You’re still gripping, though not ideally.
You would be surprised how little “grip” is needed to keep the straps from sliding.
Hard to measure. You are still gripping, and beyond failure if you get to failure first. Hooks mentioned earlier take this dynamic away for sure.
I think some people may tire out elsewhere sooner due to poor form as RT Nomad mentioned. When you start changing a lever’s loading points stress is distributed differently and it could be that poor form leads to overworked lats or traps, burning them before grip. Definitely not a reason to negate properly used straps.
Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you will do it. If you put the heaviest weight you can lift on the bar then put on straps, you aren’t going to grip the bar when you lift? Let’s say you don’t. Do you think you’d be setting yourself up for an injury? Let a very heavy weight hang from the straps at the top and ask your shoulders how they feel. I’m not telling you something you don’t already know because you’ve been doing this for a longer time than I and at a high level, but the stronger you grip the bar, for any lift, the more weight you can lift. Isn’t there some scientific term for it?
If you’re bracing correctly they will be fine. This is actually a helpful exercise to practice letting your arms be “cables”.
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It’s probably the cliche of using a tool as a supplement vs as a crutch. I don’t use straps for all sets but I do use them because I also do BJJ, so my grip is being challenged often. I don’t want to walk around as if I have arthritis all the time.
I’m willing to try this but what exactly does it benefit?
I’m not sure what you quoted, sometimes the website annoyingly removes quotations, but I assume “cables”?
It lets you feel how the lift should be, as a cue. With the assumption that a well executed deadlift is the goal. I realize some people alter lift patterns, stance, grip et cetera for various reasons.
Something that often happens as deadlifts get heavy is people inadvertently go in to “all hands on deck” mode mentally, without realizing it, and a deadlift turns in to a shrug/row/good morning/weird squat variation. So much so that powerlifting federations have rules about not shrugging at lockout.
So learning to let your arms hang removes a lot of this. It can be humbling but again it serves a cue for proper form and bar path by removing grip and making you really feel the weight in a different way and how you are reacting to it. At least in my experience.
In my case you are not talking about the deadlift. I am sure I can deadlift more weight with a mixed grip and my minimal time bent over the bar with my “grip it and rip it” method. If I am on one knee and wrapping the straps and then into position over the bar to pull, or if I bend over the bar to wrap the straps, my back will not pull like I would like. Very likely I would be in a potential injury situation.
If we are talking rack pulls or shrugs (both starting only slightly bent over), I always did a double overhand with straps. A secure grip was never in question. It was made once I tightly wrapped the straps around the bar. My grip concentration was little more than holding 225lbs standing and with a double overhand grip. I was pulling in excess of 700lbs on the heaviest of the rack pulls of 5 reps.
I know everyone is different. And I suppose many don’t realize how tight straps can be wrapped around the bar before lifting. I don’t know.
And save a multitude of ruptured biceps once you get strong at deadlifts
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I come off strong to be a dick in small part, but mostly because what you guys are doing is your business. But we have new lifters looking for info, and telling them a trap bar is good for deads is as good as them never deadlifting.
Most people move to trap bars because it is easier. I did when i was young. But the inefficiency of the deadlift is what makes you a fucking beast.
Straps are useful as fuck for max effort or working sets. If you are using them for anything else, then you are giving up on your grip. That is not conjecture. It is truth. If you have a handicap, i am not talking to you. If you dont care about grip, im not talking to you. You can give all the limp handshakes you want.
But the new generations are soft enough without us giving them help. So keep your beta lifting in planet fitness.
And for you that give the excuse of grip holding you back from reps, set the shit down and readjust. That will suck and teach you to hold the fuck on. Trust me. I did it till i could do all accessories without thinking about it. It was a fight. 275 used to seem impossible when it was my deadlift. Now it is my row and seems like a toy. I think that most give up at two plates…that is a crime
When I think about it, I probably have had the weight come out of my hands and had it hanging with just the straps. I would not have thought there was an exercise in that but it sounds valid.
As far as the trap bar, I started using it because the higher handles put me in a better hinge position. However, though it can replace the movement it is not the same as a DL. I felt as though it was making me weaker as far as my lower back was concerned. I don’t think it’s a piece of junk like Rippetoe, but people need to know the benefits and drawbacks. For some people, it might be the only way they can do a deadlift resembling movement safely.
I’ve gone back to DLs but simply raise the bar a couple of inches. I know that makes me a pussy or whatever but no one gets called that for needing raised heels when squatting. And I use double overhand, I used to do mixed grip but don’t know if I’ll go back that, and straps when I feel my grip is an issue. Like others here have said, they don’t DL to work their grip. And to RT, yes, I have not noticed any carry over from the trap bar to the straight bar; it’s been the opposite.
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Keep deadlifting. If you really have to raise it up, then you are doing the full range that YOU can. Good on you for kicking ass.
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I was deadlifting this in 7th grade athletics. I don’t think we are discussing strap use from the same perspective or use case.
I wouldn’t consider a deadlift heavy until it’s over 500, for reference.
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I can pull the weight off the floor. I can pull off the floor using smaller plates. The range of motion isn’t the problem. It’s that because of T Rex arms, a regular deadlift when I do it, looks like a snatch grip, deficit deadlift from a normal person. Since I don’t want to use the DL as a squat movement, I do squats for that, I raise the bar a little to make my DL look like a DL. Raising the bar doesn’t make the lifting of the weight easier, but rather, it makes the movement more difficult as it puts more focus on my lower back and takes my quads out of the movement. When I pull from the floor, my hips are below parallel.
But you aren’t a normal sized human.
I understand. I don’t think 275 is a heavy deadlift at all. I am just saying when it was my work weight, it was hard to hold on to, but i forced myself to do it so that it wouldn’t be the limit of my grip. 315 was hard too, then 355. All these things seemed like it would be the end. I don’t know what will ultimately be my end with double overhand. But I keep raising it as my deadlift raises. I don’t max like that, but i keep the warmups all double overhand to keep my grip working. Today, probably because i was talking shit, 405 was slipping out on my warmup, and so i laughed a bit. But it is 100 in my garage, and the bar was slick as shit.
Eh, I’m 6ft - 6’1” depending on how well I’ve been keeping up with stretching and ~230. Solidly a mesomorph body type.
Not a giant by any means, and 500 is a high bar. I think it’s a legitimately heavy deadlift. I also think grip can suffer across a spectrum of weights, due largely to hand and finger size among other things, but to smashedguitars comments grip probably shouldn’t be an issue under a certain threshold. Sometimes people who bash various tools, methods et cetera simply don’t know, because they’ve never had the experience.
For reference, Eddie Halls big deadlift involved straps. If memory serves correctly, so did Thors. It would be a hard case to make to call either a pussy for using them.
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Yeah. I dont think trying to max without straps is going to get you a good deadlift workout.
I havent made 500 yet. I am officially 455. I need to let my cns recover for a few weeks before i try 495.
Sounds like you are more power like me. Any time yoi are in austin area, let me know, and you can come for a workout.
Saying shit like this is low T trash.