One of my primary reasons for getting back into bodybuilding after many years break was to regain and improve my lower back strength. And just because Ive seen it enough times to know it needs to be mentioned, the use of straps is only warranted during exercises where youre working against gravity or where theresistanceis pulling away from you. I use them when I bench press only cause I feel it keeps my wrist steady. If your grip is giving out before the target muscle group(s) youre training, thats a problem. This post will tell you exactly how to use lifting straps, when, and why. If youre planning to deadlift, the weights youll use should already be on the ends of the barbell. As with the first strap, do not tighten the strap around your wrist. Laila has expertise in competitive athletics (gymnastics, powerlifting, and tennis), personal training, distance running, and Olympic lifting. Just look at the picturesits much simpler to see it. I actually just bought a set of wrist straps that have a hook on them , because it is hard to wrap the strap on my left hand do to partial paralysis. Excellent article. What a dumbbell I am. You can injure your wrists by relying too heavily on them to lift the weight, so use your grip as well. If straps are good enough for the worlds strongest men, they are good enough for you. By using our site, you agree to our. Absolutely. This article was co-authored by Laila Ajani. Heres what I mean, (Let me preface this by mentioning that this article isaimed more at people training to build muscle or improve the way their body looks rather than people training specifically for performance or competition. If you dont use lifting straps, you will always limit the rest of your body. Lifting straps what are they and why should you use them? Using straps, youll tire out your grip strength more slowly and be able to keep a good posture for a higher-rep set. Never drop the weight from a standing position. To me, this is just one of those Im so HaRDCoRe! Its on my to-do list. Am I not wrapping the straps tight enough around the bar? Vertical pulling exercises take the lats through a massive range of motion and will, Join the best fitness facility in Tallahassee, The Serious Guide to the Conventional Deadlift, Weight Loss Explained, and What You Can Do To Make It Happen, How to Get Started With Strength Training, How to Get Started With Mobility & Flexibility, How to Get Started With Weight Loss Nutrition. Laila is certified by the National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA), USA Powerlifting (USAPL), and she is a Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES). If your core strength is holding you back, wear a belt. This is something that would require a full article to explain. You may find that your other muscles seem to shut down when your grip is becoming fatigued, and even though you end the set with your grip intact, an aid like straps will completely change what you can do. 
Common sense always dictates, as you say. I think, like straps, if you feel like you need the belt or youll do better with the belt or that by not using the belt its somehow holding you back then by all means use the belt. Fitness Trainer. Unless your performance during an exercise is being hindered by the fact that the weight is sliding out of your hands (something that just cant happen during a press on account of that darn gravity thing again), then you shouldnt be using straps. Basically, whatever helps for whatever reason go for it. Using them for these lifts may result in ridicule from other weight lifters. Great article. Use straps on those sets only. To use lifting straps, start by threading the ends of the straps through their loops to make circles. As we mentioned earlier, straps keep the grip strong and secure so that heavy weights dont slip out of your hand. If I want to train my grip, it should be done separately on its own time. Im not doing shrugs because I want to improve my ability to hold a weight. So what are lifting straps, why are they important, and do you actually need them? I do enjoy using chalk for deadlifts though it forces me to use mixed grip, which Im not a huge fan of since it puts my arms in different positions and Im not a competitive power lifter. If possible, I recommend you lift with chalk and reserve lifting straps for when chalk isnt enough. So putting on lifting straps lets you keep pushing the workout forward to build the most strength. Lifting straps often cause weight trainers to ignore the need to strengthen their grips. Laila Ajani is a Fitness Trainer and founder of Push Personal Fitness, a personal training organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Research source, Sign up for wikiHow's weekly email newsletter. Powerlifters and bodybuilders commonly use them to progress on heavier pulls. And then a bunch of clueless people just started repeating it because it adds to the Im so cool and hardcore persona theyre trying to portray (usually to impress their even more clueless friends or a bunch of 14 year olds on some bodybuilding forum). I am a 45 year old male. With that said, you have any recommendations on any good (economical) straps? Basically, whatever set(s) of whatever exercise(s) where your grip is hindering your performance, thats when straps should be used. Lifting straps do not aid in bench presses or similar exercises. Start by going under the bar from back to front, then wrap the straps over the top and under again. If you are worried about having a weak grip, then you should spend dedicated time training your grip. Cotton lifting straps are easier to learn with but wont last you forever. Rather than trying to explain with words how to use the strap, I will show you both pictures and a video. Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh. If you are doing Romanian deadlifts, the goal of that exercise is posterior chain hypertrophy (muscle growth) and hip extension strength. They will absolutely increase your PRs on the squat, A friend from high school asked this question recently. But as long as you draw the line at pink dumbbells, its all good. I love this article (and have forwarded to a host of friends back east). However, if I were preparing for a powerlifting competition, I would be sure to train with a mixed grip because lifting straps are not allowed. Make sure to do at least some reps with your natural grip, even if it means you can't lift as heavy a weight. Why? With poor form comes injury. Deadlifting with straps can also help prevent serious injury. If the strap is too high, it could injure your wrist while youre lifting. Barbells naturally want to roll out of your hand away from the fingers. Every exercise? Get in touch:Email us: info[at]breakingmuscle.com. You can use chalk to help with your grip, and you can use a mixed grip to help keep the bar in your hands. Any suggestions would be appreciated. So there are many reasons for using straps or other aiding equipment, like a spotter etc., when lifting weights. Of them, Ive found the two most common to be: Can you guess which of the two opinions tends to be the most popular among the typical trainee on a typical weight training forum? I use straps because my left hand does not have the gripping strength as my right. When you use lifting straps properly, as it rolls out of your hand, it just gets tighter in the strap. Wow. Check out our Lavender Lifting Straps for an example! 
Also worth mentioning is that this video demonstrates how to use straps with a double overhand grip on a barbell. Weightlifting straps are designed to reduce grip fatigue to allow you to focus on the muscles you're targeting when pulling heavy lifts. And this again comes back to the point I made before. Just like rolling your shoulders during shrugs or trying to recreate a pec-deck/chest fly machine while seated upright and using dumbbells thats just not how gravity works. Its a pretty significant difference the first time you use them when your grip has been the limiting factor for a while before that point. They are a weightlifting accessory that wrap around your hand and the bar to provide wrist support and to help you grip heavier weights. This helps you focus on completing heavy sets without worrying about your grip and compromising form. Now repeat that process with your other hand. Yup, I actually remember making that suggestion glad its been working out well. I had to lay off of pulldowns and some bicep work because of it. 
Take the same care when using straps as if you were not using them, and don't lift more than you are comfortable lifting, as this can lead to injury. Our audience encompasses the entire spectrum of the fitness community: consumers, aficionados, fitness professionals, and business owners. Wrist straps can help you deadlift heavy weights by strengthening your grip and taking some of the weight off of your hands. There is a right way to prepare straps for the wrists and to wrap them around the bar so I recommend that every lifter learn this first. I recommend 3-5 sets of 8-15 reps. If you DONT have grip issues on a certain exercise, dont use straps for that exercise. Ironically, limiting pure grip training to bicep day (add a few sets of grip exercises after) will probably result in more healing time and possibly a stronger grip. 
I use lifting straps on back day as well. I spent many years thinking that because my grip never failed, grip aids werent going to do anything but I was very wrong. Heres one of them. For tips from our Personal Trainer reviewer on how to pick the right lifting straps and choose which exercises to use them with, read on! Expert Interview. While there seems to be much debate over their use for this reason, I will say, yes, you are correct we do neglect the grip, but we do so on purpose. Anyone who lets their set end at rep #4 because their grip gave out when the target muscle group they were training was capable of 8 reps is a moron. Straps are long pieces of cotton/leather/other material with a loop at one end. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Not while simultaneouslytraining something else that matters a whole lot more. Ellie, Hey this article is really useful. When a bar slips, form is lost and the pull fails. So if youre lucky enough to see someone in your gym using straps while bench pressing (something Ive seen plenty of times), feel free to point and laugh at them. Versa Gripps Pro Review: Are They Better Than Straps? Building confidence is one thing, but a broken or sprained wrist is quite another. Karen, Hi Karen, Ive recently been diagnosed with arthritis in my right hand and am considering straps for chin ups and deadlifts. Some weight trainers prefer to wrap the straps in a figure-8 configuration. And this supposedly means that weight lifting straps are just preventing your grip strength from being improved. now, for wrist support, good gloves are good enough! Well, I like the common sense approach:use them only when you need them. I would argue human beings, evolving from primates, are naturally inclined to have insane grip strength; we just never build it. To be honest, I was one of those idiots that chose to shy away from the grip straps mainly for me attempting to be hardcore. So I never really took the time to research why you would or wouldnt need the straps (let alone that I have also never found any sound, logical articles from the web written about the subject.) Laila Ajani is a Fitness Trainer and founder of Push Personal Fitness, a personal training organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Let me answer all these question for you regarding weightlifting and lifting straps. Further, hook straps don't fit all barbells and can negatively affect your technique for some lifts. You should be using straps any time your grip will limit your workout unless the sole purpose of the workout is grip training (kudos to you). The purpose of straps is to allow the lifter to focus only on the pull portion of the lifts versus focusing on the grip. Your grip strength will not reach its potential just from doing deadlifts or rows. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. The purpose of the blocks is to break down the two lifts into their individual portions and/or segments. I was wondering if you might do a similar guide for the use of belts? 
Laila Ajani is a Fitness Trainer and founder of Push Personal Fitness, a personal training organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. . While its true that straps slow down the rate at which you build grip strength, building grip strength is not one of the primary benefits of the deadlift. Which means, if youre using straps during a pressing exercise, youre not accomplishing anything other than making yourself look like an idiot. But if it is, then by all means feel free to use them. In my most recent article in WODTalk Magazine, I discussed the hook grip. Since I have been on the subject of holding onto the bar quite a bit lately both in articles and with my own athletes, this month I want to talk about grabbing and holding on to the bar with straps. Fitness Trainer. I have had the same pair of lifting straps for almost ten years. So for example, if youre only having problems during the heaviest set (or a few of the heaviest sets) of an exercise but the rest are fine, then only use them during those specific sets. They have a thin layer of neoprene over the part that goes around your wrists should make it a lot more comfortable if typical straps are giving you a problem. You should do everything you can to maximize the movement and remove any barriers. You can also use lifting straps to help you get through exercises with lighter weights if you're recovering from an injury and need a little extra help to hold onto the bar. Chalk is useful too, but you need to train at a gym that doesnt suck. Holding onto the two ends of the straps is often much easier than getting your arms and hands positioned around large furniture. Just wrap one strap around the handle of each dumbbell, as shown in the article. Hence the powerful benefit of strap use. See the video above to make sure youre doing it from the right side. This lets me take my time performing the upper body pulling exercises without worrying about my grip failing. Ive been using straps for deadlifts, shrugs, pullups, etc for about 6 months and seeing only a minimal / psychological improvement in grip and performance. And if you only have grip issues during certain sets of that exercise, then use them during those sets only, not the others. Rather than try to explain it, the best way to understand would be to actually see them in action. I never leave home without my custom made, pink lifting straps. I've already done the research for you and created step-by-step plans that work. It is by far the most insane hand, wrist, and forearm workout I have EVER done. So why the hell shouldnt they be used in this capacity? The last thing you want to do is catch a heavy clean or snatch with a wrist caught incorrectly in a strap. ! things people say to sound cool despite how dumb it actually is. 
I had a stroke @ the age 0f 29. Nylon straps allow you to release the dumbbell the most quickly. And like I mentioned to DrSeRRoD above, the only other option to consider is a padded version, which all those same brands make and sell for about that same price. I felt everything on my back and legs instead of worrying about my grip. I liked it when you said, And certainly not at the expense of it, which makes me think I should definitely go for straps and see the gains. If the weight is sliding out of your hands too soon and hindering your ability to perform a given exercise with a weight youre otherwise capable of using, thats a problem. Straps are the quickest and simplest solution to these problems. I am into weight training and deadlifts is undoubtedly an essential part of it, so I had reached my threshold and deloaded twice trying every measures to improve my bare grip (rubbing chalk, alternate grip). 
