Knee wraps vs sleeves

[Brolloks]

I use some pretty stiff sleeves, but they've been feeling a bit looser lately I was thinking of getting wraps. Do they just provide knee stability, or do they protect the quad muscles too?

I managed to strain/tear my inner quad tonight. It's not badly swollen, but that could be because I've iced it until it's frozen. Guess I'll know tomorrow how bad it is.

 

[Xlgx]

What brand of sleeves do you have?

 

[Iron Vett]

I use some pretty stiff sleeves, but they've been feeling a bit looser lately I was thinking of getting wraps. Do they just provide knee stability, or do they protect the quad muscles too?

I managed to strain/tear my inner quad tonight. It's not badly swollen, but that could be because I've iced it until it's frozen. Guess I'll know tomorrow how bad it is.

I've been using sleeves lately for pure convenience but have used wraps for any set 315 and over for most of my time lifting. I find that while the sleeves give decent support, the wraps are leaps and bounds ahead of them for support. The wraps come in varying lengghs so you should be able to get a set long enough to go up high enough on your quad to give you any support you may want there

 

[janoshik]

I use some pretty stiff sleeves, but they've been feeling a bit looser lately I was thinking of getting wraps. Do they just provide knee stability, or do they protect the quad muscles too?

I managed to strain/tear my inner quad tonight. It's not badly swollen, but that could be because I've iced it until it's frozen. Guess I'll know tomorrow how bad it is.

Can't help you with wraps, but don't 'overfreeze' the injury, it can further the damage/damage the skin.

 

[janoshik]

I've been using sleeves lately for pure convenience but have used wraps for any set 315 and over for most of my time lifting. I find that while the sleeves give decent support, the wraps are leaps and bounds ahead of them for support. The wraps come in varying lengghs so you should be able to get a set long enough to go up high enough on your quad to give you any support you may want there

Sleeves should not be providing notable support, they are mainly used for proprioception and keeping joints warm.

 

[Iron Vett]

Sleeves should not be providing notable support, they are mainly used for proprioception and keeping joints warm.

You're right. They should not be relied on for support. Their main advantage is to keep the knee joints warm. This is usually enough for my knees to remain pain free. The wraps do provide quite a bit of support but I found they prevented my ligaments and joints from being strengthened along with the muscle. I no longer squat as heavy as I use to and now find that I can squat sets up to 455 parallel without wraps. I really don't go any heavier than this anymore due to the block on my birth certificate that shows the year I was born. Getting scared of injuries.

 

[Sledge762]

Sleeves are good for warming up and doing alot of lighter reps, or other movements which require a bit of warmth and compression. Personally I wear sleeves till 200kg, then snug wraps to 320kg, then generally get help wrapping when I go above 320.

Let's clear up some misconceptions about wraps and sleeves.

A proper wrap will give much more safety to the knee joint than a sleeve will, as it will hold everything in alignment. 90% of people have no idea how to wrap properly, or use extremely poor quality wraps, which leads to the notion that wraps are damaging to the joint.

Wraps do not reduce ligament or joint strength whatsoever. This is ridiculous. If anything they improve knee health by providing support for the tendon insertions.

Sleeves can actually cause problems for people because they give the feeling of support without actually providing any(they stretch in all directions) and because your knees feel good you push harder or hit the hole faster. They also can give some people pain because they bunch up behind the knee while the material on the front side stretches. This can cause lateral movement of the knee cap. (This has actually happened to a couple of high level lifters in my PL club and they went to a less aggressive/thinner sleeve because of it)

Some people will not have issues with sleeves, these tend to be people with good leverages/build for squatting and solid technique.

People with longer femurs tend to get more out of wraps than people with short femurs because they usually have worse tendon insertion points. One of the things wraps will do is pin the quad tendon further up which improves the leverage of the muscle.

My recommendation in your case is to do some learning, rehab your injury, then ensure your technique is sound. A good warm up and proper movement patterns should be your primary focus before adding equipment.

That said, everyone should have a good pair of knee wraps. Titan, Inzer, Metal, Pioneer are all good brands. I would get a pair of 2.5m wraps, Titan Signature Gold, Pioneer Lilliebridge, Metal Silver are good wraps that work well in all conditions.