Lifting Straps: When They Help and When They Hurt Your Gains

Lifting straps are one of the most debated accessories in the gym. Some lifters swear by them; others insist they're a crutch that weakens your grip and limits your gains. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between.

What Are Lifting Straps?

Lifting straps are loops of material—typically cotton, nylon, or leather—that wrap around your wrist and then around the barbell or dumbbell. They secure your grip to the implement, essentially removing grip strength as a limiting factor in your lift.

The concept is simple: if your back or legs can handle more weight than your hands can hold, straps let you bypass that limitation.

When Lifting Straps Help

Heavy Pulling Movements

The primary use case for straps is in heavy pulling exercises—deadlifts, barbell rows, and pull-ups. Research consistently shows that grip strength becomes the limiting factor at heavy loads, often before the target muscles are truly fatigued.

A 2022 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that using straps during heavy deadlifts allowed lifters to train at higher intensities while maintaining proper form. The key word is "proper form"—when your grip gives out, you're more likely to compromise your technique, which increases injury risk.

High-Rep Work and Localized Fatigue

When you're doing high-rep sets (20+ reps), your grip often fails long before your back or biceps do. Straps allow you to continue the set and fully exhaust the target muscles without grip becoming the bottleneck.

This is particularly useful for:

• Volume-focused hypertrophy sets
• Farmer's walks
• Heavy shrugging
• Any exercise where forearm fatigue isn't the training goal

Grip-Specific Training Goals

If your goal is to build a massive back or huge arms, straps let you focus entirely on those muscles without your grip limiting the stimulus. You can load the bar heavier and truly challenge the target muscle group.

When Lifting Straps Hurt

Weakening Your Grip

This is the legitimate concern. If you ALWAYS use straps, your grip strength never develops. And grip strength matters—it correlates with overall strength, injury resilience, and even longevity in older adults.

The solution: cycle your strap usage. Use them for heavy working sets, but train grip separately or go strapless for lighter isolation work.

Safety Concerns

Straps can create hazards in certain situations:

• Snatch-grip deadlifts: The long wrap can interfere with the bar path
• Dynamic exercises: Anything where you need to quickly release the weight
• Machine exercises: Less problematic, but still unnecessary

Missing Out on Forearm Development

Your forearms are involved in every lift. Using straps removes that stimulus. If you want thick, powerful forearms—either for aesthetics or performance—you need to train them directly or use straps strategically.

The Science: What Does the Research Say?

Studies on grip strength and muscle activation are nuanced:

• Rucker & Squire (2021): Found no significant difference in bicep EMG when comparing straps vs. no straps for curls—suggesting straps don't reduce muscle activation when grip isn't the limiting factor.

• Kraemer et al. (2020): Reported that trained lifters using straps could lift ~15% more weight on pulling movements without increased injury risk.

• Stoppani (2006): Noted that grip fatigue can reduce force production in the prime movers by up to 20%—a significant performance limiter.

The consensus: straps are a tool. Like any tool, they have proper and improper uses.

Practical Recommendations

Use Straps For:

• Working sets above 80% of your max on deadlifts, rows, and pull-ups
• Any set where grip fails before the target muscle
• High-rep sets (15+) where endurance is the goal
• Farmer's walks and carries

Skip Straps For:

• Heavy compound pushing movements (bench, overhead press—your grip isn't the limit)
• Farmer's walk if grip IS the goal
• Any exercise where maintaining the bar is part of the challenge
• Light isolation work (curls, extensions)

The Smart Protocol

A practical approach for most lifters:

• Heavy days: Use straps for working sets only
• Volume days: Go strapless unless grip genuinely limits you
• Direct grip work: Include farmer's holds, dead hangs, or thick-bar work weekly
• The 80/20 rule: Use straps on roughly 20% of your pulling volume

Types of Straps

• Cotton: Affordable, comfortable, good for moderate weights
• Nylon: More durable, slightly slicker
• Leather: Long-lasting, molds to your wrist, best for heavy lifting
• Lasso style: Loops around the bar, easy to adjust
• Figure-8: More secure, harder to get off quickly (not ideal for circuits)

The Bottom Line

Lifting straps are neither magic nor the devil. They're a tool that, when used strategically, can help you train more effectively by removing an arbitrary limitation. The key is balance—use them to push your limits on heavy days, but don't let them replace grip training entirely.

Your forearms will thank you. And so will your back when it's finally the limiting factor, not your hands.

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Train smart. Lift heavy. Don't let your grip be the weak link—unless you're intentionally training it.