How have knee wraps helped you?

[knackers]

I was told I should consider wearing knee wraps to protect and prolong the health of the knee joints, even though I have no trouble with my knees at all lately, infact they are the best they have ever been.

Naturally I thought the knee joint got stronger with the rest of the body..

But I was told that the cartlidge wears over time and more and more lifters are taking to wraps purely as a protective thing, the guy who runs the gym I train at was originally anti wraps and runs the biggest raw p/l fed in australia but got persuaded by a powerlifting chiropractor who specialises in treating p/l clients..

So, I'm interested as to whos wearing them on here and when do you guys normally don them?
Or you may have changed your view and found some study saying they are a load of shit... if so please post.

Did all the old skool lifters wear wraps or did they have fucked knees from lifting raw?

I may don a pair to see how they feel sometime in the week... strength table beware

[Mellos]

For me knee wraps didn´t offer any protection. I had really fucked up knees from baaaaaad technique. The knee wraps eased the pain a little and thus encouraged me to go on as before, which led to worse knee pain. For me it´s like taking pain killers. Sometimes you just have to feel the pain to know, if your doing something wrong.

As far as better performance with wraps goes I couldn´t tell.

[knackers]

I asked the olympic lifter in our gym tonight what he thought of wraps.

It was a very firm ' I don't believe in them '
Then he proceeded to tell me that he used to squat 250 without them no worries and tonight he was hammering out triples at 140 on his light week and he's getting on a bit, Im guessing he'd probably be in 40's so doesn't seem to have affected him much.

Mellos - I don't think they could protect against bad technique in any case but I understand your point with the false sense of security they could give somebody leading them to further issues later. Something to think about. cheers

[baldy]

What about knee sleeves? You see loads of olympic lifters wearing these.

[sosso]

Naturally I thought the knee joint got stronger with the rest of the body..

It does.

Injuries including tears to the Meniscus are more likely to occur if the knee joint rotates in or out during a squat.

Wraps might offer something if you have been injured before, but I guess the idea would be to try to prevent that from happening in the first place.

[Talyn]

I think for some people they will have knee support benefits, but for most people it just allows you to lift more.

Although I would be curious to know how breaking below parallel in a back squat wearing knee wraps could possibly be good for the health of your knees...

[JP]

for me the knee wraps might cause more injuries due to the extreme pressure and maybe even pushing capella to weird direction - wraps can be very tight and in the bottom position of a squat very very uncomfortable and tight.

but they do help with my knee tendonitis which can be pretty painful at times.

in the end, they help to move more weight than is possible without them

[vegan hal]

What about knee sleeves? You see loads of olympic lifters wearing these.

http://www.bigfitness.com/sk-1140.html

I like my knee sleeves. they don;t offer a ton of support. but they keep your knees nice and warm. I think ninearms turned me onto them.

I actually need a new pair as the one is worn out.

[Goob]

I was talking about this the other day with a guy at my gym that has competed in equipped events for years. His opinion is that he can squat ~40 lbs more with wraps than without, so he uses them. People are always trying to lift more and something that can add 40+ lbs to your squat with not much effort will be pretty popular, especially if they can pretend it is safety equipment.

[Andrewc]

I found using knee wraps changed my squatting technique significantly and caused me to be a little weaker out of the bottom, but overall I think I could squat 10-15% more with them. I was always concerned about wrapping the knee incorrectly and dislocating it.