Should You Train With Grips / Straps?

Bloody good question! Google sensory and motor homunculus (or don’t, most likely…) It’s kind of like a map in your brain’s cortex showing how much “brain space” is devoted to different body parts… The hands are pretty big on that map… Grip strength and sensory input from the hands can influence how much force your entire body can produce. Your hands are one of the most densely innervated parts of your body. 

- They send massive sensory input to the brain - They have strong links to motor areas - They strongly influence motor drive elsewhere

When you grip something hard like a pull up bar or a barbell, mechanoreceptors, tendon organs, muscle spindles, etc all fire up… This signals to the brain and spinal cord that you are engaged in a high-force task, which ramps up something called “global neural drive”, or “Concurrent Activation Potentiation”. I call it irradiation because Pavel Tsatsouline (Strongfirst) calls it irradiation… The gist is, tension in one area increases tension elsewhere... When you use grips for pull ups etc, your hands don’t need to grip as hard, you’re less likely to use the semi false grip and wrap the thumb… Ultimately sensory input is reduced, and motor unit recruitment in the forearms can drop significantly… This can reduce:

- Lat engagement

- Upper back tightness

- Trunk stiffness

- Leg drive

So… Should you train with grips?

They’re a tool… Yes, using them can limit your power output, but they can also protect you from hand tears from high volume movements and allow you to train harder / heavier on lifts like RDLs where the target isn’t necessarily grip strength…

I definitely wouldn’t use them all the time… Remember, one day you will need to use your muscles for some actual work outside the gym, and out there, you’re only as strong as your weakest link…  Cheers, ~ Collins