Will Bench press wrist wraps protect my wrists?

[Deins Drengers]

From Forearm overusage ?

 

And Do you guys use such things like wrist, elbow, knee wraps/bands ?

[Joshua Slocum]

Proper joint strengthening is the absolute best way to protect your joints. Wrist wraps are nothing more than a crutch used to cover up a lack of wrist strength. Unless you are injured, there should be no need for wrist, elbow or knee wraps/bands. 

 

If your wrist strength is inadequate for your current level of strength, you may need wraps to protect your wrists, but your focus should shift to strengthening your wrists to the point where the wraps are no longer necessary. 

[Daniel Burnham]

Wraps are compensatory techniques and should be eliminated as quickly as you can.  Hari is correct; you need to focus on strengthening your weak joints by doing mobility.  Back when I lifted I always thought it was crazy for the guys to have to put on multiple bands and wraps to lift their weight.  In my mind they were overreaching.  I can understand this in competition where you might need that little extra to place but in practice we should eliminate these things.

 

Forearm overuse injury or specifically forearm splints are really a joint injury.  It is the connective tissue getting inflamed and damaged from too much volume.  If you feel this you should reduce volume and let it heal.  Not a fun process I know.  You should also take steps to help your body strengthen these tissues.  The best I know of for this particular injury is a rice bucket.  It takes several weeks for this injury to go away. I get it from time to time when I do too much pommel.

 

If wraps keep the pain away then you can use them temporarily.  I tape mine sometimes when I know I need to get through a lot of pommel drills.  But this is not a workaround.  You need to actively rehab and later prehab them.

[Jon Douglas]

I think you have H1, don't you? This shouldn't be a problem for too long.

[Tyler Gibson]

I won't bother repeating what everyone else has said. If you're following a GB program I'm sure you understand the importance of strengthening your joints and connective tissue. If you are competing in powerlifting, using wrist wraps, knee wraps will give extra support and add pounds to your total, even if you have very strong joints, but in training try and avoid them as much as possible.

[Joshua Naterman]

Everyone has the right of it.

 

For the F1-4 work and H1 work, you should not need wraps.

 

If you're doing a lot of pommel drills, it is a smart idea to wrap the wrists for those specifically.