case soccer shin guards reduced the risk of injury by disspersing the force of impact. The authors of this study simulated the force that players shins get when they are kicked by another player and the results were recorded with the help of a dummy. In the end it was determined that guard reduced the force of the kick by a minimum of 42% meaning that these type of protective guards really are efficient.

  • An article written in 1998 and published in Sports Medicine Magazine says that different forms of external padding can save athletes from injury. In this article specifically the author wrote about how this type of padding affects rugby players and determined that although external padding cannot stop injury completely from happening, if the pads are well-fitting then they can greatly disperse the force of the impact and significantly reduce the severity of the injury and the possibility of soft tissue damage.

  • Then a study done in 2000 also researches how shin guards can prevent tibia fracture by evaluating the effectiveness of multiple different shin guards. In the study 23 of at that time commercially available guards were tested with the help of a dummy leg and it was determined that all shin guards reduced the risk of tibia fracture by reducing the force of impact caused by falling from various different heights on average by about 14%.

  • A 2008 study found that people with bad joints do benefit from knee braces as well as from neoprene knee sleeves. This study put to a test knees of 64 patients and 4 different tests were done on each patient that resulted in conclusion that bracing of patient knees really do help those who have bad and fatigued knees.

  • In 2011 a study on knee sleeve impact on people with osteoarthritis was conducted to find out if elastic knee sleeves actually help with pain and functional capacity management. 74 four patients were assessed in three different tests and it was determined that the patients did experience less pain when they were using the knee sleeve as well as there was improvement in the functional capacity of their knees.

  • And lastly in a 2012 study published in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research tested how knee wraps affect the performance of the knees. In the study ten men were tested who were specially trained in resistance and the researchers determined that the knee wraps did help with mechanical output of the knees meaning that the joints were working with less pressure applied to them and the participants found it much easier to do actions like squatting for example.

So if we consider all of these studies and articles then we can clearly see that things like knee pads, wraps and sleeves are indeed efficient and should be worn especially in case of an injury, different knee conditions or if you will be doing actions that might result in injury to your knees. Of course you need to know which type of knee protective gear you should wear in each situation because a knee pad won’t do much good if you have osteoarthritis or a knee sleeve won’t be able to efficiently prevent a football injury however if you do know which type of preventive measure is worn when then you will be able to keep your knees safe and healthy no matter what activities you do.

knee sleeve running


Mathew Foster

I am Mathew Foster – an enthusiast of sports who not only regularly practices different sports, but also has a deep interest in it.

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