lifting straps 101
TRAINER : rae
CATEGORY: TIPS/TRICKS
ESTIMATED TIME: 5 mins
Lifting straps will reduce grip fatigue and allow you to lift heavier weights for longer. By securing your wrists and wrapping around the weight, lifting straps will support your wrists and grip, enabling you to move heavier weights than you would be able to without using the straps.
Why might that be desirable?
Well, when we lift heavier weights over time or are able to lift those same weights for longer periods of time, we call that progressive overload, and progressive overload is absolutely essential in building muscle strength and size.
Using lifting straps during your training is a bit like stealing from Peter to feed Paul. We are taking away from building true grip strength, but in doing so, we are able to put more stress on our muscles more often-leading to more strength gains and muscle growth.
To learn more about the importance of grip strength and how lifting straps might affect it, check out this blog post here:
https://www.ladies-who-lift.com/motivation/nm474tunz5eunikn8rgndngqrw16jp
STEP 1
Loop straps so the V shape faces one another. Straps should look like a mirror image of one another.
STEP 2
Slide onto hands like gloves, thumbs on the inside of the straps. Straps will end around your wrist.
STEP 3
Bring your hand to the top of the bar/dumbbell and wrap the strap under the bar and towards the center. The strap should not overlap on itself, but wrap around the bar FLAT until there is no more strap to wrap.
STEP 4
Tighten the straps around the bar by twisting the strap a bit more.
STEP 5
The barbell or dumbbell should feel tight to your hand and grip should feel strong.
STEP 6
Go lift heavy stuff!
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