If you take strength training seriously, especially for pulling movements like deadlifts, rows, or shrugs, lifting straps can be one of the most useful tools you keep in your gym bag.
They get misunderstood a lot. Some people think using straps is cheating or that it weakens your grip. That is not how it works. When used the right way, lifting straps protect your joints, help preserve grip strength, and let you focus on the muscles doing the real work. That means you train your back and legs, not just your ability to hang onto the bar.
Here is what lifting straps actually do, when to use them, and what they help protect over time.
What Lifting Straps Are
Lifting straps are made from tough material like cotton, nylon, or leather. You wrap them around your wrist and the bar to create a secure link between your hand and the weight. This helps take pressure off your grip so you can lift more weight with better control.
There are a few types including loop, figure eight, and lasso styles. They all do the same thing: assist your grip so you can pull heavier without worrying about your hands giving out.
Why Lifting Straps Help
1. Pull More Without Grip Giving Out
When you are pulling heavy, your grip is often the first thing to fail. Your back and legs might be strong enough to lift 400 pounds, but your fingers can only hold on for so long.
Straps take some of the load off your forearm muscles, especially the flexor digitorum profundus and superficialis. That lets you focus on the muscles that matter most in these movements like your lats, traps, rhomboids, spinal erectors, glutes, and hamstrings.
2. Protect Small Joints and Ligaments
When your grip starts to fail under load, it can put a lot of strain on small areas in the hands and wrists, including:
- Flexor retinaculum
- Tendons from the forearm
- Thumb and finger joints, especially with hook grip
- Wrist ligaments under rotation, which happens often with mixed grip
Using straps helps cut down on overuse strain in these areas, especially when lifting heavy or doing lots of volume.
3. Focus on the Muscles That Should Be Working
Straps let you put more attention into pulling with your back and hips instead of just worrying about holding onto the bar.
- In rows, straps help you squeeze your lats and traps
- In Romanian deadlifts, they let you load the glutes and hamstrings more
- In shrugs or carries, they help you train the traps without burning out your forearms
You are not avoiding grip work. You are making sure grip does not get in the way of real progress.
4. Help Prevent Injury Over Time
Training your grip is good, but overdoing it can cause problems like:
- Tendonitis in the forearms
- Wrist soreness or instability
- Torn calluses
- Elbow pain from overuse
Straps help reduce those risks. They are especially useful when doing lots of pulling or when testing heavier maxes during a training block.
When to Use Lifting Straps
Good times to use straps:
- On heavy pulling days like deadlifts or rows
- During high-rep sets where grip will likely give out
- When recovering from wrist, hand, or elbow issues
- In strongman training for things like heavy carries or axle lifts
When to go without them:
- For warm-ups or lighter work
- When training grip directly like farmer’s walks or bar hangs
- When working on callus building and chalk use
You still need to train your grip. Straps are a support tool, not a replacement for strong hands and forearms.
Final Thought
Lifting straps are not a shortcut. They are a smart way to train the muscles that actually move weight without being limited by grip fatigue or small joint pain. They help protect your wrists and hands while letting you stay focused on big lifts and long-term strength goals.
Used well, they help you train harder, stay healthier, and keep making progress.