In this instructional video, Eric Roberts explains why wrist straps are a valuable tool for weightlifters and dispels the myth that they constitute cheating. He argues that forearm muscles are smaller than primary movers like the hamstrings and glutes, so using straps allows those larger muscles to become the limiting factor, enabling greater overload and progress. Roberts also clarifies that grip strength still improves because the heavier loads lifted with straps still challenge the forearms. He then demonstrates the correct way to put on wrist straps, emphasizing the need for right‑ and left‑labeled straps, wrapping over the thumb, and most importantly threading the strap under the bar, dumbbell, or cable so the implement is pulled into the body. The video outlines which exercises benefit most from straps—primarily pulling movements such as one‑arm rows and lat pulldowns, as well as Romanian deadlifts, reverse lunges, squats, and other lifts where heavier weight is desired. Roberts recommends VersaGrips as his preferred brand, noting they are more expensive but effective, while also stating any right/left‑labeled strap will work. He concludes by encouraging viewers to incorporate straps as they advance in their training to overload target muscles and accelerate progress.
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Wrist straps. If you don't have them, you should get them, and then you should start using them immediately because they are going to make your lifts so much better and you will start seeing much more progress from them. Now you first off might be wondering, oh Eric, isn't using wrist straps cheating? How is it cheating? Remember, your forearm muscle is a smaller muscle than let's say your hamstring muscle. So if you are doing something like Romanian deadlifts For example, don't you want your hamstring and your glute to be the limiting factor in this movement, not how strong your forearm muscles are? That way you can actually overload your hamstrings and glutes that much more, will allow you to lift heavier weight for this movement, which will then allow you to see more progress with your glutes and hamstrings. So no, using wrist straps aren't cheating. And people also will say, oh well, if you use wrist straps, you're not going to get a better grip. What are you talking about? I think if you're holding a 10 or a 15-pound dumbbell versus holding, let's say, a 50-pound dumbbell, inherently you are going to get stronger and a better grip when you are holding heavier weight. Even if you do have some help from the straps, you're still lifting heavier weight, so you're still going to get better at grip strength and getting stronger grip. Now, with all that being said, let's talk about actually how to use the wrist straps. All right, so when you are using these wrist straps, what you're gonna want to make sure is usually the ones that you buy are gonna have like a label of right and left. I am using these, I'm using these VersaGrips right here. These are my favorite. These are a little bit expensive, I'm not gonna lie. So you don't have to get these, I just really prefer these. But any wrist strap that you get, there should be a right and a left side to it. And then so when you put the wrist strap on, usually again, no matter what kind of wrist strap you have, it's usually gonna go over your kind of like, you see how this one right here, it's not like off to the side going off like this. It's usually going to wrap like over your thumb, kind of like that way. Again, no matter what wrist strap you have. So this is how it'll look when you have it on. Again, this flat might be a tad bit longer, but either way you get the general concept. Now this next part is really important. So when you start to go and use these wrist straps, right, and we're going to talk about a little bit later in the video, you know, what exercises to use them on, the place that most people fuck up is they take this wrist strap And they go like this. They just put it over the dumbbell and they're like, okay, cool, I'm holding it with my wrist strap. But you have to remember, you want this wrist strap to help you pull the dumbbell into you. And so you want the wrist strap to be going underneath the dumbbell and you wrap it around like this right here. Again, notice the difference between this over top of it and then this underneath of it. Notice how, like, I'm holding it— this dumbbell is being held right now by the wrist strap, right? I'm not even holding it. Whereas right here, if I was to try to do that, I obviously cannot hold it. So again, you just want to make sure you are going under. And again, this doesn't matter if you're using these VersaGrips right here, a regular, you know, wrist strap, whatever. You're going underneath it and just wrapping it around until you can really feel like you have a good grip on the dumbbell or barbell or cable or whatever. And then again, the same thing applies if you're taking it and let's say you're using it for a cable machine, for example. You are going underneath. You are not going above on top and then grabbing it like that. You are going underneath of it, pulling it through. And again, make sure to have that little extra— you can kind of see here as I pull it through, I'm kind of pulling it into my body. So again, if let's say you want to do some Romanian deadlifts and you are trying to use these wrist straps to help you hold heavier weight, you're just going to go underneath the dumbbell, wrap it through, and now right here you can hold so much heavier weight with these wrist straps than you would be able to if you didn't have them. And that's really all you need to do to use the wrist straps. The last thing I'll say is what exercises should you use them on? Typically speaking, you're going to use them on pulling exercises. So let's say, for example, you are doing a one-arm row. You can take these wrist straps, wrap it underneath the dumbbell, and this way you can hold heavier weight as you are now doing your one-arm rows. Or if, let's say, for example, you're doing some sort of lat pulldown, again, you can take this, go underneath the cable and then do your lat pulldowns like that right there. Or if let's say, for example, you wanted to do a reverse lunge, but you want to hold heavier weight, cool. Now because you have the wrist straps, you can hold heavier weight as you do things like lunges or even things like squats as well. And that's basically it— why you should use wrist straps, how you can use wrist straps, and then what exercises you can use These bad boys for, and I'm telling you, the more advanced you get into your journey, these become a staple because you're just going to be able to overload the muscle you are working that much more, which allows you to see more progress. Put these ones here below again. I have nothing to do with this brand; just a really good product. Or I can link some other ones here in the description below. Hope this helped, and if you found it helpful, you can check out this video right here above as well. That's it.
