To wrap or not to wrap?

[robert]

Hey strong men and women,

 

When you are doing heavy lifts on squats, leg press, deadlifts, etc., do you wrap your knees?

 

I notice a lot of the powerlifters in my gym do, and other athletes do when they are lifting heavy weights with their legs.

 

A bunch of guys also wrap their wrists.

 

I don't use any and recently I've been moving over 700 pounds with my legs and pressing 240 pounds on bench and was wondering if maybe I should use these wraps to protect myself.

 

What do you guys think about wraps?

[CollegeB]

I havnt yet, but i started doing standing presses, and my wrist has been hurting, so it might be a good idea for myself.

[jonathan]

I havent used wraps. I don't think that they are a bad idea for people with injuries. JP for instance on vegainfitness, has RSI in his wrists from his IT job, so for heavy benching and overhead pressing he wraps his wrists.

 

So unless you have an injury, I probably wouldnt bother. For the interests of lifting raw or equiped, knee wraps are counted as equipment btw.

 

When I first saw the title of the thread I thought it was going to be for wraps for deadlifts to 'aid' your grip. I would just like to point out that there is no point whatsoever in using that kind of wrap!

 

Jonathan

[robert]

Thanks Jonathan,

 

I've used wrist straps on deadlifts before, but I've never used wraps anywhere else.

 

I thought the wrist straps were really helpful doing the deadlifts. I was able to focus more on the exercise without losing my grip and dropping the weight....yeah, I know I know, focus on grip strength and it won't happen...but it seems to make the lift a smoother motion for me with straps.

[jonathan]

Fair enough, you have used them on deadlifts. Let me make my case against them:

 

1) You are going to be reasonably new to powerlifting lifts when you resume deadlifts again. I would recommend starting at 225lbs for working sets, maybe 4x6reps. The grip won't challenge you at this weight.

 

2) I imagine that thinking about grip would only last a few sessions once you ditched the straps. After that, it becomes second nature, and you forget you are doing it. The other day I accidentely pulled 170kg double overhand instead of mixed because I forgot. I was pleasantly suprised that it was no grip challenge so I'm doing all my deads DO.

 

3) Straps can be unsafe for the wrists as the weight is taken on the wrist joint.

 

4) Deadlifting without straps builds a good supportive grip.

 

5) Rob, you have monster forearms - you have no excuse to cheat with your grip!

 

 

Hope that the above gives you a bit to think about

 

Jonathan

[robert]

Thanks Jonathan,

 

You are beating me into a corner and then of the course the compliment about my forearms....they can be quite scary, especially mid-workout!

 

I hear you about the straps. And I have noticed the intense stress they can but on wrists when lifting over 300 pounds. It is like all the weight is just hanging from my wrists if my grip starts to slip or fail, so I can understand the dangers.

 

I was watching some guys do deadlifts last night. They had a belt, chalk on their legs and hands, wrist wraps, wrist straps and even a lifting suit, like a wrestling singlet. It was interesting to watch and they were pulling a pretty good amount of weight, nothing too special but around 440 pounds probably.

 

I think I will start again, with around 225 or so. I used to do 225 for 15 reps or something like that and it felt pretty easy. I never really got into deadlifts because after about only a month of doing them I hurt my back lifting 337. I'm sure I can get near 400 pounds if I dedicate some time to it and stay injury-free.

 

I'll see what I can do with the grip without using straps and I'll let you know.

 

Lifting heavy again will be fun. I leg pressed 740 pounds last night which was more than a big guy I was training with. He lifted more on hack squats immediately afterwards, but I got him on the leg press. Squats will be in the near future too.

[sensless]

Just as an FYI - They likely had chalk on their hands and baby powder on their legs. The baby powder helps to keep the bar from sticking to the leg, putting chalk on their would make the surface more abrasive and worsen the situation.

 

It is possible the singlets they were wearing are deadlifting suits.

 

Regards,

 

Sensless

[robert]

Thanks for the explantion Sensless It is all new to me. I have a bodybuilding background, but this powerlifting stuff looks fun!

 

The guys were screaming and pulling hundredsof pounds and slamming it on the ground, etc.

 

Good times.

[Jay]

Robert, I'm concerned about you getting back into squats and dls. How many times have you hurt your back with them?

 

Despite what some people say, you really don't have to do either to still have a good strong physique. I wish I hadn't listened to all the people who said otherwise. You can get back pain that stays with you for life from that stuff. I'm 13 months out from herniating a disc from squatting/dling and I still get a little sciatica pain here and there. If I even do push presses it gets much worse.

[robert]

Hey Jay,

 

I'm concerned as well. I hurt my back initially about 10 years ago in high school sports and have had pain ever since. I've almost had to quit numerous jobs because of back pain and I've had to plan out activities, sports, jobs, traveling around that pain to some extent.

 

I have injured my back probably 5-10 individual incidents. Squatting, deadlifting, bent-over rows, unloading a truck, leg press, etc.

 

It is getting better though, so I feel happy about that. At times in the past it was very very bad. That is one of the reasons I went to the Utah College of Massage Therapy years ago, so I could learn about fixing my back and receive treatment on a daily or weekly basis.

 

Thanks for the concern. I will take it slow and see how things go. I am aware that you can be big and strong without those two lifts. There is a guy at my gym who benches well over 400 pounds but doesn't sqaut or deadlift due to knee problems. He's still a huge dude, although his legs are lagging.

 

But anyway, I'll take it one step at a time and we'll see how things progress.

 

Thanks for you comments Jay,

 

Robert