The Original Muscle Weight Gain & Muscle Building Blog!!

Because lifting extremely heavy weights seems to be what most individuals recommend to gain weight and build muscle mass (I don’t, by the way), many weight trainers, including naturally skinny ones, think that in order to protect their joints, especially the elbows when performing any type of pressing movements, and knees, when engaging in squat-type exercises, wrapping them up is the way to prevent injury or catastrophe from striking.

However, knee wrapping, in particular, may actually be worsening the situation and setting you up for a severe “fall”, literally and figuratively. Interesting what IFBB professional bodybuilder Dave Henry has to say about this matter (and he would be an authority on this matter, being that the man can push some serious weight in the gym): “They (knee wraps) compress the patella, which can’t be a good thing. There’s a reason there’s space and fluid behind the patella - because it acts as a sort of shock absorber. Taking that shock absorber away so you basically have bone grinding on bone sounds like a recipe for disaster in the long run”.

In case you were wondering what the “patella” is, it’s a flat triangular bone located at the front of the knee joint. Also called the “kneecap”. So, you can see from what Dave is talking about the serious potential damage in the area.

Honestly, knee wraps is something you can stay away from, since lifting mega-weight amounts isn’t the most effective way at gaining weight and build muscle anyway.