How Figure 8 Straps Finally Let Me Train My Back Instead of My Grip

June 14, 2026

Cerberus Strength Figure 8 Lifting Straps in heavy duty cotton canvas — rated to 600kg, available in 4 sizes, used at the World Deadlift Championships for max deadlifts and heavy pulls

I've been deadlifting seriously for about two years. Not competitively — I'm a 34-year-old secondary school PE teacher who trains four times a week for the love of it — but seriously, in the sense that I programme my training, track my progress, and care about getting stronger. The deadlift is my main lift. It's the one I think about most, train hardest, and measure myself against.

For most of those two years, my deadlift sessions were being cut short by the same thing: my grip. Not my back, not my legs, not my hips — my hands. I'd get to the working sets, pull three or four reps, and feel the bar starting to slip. By the time I'd done two or three sets at a heavy weight, my grip was gone and the session was effectively over, regardless of how much my posterior chain had left in it.

I knew this was a problem. I just kept telling myself I'd fix it by training my grip harder. Two years later, my grip was stronger and still the limiting factor. I needed a different solution.

Why Figure 8 Straps Specifically

I'd used standard loop straps before and found them useful but imperfect. The issue with loop straps is that they require you to wrap them around the bar, which takes time between sets and can feel insecure at very heavy weights. Figure 8 straps are different: you loop one end around your wrist and the other around the bar, and the figure 8 configuration locks you onto the bar mechanically. There's no wrapping, no adjustment, no uncertainty about whether the strap is secure. You're attached to the bar until you choose not to be.

For max deadlifts and heavy rep work, that security is the difference between being able to focus entirely on the pull and having a background anxiety about whether your grip is going to hold. I wanted to eliminate that anxiety completely.

Why I Chose Cerberus Strength

The Cerberus Strength Figure 8 Lifting Straps are the ones used by top athletes at the World Deadlift Championships. That's not a marketing claim I take lightly — the World Deadlift Championships involves some of the heaviest pulls in the sport, and the equipment used there has to be genuinely reliable under extreme loads. Rated to 600kg, these straps are not going to be the limiting factor in any training session I'm likely to have.

The heavy-duty cotton canvas construction with a specialised weave was the other factor. I'd read enough reviews of cheaper straps to know that the material and the stitching are where budget options fail — the loop frays, the seam gives, the strap loses its shape after a few months of heavy use. Cerberus Strength is a brand with a serious reputation in the strength sport community, and the construction quality reflects that.

The four available sizes meant I could get a proper fit rather than making do with a one-size option that doesn't quite work. Fit matters with figure 8 straps — too loose and they shift during the pull, too tight and they restrict circulation. Getting the right size is the difference between straps that work and straps that frustrate.

Cerberus Strength Figure 8 Lifting Straps — showing the figure 8 loop configuration in heavy duty cotton canvas with industrial-strength sewn loop rated to 600kg

First Session with the Straps

I used them for the first time on a Saturday morning deadlift session. Working up to a heavy triple, then some rep work at a lower percentage. The straps went on quickly — the figure 8 setup is intuitive once you've done it once — and the moment I pulled the first rep I understood what I'd been missing.

The bar wasn't going anywhere. Not in a way that felt artificial or disconnected — I could still feel the bar, still feel the pull — but the background anxiety about grip was completely absent. I pulled the triple, racked the bar, and realised I had significantly more left in the tank than I normally would at that point in a session. My back wasn't tired. My legs weren't tired. My grip wasn't tired. I'd been training my grip for two years when I should have been training my back.

I added an extra working set that session. Then another. I finished the session having done more volume than any previous deadlift session, and I wasn't limited by grip at any point.

Cerberus Strength Figure 8 Lifting Straps in use — showing how the figure 8 configuration locks the lifter onto the bar for max deadlifts and heavy rep events

The Progress Since

I've been using the Cerberus straps for four months. My deadlift has gone up by 15kg in that time, which is more progress than I made in the six months before I started using them. I'm not attributing all of that to the straps — I've also been more consistent with my programming and my recovery — but removing grip as the limiting factor has allowed me to do more quality work per session, and more quality work means more progress.

The straps themselves have held up perfectly. Four months of weekly heavy deadlift sessions, and the cotton canvas is intact, the sewn loop is secure, and the straps haven't lost their shape. The construction quality is exactly what you'd expect from equipment rated to 600kg.

Cerberus Strength Elite Figure 8 Lifting Straps — detail of the heavy duty cotton canvas construction and industrial-strength sewn loop showing the specialised weave for maximum durability

A Note on Grip Training

I want to address this because it comes up whenever lifting straps are discussed: using straps doesn't mean neglecting grip training. I still do specific grip work — farmer's carries, dead hangs, some barbell holds. But I do that work separately, as its own training stimulus, rather than letting it limit my deadlift sessions. The straps allow me to train my back to its capacity and train my grip to its capacity, separately and effectively. That's better than doing both poorly at the same time.

Cerberus Strength Figure 8 Lifting Straps — showing the four available sizes and the cotton canvas material that provides a comfortable secure hold during heavy deadlift sessions

My Verdict

If grip fatigue is limiting your deadlift before your posterior chain is exhausted, the Cerberus Strength Figure 8 Lifting Straps are the solution. Rated to 600kg, used at the World Deadlift Championships, built from heavy-duty cotton canvas with an industrial-strength sewn loop, and available in four sizes for a proper fit. They're the piece of equipment I should have bought a year earlier than I did.

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Marcus Obi is a secondary school PE teacher and serious recreational lifter based in Birmingham. He deadlifts every Saturday morning, has added 15kg to his pull in four months, and considers the Cerberus straps the best equipment purchase he's made this year.