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Use Your Straps For God Sakes!!!!

punch

New member
WHY USE STRAPS?????

Well, I dont know about you guys, but when Im doing my back the last thing I give a shit about is increasing my grip!!! Forearms take no more than 15-20 minutes to do and are very imortant for overall arm developement. I can spot guys a mile away who think they can get away without doing direct forearm work because they dont use straps. Bottom line is by and large these individuals lack proportion. My forearms are very strong and cut because I work them directly twice a week. Incidently, I use straps on almost all my lifts. My view is that its hard enough to do heavy work on major muscle groups. So, why leave your grip to chance? Everyone should do direct forearm work at least once a week, preferrably twice.

Heres my routine:

Standing reverse barbell curls: 4 sets bringing the bar to chest level and keeping wrists straight. ( this is very difficult at first, but before long you will be amazed at the growth on the tops of your forearms).

I superset these with seated reverse dumbell curls: While sitting on the end of a bench, I place the dbls on my legs and reverse curl up and squeeze as hard as I can.

For the belly of my forearms I do the following:

Seated dumbell wrist curls: I sit on a bench and place my arm so that my forearms are flat on the bench and my wrist is hanging over. I roll the weight all the way down to my fingertips then curl the weight up until I squeeze the crap out of my forearm. I go heavy on these.

Farmers Carry: Take a fairly heavy dumbell (this takes time) and hold the dbls to your side, palms facing in. Curl the weight in as high as you can and squeeze, only moving your wrist.

Thats it. However theres a catch. Your going to do 4 sets of each, with little rest. 15 reps per set. Do this for 8 weeks and come back to me and tell me what your forearms look like let alone feel like. This should oinly take 20 minutes, its not easy, but then again who the hell wants easy. LOL
 
no straps for me

I am totally against the use of straps anymore. I have come to the conclusion that if you cant life a weight with your own hands with your own strength, you shouldnt be lifting that heavy. This is STRICTLY my opinion. It has more to do with the idea that if you cant even pick up a weight, its far too heavy a weight for you. Rather than the aspect that it hinders forearm development. I hit my forearms 3 times a week with a different rep scheme everytime and I dont use straps and my forearms arent as big as I would like. :eek:
 
Re: no straps for me

MonStar1023 said:
I am totally against the use of straps anymore. I have come to the conclusion that if you cant life a weight with your own hands with your own strength, you shouldnt be lifting that heavy. This is STRICTLY my opinion. It has more to do with the idea that if you cant even pick up a weight, its far too heavy a weight for you. Rather than the aspect that it hinders forearm development. I hit my forearms 3 times a week with a different rep scheme everytime and I dont use straps and my forearms arent as big as I would like. :eek:


I try not to use straps, but unfortunately they are necessary at times. When doing heavy pull-ups or bent over rows. My grip will give out before my back, so I definitely want to full slam my back, so I use them. When doing deadlifts I hate to use that alternating grip technique, so I occasionally use them there.
 
They are useful. I had surgery on my hand 2 months ago to repair a severed tendon and I started using straps for the first time ever since I started back working out. They definitely are valuable on back day!
 
the only time I use straps are when I don't want to rip up my hands.
It's personal preference really, it doesn't matter one way or the other. If your forearms are weak then deal with the situation. why workout forearms directly 2x a week?
 
my CaptainOfCrush grippers are in the mail.
(1,2 and 3) thats pretty much my stance on a good grip versus straps.

have you ever though of the consequences of using straps? they can mess your wrists up six ways from sunday.
They squeeze bits of your wrists that shouldnt be squeezed. the nerves, the tendons the fluid sacks etc etc.

maybe you should work your grip more.......and forget about the forearm size exercises.(curls and crap)

Hang off a chinning bar for as long as you can.

hold the heaviest weight you can by your side until you drop it.

Walk around the gym holding dumbells in each hand with your arms by your side (farmers walk)

There are many fore arm/grip exercises, that dont involve curling.

WHY HAVE A WEAK LINK IN THE FIRST PLACE?

I would rather have functional strength. functional muscles/body.
body/muscles that work out side the gym, in real life situations.
muscles that can function with out straps, belts etc etc.

I can see it now: an elderly lady dies underneath a car. She would have been saved.......but the dude trying to lift the car couldnt, cause he left his wrist straps in the locker at the gym.

(im not saying that i work my grip to rescue old ladys......but just think wouldnt it be nice to have a functional body that has no week links that have to be filled in by pieces of material????)

HOW ABOUT THIS:

I have invented the best crane in the world. It is so strong. It can lift up 17 buses. BUT THE CABLE THAT IS ATTACHED TO THE HOOK CAN ONLY HOLD 5 BUSES.

WHATS THE POINT???? why have such a strong crane with such a large work capacity when it cant lift anything because of a shitty cable (or in our case wrist)

why have a strong muscle if you cant use it with out other aids.

Okay my rant is finished
 
why would i want to lift less for my grip when my back can handle much more,ive realized my grip is horrible and i should be deadlifting about 100lbs more
 
powerlifters don't use straps-doesn't seem to hurt their back strength, and have you seen the forearms of those worldstrongestman types-HUGE! they don't use strps either, train forearms once a week and don't use strps. it can even benefit your back because you will be using the weight correctly.
I posted a forearm size/strength question here a few weeks ago, it was recommended that i stop using starps-i have and my strength and size has improved considerably. better to be strong all around.
just my 2 cents. PS would love to have forearms like in my sig.
 
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