Best Knee Braces for Hiking
Hiking is one of those activities where you can enjoy an outdoor adventure all while spending more time with your friends and family. It’s also a social activity where you get to hang out with other people, especially during the weekends.
For some, however, it can be a serious activity to which they dedicate a lot of their time.
Regardless of skill level, there’s a persistent issue that plagues just about any hiker. Yes, you got it right. We’re talking about knee pain, an annoying nuisance that can happen anytime whenever you go hiking and has the tendency to happen anytime you go up a slope.
Luckily, it’s possible to do away with this problem for good, and it’s by using a knee brace designed for hiking. However, your option isn’t just limited to a single knee brace, as there are several types of knee braces on the market. Knowing which is the right type for you is important, but the choosing part can be a bit complicated at times.
Why It’s Important to Choose the Right Knee Brace for Hiking
Knee pain during hiking or any related physical activity that involves the legs can be attributed to the following:
✅ Going down a slope
✅ Wearing a heavy backpack
✅ Poorly fitted footwear
As you go downhill, you’re placing a lot of pressure on your knee joints, roughly around 3-6x more than your body weight, and it’s not even including your backpack yet. This explains why it’s the major culprit for knee pain during hiking.
In the case of a heavy backpack, carrying around luggage with too much weight will add further strain to your knees regardless of whether you’re going uphill or downhill.
Then we have poorly fitted footwear. While it might not seem obvious, wearing the wrong footwear can actually cause knee pain. But aside from that, it can also lead to pain in both your feet and legs.
This explains why it’s really important that you wear the right knee brace that’s designed for hiking, camping, or backpacking.
However, when you add a knee brace into the equation, you can actually relieve your knees of pain by giving them their much-needed support without limiting your movement or hindering your flexibility. But just like wearing the right footwear, you should also pick the right knee brace, and we’re here to help you.
