Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and it's
product review time again. The folks at
XT Brace sent me their adjustable ankle
support with gel pack. So let's get started.
So what I really like about this ankle
support is it's adjustable. So it can go
from a female size extra small to a male
size extra extra large. So it's nice
because it fits almost the whole
population. You can adjust it to what
fits best for you and it works really
really well. It's also pretty cool
because it was designed by US
intelligence officers in the field. This
is something that they created to help
them while they were out there doing
things. So I like the way that you can
open it up here and the neoprene has the
texture on it where you can put the
straps anywhere. So it's not just like
you have to put it in one spot. You can
put it anywhere on the sleeve that you
want to. That's really nice. And on the
inside of it, it has a little casing here,
a little slot, where you can put your
gel pack. This gel pack can either be cold
or hot which is very very nice because
you can use the the heat when you're
getting ready to exercise, kind of warm
up those muscles in the ankle, and then
afterwards you can use the ice to kind
of cool back down everything and take
out some of that inflammation. So if you
want to heat it up, you can either do it
in the microwave for just about 30
seconds. You can even boil some water on
the stove top and put it in there. And
then if you want to freeze it just stick
it in the freezer for about one or two
hours. So that works really really nicely.
And then it just fits into the slot
right here, and then it stays in place
which is really nice because if you've
had just a regular wrapping, a cool wrap
or a hot wrap around your ankles,
sometimes it doesn't stay in place and
with this being a part of the ankle
support it stays where you put it. So
once it's there, you can walk around with
it you can jump around you can exercise
and it stays in one
spot. I personally would do the heat
before and then just use the support as
actual support and compression while
you're working out, and then put the
cooling pack afterwards to cool
everything back down so that works very
nicely that way. So i'm going to show you
putting it on how easy it is. And it's
also nice because it's either a left or
right brace so you don't have to get
left or right you can use it for either
one. So if you have one that's bad and it gets good,
and then you have the other side go bad,
you can use the same ankle support which
is nice. So the opening here is where you
put your foot, and then you just get it
in nice. And what I like,
as you can see here, is it's got two
different straps so you can really
adjust it however you want, however is
comfortable.
I like kind of putting it down and an X
kind of motion because I feel like then
that gives you some of that support right
at that ankle, so it gives you a little
extra support there. But it's nice
because it has that compression type
feeling that I always call the nice
little hug,
where is if you have some swelling in
there, especially when you're working out,
that compression factor helps move all
that fluid out of there and this
the sleeve does a really good job of
doing that. You can see it's tight but
it's not so tight where it's going to
cut off circulation, so that's really
nice. It's got a little opening for the heel
to keep that so it's not rubbing on
anything and causing any blisters down
there, so that's really nice. And you can
make it, again like I said, you can
make it super tight if you want it
really tight, or you can loosen it up
just a little bit and have that just a
little bit of support. So I like the
option of being able to kind of do it
however is most comfortable for you,
so that's really cool as well. It also
helps with things like bruising and
contusions, just to help kind of move all
that fluid out of there if you got an
ankle sprain or just some soreness in
there, that works really well, too.
Even after surgery, sometimes once you
get out of your boot or your cast it
works well to have a sleeve because it
still gives you that extra little bit of
support, but it's not as much support as
the cast or the boot, so then you can
start having your muscles work
again. So I really like that factor as
well. So here again I'll show you how
easy it is to just put this into the
ankle support, and it's got that nice
little pocket there where it just fits
nicely and then. So the cool part that I
like is once you get in there, if you're
usually, you know, wrapping something up
with an ice pack or you know the frozen peas,
which people use a lot, is fine but then
you really kind of have to sit in one
spot and you can't move. As you can see
here, it's really nice because not only
does this get the compression of the
heat or the ice to help it keep it right
there on the spots that need it, but now
see I can move, I can kick,
I've walked around with it for a while. I
tried to both the heat and the cold,
and I walked around. If you have pants on,
you can put the pants down and walk around,
and people don't even know it's on there,
so it's it's nice to have not only while
you're exercising to have the
compression and a little bit of support,
but you can have it for your pre-workout
and your post-workout, and then you don't
have to just, you know, sit there and let
it do its job. If you have other things
to do, you put it on, you you go do it and you
can walk around and it doesn't shift or
anything like that so it stays in one
spot.
It's also really nice because once you
have it on you can exercise with it on. It
has that nice compression and that
little bit of support to help so you can
do anything as simple as some ankle
pumps. So that helps even more getting
some of that fluid out. You can just do a
couple of those. You can do a inversion
eversion, or we call it the windshield
wiper, and then you can even just do some
stretching with it. So you can grab your
toes and just kind of pull it there, but
you can do a whole bunch of other
exercises standing and things like that
as well. So there you have it, that's the
ankle support with the gel pack. If have any
questions leave in the comments section.
If you're interested in finding out more
about the product you can go to
XTBrace.com. If you're interested in
purchasing it, you can go to our website
and AskDoctorJo.com/XTBrace
Remember be safe, take care of that
ankle, have fun and I hope you feel better soon.