Get to grips with this comprehensive guide on all you need to know about weightlifting gloves, lifting straps and wrist wraps for lifting
Figure 8 Lifting Straps.
Your lifting is feeling good: You’re upping the weights, and you’ve almost hit a new one-rep max on your deadlifts this week. But suddenly, you find it’s not your strength holding you back but that horrible feeling of the bar sliding out of your hands mid-rep. Even worse, you’ve got calluses (or worse, skin tears), making the whole experience pretty uncomfortable.
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We’ve all been there. Luckily, there are solutions to help: weight-lifting gloves, lifting straps, and wrist wraps—designed to improve grip by reducing tension in your fingers, helping you lift heavier and providing a more comfortable workout experience.
But how do you know which lifting accessory is right for you, and is it even a good idea to start using lifting gloves, straps or wrist wraps at all?
Enter the great lifting gloves debate.
It’s been going on for years, with plenty of differing opinions as to which accessory is best and whether we should be using lifting gloves, wrist straps, or wrist wraps at all.
Ultimately, it comes down to personal choice, but we’re going to give you all the facts to help you make that decision. Let's discover the pros, cons, differences, and best exercises to use each of these weightlifting accessories for.
Whilst lifting accessories can be a great helping hand in helping you lift those heavy weights, it’s important to still work on building your grip strength. Discover How To Improve Your Grip Strength today.
Weightlifting Gloves (Lifting Gloves)
Weightlifting gloves (AKA gym gloves or workout gloves) are an accessory that many lifters will turn to at some point. Designed to support and protect the hands while lifting barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells, weight lifting gloves are suitable for all levels of lifter and come in a variety of styles.
Types Of Weightlifting Gloves:
Drawbacks Of Using Lifting Gloves:
What comes up must come down, and just as there are benefits to using lifting gloves, there are also potential drawbacks.
Weightlifting gloves are extremely versatile and can be used across a number of different exercises. The best exercises to use lifting gloves for are:
Should You Wear Gloves When Deadlifting?
This is completely down to personal preference. Deadlifts require good grip strength, especially when you start to really load on the weight! Some lifters like using weightlifting gloves for deadlifts, as they improve grip and provide a layer of protection for their hands to prevent calluses. That being said, weight lifting gloves are not your only option for improving grip when deadlifting. Wrist straps would be our preferred grip-enhancing accessory for deadlifts, providing bar security and reducing grip fatigue.
Before jumping straight to using lifting gloves or wrist straps for deadlifts, you may want to play around with grip placement first. Using a mixed grip (one underhand, one overhand) or a hook grip is a great way to secure your grip on the bar more tightly, especially if you add some chalk into the mix too!
Are Lifting Gloves Better Than Straps?
We wouldn’t say one is better than the other, but they do have different advantages and drawbacks. Lifting gloves are extremely easy to get the hang of using, making them ideal for beginners, and are extremely versatile, meaning they can be used for a wide range of exercises. However, some people don’t like the feeling of having thick material on their hands, and find it can get in the way when performing heavy compound lifts, such as deadlifts, effectively.
Lifting straps are well suited to heavy-pulling exercises where your grip is the factor holding you back. However, they aren’t suitable for all exercises, and it can take a while to get the hang of using them!
Ultimately, whether you use lifting gloves or wrist straps will depend on what exercises you are doing and simply which you prefer.
Wrist Straps (Lifting Straps)
The least controversial lifting accessory, and most commonly used across all abilities, the lifting strap (or wrist strap) is designed to provide bar security, enhance grip and support the wrist joint. Wrist straps are a great tool for hypertrophy, weightlifting, and powerlifting.
Types Of Lifting Straps:
Benefits of Wrist Straps:
Drawbacks of using Wrist Straps:
How To Use Lifting Straps:
There are slight differences in how to use the different types of lifting straps, but to use figure 8 loop wrist straps, you should follow these steps:
The best exercises to use wrist straps for are those heavy pulling movements – never pushing movements!
We emphasize ‘heavy’ because lifting straps should only be used for heavy-weight, low-rep lifts. You still want to maintain good grip strength, so it’s important not to become over reliant on wrist straps and only use them when you need them.
Can You Use Lifting Straps For Pull Ups?
Yes – Using lifting straps for pull-ups can help you to secure yourself to the pull up bar, removing the reliance on grip strength to allow you to focus on building mind-muscle connection, increasing time under tension and improving ROM. This makes lifting straps a great accessory if you are training for aesthetics and back development, but bear in mind if performance and grip strength development are a priority in your training, then using lifting straps to help with your pull ups is not recommended.
If you are choosing to use lifting straps for pull ups, we recommend single-loop straps. They are easier to release and put you at less risk of getting stuck on the bar than figure 8 lifting straps.
Do Wrist Straps Help Weak Wrists?
A Wrist strap has the main purpose of helping to provide better a grip on pulling movements. Because less grip strength is required, this indirectly helps to support the wrist, placing less pressure on the wrist itself when lifting. That being said, if you struggle with weak wrists rather than grip strength, wrist wraps may be a better option. These are specially designed to support your wrist, providing greater stability through movements by decreasing the ability of the load to move/bend the wrist.
Wrist Wraps For Lifting
Wrist wraps are pieces of fabric that wrap around the wrist, usually secured by velcro, that can also be found attached to lifting gloves. They wrap around the wrists to support the wrist whilst lifting, ensuring stabilization and correct wrist placement on the weight or bar.
Wrist Wraps vs Wrist Straps: what’s the difference?
Wrist straps or lifting straps are designed to help with grip strength and wrap around the palm of your hand and the bar. They offer respite for your palms from the tension caused by gripping the bar during heavy weightlifting. Wrist wraps, on the other hand, support your wrist, rather than assisting with grip. They are useful for pressing exercises to protect your wrists from heavy load, rather than assisting with grip on pulling exercises, as lifting straps do.
Types Of Wrist Wraps:
Benefits of Wrist Wraps:
Drawback of using Wrist Wraps:
Since the main function of a wrist wrap is to provide support for the wrists, the best exercises to benefit from using wrist wraps are heavy-pressing exercises that put a lot of pressure on your wrists. These include:
Do Wrist Wraps Weaken Your Wrists?
No, wrist wraps provide support and stability to your wrists, working with the existing wrist strength you already have. That being said, if you are looking to strengthen your wrists, using wrist wraps will not help to achieve this. Wrist wraps simply help to align the wrists and support them throughout your lifts, but if strengthening your wrists is your goal, you’ll need to implement some wrist exercises outside of your time using the wrist wraps or only use the wrist wraps when you really need them, such as during those heavier lifts.
Can Beginners Use Wrist Wraps?
Yes! If you have wrist pain, weak wrists, or are recovering from injury, wrist wraps are an easy-to-use solution to protect your wrists. That being said, it’s best to save using wrist wraps for heavy movements or during high-volume training sessions where you are performing repetitive movements, such as overhead press, push press, or snatches. For lighter movements or accessory work, try not to become overly reliant on using wrist wraps, and instead focus on building up the strength of your wrist without the wrist wraps.
As we can see from this breakdown, the general consensus is that lifting gloves, straps, and wrist wraps can all be beneficial to a certain extent but can hinder natural grip and wrist strength if you become too dependent on them.
As you build muscle, progressive overload becomes easier, and you may find eventually that you no longer need help of lifting accessories. But in the meantime, whilst you're seeing how far you can push your strength, it might be worth getting your hands on some lifting accessories to help get a grip on those heavy lifts.