3 Reasons Why I Wear Knee Sleeves

*Originally published in January 2022

The demand

I kept seeing CrossFit athletes, Powerlifting athletes, Strongman athletes and others that do a lot of compound movements wearing knee sleeves. There wasn’t a whole bunch of bodybuilders out there that used knee sleeves that I saw. So, when I went down the rabbit hole of mixing Bulgarian method and the Soviet program for Squat Every Day protocol, I realized that I was demanding so much out of my knee joints on a DAILY basis.

Of course there are the skeptics saying that your knees will hurt from squatting every day, but my knees feel dramatically stronger from squatting and lunging frequently. I pride myself on trial & error, and I have definitely put my body through vigorous testing in this realm. A body in motion stays in motion.

#1 — Warmth to the joints

Providing warmth to the joint is of great importance in training. By properly utilizing knee sleeves, you can warm up your joints quicker and keep them warmer longer. I absolutely love this feature along with the feeling you get when warming up for squats. You begin to break a sweat a bit quicker than normal because of the sleeves, and helps prime you for your workout.

#2 — Tighter knee sleeve = gives you a little pop

If you wear a tighter knee sleeve than you are accustomed to, it could you give you some additional support in the bottom as well as a little pop. What I mean by “pop” is that it helps with the rebound of the squat out of the hole.

My crew and I demand quite a bit out of our bodies, so it’s not a bad thing to add some extra support to the equation. I want to emphasize that I don’t think wearing knee wraps every day is necessary. Knee wraps are more heavy duty and definitely more specialized.

#3 — Lunging

As many of you can tell, I like to lunge. Walking lunges are a significant piece to the puzzle with my programs. The reason why I mentioned lunges here is because of the padding that they give you when touching your back knee to the ground. If you are lunging at a track, on asphalt or concrete, you probably are more than aware how it feels to bang your knee into the pavement. Not very pleasant. By giving yourself just enough padding, you can mitigate this.