A simple technique is demonstrated for measuring strains in an electromagnetically noisy environment using electrical strain gauges. For applications in which strains are produced electromagnetically in current‐carrying structures, the noise signal can be much larger than the strain signal. Furthermore, the noise signal is at precisely the same frequency as the strain signal, making standard methods of synchronous signal detection difficult. This problem has been surmounted by modulating the detection circuit sensitivity. Bridge circuit modulation has been shown to effectively decouple the strain signal from the noise, even at very low strain levels of ∼10−8m/m.