Knee wraps & squats: yes or no?

[AutoKal47]

Ok so today I received (for free) a pair of knee wraps, very good quality and everything
I've never used knee wraps before, only a not-so-tight knee sleeve on my right knee
for some weeks due to a light injury that I didn't want to get worse, really just for warmth
it wasn't "supporting" at all (it would also be bad on just one leg..)

So long story short, I wanted to try them and today I happened to have
deadlift/(light&raw) squats/abs
Usually on this day I really work on form and squat past parallel with not too much weight
as opposed of course to legs day.

I go for my 4 sets of squats 12/10/8/6 + burn superset, this comes after my deadlift routine
so I'm pretty beat up and I couldn't really squat as heavy as I do on leg day even if I could.

I put on these wraps at my 3rd set and holy goddamn! I *eat the set alive*!
I go for the 4th and again, then I had to check the weight because it was ridiculous how easy that was.
I ended up adding TWO sets and got really close to how much I squat - fresh - on legs day.
I even more impressive was how much FASTER I was squatting..

Now, 10 hours passed from my wo and the area right above my left knee hurts a bit,
nothing serious, but it made me think:

knee wraps: yay or nay?

Do they weaken my knees?
Do they make me lift heavier BUT at the same time put the knee at risk of injuries because of that?

I don't squat THAT heavy, my legs are not my stronger body part but still, I'm 166lbs and I squat 268 at my last set
and 296lbs last set of bb hack squat, perfect form and these are not my 1RM
and worth mentioning my bones are *thin as f#ck*, like seriously thin.. Never had a serious injury tho' due to BB
in 10+ years of training.

I'm half excited because if the effect of these on legs day is gonna be the same, holy ^#$T batman
some weight is gonna be tossed around next Thu, at the same time the lil pain (feels like muscle tho' not tendons,
not knee cap) makes me worry, I really don't want to go over the top because of these and hurt myself.

Any experience/advice/suggestion will be much appreciated

 

[matt8483]

Me personally, I like knee wraps. But I only use em on 1 or 2 sets of heavy weight. (That's it). I do feel like u don't need them all the time because I think it makes ur knees stronger without em. But yea, it does make heavier weight a bit easier. Lol. And for me, a couple of times I squatted real heavy without the wraps and my knee blew up like a balloon. With the wraps its awesome, no problems. Just my opinion.

 

[AutoKal47]

Me personally, I like knee wraps. But I only use em on 1 or 2 sets of heavy weight. (That's it). I do feel like u don't need them all the time because I think it makes ur knees stronger without em. But yea, it does make heavier weight a bit easier. Lol. And for me, a couple of times I squatted real heavy without the wraps and my knee blew up like a balloon. With the wraps its awesome, no problems. Just my opinion.

Reading a bit about them I came to the same conclusion, def not something to use all the time,
just for the sets that go over 80%/85% of 1RM.

The pain above my knee today is still there :/ Ima bit worried 'cause I have leg day in two days
I hope it'll pass

Also I understand the tighter you wrap them the more support you get,
but for me - being the firs time probably - it was kind of a weird feeling at first,
almost got out of balance.

I'll try to wrap them a lil loose next time, too tight seems more a powerlifting practice

 

[ZiR RED]

I'm not a big fan. There's nothing to show they add support to the knees - they just add extrinsic elasticity.

If you decide to use them, wrap them loose around the patella to allow for correct patella tracking. Tight on the quads and below the tibial tuberosity is fine..but loose on the patella.

Br

 

[AutoKal47]

I'm not a big fan. There's nothing to show they add support to the knees - they just add extrinsic elasticity.

If you decide to use them, wrap them loose around the patella to allow for correct patella tracking. Tight on the quads and below the tibial tuberosity is fine..but loose on the patella.

Br

Thanks man,
I actually read something today and I ended up with thinking to use 'em (only maybe on the last, heaviest set,
or maybe when attempting a new PR) in the way you describe.

I don't know if they add or not support to the knee, but indeed they EASE the lift for me. Probably this is subjective
My knees never had a problem (just that lil injury but that was totally my fault) but they are don't seem "tough" to me
not they are thick, same for my wrists (altho I've never used wrists supports either)

I put them on today in that way, tight-ish over and below the patella but more lose on top of the knee,
I read that will also avoid the bones to grind to each other.

thanks for the feedback