Whatever reason you’re wearing a wrist brace for, there are some general bits of advice you should follow in getting the maximum benefit out of them.

First, make sure your wrist brace is the right size; ones you can buy at the drug store are usually specified as child, small, medium, large and extra large. These are generally measured by the circumference of the wrist they’re designed to go around and have a palm rest and a forearm length based on the average sized individual with that sized wrist. For 95% of people in the world, those wrist brace sizes are the right size. In cases where they aren’t the right size, it’s usually that they’re too small when wrapped around the forearm.

Next, check that you are tightening them in a way that will not aggravate your injury. Wrist braces help you by preventing you from accidentally flexing your wrist in a manner that would worsen your injury. The kind of injury you suffer will determine how much you can be moving your wrist.

If the wrist brace is used to fight tendonitis then it should be tightened to stop lateral movement of the wrist. By holding your hand out straight from your wrist, the plane is outlined by your thumb and pinkie should be the area that your wrist’s motion is confined within.

If you are dealing with carpal tunnel syndrome, you should limit the movement of your wrist from not bending downward whatsoever and upward by only a few degrees. You should make sure that you have appropriate padding in your wrist brace when managing carpal tunnel syndrome.

Wrist braces that are created to restrain the wrist because of a sprain must be able to totally restrain it in both areas of movement, and generally should cover more of the upper arm too because that is where the ligaments that manage wrist motion run, and might look like Ace bandages rather than a regular wrist brace.

Staying comfortable when wearing a wrist brace will require you to look for stuff on the inside surface such as seams or loose threads that may irritate the skin. Some individuals advise to wrap the hand and wrist and lower forearm in some gauze before wearing the wrist brace. This will provide a buffer, will absorb sweat, and will keep the seams for the brace from rubbing against your skin. Keep your wrist brace clean by washing it twice a week and you can even run it through the washer or dryer without damage.

Don’t over tighten your wrist brace. It should be snug, but should not constrict the blood flow to the wrist or hand. There’s a temptation in a lot of people to run the straps as tight as they can go. Put it on, tighten it up and do some routine work, then loosen appropriately. (As a hint, use a sharpie marker to write how tight the straps should go once you’ve figured this out.)

Tom Nicholson spends his time helping sufferers of carpal tunnel syndrome. You can follow this link to find out more regarding having asore wrist.