Knee braces are used by athletes to recover and people who recently have faced a knee repair or serious injury. A general issue while using them is their constant sliding or slipping down the leg. There are many occasions when you need to struggle a lot with using a knee brace and can irritate you while you are in a field or gym. However, there are some good tricks to get answers to how to keep knee brace from slipping down.
Why Knee Braces is Slipping Down?
The reasons behind the Slipping of Knee Braces;
The phenomena of knee braces sliding down the knees is known as distal migration in the medical profession. Many people wonder, why it is happening even after the fact that they have worn it well. It is all because of the gravitational force that pulls every strap attached to the knee brace.
Distal migration is also happening if the circumference of your calf is less than the thigh’s one. In this condition, the knee brace appears to take the shape of an upside-down traffic cone. So, slips can occur because for many people thigh is thicker in the leg.
Not limited to these, the other reasons would be wearing a knee brace for a long amount of time or a silicon anti-slip apparatus can’t be attached to it.
How to keep Knee Brace from Slipping Down?
You can prevent the knee brace from slipping down the legs up to a great extent. It can be done by taking proper measures and following the right tips as below;
1. Choosing the Right Style
Get proper advice from your physical therapist or an experienced doctor about which size of knee brace would fit right. For example, people who are suffering from mild knee sprain need to wear the only sleeve. However, others need large knee braces to recover from a serious problem.
It might be possible that days before you are suggested to use a large knee brace by a health expert due to much swelling around the knee, but. Now the swelling is no more present, hence there is enough space left for a knee brace to slip down on your leg. So, the first step to deal with a slipping knee brace is to get it checked by your healthcare expert.
2. Must Fit at the Proper Place on Leg
Most people wear a knee brace wrongly on a leg, so it would lead to the main cause of its slipping down! Here are the tips to deal with it;
Roll up the pants on the place or side where you need to place the knee brace. It can help you to directly attach the brace to your skin and hence lessen the possibility of its sliding.
Place your foot through the brace from the top and slide it still it will be placed well right at the center of the injured knee.
If you are using a wrapping brace then put the brace behind the knee and wrap it all over the leg. Place the inner pad against the knee. Secure the brace by winding the straps over the remaining brace.
3. Changing the Brace When Required in Rehab
Braces are made to perform only some activities. So athletes, during the progression of their recovery process might need to switch from the restrictive brace to a flexible one. It is to enjoy more range of motion. In this way, distal migration needs to be avoided so that athletes can well return to the ground for practice and play.
4. Prefer to Wear Compression Pants
You can lessen the possibility of friction that can happen among the knee and the brace by wearing compression pants. These are meant to offer good support to the knee and helps the brace from slipping down.
5. Use of Adhesive
Skin will become sensitive for people who are in a recovery process from surgery. So generally many people fix their a bit looser on their leg to avoid the possibility of skin irritation from happening. Hence, you can fill this gap by using few adhesive bandages beneath the straps of the brace. In this way, you can make sure that the brace is in the right place and would not make you feel irritated skin.
These tips and techniques are highly suggested solutions to ‘how to keep knee brace from slipping down’. Hence, you can lessen down distal migration as much as possible. In this way, even with ankle braces, you can feel free to perform your daily activities, workouts, and physical therapy.
Conclusion
You can take the most benefit of using a knee brace only if you will place it well in the right position on your legs and avoid coming it to the ankles. Always follow what an Expert will say regarding wearing the same. In this manner, you can lessen the possibility of facing a repeat injury, and discomfort nearby your knee as well as speed up your recovery process.
Do not be overactive or push yourself harder to avoid slipping of the brace or increase your injury. Try to keep lesser weight on your leg by having the brace. You can keep a cane or crutches to get yourself reminded about it.
Be steady and slow in your movements and do not attempt to bend your knee more to avoid sliding of the brace. After taking all the initial steps and making sure you are wearing one among the right-sized best Knee Braces in the correct position. You can sure follow the above-mentioned tips for effective results!