Once you start squatting serious weight, you may look around and realize that other people wear something on their knees. Sometimes it’s a strip of elastic that wraps around like a bandage, but more often they’re wearing knee sleeves, often made of neoprene. Do you need them? And if so, when? Let’s discuss, and then I’ll give my recommendations for which knee sleeves to start with.
The difference between knee sleeves and knee wraps
Before we get into the details of sleeves, I want to point out a distinction. There are knee sleeves, which we’re talking about today, and then there are knee wraps. The main distinction is that knee wraps help you lift more, while knee sleeves are for comfort. (And in case you were wondering: neither one will prevent injury.)
Knee wraps look like this, literally an elastic bandage you wrap around each knee. Their purpose is to tightly compress your knee when you squat, so that they can provide assistance as you stand up. They may be wrapped tight enough that you can only keep them on for a minute or two; the instant you finish your set of squats, you’ll take them off..
In powerlifting, there is an “equipped” division that uses specially engineered, tight fitting clothing (bench shirts, squat suits) that is designed to help you lift more than if you were just using your plain ol’ body. Tight, thick knee wraps are used for squats in the equipped division. (Here is an example of some serious knee wraps; note that they don’t have the velcro tabs seen on a lot of mass-market knee sleeves.) In “raw” divisions, where assistive clothing isn’t allowed, knee wraps are usually not allowed either. People can often squat 5-10% more with wraps than without.
Knee sleeves, on the other hand, look like this. They are cylindrical pieces of neoprene (or sometimes fabric) that you slide your legs into—hence the term “sleeve.” They don’t provide much, if any, assistance with the lift. It’s normal to put on your knee sleeves at the start of a workout, and leave them on until it’s time to head home. Knee sleeves are usually allowed in raw powerlifting.
There are knee sleeves that may provide some assistance, but nearly all of the knee sleeves on the market are neoprene or light fabric. Those are the main type we’ll be talking about today, but I’ll throw in some information about possibly-assistive sleeves later in this article.
What do neoprene knee sleeves do?
As a new lifter, I asked everyone about knee sleeves. What do they do for you? When did you get them and why? The answers were always kind of vague: “if you need them, you’ll know” or “I don’t know, I’ve just always used them.”
I finally gave in and bought a pair just to find out. I had had a minor knee ache that I would sometimes feel at the bottom of deep squats. The first time I did snatches (which involve a deep squat) in knee sleeves, I was floored. That ache was just gone. That’s what knee sleeves are for. They make your knees feel good!
Most lifters will agree with that statement, but some will also say that wearing very tight knee sleeves can provide some assistance in the lift. Research doesn’t bear that out, though. This 2021 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research compared neoprene knee sleeves to a control sleeve (thin fabric) and to a sized-down, tighter neoprene sleeve. They found that neoprene sleeves don’t help you jump higher or lift any more weight on the leg extension machine, but people wearing the sleeves did squat slightly more—an average of 354 pounds for people wearing the control sleeves, versus 365 pounds for people wearing either normal or extra-tight neoprene sleeves.
The authors conclude that sleeves seem to be doing something for people who wear them, but it doesn’t seem to be any kind of direct mechanical assistance. The main theories are that knee sleeves:
Keep your knees warm
Provide some cushioning behind your knee when your knee is bent, which can reduce pressure on the front of your knee
Increase subjective feelings like confidence
Of the three, I’m most partial to the cushioning theory, but officially the jury is still out. Interestingly, the study did not find any difference between regular or tight sleeves. If you want mechanical assistance in your squat, you’ll have to upgrade to wraps.
The best neoprene knee sleeves for comfort
The main thing to look for is 7-millimeter neoprene. These are the standard thing that people are thinking of when they talk about knee sleeves. These are not drugstore knee braces. You're not looking for anything with straps, or a kneecap hole. They are simply a neoprene sleeve to slip your knee into.
There don’t seem to be many factors that make one pair of 7mm knee sleeves better than another. Some brands say their neoprene is thicker or more durable than others; you might also have a preference in shape, since some are more contoured and others are straighter in shape.
Aside from preferences, there is one more important factor: If you intend to compete in a sport like powerlifting, you may need to buy a brand that is approved by the federation you compete in, and/or check whether it meets any other requirements. (USA Weightlifting doesn’t have strict requirements on sleeves, so pretty much any brand is good if you’re a weightlifter.)
When shopping, make sure to find out whether the sleeves you’re looking at are sold in pairs or singles. If one brand is $55 for a pair, and another is $55 for a single, they may look the same on paper but one costs twice as much as the other. Here are three popular brands:
There are other knee sleeves in the world. There are thin, stretchy fabric ones; they won't do much for you, but enjoy them if they're your kind of thing. There are also 5-millimeter sleeves that are the same basic idea as the ones in the list above, but are a bit thinner. (I would start with the 7mm, but if for some reason you don't like the thickness, go ahead and try 5mm.) Finally, there are various types of sleeves that some lifters will swear really do assist in the lift. We don't have solid evidence about whether those claims are true, and if you want to go that route, I'd still suggest getting yourself a pair of regular knee sleeves first. You can worry about the fancy stuff later.
As for myself, I have a pair of Norse Fitness 7mm neoprene sleeves, similar to the Gymreapers above, and they’re fine. I wear knee wraps on most of my back squats, and 1kilo 3-ply sleeves for cleans and front squats. They aren’t neoprene, and I do believe they assist in the lift at least a little. But in general, when people ask me to recommend a first knee sleeve, I steer them toward 7mm neoprene like the ones in the list above.