Welcome, fellow aspiring jacked person—I’m glad you’re here. Today, we’ll be going over how to use lifting straps, which are one of the most valuable single-use items you can pack in your gym bag if you’re hoping to increase both your hypertrophic (a.k.a. muscle-building) and strength (a.k.a. strength) gains. They allow you to use heavier weights on movements that demand a lot of grip strength—think: rows, deadlifts, and shrugs—and let you continue to work bigger muscle groups long after your non-strapped grip would have given out.
And right off the bat, let’s get one thing clear: Unless you’re a competitive powerlifter or you’re in some sort of contest that specifically prohibits their use, lifting straps are decidedly not cheating. (I’m honestly not sure where that idea even started, since if you’re not in a competition, you’re just… going to the gym? And how can you “cheat” at going to the gym? I digress.) I—like many people who played sports growing up—was erroneously told by many strength and conditioning coaches that “you should only be lifting weights you’re able to grip,” and that you have to “earn” the next heaviest dumbbell in order to lift it. Luckily, after many hours of YouTube and a lot of broscience, I smartened up.
The Best Lifting Straps, at a Glance:
Now, you shouldn’t be using these for everything you do, but lifting straps are the logical next move when your grip strength is the limiting factor in your trainings, or when your back inevitably becomes stronger than your hands. While I’m always game for a set of Kroc rows, cheating your regular rows to an egregious extent solely because you can hardly hold onto the dumbbell is a) no fun, and b) a great way to not actually thrash your lats and upper back. And, if you’re worried about losing out on grip strength by using straps, you can always, you know, train your grip. Anyway, rant over—here’s how to use lifting straps.
How to Use Lifting Straps
It couldn’t be easier, boys. If you’re using a regular “lasso” strap, simply thread the non-looped end through the looped end and secure the strap around your wrists, tightly. (You want the non-looped end positioned on the underside of your wrist, dangling away from you, like Spiderman shooting a web.) Once the strap is secure, grab the bar or dumbbell like usual, then wrap the loose end of the strap under and around the bar once or twice, depending on how secure you want your grip, and tuck it under your palm and squeeze. Perform your exercise. Then, when you want to unstrap yourself from the handle, just let go. That’s it! If you’re stuck, check out the videos below.
Types of Lifting Straps
There are three main types of lifting straps: regular or “lasso” straps, figure-8 straps, and Olympic straps.
These are your bread-and-butter straps, and what you’ll see most people using in the gym. It’s the one we covered in the video, and the ones we recommend for pretty much everyone based on function, reliability, and value.
Olympic straps are great for—you guessed it—the Olympic lifts. Specifically, clean-and-jerks and snatches, along with their variations. The single-loop design functions in the same way as regular straps, except many people find them to be a little less secure and easier to release, which is ideal if you have to bail out of the bottom of a snatch or jerk. (The last thing you want is to have your strap get stuck when you’ve got hundreds of pounds overhead.)
Figure-8 grips are some of the most secure grips out there, which is why you’ll see them used a lot in strongman events and deadlifting competitions. They’re a little clunky and more difficult to use, but if your sole purpose is to pull massive deadlifts, they’re a good choice—just be sure they’re allowed in any contest you sign up for if you’re looking to compete with them.
There are a few other pieces of equipment that do essentially the same thing as straps but aren’t, well, straps. The two most popular items in this category are grips and hooks.
These days, grips are one of the most popular ways to secure yourself to a bar or handle. They tend to be on the more expensive side, but offer really tight grip and are super easy to use. They work in the same way as regular straps, except they’re cinched around your wrist with Velcro and have a more low-profile design. (They’re also huge in the bodybuilding community.)
Hooks are exactly what they sound like: Hooks. How they work is pretty much self explanatory—you just hook them around the bar or handle and pull.
A Few of Our Favorite Models
Are Lifting Straps Worth It?
TL;DR: Yes. Look, I could sit here and list off random studies that are (probably) out there to underline my point and illustrate how taking grip strength out of the equation lets you hit your lats in a more optimal, science-based way, or how a double-blind placebo test in rats shows you can exponentially increase your levels of jackedness by using figure-8s, but I’m not going to do that. (Mostly because there are plenty of other people on the internet doing that.) Instead, my advice is to just try them yourselves, and use a little common sense. If you can only do three sets of rows before your grip gives out, but straps let you do five sets of rows, which is better for back growth? My money is on the latter.
I personally think straps rock, and they totally changed my back training—especially on things like one-arm dumbbell rows, barbell rows, and barbell RDLs. Being able to rip out sets to failure on these movements has been a game-changer for me, and it wouldn’t be possible without straps.
One more thing before we break for lunch, boys: Technically, I kind of lied when I said these are single use items—you can get a few more off-label uses out of them, like wrapping them around a barbell to essentially “elongate” your arms in a front rack position (which is great if you have wrist/elbow mobility issues) or using them to help slide on particularly stiff knee sleeves. But generally, they’re best suited for what they’re made for, which is helping you hold onto heavy-ass shit. So go forth, fledgling meatheads of the world, and pack a few slabs of thick, dense muscle onto your back—and enjoy.