The main difference between the two is their purpose. Lifting Straps are used as hooks for pulling exercises such as deadlifts, pull-ups, or barbell rows, while wrist wraps are used to keep the wrists in a neutral position under heavyweight for pushing exercises such as bench press or military press.
As you progress in your lifting journey, you may reach a point where grip strength can no longer keep up with muscle capability. What will happen? Your grip will fail before your muscles do.
This means that you don’t lift effectively and leave gains on the table. This is a great moment to start using lifting straps, as they will help you overcome your natural grip limits, allowing you to lift heavier.
On the other hand, the main function of wrist wraps is to keep your wrists in a neutral position. Imagine an exercise like the bench press. As you warm up, keeping your wrist upright is an easy task. As you add weight, keeping them straight becomes more and more difficult until you reach a point where the weight does not allow you to keep your wrist in a neutral position.
This is not effective at all. Your stabilizing muscle groups in your forearms cannot keep up, so the other muscle groups involved, such as your pecs, shoulders, triceps, and back, must compensate for this.
In this situation, the wrist wraps will act as a second layer of support for the wrists, allowing you to use the muscles more effectively.