Sometimes its the little things that matter the most and sometimes its the little things that get overlooked the most....
I remember being at my first pl (20 years ago) meet and watching some guy wrap the knee of his lifter. I thought man that looks like it sucks! I was glad to be a bench only diva and did not have to worry about that. I never understood the knee wrap thing back then because I didn't squat and did not need them. The only leg training I did was leg ext and walking lol.
As I transitioned over the years in to be a real powerlifter I understood the purpose and the need for knee wraps. A good knee wrap and properly applied wrap not only = safety to the knees but it also = bigger squats. I watched several variations of how people wrapped knees through the years and I also asked why they wrapped like that. Answers always varied and I never got a real great answer. I think it really just came down to that someone showed them that way to do it and that's what they felt comfortable with.
Fast forward....As I started to venture into "real" powerlifting, myself and Redneck Tim tinkered away at wrapping each others knees. We tried (what seems like 1000's) several different ways. I started watching folks at meets more closely, trying to find how to videos and picking up ideas here and there.
After taking a couple of ideas from some folks we kind of started finding a to wrap knees that became really effective. We both noticed most lifters never really used all of the wrap (too much access hanging and not being used) so we tried to figure out a way to use as much of the wrap as possible. We also noticed the biggest problem: getting the wraps off quickly after a squat. This seemed to be the biggest thing. Watching guys and girls battling with trying to get those tight ass knee wraps off after a squat was excruciating to see over and over again....
We started paying around with a few ideas for that problem. Now we had seen folks "tie" their wraps off at the top or bottom but to us that was still wasting a ton of unused knee wrap (which we were trying to avoid) plus it looked like shit....
I cant tell you how many different ways we tried wrapping knees. Tim and I would spend days at a time on it. We were each others test monkeys. My legs would be so scared up and bruised I looked like I had been beat with a belt or something. But one day....BING!, we both got to thinking what if we could pull a "tab" through and that tab would be used to release the wrap and make it super quick to get off plus we would be using almost every inch of the knee wrap for maximum pleasure! Now how do we do that?
Now enters the string....
I saw a guy at a meet one time back in the day using a piece of leather to pull the end tab through the knee wrap when finished wrapping. Remembering that I thought pretty cool, except he did not leave the tab like we started doing to pop the wrap off faster and I thought the nylon string would be smaller, slicker and well better. The idea for some type of something to pull the wrap through originated from that but we took that idea and made it better with the way we did it. Now we had the answer for pulling the wrap through the way we wanted and making for a quick release. Also when pulling the tab through with the string it will give you a much tighter finish to the knee wrap....
I cant tell you how many times we have gotten crazy looks from folks on how we wrap knees at Nebobarbell. Every time we wrap someone's knees though they are convinced that's the best knee wrap they have ever had. I know before you jump all over this you like your way, its the best, its the tightest and all of that and I have heard that before but unless you have been wrapped by one of us you really can not say that till afterward now can you? Me and Tim have wrapped several top guys through the years. We have handled several top lifters at meets. We have helped folks that did not know what they were doing and did not have helped and every time that lifter was blown away with how we wrap knees and how tight those wraps are.
Back to the little things. Every lifter at my gym must know how to wrap knees. No choice in this matter. Everyone should know how. Period. Too many times we have been to meets and lifters done know what they are doing (because they just don't know or have never been showed how to), lifters come unprepared, or they don't have handlers or a Team. My lifters have seen first hand all of these scenarios and each of them now understand why we enforce each and every lifter at our gym know how to properly wrap knees.
We had 17 lifters competing at this last meet we went to. 15 of those lifters were full power. We had our entire Team there with a designated knee wrapper for each lifter. At one point we had 7 lifters being wrapped during the same flight. It looked like a NASCAR pit crew on wrapping knees. At a meet is where you have to be prepared and ready and not make mistakes. That lifter is depending on you to wrap their knees correctly and give them the confidence they are wanting right before they get under that squat PR they are about to crush. We ran that meet like a well oiled machine and put on a clinic for wrapping knees. I was very proud of my Team and their proper execution of handling their Teammates.
Our way is not perfect or the best but that's not what this is about. This is about making sure your Teammates know how to do the little things at your gym. These little things add up to big things. When everyone at your gym knows what's going on and has been trained to do things and knows what to expect then things flow better and success becomes addictive. I want all of my Team from rookies to veteran's to understand everything that is going on during training and at meets. The more they know they better we are.
This clinic today was about 3 hours long. All of my veteran's had a rookie or a lifter still in training on wrapping knees, wrapping their knees with me and Redneck Tim observing. Tons was learned today and we had fun. Things like this continue to galvanize the comradery we are constantly building at Team Nebobarbell. We are always continuing to learn and becoming better. When you stop learning you stop moving forward and stop being successful....
Remember its the little things that mean the most....
Terrible old video of us showing how we wrap knees from several years back. We have changed a few things since this video on how we wrap knees now. The concept is still the same and we still use the string but our method of laying out the wrap up the knee and down the knee has changed quite a bit. We are making a new video of our knee wrapping this week I will post up showing how we have improved this method....
As you can tell in the video at the very top (compared to this old video) from at our knee wrapping clinic our method is much different, more efficient, cleaner and tighter and that = bigger squats....
Nebobarbell uses these wraps to crush Squat PR's: