Is continuing to wear a tennis brace a good idea?

[acer]

I have had some bouts of tennis elbow over the years (pain of course on top of elbow). It is healed but it still gets sore. I read here (see below) that you shouldn't become dependent on wearing a tennis elbow brace. I am assuming they are suggesting that you should play without a brace and let the elbow muscles build strength.

http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/tennis_elbow/

"However, adhere to the following caution: do not become dependent on the counter-force brace and gradually wean yourself off its use"

Does anybody have any good advice or information on this? I occasionally have tried playing without a brace and my arm is more sore afterwards than when I play with a brace. I was just wondering if I should try to play without a brace more often and build up muscle strength in it. I should say that I stretch my arm well and do do some muscle strength training.

Thanks

Acer

[tbini87]

anytime you use a brace for support (wrist, ankle, elbow, whatever...) the muscles work less and therefore weaken. if you always use the brace then your arm never has a chance to get back to normal strength. if you want to wean yourself off of it, then slowly use it less and less. for example: play without it for 15 minutes of practice the first week (put it on after the 15 minutes to not cause major arm pain). the next week play without it for 30 minutes of practice then put on the brace. the 3rd week you might be able to get 45 minutes (and if not, go slow as to not cause pain or injury) and so on. hopefully you will be waned completely off of it, or you will need it less often. also any excercises you can do on your own to strengthen the muscles might help as well! good luck.

[LuckyR]

I have to respectfully disagree. Unless your arm only gets exercise during playing tennis, you will not "weaken" your arm by wearing a brace while playing, even if the arm is healed. The reason, IMO to stop using it are a bit different, firstly, why use something that interferes (however small) with your natural stroke? Secondly, although you may get pain after your arm is healed, I bet it is more likely to be from scar tissue stretching (if it is truly healed) than from reinjury. Naturally there is no way to verify this, but it has worked for me.