If you’re into powerlifting and strength training, your trainer must have asked you to perform weighted squats or pump up on the weighted leg press machines. These exercises are not your regular workouts and require serious knee strength to lift heavy weights, and pose high risks of injuries.
To avoid knee injuries, weightlifters wear knee wraps or knee sleeves to protect their knees and lift weights comfortably.
Unfortunately, people fail to understand the difference between knee wraps and knee sleeves, and therefore cannot enjoy the benefits of either.
In this article, I’ll help you understand the difference between knee wraps and knee sleeves, as well as learn the benefits of both, so you can decide which suits your needs the best.
What Are Knee Wraps?
Knee wraps are usually 78 inches long and 3 inches wide, allowing you to cover up from your knees and below. These wraps are made with heavy-duty material to provide increased compression and have an advanced fastener making them easy to wear.
Knee wraps are designed using neoprene padding to support your knees while lifting heavyweights. They have elasticity, so you can tightly wrap them around your knees, and neoprene fabric makes them comfortable and breathable for your skin.
Knee wraps help stabilize the knees, aid blood flow, and remove excess pressure from the joints so you can work out with confidence without damaging your knees.
Benefits Of Knee Wraps
Here is how wearing knee wraps can benefit you:
1. Protects and Stabilizes the Knees
Knee wraps provide firm support to the knees while working out. This support increases the compression on your knee joints, helping them stabilize and reduce pressure, so you can add a boost to your athletic performance without risking injuries.
2. A Perfect Addition to Your Home Gym
If your knee strength keeps you from lifting heavy weights, you need to buy yourself knee wraps.
They are easy to use and versatile, which helps improve your strength training sessions at home so that nothing is standing between you and your weights.
3. Workout Without the Fear of Injury
Whether you’re a professional or have recently started your strength training journey, having an injury will affect your athletic performance and your lifting confidence, especially if it’s a knee injury.
Wearing knee wraps reduces pressure on the knee joint and lowers the risks of injuries. They help your knee muscles recover quickly and intensify the workouts by lifting heavy so that you can achieve maximum strength and improvised athletic performance.
4. Snug Fitting
Knees are a part of our body that moves a lot when exercising, let alone weight lifting. Therefore, knee wraps are designed using non-slip technology that ensures a snug and comfortable fitting, so you don’t have to worry about re-positioning the wraps after every 10 seconds.
5. Comfort Above All
Weight lifting exercises require the lifter’s strength from every inch of muscle in their body. If these exercises are not done in a comfortable environment, you will surely want to quickly get rid of such training.
Therefore, the two types of thicknesses available in knee wraps, 7mm and 5mm, allow you to select the most comfortable fit for your knees so you can train your body with utmost comfort.
What Are Compression Knee Sleeves?
Even though knee sleeves and knee wraps are similar in their benefits and uses, both are different from others. Knee sleeves are scientifically proven to help you stabilize the body when exercising and enable you to enjoy an intense training session along with your everyday activities.
Moreover, knee sleeves are an ideal gym gear for anyone who has gone through knee joint surgery, is suffering from swelling or soreness in the knees, and does not want to stay away from their training sessions any longer.
Knee sleeves help increase the blood flow in your joints and provide compression, protecting your knees against injuries while improving body movements.
Benefits of Compression Knee Sleeves
Before you decide whether to buy knee wraps or knee sleeves, you must know the benefits of both. Here are the benefits of knee sleeves to help you decide which ones suit your needs better.
1. Get Extra Knee Support
When practicing weight lifting exercises, the knee joints take the brunt of everything. Ignoring knee pains and putting on undue pressure on the knees results in serious injuries and will eventually lead to loss of all the knee functions.
Wearing knee sleeves helps support the knees during strength training exercises so that you can reduce the chances of suffering injuries and damages.
2. Increases Knee Compression
One of the major benefits you will enjoy when wearing knee sleeves is their compression for the joints. Whether you are strength training, Olympic weight lifting, or just recovering from knee surgery and want to get back to walking and running, knee sleeves will help maintain blood flow so that you can enjoy your activities and training pain-free.
3. Improved Mobility and Balance
Lifting heavy weights and squatting at the same time requires a lot of balance. If you’re starting your training sessions and want to enjoy the stability while performing weighted squats etc., wearing knee sleeves would be a perfect choice.
Knee sleeves make sure your lateral moves are as steady as a rock while providing your knees enough compression so you can lift even heavier loads without compromising your mobility or balance.
4. No More Knee Pain
If knee pain has been stopping you from lifting heavy loads, then worry no more. Using knee sleeves supports your knee joints and helps you get rid of any lingering knee pain, enabling you to enhance your training sessions.
5. A Fit for All
Whether you’re a professional lifter handling weights in front of the entire world, or just training in a gym full of people, you need to give your best performance without any knee pain disruptions.
Wearing knee sleeves helps you fight pain and lift heavy loads confidently without fearing injuries or damages.
So, Should You Wear Knee Wraps or Knee Sleeves?
When it comes to getting any gym gear, the most important question to ask yourself is ‘what are your goals?’ You have to make sure you know your goals and are aware of your weaknesses and strengths.
Knowing your strengths will help you set your goals and paths straight, whereas the weaknesses will allow you to analyze the gears you need to enhance your training to achieve your goals.
Knee wraps are for fitness enthusiasts who want to practice powerlifting. In contrast, knee sleeves are an ideal gym gear for others who are into CrossFit training because they aid knee muscle recovery.
Final Verdict
The knees are one of the joints in our body that balances most of our body weight. When it comes to strength training activities and recovering from knee surgeries, it is important to take utmost care of your joints by using appropriate gym gear.
Whether you want to invest in knee wraps or knee sleeves, you have to make sure that the gears you’re investing in are fulfilling your needs and protecting you from injuries because, in all honesty, this is all that matters.
References
- Mazur, Lynnette J., et al. ‘Weight-Training Injuries’. Sports Medicine, vol. 16, no. 1, July 1993, pp. 57–63. Springer Link, https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-199316010-00005.
- Mohd Sharif, Nahdatul Aishah, et al. ‘Biomechanical and Functional Efficacy of Knee Sleeves: A Literature Review’. Physical Therapy in Sport, vol. 28, Nov. 2017, pp. 44–52. ScienceDirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2017.05.001.
