Lifting straps are strips of material that loop around your wrist and wrap around a barbell or dumbbell to reinforce your grip. They’re simple to use once you understand the setup, but small errors in wrapping direction or positioning can make them useless or even harder to grip. Here’s how to use them correctly and get the most out of them.
Why Straps Make a Difference
Your grip is often the weakest link in any pulling exercise. Your back, hamstrings, and traps can handle far more weight than your fingers can hold onto, which means your grip fails before your target muscles are fully worked. Straps solve this by transferring much of the load from your fingers to your wrists.
The effect is significant. A study of 19 trained men found that deadlift one-rep max was 10.3% higher on average when using straps compared to bare hands. That translated to roughly 16 kg (about 35 lbs) of additional load. Sixteen of the 19 subjects lifted more with straps, and some gained over 20%. Beyond max strength, straps also reduce how quickly your grip fatigues across multiple sets, letting you complete more total volume in a session. More volume with heavier loads means more stimulus for muscle growth in the muscles you’re actually trying to train.
How to Wrap Lasso Straps Step by Step
Lasso straps (sometimes called Olympic straps) are the most common type. They have a single loop at one end that creates a circle for your wrist, with a long tail of material that wraps around the bar. Here’s how to set them up correctly.
First, thread the tail end of the strap through the loop to create a circle. Slide your hand through that circle so it sits snugly around your wrist, just below the base of your palm. Before you do anything else, check the orientation: the tail of the strap should point toward your thumb side, not toward your pinky. If it points toward your pinky, you won’t be able to wrap in the correct direction.
Now reach for the bar. Place your palm on the front side of the bar as you normally would when gripping it. The strap tail goes behind the bar, on the opposite side from your palm. This is a critical detail. If the strap ends up on the same side as your palm, it will actually make the bar harder to hold.
With the tail behind the bar, wrap it around the bar once, moving toward your thumb (toward the center of the bar, away from the plates). Just once. Wrapping multiple times wastes effort and doesn’t improve grip. After the single wrap, close your fingers around the bar and the wrapped strap together, then twist your wrist slightly to tighten the slack. Repeat on the other hand.
How to Use Figure-8 Straps
Figure-8 straps look like the number 8, with two loops connected in the middle. They provide the strongest grip of any strap type because they essentially lock your hand to the bar. Slide your hand through the first loop, drape the middle section of the strap over the bar, then slide your hand through the second loop before gripping the bar. Your hand and the bar are now enclosed together inside the strap.
The trade-off is that you can’t release the bar quickly. You need to set the barbell down before you can remove your hands. This makes them excellent for deadlifts and shrugs where the bar stays close to the ground, but a poor choice for Olympic lifts like cleans or snatches where you may need to bail quickly.
Which Exercises Work Best With Straps
Straps are most useful for pulling movements where your grip tends to give out before the target muscles are fully fatigued. The best candidates include:
- Deadlifts (conventional, sumo, and Romanian)
- Barbell and dumbbell rows
- Shrugs
- Lat pulldowns and pull-ups
- Rack pulls
- Dead hangs
Avoid using straps for pressing movements (bench press, overhead press) where they serve no purpose, and think carefully before using them on Olympic lifts unless you’re using a strap style that allows quick release. For squats, a different piece of equipment (wrist wraps) addresses wrist support.
Choosing a Strap Material
Straps come in three main materials, and each handles differently.
Cotton is the most comfortable against skin. It won’t chafe, absorbs sweat well, and feels soft right out of the package. The downside is that cotton stretches under heavy loads. That stretch reduces how much grip support you get, and it also means cotton straps wear out faster than other options. If you’re lifting moderate weight or prioritize comfort, cotton works fine.
Nylon is the most popular choice for serious lifters. It doesn’t stretch, which means your connection to the bar stays tight even at maximal loads. Nylon is also highly durable and holds up well over months or years of regular use. The compromise is comfort: nylon is stiffer and can dig into your wrists or cause mild chafing during very heavy pulls.
Leather is the most durable option and doesn’t stretch under pressure. It’s more comfortable than nylon against the skin, sitting somewhere between cotton and nylon in terms of softness. Leather straps tend to be bulkier, and they require occasional maintenance (keeping them dry and conditioned) to stay in good shape. They’re a solid long-term investment if you don’t mind the upkeep.
Common Mistakes That Ruin Your Setup
Most problems with straps come down to four errors. Wrapping away from your thumb (toward the plates) instead of toward the center of the bar is the most common. This causes the strap to loosen as you lift rather than tighten. Placing the strap on the same side of the bar as your palm, rather than behind the bar, is another frequent mistake that turns the strap into an obstacle instead of an aid.
Wrapping the strap around the bar two or three times feels like it should help, but it just adds bulk to your grip without improving security. One clean wrap is all you need. Finally, positioning the loop so the tail points toward your pinky rather than your thumb makes it physically impossible to wrap in the correct direction. Check your orientation before you approach the bar.
Balancing Straps With Raw Grip Training
Straps are a tool, not a crutch, but using them on every set of every pulling exercise will limit your grip strength development over time. Your forearms and fingers need direct challenge to grow stronger, just like any other muscle group.
A practical approach is to perform your warm-up sets and lighter working sets without straps, then add them for your heaviest sets where grip would otherwise be the limiting factor. This way, your grip still gets trained through a meaningful portion of your workout, but your back, traps, and hamstrings aren’t held back on the sets that matter most for growth. If you’re a complete beginner, spend your first several months building a foundation of grip strength before introducing straps at all.