Are Lifting Straps Cheating? Let’s Settle This Once and for All
The debate over lifting straps is almost as old as strength training itself.
Walk into enough old school gyms and you'll eventually hear it: “If you can't hold the weight, you shouldn't be lifting it.”
And look, there's some truth buried in there. A strong lifter should have a strong grip. If you're pulling 500 pounds but can't hold onto the bar, that's a weakness worth addressing.
But does that mean using lifting straps is cheating?
No. Lifting straps aren't cheating. They're a training tool. Like most tools in the gym, whether they're helping or hurting your progress comes down to when and why you use them.
There's a big difference between using straps because you don't want to train your grip and using straps because your grip is preventing you from properly training everything else.
That's where this debate usually gets lost.
The Old School Argument Against Lifting Straps
Let's give the anti strap crowd their due.
For decades, strength training was built around a pretty simple philosophy: pick up heavy things, get stronger, and don't look for shortcuts.
If the bar slipped out of your hands, your grip wasn't strong enough. Simple as that.
There's value in that mentality.
Heavy deadlifts build more than your back and legs. They challenge your hands, forearms, upper back, and just about everything else holding you together. Spending all your time strapped to a bar can absolutely take some of that grip work away.
But here's the problem with taking that argument too far.
Not every pulling exercise is supposed to be a grip exercise.
If I'm doing heavy rows to train my back and my forearms give out while my lats still have five reps left, what exactly did I accomplish by dropping the bar?
My grip got some work. Great.
My back didn't.
That's where straps earn their place in the gym.
What Lifting Straps Actually Do
Lifting straps don't pull the weight for you.
They don't straighten your legs, extend your hips, or magically get a heavy deadlift off the floor.
What they do is simple. They reinforce your connection to the bar so your grip is less likely to become the first thing that fails.
Anyone who has done enough heavy pulling knows the feeling.
Your back feels good. Your hamstrings have more to give. Then your fingers start opening.
Suddenly, the set is over. Not because the muscles you were trying to train were finished, but because you couldn't hold onto the bar anymore.
Straps let you keep going.
That's why you'll see experienced lifters use them on heavy deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, rows, shrugs, rack pulls, and other movements where the muscles doing the work can often handle more than your hands can hold.
So, Are Lifting Straps Cheating on Deadlifts?
This is where context matters.
If you tell me you deadlifted 600 pounds, I'm probably going to want to know whether you pulled it with straps or without them. They're not exactly the same lift.
A deadlift without straps requires you to hold the entire load yourself. That's part of the accomplishment.
But that doesn't make the 600 pound deadlift with straps “cheating.”
It simply means you used straps.
In training, there are plenty of good reasons to do that.
Maybe you've already done your heavy deadlift work and you're adding volume. Maybe you're doing Romanian deadlifts and trying to hammer your hamstrings. Maybe you're doing heavy rack pulls and don't want your grip determining how much your back can handle.
In those cases, straps aren't hiding the work.
They're allowing you to do more of it.
Competition Is a Different Story
Now, if we're talking about competition, the answer gets much easier.
You follow the rules.
In powerlifting, lifting straps generally aren't allowed on the competition deadlift. You have to hold onto the bar yourself.
So if you're a powerlifter preparing for a meet, you'd better have a grip strong enough to hold your competition weights.
That still doesn't mean you can't use straps in training.
Plenty of lifters do their competition specific pulling without straps and use them later for Romanian deadlifts, rows, higher volume deadlifts, or other accessory work.
Strongman is another good example of why the word “cheating” doesn't make much sense here.
Depending on the event and the rules, straps may be allowed. When they are, everybody gets to use them.
That's not cheating. That's the event.
Can You Become Too Reliant on Straps?
Absolutely.
This is where the old school guys have a point.
If the first thing you do before touching a barbell is strap yourself to it, even on weights you could easily hold, you're probably leaving some grip development on the table.
Your hands and forearms need heavy work too.
The mistake isn't using straps.
The mistake is needing straps for everything.
There's no reason you can't perform your warm ups and lighter working sets without them. Let your grip work. Let your forearms get stronger.
Then, when your grip starts becoming the limiting factor instead of the muscles you're actually trying to train, put the straps on and keep working.
That's how a lot of experienced lifters have approached straps for years.
You don't have to pick a side.
Do Straps Mean You Have a Weak Grip?
Not necessarily.
You can have a very strong grip and still reach a point where your back, traps, or posterior chain can handle more work than your hands can.
Remember, your grip is being asked to hold onto every heavy rep you perform.
After several sets of deadlifts, rows, or shrugs, your hands may simply fatigue before the larger muscles you're training.
That's normal.
The better question is whether you can train without straps when you need to.
If you can't hold relatively manageable weights without them, then yes, your grip probably deserves some attention.
If you're perfectly capable of pulling without straps but choose to use them to get more quality work out of a heavy back session, that's a completely different story.
When Do Lifting Straps Become a Crutch?
Every useful piece of lifting equipment can become a crutch if you stop understanding why you're using it.
Straps are no different.
If you're using them because your grip is tired and you want another hard set of Romanian deadlifts, they have a purpose.
If you're using them because you're doing heavy rows and want your back, not your forearms, to determine when the set ends, they have a purpose.
If you're using them automatically for every pulling exercise because you haven't trained without them in years, that's probably worth reconsidering.
Good training isn't about using as little equipment as possible.
It's about knowing what you're trying to train and choosing the right tools for the job.
The Verdict: Are Lifting Straps Cheating?
After enough years around lifting, you realize that most arguments like this aren't as black and white as people want them to be.
No, lifting straps aren't cheating.
If you're competing, follow the rules of your sport. If you're testing your deadlift without assistance or specifically trying to build your grip, leave the straps in your gym bag.
But if your grip is giving out before your back, hamstrings, glutes, or traps have gotten the work they need, there's nothing wrong with strapping in.
Train your grip. Don't become dependent on straps. But don't let pride turn every back workout into a forearm workout either.
Straps have been in strength gyms for decades for a reason.
They're not a shortcut. They're not magic. And they certainly don't lift the weight for you.
They're simply another tool. Experienced lifters know that the real skill is knowing when to use it.
