Short answer – baloney! I can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard this, it’s just nonsense.

First we’ll start with the concept of pain. Pain is an indicator of something, it may be O.K. or it may may be a problem. When you exercise a particular muscle group you often feel some pain the next day. This is normally fine, simply an indication you had a good workout and tore some muscle tissue, which will rebuild stronger than before. That’s how exercise works to strengthen you.

Then there’s the pain you get from overuse which can occur during your favorite activity. This pain is trying to tell you something is wrong. Ignoring this pain is foolish and can lead to long term injury. This is the sort of pain Tiger Paws are designed to help. In almost every case, when someone with this type of pain starts using Paws, the relief is instant. This is because Paws act like an extra set of muscles to support your wrist, giving the injured muscles a little break.

In a perfect world, we’d never have this type of pain. We’d all exercise enough to be well conditioned for the activity we participate in. Hello – it’s not a perfect world! We all over do things. This is especially true in the case of very young athletes. In many cases, they simply haven’t been at it long enough to develop the necessary muscle mass to prevent the overuse pain.

Now lets think about a situation that would seem to be contradictory. Many world class athletes, including Olympic medallists, wear Tiger Paws all the time during practice and competition! These are athletes that are, pound for pound, some of the most fit people in the world. Are they in pain? No, to typically. At some point in the past they may have had an injury in the wrist area. They wear Paws to prevent injury. Many coaches would again say this is a crutch.

Tell that to the athlete with the Olympic medals!

Sizing gets us a lot of questions and confusion from people who just bought their first pair of Paws!

Many people have purchased the correct size of Paw but feel they are too small. Here’s what you need to know to be sure you have the right size.

Paws are made from high quality American leather. Like any leather product, the material is very stiff when it is new and requires break-in. When it’s new, the Paw will not be conforming to your hand and wrist area at all. This often causes the attachment straps to appear too short to properly engage enough of the mating Velcro surface on the back of the Paw.

Another factor which can make new Paws seem to small when new is lack of understanding on how tight it needs to be to provide proper support. The answer is very! A loose fitting Paw simply will not support your wrist.

So here’s how to tell when you get your new Paws. First, make sure you’re not putting them on backwards – this happens a lot! Put your thumb through the hole making sure the insert pocket and Velcro is on the back of your hand. Wrap all three straps around and secure them to the mating Velcro surface on the back of your hand as tight as you can. Take your other hand and squeeze the Paw in several places to help it conform to your wrist. Then go back over the straps and retighten them.

At this point, if the Velcro is engaging at least 1/3 of the width of the back side of the Paw, you have a good fit. After several hours of use, the leather will soften up and stretch somewhat. As it does you’ll notice the straps gradually extend further across the back of the Paw.

Remember too – the Paw’s stiffness can be adjusted by adding or removing inserts from the pocket on the back side of the Paw. If the Paw seems too stiff, especially for children and smaller people, remove all of the inserts until the Paw is broken in then add them back as needed to get full support. You can use as many or as few inserts as you want, tuning the Paw for the right amount of support for your needs.

Is your Paw too big? This is more of a personal preference issue. While having a Paw that’s way too large would make it difficult to support your wrist properly, there’s a lot of room for oversizing. While we can’t mention any names, this point was illustrated during the last Olympics. One of the U.S medal wining gymnasts was seen wearing our Paws during many of her events. When I looked at the straps, they were extended way beyond the edge of the backside of the Paw. Normally I’d say the Paws were way too big for her, but who am I to tell an Olympic medalist she’s wearing the wrong size Paw?

It’s great to hear from people who have found pain relief from using our Tiger Paw wrist supports.

We get a lot of great reviews on our shopping cart. I thought I’d post one that came in today -

Relief from wrist pain for my daughter!

Mama Deb

Our new Fancy Tiger Paw wrist supports are finally in stock! We’ve been working on these new designs for some time now and we think they are worth the wait. This black alligator is just one of 14 wild new designer leather prints. Head on over to the shopping cart and see all of these great new designs!

I traded a few emails recently with a customer who described a use for Tiger Paw wrist supports that I had never heard of. He told me that he had very loose wrist joints and when he slept at night, he woke up with severe wrist pain if he didn’t wear wrist supports.

He had discovered Tiger Paws at a local store. He had been using a hard plastic wrist support, but in addition to being too uncomfortable to sleep in, his wife wasn’t thrilled about getting thumped in the middle of the night with those things. After he tried Tiger Paws, he was sold. He’s been using Tiger Paws now for well over 10 years, and his marriage is safe!

A frequent question asked of us here at Tiger Paw Wrist Supports is which color is closest to nude. I had a customer just yesterday who ordered the royal blue Tiger Paw, it is really pretty! Shortly after the order came in she sent me a slightly panicked email saying that her coach was requiring a nude color instead of the nice blue one she had ordered.

No worries, I sent her back a message telling her that the Sand colored Tiger Paw is the best match for Caucasian skin tones, and switched her choice for her in the shopping cart! If you ever have any questions or requests for us, fell free to drop us an email, or make a comment on the blog here. We pay attention to your needs!

Tiger Paws has been hard at work changing over to a new shopping cart to better serve your needs!

The new cart is great from our end, but we want to know what you think! After all, you are the customer We hope it works better for you since we know that many of our customers come back often for more Tiger Paws or inserts for their old Paws. The great thing is that the new cart is highly customizable, so we can make any changes that you feel would make your experience better.

So if you like it, or hate it, let us know. We’ll do our best to respond to your desires!