I’m new to squatting in wraps, I bought a 2.5m pair of the red Slingshot wraps and signed up for a WPC-affiliated meet in April. I later noticed that on the WPC site there is an announcement that 3m wraps are allowed as of last October, although last I checked the rulebook wasn’t updated and the site for the Canadian affiliate was only updated after I contacted some officials to ask about this.
Anyway, my question is how much difference is there between squatting in 2.5m and 3m wraps? I’m still not 100% with depth in wraps (although WPC isn’t too strict either) and some of my squats have looked about borderline or slightly high, but I have over 3 months to sort that out. I would say I’m getting around 30lbs out of the wraps, and I haven’t been wrapping them incredibly tight either. How much more carryover could I expect to get out of a 3m pair vs. wrapping the 2.5m’s tighter? Is it much harder to hit depth with 3m wraps? If it makes any difference, I’m going to be wrapping my own knees at the meet. I train alone and have nobody competent that I can rely on.
I’ve never used three metre wraps so honestly I couldn’t say. But, if you may find depth is a small issue I would have thought extra material won’t help. Also wrapping yourself, extra material is more time wrapping so more fatigue. I’d probably work on getting more revolutions out of your current wraps if anything. Also, get some long reach pliers if you haven’t already. Game changers:
You’re probably right about working on getting more revolutions out of them, I haven’t really gone for maximum tightness just yet because I’m still adjusting to them. I have only done four sessions in wraps so far, and only a few actual wrapped sets in each. My depth isn’t terrible or anything and may very well pass since it’s not an IPF meet, I’m just aiming to consistently break parallel (not ATG or any bullshit) and there is a slight learning curve with wraps.
Yes, I’m doing the meet in Orleans that Curd Hos is running.
I’m squatting raw with wraps, so if I just forget about the wraps I would be better off without them, but I get what you are saying since you lift equipped.
I did my last two meets with wraps and love them. The spring out of the hole, imagined or actual, is unreal. Shit, I have more problems steadying the weight at the unrack than I do the actual squat.
They can throw off your balance a bit, and for me it’s harder to feel proper depth. But I feel indestructible with them on.
I hate knee wraps, mine are a pair of 12 year old 2.0m metal black lines. They’re enough for me for now so I can’t really comment as I’ve never used anything else.
i used 3.5m knee wrap, my coach lock them at 70% of they efficacity…it fucking hurt so much, it was not even funny ! maybe because it was my first try with wrap…
I love 3m but not so much for the extra revolutions you can get or extra pressure or what have you. I just like the the 3m because when I crank a 2.5m the hardest part of the wrap is pulling the revolution through to lock it. With a 3 I can get 5he exact same pressure and revolutions and then still have about 18" of wrap left. So this allows to me to use a lighter pull o n the last full revolution so it’s alot easier to pull the wrap through. Also makes it much easier to get off. As any one who actually wraps their knees with real effort knows they aren’t comfortable to wear long so getting them off with ease is nice ha.
So you don’t actually get more carryover from the 3m’s? Right now I’m not training with maximal weights, more like low 80%s with knee wraps, I’m mostly trying to get used to the different groove and learn to hit depth so I am wrapping them maybe 80% of how tight I can get them. Pulling the end of the wrap through isn’t a significant problem as yet, but I definitely can’t wait to get them off when the set is done.
At this point I’m thinking I will stick with the 2.5m pair and maybe move onto 3m in another year or so, I should be able to squat somewhere in the mid 500’s with these ones and if I jump up to 3m right away it doesn’t really give me any room to progress. Does that make sense? I was looking at it the same way with wrist wraps, I use a medium length (whatever the exact size is) rather than the maximum because I figure that once I’m benching 450 or more I will need more support so I don’t want to depend on that right from the start. I’m aiming to bench at least 400 this spring.
