The 10 Best Arm Supports

Editor's Notes

August 27, 2019:

In a category that could be very broadly applied, it was important to us to define arm supports as anything that could be used to improve the performance or recovery of the arm, with a focus on minor strains to the elbow joint and its surrounding tissue. This is mainly because elbow hyperextensions — commonly referred to as tennis elbow — are a regular occurrence in a litany of sports. They often require little more than RICE therapy, the C of which (compression) is our primary concern on this list. More significant injuries to the elbow or bones of the arm, and injuries to the more complicated joints in the shoulder and wrists, should be very carefully handled by a professional physician.

That said, when we reevaluated our previous ranking, we found that a redundancy in basic compression sleeves posed a problem to the wide varieties of arm and elbow injuries that these supports can help with, specifically taking into account something like golf elbow, which is essentially an injury to the opposing muscle and tendon groups that are commonly strained in a game of tennis. These slightly different injuries require pressure and stabilization at different points of the joint, especially if the patient is planning to continue with their athletic endeavors despite any pain.

With that an other reasons in mind, we got rid of a couple compression sleeves that were struggling with availability issues as it was, and replaced them with more comprehensive supports like the Bionic Brace at number one and the Shock Doctor strap at number three. Speaking specifically to the Shock Doctor option, that strap can be reversed to support both golf and tennis elbow injuries, and after a minor strain in a hockey game last year, I used it to great success in getting back on the ice in a hurry.