Periodic Review - Tommie Copper

3 disclaimers: 1) the product I’m reviewing today I received for free. I was the “Fan of the Week” for Tommie Copper. I had my choice of either a Knee, Calf, or Ankle sleeve. It was only after I found out that I had won and before I wore their product that I told them I would write a review. 2) I am not a doctor, nor do I even work in a health related setting. Everything in this post is strictly my opinion based on schooling I received over 10 years ago, some research, and personal experience. If you have questions about your health, talk to your own doctor, not some Internet hack as myself. This blog is not intended to diagnose or treat anything. 3) I wrote this back before I went minimal with my shoes and I don't have any knee pain now.

Now that the formalities are out of the way & I have destroyed any/all credibility for myself, lets get to it.

My experience with this Tommie Copper goes like this: they found me on Twitter because I tweet about 75% running related stuff. When they found me, I didn’t actually think that Tommie Copper could be someone’s name so I dug a little deeper. What I found from my investigation (read: google search) was that they are in the business of pain management through use of their compression sleeves that are magically infused with Copper.

Now really quick, here’s some quick background info on copper and its presumed benefits to a human person. Copper is a metal that is not produced by the human body, but the body uses the crap out of it to help perform its daily tasks. We can find it in a bunch of stuff like meat, seafood, beans, whole grains, wheat bran, almonds, avocados, barley, garlic, nuts, oats, & everyone’s favorite blackstrap molasses. I just really thought blackstrap molasses was a cool word and it sounds delicious. Copper is also delivered to the body by our drinking water with the copper pipes in your house. It can also be taken in through the skin. The skin method is what Tommie Copper is utilizing.

Now once it gets in you body Copper is supposed to do all kinds of wonderful stuff for you. However, being lazy I am not going to list all of them. The main benefit we’ll talk about today and what this review is about is Joint and/or Muscle Pain reduction.

As mentioned before I was given a choice of a Knee, Calf, or Ankle Sleeve from Tommie Copper (they also make compression shirts). I chose the knee for a couple reasons. I have been experiencing some soreness in my left knee after running recently. I don’t think its too serious and it seems to be more muscle tightness related rather than a tear of some kind. At least that’s what the pain feels like. Also my wife  had surgery last summer on her meniscus in her right knee and also has a popliteal cyst in there that for some reason the Doctor didn’t remove when he was doing the surgery. Regardless, she still has some pain associated with that knee. It is constantly sore and stiff and she really can’t get another surgery because she’s pregnant. So this knee sleeve would be beneficial to both of us.

Copper is the new black

The Sleeve arrived and at first I was a bit shocked at how much it was just like normal breathable fabric. One would think that if something had copper in it, there would be a greater thickness or rigidity to it. So honestly, I kind of laughed thinking “Well I’m glad I got this for free.” Then about 2 weeks ago I was working from home and it was the day after a pretty good run. I had some pain and hadn’t had time to try out the sleeve yet. So I slapped it on my left knee for several hours. To my surprise within the first 20 min of putting it on, my knee felt different. A bit more energized. After an hour or so of sitting with it on, I went to walk around, and my knee pain was less severe. Not 100% gone but less severe. I thought “There may be something to this.” So after a 4 or so hours I then moved the sleeve over to my right calf which was sore also from the run the day before, and I received the same  outcome. Less pain, more flexibility, etc. The knee sleeve wasn’t the greatest fit around the bottom of my calf but it worked fine. The next day when I woke up my pain had subsided enough to where I didn’t wear it into work the next day. Test #1  & #2 passed.

Then, late one night my wife asked me “Where’s that knee brace?” I had told her about it when it originally came in the mail & told her about the health benefits that were touted. She then put it on her knee the entire next day and wore it to work. She had the same experience that I did and was thrilled the pain had subsided. Test #3 passed.

I don't have much to compare the Tommie Copper Sleeve with, but from my experience and my wife's I would definitely recommend them to anyone who has chronic pain or to use after long runs.