The best knee brace for skiing bar none!! If skiing pisses off your knees please read

[M_R]

I wrote this reply to Hicks thread, but thought it deserved a thread of its own so I could share my experience with all you mags.

Best knee brace bar none for skiing are the motocross asterisk braces. They are off the shelf and use an old CTI mold but have a proprietary hinge and fastening system, these two proprietary systems is what makes these braces sooooo goooood!!

So my story is that I have had my right ACL redone twice and numerous cartilage tears. In the end my knee is ACL stable, but I am a candidate for a half knee replacement, as in 2008 I had less than 10% cartilage left in half my knee.

What I find is that the G2 or whatever it is called now, and the DonJoy are too restrictive. You put them on wrong and you piss the hell out of your knee, as they only bend in one degree of freedom. They are also designed to help with knee instability, ie no MCL, ALC etc. not overall knee support. My knee is stable. I've also tried the a custom brace that removes load from one side of your knee, same result, it sucked!!

My reconstructed ACL is rock solid, its just that heavy snow, deep pow, put too much grinding on my unprotected knee. Result: one day of brace-less skiing mean 3-4 down days due to swelling and a pissed off knee.

A couple of years ago I picked up used asterisk braces here on the TGR Gear swap, took off the armor platting for the patella, and gave them a try in wet east coast POW (the worst for my knee) and magic, no pain!!! Been skiing with then ever since, and have never had to hold back knowing that these things are protecting my knees!

How it works is that these things in my opinion, fasten better to your leg than any custom made brace, once on, they do not shift or move like the custom braces do after a day of skiing, providing all day worry free protection. Next they allow for the natural motion of your knee, so they don't constrain your motion to one degree of freedom like the custom braces do, in fact the Asterisk hinge is a floating hinge that moves in all directions, up, down, left right all around. What these braces do do, is absorb an unreal amount of load away from your knee allowing for pain free skiing. So effectively, your actual knee joint in theory is only experiencing some much lesser % of the load skiing puts on your knee when wearing the brace. The only caveate I would put in is that I cannot comment how these things hold up to and ACL deficiency as they do have quite a bit of movement in the brace joint. Now if you have a torn ACL, get it fixed and you won't need a brace. However, the asterisks do provide hyper-extension protection, and I'm sure some level of pivot shift protection for the ACL, if your concerned about that.

If skiing pisses off your knees, give the Asterisk Cell a try you will not regret it! They are off the shelf, cheaper than customs, fasten much better to your leg than customs and you get a left and right brace to boot. I actually wear both of them when skiing hard, even tho my good knee doesn't need one, but I figure better safe than sorry, as I know how sorry feels!

So bottom line, reduce the load on your knees and give them some protection when ripping the large lines or hucking the big drops.

http://www.asterisk.com/

PS: i just noticed that they have redesigned the fastening system on the Cell. My above comments are on the older gurdell type fastener the Cell used to have and that the current Youth Germ Brace uses. I'm sure the new system is probably as good, in fact I'm now thinking of getting an upgrade! as the old system has all these cords dangling off the back.

[skioride]

Thanks for the help. I'm getting fitted for a Don Joy Next week but would love something that's not custom fit so as my quad gets bigger the brace will still fit. I'll surely check it out.

[Freeskiken]

Hi, Anyone tried the new Asterisk Ultra Cell knee brace ?

[climberevan]

Check the moto forums for TONS of reviews and information. There are basically 3 big-name off the shelf braces marketed toward moto riders. I have worn the POD ones and own the Troy Lee ones. Based on my research either would be a better choice than the Asterisk. I don't want to beat on the Asterisk, as they have many fans, but it seems that most people who've tried others realize that they are more comfortable and a LOT easier to put on. The one thing that may be relevant here is that after you do finally get the Asterisks on I bet they stay in place better over the course of the day since they are almost a full sleeve.

Also, you'll learn that there is basically NO clinical data that proves knee braces can actually protect against injury in otherwise stable knees. MCL and LCL maybe, but ACL almost certainly not. The reason for this is that they have to strap on to your knee, and depend on the muscles and soft tissue--any force large enough to tear an ACL is going to just twist the entire brace on your leg.

KTMtalk.com & Thumpertalk.com have all the information you'll ever want on moto knee braces.

[Freeskiken]

Thanks, I have a custom brace for my right leg but I need something for my left knee but would not have time to get a custom brace made in time. I have arthritis in my left knee. I do not want to injure it more on this trip. I can get a Asterisk locally. I have heard that it may come down too low for a ski boot ? I am going to try it on and see.

The custom brace for my right leg has saved it from further damage. I have damaged it before trying to recover and swinging my ski out in front of me again and hitting it on the way back in front of me. Twisting my knee. I stopped wearing it one year and tore it sligtly again the same way. It also keeps my knee from rotating too far back. So I wear it all the time now.