How lifting grips build muscle
Grip strength can drastically change your success in pulling movement and accelerate your muscle growth in the gym, especially when dealing with heavy loads or high reps. Lifting straps, lifting grips, and lifting hooks provide a spectrum of help, from partial support to taking on nearly 100% of the load. They all have pros and cons; decide which aligns with your goals the most before deciding which one you will purchase.
Regardless of your choice, the benefits of using grips are that they will help you pull what your hands and forearms alone cannot and protect you from growing calluses (if that is a concern). A potential con would be slowing grip strength development since you are not challenging it. If your goal is raw strength development, steer clear and focus on lifting what your body can hold. If your goal is building size and fatiguing your muscles to their maximum capability, don't let grip strength stop you! Get a pair of grip assistants and start pulling what your body can!
Cloth Straps
Cloth lifting straps require your help the most. It is a wrist cuff with a long strip of cloth, often double the length of your palm/fingers. The strap is wrapped around multiple times until it is tight, and the weight rolls into the hand. The bundle of cloth in your palm can loosen or unravel slightly mid-lift and ultimately result in a lack of help, demanding more of your grip strength. However, this is a good option for people who want some help squeezing out the last few repetitions of a set but still want to grip their weights tight and challenge their grip strength.
Lifting Grip
Lifting grips are the next step in assistance and are my personal favorite. This grip is a wrist cuff with a tongue typically made from leather that stretches across the palm. The tongue is looped under the bar of the weight and wedged back into the palm. The tightness of this grip will remain since the leather is wedged into your palm and won't loosen until you let go of what you're lifting. However, grips still allow you to hold the weight or a bar and engage directly with the equipment. These wraps will have us lift what our muscles can move, not what our hands can hold. This option is ideal for people who want to remove grip strength limitations entirely.
Lifting Hooks
Lifting hooks are the rarest option and remove nearly all need to grab a weight. This grip aid is a wrist cuff with a metal hook attachment that sits within the palm of your hand. You can squeeze your fingers around the metal hook, but it won't be possible to bend the fingers or make any direct contact with the weight you're moving. An example is, placing the hooks on a pull-up bar, not worrying about grabbing the bar and focusing entirely on pulling the elbows down, contracting the back muscles, and lifting yourself. Hooks are a good option if you want to eliminate the thought of holding anything and focus entirely on the muscles they are trying to contact with the lift.
