How To Use Knee Wraps

That's A Wrap: How To Wrap Your Knees

We all have habits, learned when we were just starting out. Simple things, like for instance, how we wrap our knees. Larn how to wrap your knees the right mode...

How many times have you watched a lifter and wondered, "Why on Earth would they do that?" It could be in a gym or a national run across. It could be a truly bizarre pre-lift ritual, or a beginner's mistake, equally simple as chalking thighs and powdering the hands. Whatever the strangeness, if you lot take been grooming for a while, you have probably seen it happen.

The amazing counterpoint to such phenomena is that we seldom question our own reasoning. Nosotros all have habits, learned when we were just starting out. Simple things, similar for example, how we wrap our knees.

I have wrapped my knees the exact same style for the terminal 20+ years. I wrap in the manner where the wrap crosses diagonally across the kneecap, making what appear to be overlapping "10"s working upward the knee. The rationale existence that since a wrap is fabricated to stretch lengthwise, more than vertical wrap over the human knee equals more stored energy and a bigger squat. This method seems to make sense and has worked for me over the years.

Click To Overstate.
The Cross Method.

Nearly every other lifter I know wraps in a screw, overlapping roughly parallel layers working upwardly or down the knee with almost no wrap placed vertically over the knee. This method was obviously inferior (delight note this is sarcasm) for 2 reasons.

First, wraps stretch lengthwise. If no wrap passes vertically over the knee information technology cannot stretch efficiently and therefore does non provide maximum rebound. Secondly, that's non the way I did it.

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The Spiral Method.

While we all accept some aspects of what we learned every bit fact, I have never seen any actual data to prove I was right and the other ninety% of the earth was wrong. So I decided to prove my theory myself in a logical way that other meatheads would understand.

It seemed reasonable that the amount of rebound provided past a wrap would be proportional to the stretch it experienced. The wraps stretch as the human knee bends, descending from standing to below parallel in the squat. More stretch should translate to more rebound. Therefore, by measuring the stretch, we can measure the potential rebound provided by each method of wrapping.

The stretch could occur in 1 of two perpendicular directions, either along the length of the wraps or across its width.

To mensurate the changes in a wrap during a squat, my training partner and I drew a one.5 inch square on an un-stretched wrap. The box was drawn with sides parallel and perpendicular to the edge of the wrap.

We wrapped a genu diagonally, and took pictures of the knee while continuing erect, and again at parallel. The procedure was repeated with the knee wrapped spirally. We used a 14" box to ensure that the amount of knee bend was identical for both trials. Past measuring the modify in the 1.5 inch square, we reasoned that nosotros could measure the change in stretch throughout the squat.

After the pictures were adult, measurements were fabricated along the edges of the square. We recorded the starting length and the final length of the foursquare in both directions. We used the date to calculate the percent modify, from the initial length. The greater the change in length, the more rebound the wrap should provide.

Yeah, yeah, I know this sounds like a lab written report from high school, merely if we didn't go through this everyone would figure the article was BS considering the conclusions didn't agree with their stance. Now you can all realize that I'm really right.

The raw information, change in dimensions and change equally a percentage of original length are provided in the post-obit tables:

Table #1: Spiral Wrap

Trial #i	Length	Width
Standing	xix.3	13.9
Parallel	22.iii	15.0
Change in dimension (units)	3.0	1.1
Alter in dimension (%)	fifteen.54%	seven.91%

Table #2: Diagonal Wrap

Trial #2	Length	Width
Standing	17.9	14.2
Parallel	21.iv	14.8
Alter in dimension (units)	3.5	0.6
Change in dimension (%)	19.55%	4.23%

To Summarize The Results

Using the diagonal method caused the wrap to stretch more than forth it's length than the screw method. The stretch increased by 26% with the diagonal wrap.
Using the spiral method caused more stretch across the width of the wrap, than the diagonal method. The perpendicular stretch increased by 83% with the spiral method.
The total stretch for length and width for both methods were identical.

Determination

The $one,000,000 question is "Which wrapping style will make me squat more?"

Interestingly, the total amount of stretch was identical in both methods. If elastic recoil is equal in both directions (we did not endeavour to measure this) both methods would exist pretty close. The just respond I can justify completely is "My mode is, always has been and ever will be the best."

That said, if you screw wrap, take a adept look at your knee wraps.

When you lot spiral wrap approximately one/3 of the stretch occurs beyond the width of your wraps (twice as much as with the diagonal wrap). If your wrap is designed to stretch in only one direction, y'all lose 1/3 of the potential rebound. If we assume wraps requite an additional 20 pounds, y'all but gave away three to 5 on your squat.

5 pounds won't plough most of us into i,000 pound squatters, but information technology could change your placing in a close meet, or make a new PR. The bottom line is look at your equipment as considerately as possible. Smarter training is better training. Over a lifetime of lifting, an additional 5 pounds here and 3 pounds there add up.

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