Knee sleeves vs knee wraps: Which one to use?

Knee wraps: long elastic bands wrapped around knees for increased squatting power through energy storage. Knee sleeves: offer stability, support, easier use, and comfort. Slide knee sleeves on, while knee wraps need a special wrapping technique.

Introduction

You've probably seen some people in the gym wear sleeves or wrap some bandage around their knees, right?

The things that people wear around their knees are called knee sleeves and knee wraps.

If you wondered what those knee sleeves and knee wraps are, what they're used for, and what the differences between knee sleeves vs wraps are, you've come to the right place!

In this article, I will discuss all you need to know about knee sleeves vs wraps, what each is used for, what their benefits are for your workouts, and which one you should choose.

What are knee wraps?

Knee wraps are supportive accessories commonly used in weightlifting, powerlifting, and other strength sports. They are long, elastic bands designed to be wrapped tightly around your knees.

The primary purpose of knee wraps is to provide stability and support to your knees during heavy lifts, such as a heavy set of squats.

What are knee sleeves?

Knee sleeves, like knee wraps, are to be worn over your knees. They, too, provide support, compression, warmth, and stabilization to your knees when you're exercising, but compared to knee wraps, they provide slightly less stabilization for the benefit of more comfort.

In contrast to knee wraps, knee sleeves are used in broader sports, such as running, on top of general fitness and strength training.

What is the main difference between knee sleeves vs knee wraps?

Usually, you'll see the most usage of knee sleeves and knee wraps while people do heavy deadlifts and squats.

Occasionally, you'll see some folks wearing knee sleeves during other exercises as well, for example, while running on the treadmill, doing calf raises, or simply when they're bench pressing.

The main difference between knee sleeves vs knee wraps is that knee sleeves are literally 'sleeves' that you pull over your knees, while knee wraps are long elastic bands that need to be wrapped around your knees.

Another essential difference between knee sleeves vs knee wraps is that knee wraps provide maximum support and stability. This results in the ability to lift heavier. Knee sleeves provide slight stability but are more comfortable to wear and keep your knees warm, which makes them ideal for all sorts of exercises and general fitness training.

If you want to perform at maximum load and want the best stability and support, wear knee wraps. If you want decent stability and support but more comfort, and you're not going to do maximum load lifting, then wearing knee sleeves should be sufficient.

How do knee wraps help you to squat more?

A 2015 study analyzed the effects of knee wraps on dynamic muscle activation during squatting. They found that when doing a heavy squat, your glutes are significantly more activated while wearing knee wraps and squatting on a medium load (60% of 1RM), compared to squatting without knee wraps.

On sub maximum load (i.e., 90% 1RM), they found no significant difference in muscle activation of your glutes between squatting with knee wraps vs no knee wraps.

On the other hand, a more critical finding was their results on muscle activation of the vastus lateralis (also called the vastus externus) during a high load squat (90% 1RM).

Their results indicate that the vastus lateralis muscle is significantly less activated while wearing knee wraps and doing a heavy squat, compared to squatting heavy without knee wraps.

They argue this result is due to the storage of elastic energy in the knee wraps, which helps you in the concentric phase of the squat (in other words, the past where you ascend from the squatted position), and hence, takes off some load from the vastus lateralis muscle.

What are the differences between knee sleeves vs knee wraps?

Materials

Knee sleeves are made from neoprene, while knee wraps are made from rubber or nylon components.

Knee wraps

• Knee wraps are long, elastic bands made from rubber or nylon components.
• When wrapping these elastic bands around your knees, elastic energy will be stored in the knee wraps that will help you in certain lifts (such as squatting).
• This storage of elastic energy can be set by you. The tighter you wrap the knee wraps around your knees (and thus, the harder you stretch the bands), the more elastic energy is stored within the wraps. Hence, to maximally benefit from knee wraps, they're supposed to be worn tightly.

Knee sleeves

• Knee sleeves are made from neoprene and are designed to slide over your knees.
• Knee sleeves come in different sizes, lengths, and thicknesses. Smaller sizes produce more compressive strength around your knees than larger sizes.
• All knee sleeves provide warmth, stability, and support around your knees.

Cost

Knee sleeves are a bit more expensive than knee wraps, but the difference isn't that big.

Knee wraps

• Knee wraps can be bought in the price range of $20-$30.
• Some manufacturers sell knee wraps in different colors or visual designs. The more visually appealing design is, the more the knee wraps will cost. If you don't care about the design of your wraps, go with the cheapest option available.

Knee sleeves

• Knee sleeves are generally more expensive than knee wraps. Their price ranges between $20-$60.
• The price depends on the material of the sleeve, its quality in general, as well as the size and thickness of the sleeve. The larger the size of the knee sleeve or the thicker the material is, the more expensive it will be.

Ease of use

Knee sleeves are easier to wear correctly and bring along with you (they don't tangle).

Knee wraps

• Knee wraps need to be worn correctly and wrapped tightly around your knees. They take a bit longer to wear around your knees compared to knee sleeves.
• Not wearing knee wraps tightly, or wrapping them incorrectly around your knees, may negate their benefits, may provide more discomfort than usual, and can even result in injury.
• Wraps around your knees tend to slide up or down a bit after a few sets. This means you have to unwrap the knee wraps and wrap them correctly around your knees again every now and then.

Knee sleeves

• Knee sleeves are worn by simply sliding them over your legs until they're around your knees.
• Knee sleeves have much more room for error without negating their benefits because the ease of use is much simpler than knee wraps. You have to ensure the sleeves are worn over your knees so that your knees are in the middle of the sleeve. Easy, huh?
• The tighter the knee sleeve is, the more difficult it can be to pull it up until it's around your knees. This will be even more difficult if you have massive calf muscles.

Performance

Knee wraps have been proven to aid you in your squat. Knee sleeves, on the other hand, have yet to be researched as well as knee wraps, and the current research shows contradictory results.

Knee wraps

• Knee wraps will store elastic energy when worn correctly, allowing you to lift heavier.
• There is a decent number of research papers that show that wearing knee wraps increase your squat performance.
• Due to the restrictive nature of knee wraps, they're only suited for particular lifts. These lifts are the squats and the leg press.
• In other exercises in fitness and resistance training, knee wraps do not provide you the same benefits as when you're squatting (or leg pressing) and may even make it more difficult to do an exercise with good form.
• Finally, knee wraps are not suited for other sports or cardiovascular training and only benefit you when wearing them for squatting or leg pressing.

Knee sleeves

• Knee sleeves are more versatile than knee wraps due to their comfort and can be used for other exercises than squatting or leg pressing as well. They can be worn during general fitness training, cardiovascular training, or in sports other than fitness and resistance training (such as soccer, tennis, etc.).
• Knee sleeves provide stability and support for your knees but need to be researched to determine whether they're as beneficial to squatting as knee wraps.
• Knee sleeves vs no sleeves and no wraps may improve performance in your back squat, although more research is needed to fully confirm this as current research shows contradictory results.
• On the other hand, there is no research to my knowledge about the difference in effect on 1RM squat performance between knee sleeves vs knee wraps.
• For an increase in squat numbers, the results in current research papers are contradictory: a 2021 study found no increase in performance when wearing knee sleeves vs no knee sleeves.
• On the other hand, a different paper published in the same year as the previous one, found that neoprene knee sleeves did result in a significantly higher 1RM back squat compared to the control group. However, there was no significant difference between the tightness of knee sleeves.

Benefits and disadvantages of knee wraps and knee sleeves

Knee sleeves are much more versatile and comfortable than knee wraps. Knee wraps have a very specific use, but they are proven to be beneficial in their usage.

Knee sleeves pros

• Knee sleeves are very versatile. You can wear them during all your workouts and for all exercises. You can even use knee sleeves in other types of sports.
• Knee sleeves are easy to wear: you simply slide them over your knees. Taking them off is also quite easy.
• Knee sleeves are easy to bring along with you, and store them in your closet, as they don't get tangled like knee wraps.

Knee sleeves cons

• Knee sleeves can be more difficult to slide over your knees if you have very massive calf muscles. This will be even more true when you wear tight knee sleeves.
• Knee sleeves are, in general, more expensive.
• If your primary goal is strength training and increasing your squat performance, then knee sleeves' benefits are less thoroughly researched than knee wraps and hence, can't be guaranteed that they'll help you lift heavier.

Knee wraps pros

• Knee wraps have been proven to assist in your squats and help you to lift more in that exercise.
• Knee wraps are a bit cheaper than knee sleeves.
• The size of your calves does not make it more difficult to wrap the bands around your knees.
• You can decide for yourself how tightly you want to wrap them around your knees.

Knee wraps cons

• Knee wraps are very restricted in use. Outside of the back squat and perhaps leg press exercise, they aren't suited for other exercises or sports.
• Knee wraps require a proper technique to wear them, compared to knee sleeves. Not using the correct wrapping technique may negate their benefits or even result in injury.
• The wraps around your knees tend to move or slide up/down a bit after a few sets, which requires a readjustment of the wraps (i.e., unwrap, then wrap it around your knee again).
• Knee wraps can be a hassle to bring to the gym or store at home. You need to fold or wrap them each time to prevent them from getting tangled or getting knots in them.
• Knee wraps are, due to their restrictive nature and very tight feel, very uncomfortable to wear. You will like to get bruises from wearing knee wraps as well.

Which one to choose?

Go for knee wraps if you want to do heavy squats and increase your numbers in that exercise, as their benefits for back squats have been proven by many papers.

Go for knee sleeves if you still want stability, support, and warmth for your knees with more comfort, but you aren't focused on powerlifting or 1 rep-maxing your squat.

Generally speaking, wearing knee sleeves during all exercises will benefit you, as they provide comfort, stability, and support for your knees and keep your knees warm during exercise.

Also, if you have knee problems, wearing knee sleeves can help you.

However, switch knee sleeves for knee wraps only when you are doing a very heavy set of squats (or leg presses), especially when you're testing your 1RM in squats.

Conclusion

We've seen that both knee sleeves and knee wraps provide support and stability for your knees when doing heavy sets of specific exercises such as squats.

Knee sleeves cost a bit more than knee wraps and are more versatile. Wearing knee sleeves is relatively easy; it's much less likely that you'll wear them incorrectly compared to knee wraps. Depending on the tightness of knee sleeves, though, putting your foot through and pulling the sleeves up around your knee can be difficult.

Knee wraps, on the other hand, require you to know how to wrap them around your knee correctly. Wrapping them incorrectly can deem them inefficient in providing you their benefits or can even increase the risk of injury. Although they're less versatile than knee sleeves, knee wraps are the better option when you're going for really heavy squat sets, such as a PR.

If you just started your fitness journey and are still a beginner, it's best to not use wraps or sleeves; learn the correct lifting technique without any accessories first and slowly build up your strength all raw. You'll get a much better feel for the exercises, the technique involved, and how your own body, joints, and ligaments handle all movements.

If you still must use some compressive accessory around your knees even as a beginner, or if you have knee problems, then go for knee sleeves.

If you're an advanced lifter looking into getting knee sleeves vs wraps, it'd be best to get both and wear knee wraps only when doing really heavy sets, such as testing your 1RM, for squats, or leg press. In other cases, you can wear the knee sleeves for more comfort yet still benefit from the extra stability.