Joe Sullivan is going to teach you a quick and easy way to wrap your knees for squats.
In this video, he’s using a 2.5-meter elitefts Trident Knee Wrap, but feel free to use whatever you’re using.
Self-Wrapping
As a raw lifter, Joe is going to focus more on wrapping around the knee joint and not going down the calf or up on the quad. If you’re a geared lifter, you might wrap a little bit higher and cover more surface area to get a feel for the tissue they’re compressing. But as a raw squatter, you’re focusing on knee flexion and extension, so you’ll want the most support around your knee joint.
While wrapping, you’ll need to keep your quad flexed and toes pointed up with the IQ touching the middle toe to kneecap because that keeps the kneecap, or patella, in line and neutral with your lower leg. Why? Because when your patella moves over, it can either externally or internally rotate more, and that’s when you risk injuring yourself.
Joe starts by putting the wrap behind his knee and pulling up on it, creating tension. He then wraps the first layer just below his kneecap — about two inches below. As he wraps his knee, Joe keeps light tension on the wrap and adds a little extra force behind the knee.
Do not add extra tension across the front of the knee because you do not want the kneecap to move. Be sure to check that you’re still keeping your quad flexed and toes pointed up as you continue wrapping.
You’ll hit a point where you want to angle the knee wrap diagonally across the front of your knee. The following wrap should create an X shape.
Once you’ve created that X, grab a pair of needle-nose pliers. They’ll make your life much easier if you’re a self-wrapper. Point the needle-nose pliers inward, lay the wrap over the pliers, pull the tension up, then pull the end of the wrap out with the pliers.
Wrapping for a Training Partner
There’s nothing wrong with needing help to wrap your knees. Some people need assistance due to issues like bicep tendonitis or being out of shape; others might just prefer having someone else do it for them. Regardless of that reason, you’ll still want to know how to do it in case your pal needs a hand.
Overall, wrapping someone else’s knee is very similar to self-wrapping. One major difference, however, lies in supporting their feet. The reason their feet need support is because they might get pulled around a little bit. Supporting their feet ensures that their toes are still pointing up and their quad is still flexed.
If their knee unlocks as a result, again, that puts them at a much higher risk of injury and/or bad movement.
In this example, Janis Finkelman supports her foot by placing it on a box. Joe keeps her outstretched leg in place by keeping it pinched between his quads.
Joe asks Janis to hold the wrap below her kneecap, ensuring that she can get more tension behind it on that first wrap.
Then, Joe wraps just her knee the same way he wrapped his in the self-wrapping tutorial.
Then let the knee wrap go and get it out of the way as best as you can. Ask your partner to lay a lifting strap on their knee in a way so there’s enough of a loop to pull the wrap through that loop. Pull as much as you need, and have your partner pull the lifting strap and that it doesn’t go too far. Finally, you can remove the lifting strap. You’ll also have a nice “lip” to tug that’ll peel the knee wrap clean off.
Do you typically pre-roll your wraps tightly first or just create the tension as you go?