Are Deadlift Straps Cheating?
Photo : Maridav ( Shutterstock )  Deadlifts are one of the biggest lifts youre likely to ever do in the gym, because your butt and back and legs contain some of the strongest muscles in the human body. With their powers combined, you can move a lot of iron. But theres a weak link, for many of us: O ur grip. Advertisement  This is where straps come in. You simply wrap a piece of tough fabric around the bar, and your grip is no longer an obstacle. But this leads to controversy. Lets look up the rules  To determine if something is cheating, we need to decide what rules apply. Lets look up the rules for the two sports where deadlifts are most notably contested: P owerlifting and strongman. In powerlifting, straps are not legal. (Here is the USAPL rulebook, for example: T heres a list of allowable personal equipment starting on page 18, and it does not include straps.) Check out this video of the world record holders in each weight class as of the time the video was made: N one of them are pulling with straps. But in strongman, they often are. (The rules for strongman arent standardized, so theres no consistent rulebook, but promoters typically do allow straps on most deadlifts.) Here is Lucy Underdown pulling 300 kilograms for a recent record; you can see her put straps around the bar before she settles in and begins to pull. If youre on your own in the gym, though, nobody is following you around with a rulebook, so you have to make the decision on your own. The downside of straps is that they dont challenge your grip. If you always used straps for pulling exercises, you might not ever see your grip get stronger. For that reason, many lifters avoid using straps at all. If they cant grip a weight, they wont lift it. Advertisement  The upside of straps is exactly the same as their downside: T hey let your gripping muscles take a break. This may allow you to lift heavier with straps than without, or to do more reps without worrying about your grip fatiguing. Most competitors, in both strongman and powerlifting, do some of their training with straps and some without. But if you dont intend to compete and just want to get stronger in the gym, you can do whatever you likeincluding always or never using straps, depending on your preference. Advertisement  How to get the best of both worlds  To be a well-rounded strong person, youll probably want to use straps sometimes. Heres what I recommend:  Advertisement  When youre doing deadlifts, do as many as you can without straps. If your grip fatigues before youre done, use straps as needed to finish the workout. If youll be doing high rep sets of something that you know will fatigue your grip, consider using straps. (For example, R omanian deadlifts or rows.) Do grip workouts afterward (or on separate days), because dedicated training will help your grip become stronger. We have a guide to improving your deadlift grip here  Advertisement  This is pretty much what I do. I dont use straps for lifts that I am practicing to competition standards (like a deadlift, or a snatch) but I do keep a pair in my gym bag to use for overload work (like heavy rack pulls) or high rep work (like R omanian deadlifts in sets of 10). I also do grip workouts on the regular, and as a result my deadlift strength has gone up over the years, and my grip has gotten stronger. If you use them right, straps are a great training tool.