Sizing on SBD knee sleeves

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey Drs,

I’m a long time follower of your content and have been “lurking” around the forums for a while without ever making an account, so this is my first post.

I’ve been thinking of getting some knee sleeves for a while now, and have been trying to figure out which ones would be the best for me. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the inzer knee sleeves but from what I understood they’re very stiff and this is my first pair of knee sleeves ever so I don’t think that I want to go for such stiff knee sleeves as my first pair. I currently own an SBD belt and I really like it, and i’ve heard good things about their knee sleeves so I think i’m going to go for the 7 mm powerlifting knee sleeves by them.

The only thing that i’m currently debating is the sizing. I currently weigh ~180 lbs (in the morning) and my height is just under 5’11. I measured my knee joint and it came out @ ~14.5 inches. The thing is, i’m planning on getting up to ~205 lbs over the next few years (though it’s going to be via a very slow bulk and potentially a mini-cut in between, so I probably have a few years before i’m going to get significantly heavier). According to the size chart, i’m just int he middle of L for standard sizing, or M for a tight fit that’s better suited to powerlifting and squatting (their words). I do want a tighter fit since i’m going to be using the knee sleeves for powerlifting, but i’m afraid once I gain some weight size M might be too tight. In your opinion, would size M be fine or should I go for size L and deal with it being less tight for the next few years while I gain weight?

Side question - Is it OK to wear knee sleeves the entire workout? Since it’s winter i’m not going to be working out in shorts so I thought of maybe putting the knee sleeves on under my joggers before starting the session, though it will be a pain to get them off mid-workout.

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Nick,

Good question. It really depends on your calf size more than anything else. These aren’t going to change too much in size, unfortunately. If a medium fits now, I’d go with that. I would not recommend buying knee sleeves with the plan to grow into them, in general. I suspect regardless of if you grow or not, you’ll be up for buying another pair of knee sleeves 4 to 5 years from now.

You can wear knee sleeves the entire workout, though I think they kind of suck to bench press and deadlift in. People do all sorts of things though, but that’s just my preference.

-Jordan

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Thanks Jordan, I think i’ll go ahead and get the medium. My calves are (unfortunately) only around 14.1 inches so they’re not going to be a problem, though as a side note I am working on calves twice per week so hopefully i’ll make some improvements there over the years.

Do you also use knee sleeves on accessories such as leg press / hack squat, or do you generally only use them for working sets on squats?

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I usually only use them on squats and squat variations with a barbell. No real rhyme or reason other than that’s my preference.