Straps

[BlackTigers]

What strap do you all use?

I have some cheap....Harbringer? ones that are terrible. impossible to wrap, and pull really weird on my wrists.

Looking for something a little better, mainly for farmers walks, dead maxes, shrugs....etc.

 

[glenn beck]

blah blah blah increase your grip strength


here

http://www1.dealtime.com/xPO-Schiek-Schiek-Power-Lifting-Straps


these are insanely comfortable

 

[Deeko]

Back when I needed straps I used very cheap ones that I got at some local sporting goods store. I tried some nicer ones before and didn't really like them. The cheap cloth ones did the job (even though various experts hate them and claim they will rip...mine never did)

 

[ibex333]

IMHO, straps are a big waste of money. Sure they are cheap, but completely unnecessary unless you lift REALLY HUGE WEIGHT. We are talking insanely huge weight. You gotta look like a friggin' monster when you need weightlifting straps. Otherwise I'd advise against them unless you have an injury. You need to TRAIN your wrists, not keep them safe. Also I noticed that straps don't always help with wrists. It depends on a situation. For example, when doing bicep curls they don't help me at all! I try to avoid straps unless I get really exhausted on a pullup bar or lifting 3 times my usual weight on shoulder shrugs....

 

[BlackTigers]

IMHO, straps are a big waste of money. Sure they are cheap, but completely unnecessary unless you lift REALLY HUGE WEIGHT. We are talking insanely huge weight. You gotta look like a friggin' monster when you need weightlifting straps. Otherwise I'd advise against them unless you have an injury. You need to TRAIN your wrists, not keep them safe. Also I noticed that straps don't always help with wrists. It depends on a situation. For example, when doing bicep curls they don't help me at all! I try to avoid straps unless I get really exhausted on a pullup bar or lifting 3 times my usual weight on shoulder shrugs....

I train my grip serperately.

This way, my grip is not the limiting factor in a lift NOT targeting my grip. For example, I'll do farmers walks, both with and without straps.

Lighter weight without, kills my forearms. Train grip.
Higher weight with, destroys my traps. Train traps.

Deadlifting, I don't touch straps until I cannot keep the bar in my hands, and then add straps, which adds weight, which allows me to hit my back harder. I just do other things on different days for my forearms.

 

[Deeko]

IMHO, straps are a big waste of money. Sure they are cheap, but completely unnecessary unless you lift REALLY HUGE WEIGHT. We are talking insanely huge weight. You gotta look like a friggin' monster when you need weightlifting straps. Otherwise I'd advise against them unless you have an injury. You need to TRAIN your wrists, not keep them safe. Also I noticed that straps don't always help with wrists. It depends on a situation. For example, when doing bicep curls they don't help me at all! I try to avoid straps unless I get really exhausted on a pullup bar or lifting 3 times my usual weight on shoulder shrugs....

Of course straps aren't going to help you on bicep curls - your grip isn't a limiting factor there.

I have always been of the school of thought that straps are a useful training aid so long as they aren't overused. You should do sets without straps as heavy as your grip allows - and then do your heaviest sets (that you couldn't do without them) with straps. That way, while your grip is catching up to everything else, you aren't limiting your training of your other muscles.

 

[brikis98]

Personal opinion: if you're training for strength, I see little reason to use straps. If you can't lift the weight without straps, then in the real world, you can't lift that weight period. Grip strength is one of the most functional and frequently used types of strength, so training it as much as possible really pays off. And in my experience, the best way to train the grip is not via separate grip exercises (IMO, wrist curls and the like are mostly a waste of time) but as a side effect of other functional exercises, such as deadlifts, pull-ups, farmers walks, rock climbing, etc. If your grip is holding you back on some exercise, then train it harder and it'll catch up; if you use straps for all your heavy sets, it never will. To be fair, I'm not exactly deadlifting 600lbs and maybe at those weights straps become more of a necessity; of course, if you're moving that kind of weight, you have enough experience to decide for yourself if straps are worth it. Also, if you have some sort of hand injury, then straps can be useful so you don't have to miss workouts.

Having said all that, the best straps - by FAR - are Versa Grips. They are expensive, but you can hold a massive amount of weight with them without tearing up your wrists.

 

[BlackTigers]

Personal opinion: if you're training for strength, I see little reason to use straps. If you can't lift the weight without straps, then in the real world, you can't lift that weight period. Grip strength is one of the most functional and frequently used types of strength, so training it as much as possible really pays off. And in my experience, the best way to train the grip is not via separate grip exercises (IMO, wrist curls and the like are mostly a waste of time) but as a side effect of other functional exercises, such as deadlifts, pull-ups, farmers walks, rock climbing, etc. If your grip is holding you back on some exercise, then train it harder and it'll catch up; if you use straps for all your heavy sets, it never will. To be fair, I'm not exactly deadlifting 600lbs and maybe at those weights straps become more of a necessity; of course, if you're moving that kind of weight, you have enough experience to decide for yourself if straps are worth it. Also, if you have some sort of hand injury, then straps can be useful so you don't have to miss workouts.

Static holds with 385, 60 second farmers walks with 285+, weighted bar hangs....My forearm workout is the most painful one of the week. I train them for strength just like every other body part, and they are improving as well.

It's just without straps, I can't pull 405+, with them I can get it without worrying about dropping the bar as I hit the upper pull of the lift. I only use them for the heaviest sets of the most strenuous exercises, and on anything else where I feel like my forearms are limiting my lifts.

Those Versa's look really nice though, looking into them.,..

 

[brikis98]

It's just without straps, I can't pull 405+, with them I can get it without worrying about dropping the bar as I hit the upper pull of the lift. I only use them for the heaviest sets of the most strenuous exercises, and on anything else where I feel like my forearms are limiting my lifts.

See, this is the mentality that bothers me about people using straps: your grip strength is your weak point on the deadlift, so instead of working on it until it no longer holds you back, you want to get some special aide to bypass it entirely. Consider an analogous situation: your bench press is limited by your tricep strength, so near the top of the motion, you get stuck. Is the solution to just do a half-ass version of the bench press where a spotter helps you finish each rep? After all, this way, your triceps wouldn't be "limiting your lifts"!

Of course not. So why does your grip get some special exception? Grip strength is just as integral a part of the deadlift, farmers walk, etc as tricep strength is a part of the bench press. It isn't some external factor that holds you back on the deadlift, it IS the deadlift. To put it another way, saying "I can deadlift 405, but only if I use straps" isn't that different than saying "I can bench press 315, but only if a spotter helps with with the last half of the rep". It's your weakest link and needs dedicated work; the last thing you want to do is buy some aide that lets you ignore it.

 

[Deeko]

People with weaker triceps will often switch to a wider grip to put less focus there. And, people with weaker triceps will do other side training to strengthen their tris - be it addition sets of close-grip bench, tricep isolation exercises, band bench, etc.

What using straps does is allowing you to continue working the rest of the chain while you do additional exercises on the side to strengthen your grip. That way, when your grip finally does catch up, your deadlift as a whole is stronger than if you'd just patiently waited.

Of course this only works if you are properly training your grip concurrently - by going strapless as heavy as you can, doing extra grip exercises on the side, etc. For me, my grip didn't finally catch up (and far surpass) my deadlift until I started doing rock climbing. Had I not used straps, once I started climbing and strengthened my grip sufficiently, my deadlift would have been 50-100lbs behind in all likelihood.

 

[brikis98]

People with weaker triceps will often switch to a wider grip to put less focus there. And, people with weaker triceps will do other side training to strengthen their tris - be it addition sets of close-grip bench, tricep isolation exercises, band bench, etc.

If they are doing full range of motion bench press, then they are still doing bench press - nothing wrong with that. Switching to mixed grip or hook grip for the deadlift is no different - it is still the deadlift. Using straps, however, is an artificial aide, just like a spotter helping you finish reps of bench press.

What using straps does is allowing you to continue working the rest of the chain while you do additional exercises on the side to strengthen your grip. That way, when your grip finally does catch up, your deadlift as a whole is stronger than if you'd just patiently waited.

Well, this will certainly vary from person to person, but in my experience, 99% of people who use straps will NEVER have their grip catch up. That is, grip strength will ALWAYS be their limiting factor on the deadlift so long as they always do their heavy sets with straps.

For me, my grip didn't finally catch up (and far surpass) my deadlift until I started doing rock climbing. Had I not used straps, once I started climbing and strengthened my grip sufficiently, my deadlift would have been 50-100lbs behind in all likelihood.

My experience was different. So long as I used straps, my raw deadlift lagged ~30lbs behind what I was doing with straps. When I finally ditched straps entirely, it took only a month or so to make up that difference using a simple plan:

* I dropped by deadlift to 40lbs less than what I could handle with straps
* My routine had me deadlifting once a week and I increased the weight 5-10lbs each week
* I did other grip heavy exercises (pull-ups, rows, shrugs) once per week in between deadlift sessions

In other words, you can treat it as a simple deadlift deload that lets you focus on technique. In fact, I ended up with a better deadlift at the end, so I didn't lose any progress. Of course, in the worst case, it might take 2 or even 3 months for grip to catch up. This still won't be anywhere NEAR the 50-100lbs difference you mentioned. For most beginners, I'd wager the difference will be 0 in the long run if they properly dedicate themselves to it.

Oh, and IMO, the fact that your grip suddenly caught up when you started rock climbing is evidence that you weren't doing enough (or the right type of) grip work before.

 

[Deeko]

I did plenty of grip training in the weight room - including doing deadlifts as heavy as I could hold without straps. It didn't work. Climbing is a completely different type of grip training. It focuses on finger strength/pinching strength vs hand strength/crushing strength. My theory is that as someone with smallish hands, finger strength played a much larger role in my grip, which is why this helped my deadlift grip so much.

It can vary from person to person. I lifted for years, doing deadlifts and various other grip-strength methods, without much success in that department.

Anyway, I don't understand your logic that grip strength will never catch up if you use straps on heavy sets. That only makes sense if grip strength were the limiting factor for every deadlifter, and that's hardly the case.

As for your bench analogy, what about lifters that do board or band training to work a specific part of the lift? That's either not a full ROM movement, or its a full ROM that's assisted in certain parts of the lift. Should no lifter use those, either?

 

[brikis98]

Anyway, I don't understand your logic that grip strength will never catch up if you use straps on heavy sets. That only makes sense if grip strength were the limiting factor for every deadlifter, and that's hardly the case.

Obviously, your grip strength only needs to "catch up" if grip is the weakest link in your deadlift. This is why most people, including the OP, consider getting straps. In this case, I've found that straps ensure that the grip remains a limiting factor. Of course, if your grip is already plenty strong and you are using them for some other reason, then it isn't going to do any harm.

As for your bench analogy, what about lifters that do board or band training to work a specific part of the lift? That's either not a full ROM movement, or its a full ROM that's assisted in certain parts of the lift. Should no lifter use those, either?

Most lifters do partial ROM training in order to get stronger at that part of the ROM. This is fundamentally different than the reason many lifters use straps: to avoid working on their grip. That is, you do bench press with a board on your chest to strengthen the upper part of the motion and NOT because you suck at the lower part of the motion. You do rack pulls to get better at locking out the deadlift and not because you suck at getting it off the floor. On the other hand, the OP is proposing the usage of straps precisely because he sucks at holding the bar. The intent and the situation matter.

 

[bommy261]

i usually avoid using straps. however, when doing heavy power cleans or dead lifts i find them invaluable. to each his own tho, using them all the time would make your grip weaker overall, but they do have their uses.

using chalk would probably be the best solution, but the LA Fitness i goto is very clean and the management would probably bitch and moan if i used it.

 

[HN]

i usually avoid using straps. however, when doing heavy power cleans or dead lifts i find them invaluable.

on heavy power cleans, too? isn't that a disaster if you need to dump the weight?

 

[gramboh]

Yeah, using straps on cleans is a no-no (too hard to release, even with single wrap). When using them on snatches make sure you wrap only once so you can release the bar if you lose it overhead, otherwise your arms will be torn out if you lose the bar backwards.

 

[Deeko]

Obviously, your grip strength only needs to "catch up" if grip is the weakest link in your deadlift. This is why most people, including the OP, consider getting straps. In this case, I've found that straps ensure that the grip remains a limiting factor. Of course, if your grip is already plenty strong and you are using them for some other reason, then it isn't going to do any harm.


Most lifters do partial ROM training in order to get stronger at that part of the ROM. This is fundamentally different than the reason many lifters use straps: to avoid working on their grip. That is, you do bench press with a board on your chest to strengthen the upper part of the motion and NOT because you suck at the lower part of the motion. You do rack pulls to get better at locking out the deadlift and not because you suck at getting it off the floor. On the other hand, the OP is proposing the usage of straps precisely because he sucks at holding the bar. The intent and the situation matter.

I don't consider it avoiding working on your grip, assuming you are still doing deadlifts as heavy as you possibly can without them. You're doing an assistance exercise to strengthen a different portion of the chain - just like doing a bench or a deadlift with bands is making certain parts of the lift easier, and certain parts harder.

It works when properly integrated into a strength training routine. Key word bolded. Perhaps many people do not do that.

 

[brikis98]

It works when properly integrated into a strength training routine. Key word bolded. Perhaps many people do not do that.

Agreed.

Unfortunately, it can be very hard to do it properly: it is too tempting to not struggle with the deadlift grip and just switch immediately to straps. And as you use straps more, the calluses go away, which makes doing the deadlift without straps still tougher. This is why intent really does matter: it's a fine line between deadlifting with straps because you want to hit your PC harder and deadlifting with straps because you don't want to work on your grip.

 

[bommy261]

on heavy power cleans, too? isn't that a disaster if you need to dump the weight?

i never had to dump the weight yet, but i will take this into consideration next i do em, lol never thought about what would happen if i had to dump it, guess id be F'd!

 

[BlackTigers]

ITT: People who think I should deadlift less than my back's capable of because I can't hold a 415lb bar long enough to lock it out. Considering I train, all the SAME exercises that limit my grip, on a different day, I really cannot understand why you guys are being bitches about it. I even told you guys I lift the maximum I can without straps when I do my forearms, and I do the same lifts I needed to strap up for. How is that not training them?

I bought the first ones posted in this thread, we'll see how they work.