ow many times have you watched a booster and wondered, “ Why on earth would they do that ? ” It could be in a gymnasium or a national meet. It could be a truly bizarre pre-lift ritual, or a founder ‘s err, adenine simple as chalking thighs and powdering the hands. Whatever the foreignness, if you have been training for a while, you have credibly seen it happen. The perplex counterpoint to such phenomena is that we seldom question our own intelligent. We all have habits, learned when we were barely starting out. simple things, like for example, how we wrap our knees .
I have wrapped my knees the exact same way for the last 20+ years. I wrap in the manner where the wrap crosses diagonally across the kneecap, making what appear to be overlapping “ ten ” south working up the knee. The rationale being that since a envelop is made to stretch lengthwise, more erect wrap over the knee equals more store energy and a bigger squat. This method seems to make sense and has worked for me over the years.
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The Cross Method.
about every other weightlifter I know wraps in a coil, overlapping roughly parallel layers working up or down the stifle with about no wrapping placed vertically over the knee. This method acting was obviously inferior ( please notice this is sarcasm ) for two reasons .
first gear, wraps stretch lengthwise. If no wrap passes vertically over the stifle it can not stretch efficiently and therefore does not provide maximal rebound. second, that ‘s not the way I did it .
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The Spiral Method.
While we all accept some aspects of what we learned as fact, I have never seen any actual data to prove I was right and the other 90 % of the world was ill-timed. So I decided to prove my theory myself in a logical manner that other meatheads would understand .
It seemed reasonable that the total of bounce provided by a wrap would be proportional to the stretch it experienced. The envelop stretch as the knee bends, descending from standing to below twin in the squat. More stretch should translate to more recoil. consequently, by measuring the stretch, we can measure the electric potential rebound provided by each method acting of wrapping .
The stretch could occur in one of two perpendicular directions, either along the length of the wraps or across its width .
To measure the changes in a wrap during a squat, my coach partner and I drew a 1.5 edge square on an un-stretched wrap. The box was drawn with sides parallel and vertical to the border of the wrapping .
We wrapped a knee diagonally, and took pictures of the stifle while standing rear, and again at twin. The procedure was repeated with the knee wrapped spirally. We used a 14 ” box to ensure that the sum of knee flex was identical for both trials. By measuring the change in the 1.5 edge square, we reasoned that we could measure the change in stretch throughout the squat. After the pictures were developed, measurements were made along the edges of the feather. We recorded the start length and the final duration of the square in both directions. We used the date to calculate the share change, 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 report from high school, but if we did n’t go through this everyone would figure the article was BS because the conclusions did n’t agree with their opinion. now you can all realize that I ‘m actually right. The raw data, variety in dimensions and exchange as a percentage of original duration are provided in the following tables : Table #1: Spiral Wrap
| Trial #1 | Length | Width |
| Standing | 19.3 | 13.9 |
| Parallel | 22.3 | 15.0 |
| change in dimension ( units ) | 3.0 | 1.1 |
| change in dimension ( % ) | 15.54 % | 7.91 % |
Table #2: Diagonal Wrap
| Trial #2 | Length | Width |
| Standing | 17.9 | 14.2 |
| Parallel | 21.4 | 14.8 |
| exchange in dimension ( units ) | 3.5 | 0.6 |
| change in proportion ( % ) | 19.55 % | 4.23 % |
To Summarize The Results
- Using the diagonal method caused the wrap to stretch more along it’s length than the spiral 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.
Conclusion
The $ 1,000,000 question is “ Which wrap style will make me squat more ? ” interestingly, the total come of stretch was identical in both methods. If elastic recoil is equal in both directions ( we did not attempt to measure this ) both methods would be reasonably close. The only suffice I can justify wholly is “ My way is, always has been and constantly will be the best. ”
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That said, if you spiral wrap, take a good look at your knee wraps. When you spiral wrap approximately 1/3 of the stretch occurs across the width of your wraps ( doubly vitamin a a lot as with the diagonal wrap ). If your wrap is designed to stretch in only one direction, you lose 1/3 of the potential rebound. If we assume wraps give an extra 20 pounds, you barely gave away 3 to 5 on your squat.
Five pounds wo n’t turn most of us into 1,000 pound squatters, but it could change your set in a close meet, or make a fresh PR. The bottom line is look at your equipment angstrom objectively as possible. Smarter training is better discipline. Over a life of lift, an extra 5 pounds here and 3 pounds there add up. Other Recommended Reading:
- Should You Use Wraps?
- What All Squatters Knee’d To Know!
- How Can You Maintain Proper Safety Over The Long Term?
