A lot of people who have been in gym junkies for years tend to have certain philosophy’s on the way you should train in the gym.
Some folks tend to stay true to the “old school” approach of training, where as others like to go for more updated and somewhat trendy methods of training.
And I guess if you’re in the camp of use the “old school” methods, then using wrist wraps is a big no, no. You might even hear people use phrases like, “don’t be a wuss” or “only pussies use wrist wraps”, but the truth of the matter is, you don’t know what you’re missing until you’ve tried it.
See what wrist wraps we recommend here.
So does wrist wraps weaken your wrist?
I guess one of the so called issues with wrist wraps is that they could potentially weakness your wrist.The thought is that, because you’re not gripping the bar then your body will not adapt to the weight and your grip will suffer as a result.
And if that were true then that would be a big problem, but lucky for all those wrist wrapping converts this is not the case.
Here’s the problem with that logic.
Your wrists are the weakest part in any pushing or pull movement, and as such they tend to reach exhaustion before your target muscles have been worked out sufficiently. This means that unless you build up your forearms like Popeye you will never get the physic or the training you require.
So, wrist wraps can offer a good compromise between getting a decent workout and not.
Bodybuilders have be wrapping for decades
Remember back in the old days when Arnold and Franco would wrap their knees when they were doing heavy squats? Did they think that they were going to weaken their knee joints because from wrapping their knees?
Nope.
They did it as a way to help support their knees.
Even if we forget about the “old school” methods and look more towards the present day, you will find that top athletes, particularly Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, Phil Heath are still wrapping their knee when they’re squatting.
Anytime you see Ronnie Coleman squatting 800 pounds of weight he wraps his knees.
Yeah Buddy.
You’ll also see them using wrist wraps when dead-lifting and performing shrugs.
If wrapping their wrists caused them to weaken them, then I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t use them.
I guess that is something that we can all take from the top athlete’s, given training is their lively hood.
If they’re doing it, then it could very well be a good sign for you to do it too.