Is it okay to wear wrist wraps during most pressing movements, dips, etc., throughout my training? I’ve noticed a prevailing theme on the internet suggesting that overusing wrist wraps can weaken your wrists, although I’m uncertain how to define the threshold for overuse. I’ve had some lingering wrist pain as well but always worry that I’m being “weak” by using them.
While I would directly challenge anyone saying that wrist wraps make the wrists weak, I do think that reducing wrist pain during training would also involve some exercises done without wrist wraps. I don’t know your program or the nature of the pain, but I think using the wraps on your heaviest, highest priority pressing movements would be reasonable and then trying to find exercises you can do without wrist wraps for some of your other pressing movements.
To directly answer your question, you could live a full and complete life using wrist wraps for every single exercise or never using them again.
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Hey doc, I wanted to piggyback and ask a question about your suggestion to do exercises without wrist wraps since I’ve been dealing with some lingering lat(?) pain for a year now. I am still following Charlie’s suggestions in the thread we spoke in, but should I also be doing some beltless squatting and/or deadlifting to help desensitize the area? This is assuming that that is your reasoning behind telling OP to go without wraps.
I don’t think using a belt or not is going to influence lat discomfort, though I don’t think using a belt on ALL squats and deadlifts would be my default recommendation either. My reasoning behind doing some stuff without wraps (or belt) in the gym - in the context of pain- is to improve confidence and tolerance of movement without these things, particularly for movements outside of the gym.
For more on belts, how they work, when to use them, etc., check out this article:
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