Strap Up or Shut Up
Self-appointed strength messiahs preach “no straps” like it’s scripture. Meanwhile they’d get dragged across a parking lot by a Golden Retriever on a Dollar Store leash. Same energy as those college business professors lecturing about permits while the real builders are greasing politicians and paying off the mob to keep the job moving. Zip it, virgin sex therapists.
I’ve trained with the strongest people on earth, coached the strongest people on earth, and I train elite tactical athletes where grip actually matters. Context is king.
From Olympia finalists to World’s Strongest Man competitors to powerlifting champions to tactical athletes who live and die by their hands, I’ve seen it all. Even Tom Haviland uses straps when it makes sense. I co-authored a best-selling grip book. So let’s break down when and why straps actually matter.
Intention
Why are you doing something, and what adaptation are you chasing? Answer that and most context questions solve themselves. Training isn’t mystical. If you know the goal, the method becomes obvious.
Limiting Factor
The limiting factor matters. I’ve said this in videos, seminars, and to clients nonstop… and it still doesn’t click. One of the most frustrating things I hear is, “Yeah, grip became the limiting factor on shrugs.”
If the goal is to train your traps and your grip gives out first, you’re missing the whole point. Mixed set? Fine. Maximizing anything? Not happening.
Rows and shrugs — put the straps on.
Maximize the target. Don’t let your back get cheated because your grip bailed faster than an Irish honeymoon. Strap up and train what you came to train.
Build your grip, of course. But not at the expense of sacrificing muscular development. If a limiting factor steals from the muscle you’re trying to grow, eliminate the factor — wear the straps — or choose a new exercise.
Same reason BOSU-ball squats belong in a Coney Island sideshow, not in a serious program.
Take-home point: Let the muscle you’re training be the limiter when hypertrophy is the goal.
Don’t Turn Straps Into Stupidity
Straps help in strength, max effort, hypertrophy — almost everything when used right. But bodybuilding stupidity still pops up.
I spent years in Metroflex, the greatest bodybuilding gym on earth. Back in 2006 it was hardcore: bodybuilders, powerlifters, and a couple gals who punched the clock at the local strip joint. Even then, before TikTok clowns took over the world, I saw one guy incline barbell press with straps for absolutely no reason. Rare, but unforgettable.
Here’s the deal. If you’re warming up a lat pulldown with 80 pounds, you don’t need straps. If you’re doing bodyweight pull-ups before strapping on 90 pounds for sets, you don’t need straps. Use your head.
Stimulate your grip without annihilating it. Strap up when grip becomes the limiter. Not on warm-ups. Not on fluff. On work sets with an intended purpose.
Case Study: Tom Haviland
Tom built an upper back like a brick outhouse with heavy carries, brutal time under tension, and loaded farmer walks. But when you’re doing a minute straight with hellish weight, grip becomes the limiting factor. For tactical hypertrophy, he strapped up. And he grew like a weed.
Strongman Context
In strongman, straps are allowed on the deadlift but not most events. You can’t strap up a farmer’s walk. Sometimes you need to feel 350–400 per hand and let your nervous system adjust.
But if straps are legal in your comp, you better practice with them.
Summer at Metroflex? 105 degrees, 70% humidity, bar slicker than an Allsup’s chimichanga wrapper? You’ll be grateful you trained with straps.
Grip must be trained — but grip is specific. Crushing grip doesn’t equal supporting grip and vice-versa. Know the difference.
Powerlifting Nuance
George Brink, my former training partner when I was a teenager and the first man over 50 to deadlift 800 in a meet, trained with straps constantly. It worked because grip wasn’t his weakness.
But plenty of lifters smoke 900-plus in straps and miss 770 on meet day.
Grip position changes bar path and tightness. If you don’t prep for that, don’t whine when the PR disappears.
The Bottom Line
Train grip. Build grip. Respect grip.
But when the goal is muscular overload — or supermax overload — straps are absolutely fair game.
If grip is the limiting factor and the goal is hypertrophy or overload?
It’s a 100 percent yes.
Strap up. Context is king. Want a simple, brutal plan to get bigger and stronger? You bring the work ethic, this is the blueprint:
