The Home Fitness Manual

Forearm strength is one area on the body most beginners struggle to develop. This isn’t good if your favorite exercise is the deadlift, pullups or rows. In those moves you can handle only as much weight as you can grip. This is why weight lifting wrist straps were developed, to increase your ability to manage heavier loads at one time.

(Photo: Tomas Sobek)

In strength training, the forearms are usually the first muscle area to fatigue, and usually take the longest to recover from being maxed out.

There’s a fine line between needing straps in your workouts and depending on them. I suggest starting off an exercise without the straps on. These are meant to be a tool to increase your performance and abilities. Once your grip has reached failure, this is when the straps should come into play.

How To Use Weight Lifting Wrist Straps?

There are a number of straps available on the market for purchase. The variety is astounding. And some of the prices are uncalled for. But, from the basic to high-end, all straps are based on a very simple design: a strip of material that gets wrapped around the hands on one end while the other end is looped over a barbell or pullup bar. That’s it!

When using weight lifting straps, the quick-and-go method is often the best. That’s why I prefer the plain cotton straps, as Scooby suggests in the video below. When you’ve only got a minute in between sets, every moment counts. You shouldn’t have to waste a few scrambling to figure out which hand the weight lifting wrist straps need to go on.

As I mentioned above, this piece of lifting accessory should only be used to assist in honing your grip ability. If you’re strapping up before you even warm up, then you’re missing the whole point. This isn’t to say only beginners should be using straps, but there’s a time and place in one’s training when they are most effective.

The following video is a from a reformed wrist strap junkie, who raises the question whether or not wrist straps are even really necessary while training.

Building muscle with weights requires a little assistance every now and then. Not every product you can buy is going be worth what the packaging will claim or because it’s sold by a major brand. But, with a tool like weight lifting wrist straps, the fact that you can add more reps and sets means better growth to handle heavier weight loads.