We pick the bar up with our hands and squeeze it during deadlifts, we drive power through our hands for the bench press, we attach our body to a bar during rowing with our hands, and they hold the squat bar up on our back – so why is grip training often neglected?
The hands are our fasteners to the bar, essential for all things powerlifting, bodybuilding, olympic lifting, and crossfit.
The two main types of grip strength you can train are the crush and pinch grip. The crush grip is the grip between your hands and palm, and as it sounds the pinch grip is the grip between your individual fingers. It seems intuitive that the crush grip would be very transferable to holding onto a barbell so there’s a lot of focus placed on that aspect.
However, with each individual finger wrapping around the bar and back to the palm to grip the barbell you can see how both pinch and crush grip are important.
For a quick note on lifting aids like lifting straps or chalk, I think they’re fine to use because you’d never want to have your hands and grip hold back your main lifts. However, through grip strength training you should eventually be working to use the lifting aids to combat fatigue and push yourself further rather than just catching your grip up to your larger muscle groups.
Getting into a few grip strength training exercises – there are a ton of them out there but I’m going to break it down real simple for you using exercises that are very transferable to lifting weights and easily completed with minimal equipment.
Barbell Holds
Exactly how it sounds, you hold a barbell in your hands with weights on it for a set amount of time. Variations for this exercise include duration that you hold it (less weight for longer, more weight for less time obviously).
You can also vary your grip with overhand, underhand, or mixed grip. If you have different thickness bars that can be a good variation as well to work the hand and arm muscles differently.
This is a great exercise because in the deadlift and row you’re holding the bar the exact same way so it’s is a very transferable exercise that requires ordinary gym equipment. Throw it into your routine whenever it fits best. I find after deadlifting or when I have a rest day up next is a good time.
Pull-up Bar Hangs
Another great and simple exercise that requires ordinary gym equipment is the bar hang. Here you can also vary your grip, hand placement width, thickness of the bar, and even drape things like towels over and hang off of those for a unique challenge.
Hanging on a pull-up bar works your crush grip with a bit more focus on the pinch grip than the barbell holds. Since you’re hanging by your fingers this is a great time to work on your pinch endurance and you’re in the same position as you would be holding onto a barbell while doing bench press.
Use a Hand Gripper
This is the only exercise option on this list that requires a purchase, and it’s for good reason. In the beginning I hated grip strength training and I’m still not a huge fan of it. Using a gripper or hand grip strengthener allows you to train your grip anywhere and everywhere aka not after deadlift sessions.
Using a hand gripper is simple, squeeze it together for reps or squeeze and hold for an endurance training effect. Increase the weight as you need it and this is a great convenient way to train your grip. I like using it while working to give my hands a break and stretch and also work on some grip strength.
Hopefully these tips and exercises help you develop your grip. Remember, the idea is to have a grip that matches up with the rest of your muscle groups so it doesn’t hold you back. Use lifting aids like deadlift straps and chalk to push you further and combat grip fatigue.
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