Training

Lifting straps: a useful tool, not cheating

Straps let your back and legs work past the point where your grip gives out. Used sensibly, they do not ruin grip strength.

In heavy pulling exercises such as deadlifts, rows and shrugs, the grip is often the first thing to fail. The muscles of the back and legs could keep going, but the fingers open and the set ends early. Lifting straps solve this by wrapping around the bar and the wrist, so part of the load passes through the strap instead of only the fingers. That lets you finish sets that are hard for the target muscles, not just hard for the forearms.

The common worry is that straps make the grip weak. In practice, the grip still works when you wear them, and most people use straps only for their heaviest or highest-rep sets. A sensible approach is to do warm-up sets and the first working sets without straps, then put them on when grip becomes the limiting factor. If grip strength matters for your sport or you compete in powerlifting, where straps are not allowed, keep some double-overhand or mixed-grip work and add direct grip training such as farmer's walks, dead hangs and plate pinches.

Straps are not a fix for poor technique. If the bar drifts away from your body or your back rounds, straps will only let you repeat the mistake with more weight. Learn the movement first, then use straps as a tool to train the back and hips harder. Chalk is a good first step before straps, since it improves friction without changing how the bar sits in the hand.

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