Lifting hooks

Lifting hooks wrap around your wrists with padded cuffs, while a firm metal or coated hook curves into your palm and around a bar. Once fastened, they feel more fixed to the bar than bare hands do. The hook carries some of the gripping demand, though you still need to hold and guide the bar carefully.

You can use lifting hooks for pulling movements when your hands tire before the muscles you are trying to work. They can support controlled rows, pulls from above, shoulder lifts and lifting a bar from the floor. By making the bar easier to keep hold of, they let you focus more closely on steady movement through your back, shoulders and legs.

They suit you if grip fatigue often limits pulling exercises, or if lifting straps feel awkward to wind around a bar. The cuffs usually adjust quickly, and the hooks take up very little room in a gym bag or drawer. Begin with lighter loads while you learn their position, and check that you can control and release the bar comfortably; bare hands remain a simple alternative.