UPA Finalizes Definition of Raw

Are you serious? Have you even used a knee sleeve before? A lifter would be lucky to get anything out of Rehbands, Kono or any other knee sleeves.

The UPA should be congratulated on making a decision based on the facts and rational thinking, while taking the sport's and lifter's best interests in mind. Also, to the "engineer", define "cheating". Next, explain to the rest of us how knee sleeves are "cheating". The lifters are FOLLOWING THE RULES of the organization in which they are competing, hard to call that cheating. And you can't claim that knee sleeves are not "raw lifting", because that definition does not have a clear-cut meaning yet. If you surveyed ALL lifters in the country, I bet the majority would consider belt, wraps, sleeves, and chalk "raw". Maybe the class should be called "Classic Powerlifting" and we should get rid of the name "raw" so it calms some "purists" down a bit. Either way, the sanctioning body decided that it would be allowable equipment, so it is in the rules. Not cheating. I don't think the UPA has a world affiliate yet anyway, but a "world record" in powerlifting is only really valid in the federation it was achieved in, so no other "raw" world record holder in another federation is going to be cheated out of any WR. Also, read the definition of "knee sleeve". It can't be adjustable. So it is going to be limited to something the lifter can get on in one piece, thus, the diameter of the sleeve has to fit over the calf. So, Mr. Engineer, get out your tape measure and you will see that the calf is larger that the knee, so that will limit how tight the sleeve will be. Once again, the UPA's decision has some built-in limitations without being a cumbersome, hard-to-enforce rule. So don't worry about getting your durometer and tensile strength argument out. It won't matter how tense they make the neoprene. Anyways, I am off to Wal-Mart to buy a pair of knee sleeves. I am going to turn my raw squat into a 850# squat with them and set an easy WR. Last, I think it is obvious, but that guy posting above is not a "polymer engineer". Engineers are trained to think through problems completely before offering an opinion, and to base their findings on facts. Pretty clear that guy didn't do that. If you aren't convinced, he used the term "durometer" wrong. That device/measurement will have nothing to do with knee wraps. My brother in law actually is an engineer. Sorry brother, you are busted.

Great move by the UPA. Even though I lift USAPL, the UPA has arrived at a reasonable interpretation of raw that virtually all lifters will respect. Hopefully, the USAPL will adopt the same standard once the debate over velcro knee sleeves shakes out.