Wrist Wraps

TR0berts

Quick (hopefully) question for those that use wrist wraps on squat and bench. Did you find that your lifts initially went down when you first started using them? By squat session blew yesterday* and my bench didn't go quite as well (not bad, just not as well) as I think it should have gone.

Having done something new, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see a slight dip. I'm just hoping this is typical, so I don't end up wasting time trying to adapt to them, when I might just need to rethink programming.

* Shoulder felt better than it has in a while after squats, so that's a good thing. But only 3x330 was disappointing, considering a few months ago I got back to 345x3.

DopeItUp

Not that I remember, but I've been using wraps forever (have carpal tunnel so any max effort has involved wraps since I started lifting basically). I can see it happening on bench (at least) though, because if you previously had your wrists being bent by the weight of the bar to some degree and the wrist wraps are now keeping them from flexing, the bar may be in a slightly different position/leverage in relation to your body.

SideSteel

I agree with Dope.

it's entirely possible that something else has changed slightly by adding the wrist wraps and it's possible that this has an effect on performance.

It's also possible that you just had a rough session for other reasons.

TR0berts

OK. I'm not gonna change anything for at least a month, then. I go on vacation at the end of July, so I have one more cycle. I'll see how things go before I really think about changing anything with programming.

CarlKRobbo

As per dope..... Wraps can adjust wirst position, which some people can take time to get used to. I made the mistake of stiff wraps (SBD do Stiff and Flexiible) on squats once, threw me all over the place!

nossmf

A 15-lb decrease, or less than 4% of the weight? I honestly wouldn't worry about that minor a variance. I can have that much change from one workout to the next, let alone with a few months between.