My Opinion Of Wrist Straps

     Just like with anything in life, when you are trying to benefit from something, it can have both a pro and con. And with lifting, wrist straps are the same way. I never used them (mainly because I could never get them to wrap tightly and it just felt unnatural and weird for me) but wanted to share what I believe are both good and the downside of them.


     The upside to using them is that your muscles can be focused on more. For example when doing deadlifts or something else such as barbell shrugs you can force out a few more reps which therefore would cause more muscle stimulation, hence allowing for more growth. Another exercise where I once read where you can benefit from using straps is lat pull downs. Basically any exercise that can and will benefit from this will be a pulling movement. Here comes the downside, which Im sure any and all readers will see as obvious, it can weaken your grip strength.


     As I said I never used them, mainly because I could never utilize them correctly. Knock on wood, I benefited from that and my grip strength allowed me to hold onto the heavier weights. Now for example, my brother who was using wrist straps a few months back, told me he was deadlifting over 500 with straps on the deadlift. But when he would warm-up with 405 without them, he had a hard time holding onto the weight and he just tossed them aside from then on out. Now just this past weekend he deadlifted 515 in a competition. That's not to say using straps did not have a benefit because his muscles were being conditioned with a heavy load, but his grip strength was lacking due to the use, or maybe I should say "over-use" of the wrist straps.


     My final conclusion is that wrist straps can be beneficial to stimulate muscle growth with heavier loads, but it can be at the expense of not increasing your grip strength. I personally just stick with chalk and lift that way, but if you want to pump out a few more reps or do an extra set with a little more weight, I do not think it would hurt you if you were to use wrist straps for that purpose.