Should You Use Straps When Strength Training?

A runner I work with was doing some barbell Romanian deadlifts as one of her assistance exercises. I loaded the bar with 85lbs, expecting it would be a warm up for her (as a reference, she can hex bar deadlift 175lbs for reps, even with some arthritis issues affecting her hand/grip strength).

The goal was to do a set of 10 with this weight. However, by rep 7 she had to re-rack the weight. Not because of her leg strength, but because her grip was failing her. 

We then tried the same weight straps, and she was literally able to do around 20 reps before she felt like her legs were starting to fatigue. 

So my general rule for when to use straps is this: If your grip is limiting the amount of weight you can lift when trying to train a specific muscle/movement (in this case a hinge to train the glutes and hamstrings) then you should use straps. Warm up without them, but throw them on when your grip starts giving out. 

For an exercise like the deadlift, building grip strength is a benefit. But it’s not the main focus or reason I’m having someone doing that movement. There are many other ways we can train the grip in the gym without so much stress and fatigue. In this case, the grip is severely limiting the amount of glute and hamstring strength she can build on this exercise, which is the whole point of a Romanian deadlift. So using straps here is a no-brainer.