3 Different Grip Supports to Hold More Weight and Gain More Strength

Your grip strength can easily be one of the biggest limiting factors when it comes to continued progression on certain exercises. Eventually, the amount of weight your back or legs can move becomes restricted to however much weight your hands and forearms can sustain.

This is where the use of various grip assisting devices can come into play. Sure, if you find that the weights are slipping out of your hands, something as simple as a light application of chalk could be the answer, as long as you don’t go full-blown LeBron James and coat the entire gym in a fine mist of chalk residue.

But sometimes chalk won’t be enough – it’s not an issue of the weight slipping so much as the muscles in the hands and forearms simply not being able to support the weight you need. For example, it’s not uncommon for us to find that some of our female clients may only be able to hold onto 30 or 35lb dumbbells, but could easily do a set of 10-12 Romanian deadlifts or dumbbell squats with a pair of 50’s if their grip strength wasn’t an issue.

This is where we recommend the use of lifting straps or hooks – so that when you reach your heaviest loads, you can continue to push the intended muscle to its limit without being held back.

Given that there are now quite a few different options, I’ve broken down three different types of lifting straps that we use at All Strength Training in varying capacities as well as how to use them. Take a look!