Ways to increase grip strength. Mastering Grip Strength: Essential Techniques and Benefits for Overall Health

Why is grip strength crucial for daily activities and sports performance. How does grip strength correlate with cardiovascular health and diabetes risk. What muscles are involved in grip strength and what are the main types of grips. How can you test and improve your grip strength for better fitness and longevity.

The Importance of Grip Strength in Everyday Life and Athletics

Grip strength plays a pivotal role in our daily lives, extending far beyond the confines of the gym. From simple tasks like picking up boxes or vacuuming to more specialized activities such as driving or cooking, our grip strength is constantly put to the test. In the realm of sports, a strong grip is essential for success in cricket, golf, tennis, rugby, and even badminton.

But why exactly is grip strength so crucial? Let’s delve deeper into its significance:

• Improved performance in weightlifting exercises
• Enhanced ability to perform everyday tasks
• Better control and precision in sports activities
• Reduced risk of injury during physical activities

Grip Strength as a Foundation for Strength Training

In the world of strength training, grip strength often serves as the limiting factor in many exercises. How many times have you found your grip failing before your target muscles during exercises like bicep curls, hanging leg raises, or farmer’s walks? A stronger grip allows you to push your limits in these exercises, leading to faster muscle growth and overall strength gains.

The Link Between Grip Strength and Overall Health

Recent research has uncovered fascinating connections between grip strength and various aspects of health. These findings suggest that grip strength may be a valuable indicator of overall well-being and longevity.

Grip Strength and Cardiovascular Health

A groundbreaking study published in 2015, known as the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study, followed the health of 140,000 adults over four years. The results revealed a significant relationship between grip strength and cardiovascular health. How exactly did grip strength correlate with heart health?

The study found that:

• Each 11-pound decrease in grip strength was associated with a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease
• A 9% higher risk of stroke was linked to the same decrease in grip strength
• The risk of heart attack increased by 7% with every 11-pound reduction in grip strength

Grip Strength as a Predictor of Diabetes and Hypertension

Another study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2015 further solidified the connection between grip strength and overall health. What did this research reveal about grip strength and metabolic health?

The study concluded that individuals with lower grip strength were more likely to:

• Have diabetes
• Record higher blood pressure readings

These findings suggest that grip strength could potentially be used as a simple, non-invasive screening tool for identifying individuals at risk for these conditions.

Understanding the Anatomy of Grip Strength

To truly appreciate the complexity of grip strength, it’s essential to understand the muscular anatomy involved. Contrary to popular belief, grip strength isn’t solely about hand muscles. It encompasses a network of muscles extending from near the elbow down to the fingertips.

Key Muscles Involved in Grip Strength

Did you know that 35 muscles are involved in moving the fingers? The majority of these muscles originate between the elbow and the upper portions of the forearm bones (ulna and radius). The primary muscles responsible for grip strength include:

• Flexor digitorum superficialis
• Flexor digitorum profundus
• Flexor pollicis longus

These muscles extend down into the thumb and fingers (phalanges), enabling the various gripping actions we perform daily.

The Four Main Types of Grip Strength

Grip strength isn’t a one-size-fits-all concept. Depending on the task at hand, we employ different types of grips, each requiring unique techniques and muscle engagement. What are the primary types of grip strength?

1. Crushing Grip
2. Pinching Grip
3. Supporting Grip
4. Extension Grip

Crushing Grip

The crushing grip involves closing the fingers against resistance. This type of grip is similar to clamping (wrapping fingers around an object and squeezing it towards the palm) and crimping (directing force with the fingers toward the callous line). When do we commonly use a crushing grip?

• Shaking hands
• Gripping a barbell during deadlifts
• Using hand grippers

Pinching Grip

The pinching grip involves grasping an object with the thumbs in opposition to the fingers. This grip can be either static (no movement) or dynamic (involving movement). In what situations might we use a pinching grip?

• Holding a plate while weight lifting
• Pinching a clothespin
• Gripping the edge of a climbing hold

Supporting Grip

The supporting grip comes into play when lifting an object with the fingers taking the majority of the load. When might we employ a supporting grip?

• Carrying heavy grocery bags
• Performing farmer’s walks in the gym
• Holding onto a pull-up bar

Extension Grip

The extension grip involves opening the fingers and thumb against resistance. While less commonly discussed, this grip is crucial for balanced hand strength. How might we train the extension grip?

• Using rubber bands to resist finger extension
• Practicing hand opening exercises with putty or clay
• Utilizing specialized grip training tools that target extension

How to Test Your Grip Strength

Assessing your grip strength can provide valuable insights into your overall fitness and health. The most common method for measuring grip strength involves using a handgrip dynamometer. How does this device work?

A handgrip dynamometer measures the maximum isometric strength of the hand and forearm muscles. To get an accurate reading, you should:

1. Perform three squeezes on each hand
2. Take the average of these readings for each hand
3. Compare your results to standardized norms for your age and gender

Additional Grip Strength Tests

While the handgrip dynamometer provides a good general measure of grip strength, it doesn’t tell the whole story. To get a more comprehensive assessment, consider incorporating these additional tests:

• Pinch strength test: Measures the maximum isometric strength when performing a pinching action
• Plate pinch test: Assesses how long you can hold weight plates using only your thumb and fingers
• Hanging test: Measures how long you can hang from a pull-up bar

Interpreting Your Grip Strength Results

Based on numerous tests across different age ranges, fitness levels, and athletic abilities, researchers have developed guidelines for interpreting grip strength scores. According to topendsports.com, here’s a general guide for adult grip strength scores (average of both hands):

• Excellent: >141 lbs (>64 kg)
• Very good: 123-141 lbs (56-64 kg)
• Above average: 114-122 lbs (52-55 kg)
• Average: 105-113 lbs (48-51 kg)
• Below average: 96-104 lbs (44-47 kg)
• Poor: <96 lbs (<44 kg)

Remember, these are general guidelines and individual factors such as age, gender, and body size can influence what’s considered a “good” grip strength score for you.

Effective Strategies to Improve Your Grip Strength

Now that we understand the importance of grip strength and how to measure it, let’s explore some effective strategies for improving your grip strength. By incorporating these techniques into your fitness routine, you can enhance your overall strength, reduce injury risk, and potentially improve your long-term health outcomes.

Targeted Grip Strength Exercises

While many compound exercises indirectly work your grip, incorporating targeted grip strength exercises can accelerate your progress. What are some effective exercises for improving grip strength?

• Farmer’s walks: Carry heavy dumbbells or plates for distance
• Plate pinches: Hold weight plates between your thumb and fingers
• Towel pull-ups: Hang towels over a pull-up bar and perform pull-ups gripping the towels
• Dead hangs: Simply hang from a pull-up bar for as long as possible
• Wrist curls and reverse wrist curls: Use a barbell or dumbbells to strengthen your wrists

Incorporating Grip Training into Your Regular Workouts

You don’t always need to dedicate separate sessions to grip training. How can you incorporate grip work into your existing routine?

• Use fat grips or towels on barbells and dumbbells during regular exercises
• Perform the last set of pulling exercises (like rows or pull-ups) with an emphasis on grip endurance
• Practice holding the eccentric portion of deadlifts for longer periods
• Use chalk sparingly to challenge your grip more during heavy lifts

Grip Strength Tools and Equipment

Various tools and equipment can help diversify your grip training. What are some popular grip strength training tools?

• Hand grippers: Adjustable or fixed-tension devices for crushing grip strength
• Grip balls or eggs: Squeezable tools for overall hand strength
• Thick bars: Attachments to increase the diameter of barbells or pull-up bars
• Pinch blocks: Wooden or metal blocks for pinch grip training
• Captains of Crush grippers: High-quality, precisely calibrated hand grippers

The Role of Grip Strength in Injury Prevention

Beyond its impact on performance and overall health, grip strength plays a crucial role in injury prevention, particularly for the upper body. How does grip strength contribute to injury prevention?

Grip Strength and Shoulder Health

A 2016 study published in the sports science journal Shoulder & Elbow revealed a strong correlation between grip strength and lateral rotator strength. Why is this connection important?

• Lateral rotators are crucial for shoulder stability
• Stronger grip often indicates better overall upper body strength and control
• Improved grip strength can lead to better form in upper body exercises, reducing shoulder strain

Grip Strength and Wrist Health

Weak grip strength often manifests as wrist pain or discomfort during exercises like chest presses. How can improving grip strength benefit wrist health?

• Strengthens the muscles and tendons around the wrist joint
• Improves wrist stability during load-bearing exercises
• Reduces the risk of wrist injuries in sports and daily activities

Grip Strength Across Different Populations

While grip strength is important for everyone, its significance and typical values can vary across different populations. How does grip strength differ among various groups?

Age-Related Changes in Grip Strength

Grip strength typically peaks in early adulthood and gradually declines with age. What are some key points about grip strength and aging?

• Peak grip strength usually occurs between ages 25-39
• Decline in grip strength accelerates after age 60
• Maintaining grip strength through exercise can help preserve independence in older adults

Gender Differences in Grip Strength

On average, men tend to have higher absolute grip strength than women. What factors contribute to these differences?

• Differences in muscle mass and body composition
• Hormonal influences on muscle development
• Variations in hand size and bone structure

However, it’s important to note that these are general trends, and individual variation is significant. Many women have excellent grip strength that surpasses that of many men.

Grip Strength in Athletes

Athletes in certain sports often develop exceptional grip strength as a result of their training. Which sports tend to produce athletes with the strongest grips?

• Rock climbing and bouldering
• Gymnastics
• Wrestling and martial arts
• Weightlifting and powerlifting
• Tennis and racquet sports

Nutrition and Lifestyle Factors Affecting Grip Strength

While training is crucial for developing grip strength, nutrition and lifestyle factors also play a significant role. What dietary and lifestyle considerations can impact your grip strength?

Nutritional Factors

Proper nutrition is essential for muscle development and maintenance, including the muscles involved in grip strength. What nutritional factors should you consider?

• Adequate protein intake for muscle repair and growth
• Sufficient calorie intake to support strength gains
• Micronutrients like vitamin D and calcium for bone health
• Omega-3 fatty acids for reducing inflammation and supporting joint health

Hydration and Grip Strength

Proper hydration is often overlooked but can significantly impact grip strength. How does hydration affect your grip?

• Dehydration can lead to decreased muscle performance, including grip strength
• Well-hydrated muscles function more efficiently
• Proper hydration helps maintain electrolyte balance, crucial for muscle contraction

Sleep and Recovery

Adequate sleep and recovery are vital for overall strength development, including grip strength. How does sleep impact your grip strength?

• Sleep is crucial for muscle repair and growth
• Lack of sleep can lead to decreased strength and performance
• Proper recovery between training sessions allows for continued strength gains

By considering these nutritional and lifestyle factors alongside your training regimen, you can optimize your grip strength development and reap the numerous benefits associated with a strong grip.

Why Grip Strength is So Important

There’s a reason why grip strength is so important: you require it for almost every activity.

Let’s put the weights to one side for a moment. When you pick up a box, when you move a chair, when you’re vacuuming, frying an egg or even driving, you’re calling upon your grip strength. Cricket, golf, tennis, rugby – they all require good grip, too. Yep, and before you ask, badminton does as well, if that’s your thing…

It’s also – and don’t tell everyone or they’ll all be at it – one of the quickest ways to bigger lifts, faster muscle and serious training gains. Think about it. Your bicep curls, your hanging leg raises, your farmer’s walks. How often has it been your grip that’s let you down? How many times have you been chest pressing, only for your wrists to ache? They give up or ‘pinch’ because they’re unable to cope with the loads you’re putting on them, which means you have you stop your reps or, worse case scenario, run the risk of injury.

In fact, weak grip strength has been proven to be a predictor of shoulder health. A 2016 study, published in the sports science journal Shoulder & Elbow, concluded that there’s a strong correlation between grip strength and lateral rotator strength.

Research has also shown a positive correlation between grip strength and overall health.

In 2015, the international Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiological (Puree) study followed the health of 140,000 adults over four years. The results showed a significant relationship between a decrease in grip strength and an increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease. Using a dynamometer device – something you squeeze really hard to asses strength – the researchers concluded that: “Each 11-pound decrease in grip strength over the course of the study was linked to a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease, a 9% higher risk of stroke and a 7% higher risk of heart attack.”

This isn’t an isolated study. There’s a body of research that strengthens the relationship between grip strength and health. Another paper released in 2015, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, concluded that those with a lower grip strength were more likely to be diabetic or record a higher blood pressure.

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What Muscles Make Up the Grip?

Well, first of all, it’s important to note that grip strength isn’t just about your hand strength. Grip strength involves everything from the muscle near the elbow all the way down to your fingertips.

Did you know: 35 of the muscles involved in moving the fingers lie in your forearm and hand

During grip work, the majority of muscles used originate between the elbow and the upper portions of the forearm bones (ulna and radius) – scientifically known as the flexor digitorum superficialis, flexor digitorum profondus and the flexor policus longus – and down into the thumb or fingers (phalanges).

Types of Grip Strength

When it comes down to the things we hold in our hands, there are four main defined forms of gripping, which require different techniques and muscles. These are:

Crushing: The act of closing fingers against resistance. Similar to clamping (wrapping fingers around something and squeezing it towards the palm) and crimping (directing force with the fingers toward the callous line).

Pinching: The act of grasping something with the thumbs in opposition to the fingers. This can be performed both static (no movement) or dynamic (movement).

Supporting: The act of lifting something with fingers taking the majority of the load.

Extension: The act of opening the fingers and thumb.

athima tongloom

How Do I Test for Grip Strength?

You’ll need a handgrip dynamometer, which will measure the maximum isometric strength of the hand and forearm muscles. To get an accurate reading, you should perform three squeezes on both hands.

Some gyms may have these instruments – most physiotherapists and general practitioners would have – but you can purchase them relatively cheaply too.

To get a thorough (and truer) reflection of grip strength you can also use – in addition, not instead of a handgrip dynamometer – a pinch strength test, which measures the maximum isometric strength of the hand and forearm muscles when performing a pinching action. Based on numerous tests across a different age ranges, fitness levels and athletic ability, topendsports.com have produced a guide to expected scores for adults in both kg and lbs.

These are the average scores of each hand. Remember, this is not a measure of general strength:

Excellent: >141lbs (>64kg)

Very good: 123-141lbs (56-64kg)

Above average: 114-122lbs (52-55kg)

Average: 105-113lbs (48-51kg)

Below average: 96-104lbs (44-47kg)

Poor: 88-95lbs (40-43kg)

Very poor: <88lbs (<40kg)

5 Best Exercises to Improve Grip Strength

Thankfully, grip strength is something you can work on almost instantly and will see improvements quickly.

“You can develop great forearms and a monster grip in no time by focusing on compound movements requiring maximal grip recruitment such as deadlifts and a variety of dumbbell exercises,” says fitness adviser Scott Mendelson.

Below, we have broken down the best exercises to improve your grip strength, from moves you can do in the gym to basic movements you can do using just your bodyweight. We’ve also included a couple of top tips and easy wins to help speed up the process.

1. Deadlift

The simplest way to stress your forearms and improve your grip strength is lifting heavy. And there’s nothing better, or more effective, than deadlifts. Quite simply, lift heavy things off the floor – safely, may we add – and put them back down again. Deadlifts work so well because of the variety of hand grips you can use.

Top tip: Mix it up to keep your body guessing. On some days, go heavy on low reps. On others, lighten the load and go for longer. This will help improve both your explosive power and strength, but also your cardio and muscular endurance.

2. Zottman Curl

According to adventurer, author and elite endurance athlete, Ross Edgley, the Zottman curl is key to developing forearm strength. “The rotation in the Zottman curl will train both the muscles of the biceps and of the forearms.

3. Farmer’s Walks

The great thing about this exercise is that you can use any piece of equipment or object. The aim is to walk for as long as you can while carrying the weight. When you start to tire, put the weight down, shake it off, and start again. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

4. EZ reverse curl

Hold a bar in both hand and simply curl up and down. “As time progresses, increase the difficulty by letting the weight roll to the end of your fingers, moving away from your palm at the bottom of the curl,” advises Mendelson.

Best Bodyweight Exercises to Improve Grip Strength

1. Pull-Ups

Pulling your body up to a parallel bar requires serious strength and solid grip. Next time you’ve completed a set of pull-ups, take a look at your forearms – they’ll be pumped.

Top Tip: Once you’ve mastered this bodyweight staple, make it harder and significantly more grip effective by using either pull-up grips or simply throw a couple of towels over the bar.

2. Dead Hang

Dead hangs are a great way to build grip strength. As the name suggests, all you have to do is hang from an overhead bar with your arms outstretched and your body in the hollow position. New to the hand? Begin by gripping the bar 20 to 30 seconds at a time.

3. Press-Ups (fingers only)

Granted, this one is a bit advanced, but once mastered is a sure-fire way to improve strength in your fingers, wrists and forearms. Get into a press-up position with your hands placed shoulder-width apart. Raise onto your fingertips. Lower your body until your chest is an inch from the ground then explosively drive back up.

4. Reverse Press-Up

By reversing your grip, which may feel a little odd at first, places more emphasis on your wrists and forearms. Don’t worry, though. Your chest will still get a hammering. It’s a win-win.

Quick Wins to Build Forearm Strength

• Invest in a set of grips. Many manufacturers now make silicone grips that wrap around the dumbbell or barbell. A wider bar means you’ll have to grip harder , increasing the tension in your forearms – you can get them, here!
• Towels. Don’t want to fork out on grips. Towels work just as well. Just make sure they are tightly wrapped.
• Round your wrists: if your workout today consists of dumbbells, try rotating your wrists during the move to challenge both the musculature and coordination. “For example, during the descent of a 45-degree incline seater curl, have your palms facing the floor and return the dumbbells to the top with a traditional grip,” adds Mendleson.

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Best Stretches for Grip Strength

Many people suffer from tight wrists because of desk work, muscular imbalances and a lack of dexterity in their muscles. Stretching can help muscles become more pliable and strengthen them. Try these:

1. Fingers back, palms on the desk: Stretch by leaning back and forth on your bodyweight and gently side to side. Go for 15 seconds.

2. Fingers back, palms off the desk: Lifting your palms up places the emphasis on your fingers more. Go for 15 seconds.

3. Clenched fists: While seated, place your hands on your things with palms up. Close your fists and, with your forearms touching your legs, raise your fists off of your body bending at the wrist. Hold for 10 seconds.

4. Tennis ball squeeze: Grab a tennis ball or a smaller squash ball and squeeze tightly for 15seconds at a time.

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Robert Hicks
Robert Hicks is the Executive Editor at Men’s Health.

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How To Improve Grip Strength: 4 Exercies for Grip

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Jedd Johnson.

In this day and age, we all know (or should know) how important it is to maintain a healthy level of physical fitness in order to live a good quality life, maintain our cardiovascular system, and keep our bodies strong in order to thrive into our later years. For many of us, this means getting into the gym in order to do resistance training — one of the best forms of exercise that is available to us. For those looking to get back into the gym in order to maximize your health, strength, and vigor, one thing to take into consideration that is often forgotten or completely ignored is grip strength. “Grip strength? What does that have to do with anything?” you might ask. It may not make sense to you right off the bat to take time to train the hands and lower arms while at the gym. I know when I first learned about it, it seemed like a complete waste of time to spend valuable training time on less than 5% of your body, but the truth of the matter is having a strong grip pays many dividends both in your training and elsewhere.

What is Grip Strength?

Grip strength is often thought of as simply hand strength, and while hand strength is definitely included, there are actually many other things to consider when thinking of grip. First off, grip involves everything from the musculature near the elbow down to the fingertips. It has to be thought of this way because many of the forearm and hand flexor muscles actually originate above the elbow, and anytime a muscle crosses a joint, it will in some way influence it. As we move downward, the gripping muscles pass through the forearms, the wrists, and into the hands, fingers, and thumbs — and not only through the front of the forearms, but also the back of forearms. This is important to remember. When we look at grip in this manner, we start to see that there are MANY movement patterns that are realized by the lower arm musculature. As we train the lower arms, we must then remember to train all of these movement patterns in order to maintain a suitable balance between the antagonistic muscle groups, such as the flexors and extensors. In fact, many cases of inflammation-related forearm pain such as tendonitis, tendonosis and epicondylitis can arise due to improper training of the forearm muscles or simply neglecting certain muscle groups or movement patterns.

Benefits of Having a Strong Grip

There are many reasons men should seek to have a strong grip. They range from social reasons, to training reasons, and beyond. Let’s highlight a few.

Stronger Grip = Stronger Handshake. Whether it is right or not, men are often judged by their level of strength and by how strong they seem. Nothing is a better example of this than the need for a strong, hearty handshake. When you shake hands with a man and he looks you in the eye and gives you a solid squeeze back, it makes him seem more confident, dependable, and trustworthy. However, if they hit you with the proverbial “dead fish” handshake, they lose credibility and may even seem slimy and weak.

Don’t let this be your handshake…Stronger Grip = Bigger Lifts. When you have a strong grip, you are able to lift heavier weights in the gym. Especially in pulling movements such as deadlifts, rows, pull-ups, and chin-ups, a solid grip that you can call upon will help you increase your training results by increasing strength.

Stronger Grip = Better Endurance. When your hands and lower arms are strong, you can also perform more repetitions than someone whose weak hands are a liability. This means you will be able to perform more repetitions per set of an exercise, thus burning more calories, losing more fat, and building more muscle.

Stronger Grip = Better Later Life Quality. Research has now shown that grip strength has proven to be a reliable indicator for quality of life at an older age. For instance, in 1999 a study concluded the following:

“Among healthy 45- to 68-year-old men, hand grip strength was highly predictive of functional limitations and disability 25 years later. Good muscle strength in midlife may protect people from old age disability by providing a greater safety margin above the threshold of disability.”

Stronger Grip = Better Injury Resiliency. Muscles and connective tissues that are strengthened are more injury-resistant, and if injury does end up taking place, stronger tissue can usually recover faster so that you are back on top of your game. This is particularly important for athletes who play contact sports, especially when the hands play such a major role in success. For instance, while players of football and basketball are highly dependent on the strength of their legs and core, their performance is hindered substantially just by jamming a finger or developing pain in the wrist or forearm. And breaking or spraining the wrist will land an athlete on the bench to watch the game from the sidelines.

Now that we have established that there is a lot more involved in grip training than just using our hands, and now that we know just how beneficial it can be to have a strong grip, let’s take a look at some of the many defined movement patterns that exist with grip training.

Types of Grip Strength

There are many defined forms of gripping. Some involve primarily the hands while others involve action from the wrist and forearm as well. See below.

Hand Specific Movements

Crushing — Crushing is the action of closing the fingers against resistance. Similar in nature but often forgotten are clamping (wrapping the fingers around something and squeezing it toward the palm) and crimping (directing force with the fingers toward the callous line).

Pinching — Pinching involves grasping something with the thumbs in opposition to the fingers. This can be static (no movement, such as gripping a board) or dynamic (such as squeezing the handles of a clamp).


Supporting — Support grip entails lifting something with the fingers taking the brunt of a load — normally in an isometric fashion, like deadlifts, rows, and kettlebell work. It should be noted that true support grip entails the fingers wrapping well around the bar. If the handle is large enough that there is a space between the fingers and thumb, it is referred to as open hand support.


Extension — Hand extension is the opening of the fingers and thumb (antagonistic action to flexion of the fingers and thumb).

Wrist & Forearm Postures

Ulnar / Radial Deviation — Angling the wrist toward the inside or outside edges of the forearm. Shown above is ulnar deviation. Movement toward the thumb side would be radial deviation.


Flexion / Extension — Flexion is the bending of the wrist so that the palm moves toward the front of the forearm — shown above. Extension, then, is the antagonistic movement pattern and involves moving the wrist so that the back of the hand moves toward the back of the forearm.

Pronation / Supination — These are the terms given to forearm rotation. Pronation is the turning of the forearm so that the palm faces down (similar to prone, as in lying face-down), while supination is turning the forearm so that the palm faces upward.


Circumduction — This is a combination of all of the above movement patterns, where the hand moves in a circular fashion about the wrist. It can also be done holding something, such as with the shot device shown above, as a leverage move.


Elbow Movement Patterns

Flexion (with Pronation) – Bending the elbow so that the forearm nears the bicep with the palm facing downward (like a reverse bicep curl motion). Shown above, this is a very important movement for preventing and getting rid of inflammation injuries like tennis elbow.

Flexion (with Supination) – Bending the elbow so that the forearm nears the bicep with the palm facing upward (like a normal bicep curl motion, not shown).

Extension – Straightening the elbow, such as in the bench press. Any weakness or liability in the surrounding musculature can decrease your numbers on the bench and other movements.

Common Grip Training Exercises

Grippers (Crush Grip)
There are many types of grippers on the market. The objective is to squeeze them so that the handles touch together. Some companies have certifications for closing their grippers. Grippers are probably the most popular form of grip training. Everyone should have a set. If you can close the number 3 from IronMind, you are considered to have a great crushing grip, and you can get certified (women can now certify on the number 2).

Plate Pinching (Pinch Grip)
This is done by setting up two or more plates smooth-sides-out and then lifting them off the floor in a pinch grip. Common combinations include 4-tens, 2-25’s, and 7-fives. If you can pinch 5-tens, 2-35’s, or 8-fives, then you have an excellent grip. If you can pinch 6-tens, 2-45’s, or 3-25’s, then you are world class.

Block Weights (Pinch Grip)

These are really any block-shaped device, but most often are broken or cut-off heads of a dumbbell that are lifted off the ground in a Pinch Grip. The most popular goal in grip training is to lift the 50-lb Blob, a half 100-lb dumbbell produced by York Barbell.

Thick Bar Lifting (Open Hand Support)
As the handle of a dumbbell thickens it becomes much harder to lift. The most widely recognized feat of thick bar strength is the Thomas Inch Replica Dumbbell, weighing roughly 172 lbs and having a nearly 2.5-inch thick handle. All one unit with non-rotating globe heads, as soon as the bells leave the ground the entire unit starts to spin, peeling your grip open. This dumbbell is named after a challenge dumbbell used by the strongman performer Thomas Inch in the 19th century.

Ways to Increase Grip Strength

There are many ways to develop your grip strength, beyond just using the equipment shown in the section above. However, it should be noted that while the classic hand and forearm work done and taught in gyms usually includes wrist curls, these really do not have anywhere near as big of an impact as other exercises.

Drop the Straps. In order to start challenging your hand strength and to start building a grip that will enable you to crush other mens’ hands (when so inclined) as well as to produce the lower arm strength that will be a huge asset in other forms of strength and fitness training, sports, and manual labor, the first thing you should do is to drastically reduce the use of lifting straps and other gripping aids in the gym. Sure, when you reach the upper levels of your pulling strength in movements such as deadlifts and rows, by all means strap in so that you can get your repetition goal, but on the lighter sets, there really is no need to use straps.

Open Hand Training

As far as grip-specific exercises go, the easiest thing you can do is to choose implements that force you to lift with your hand in a more open position. One simple way to do this is to use Fat Gripz or Grip4orce handles when performing your pulling and curling movements. These go right onto the handles of the implements and require more of your hands during the movement because your fingers cannot wrap completely around the bar or dumbbell.

Two Hands Pinch

World record in the Two Hands Pinch, December 2009: 256.04 lbs

Place two plates together smooth-sides-out, such as a pair of 35’s or 45’s. Then, run a pipe through the center hole and add more weight to the pipe. Grip the set-up in an overhand grip and try to lift it to lockout. You can go for maximum weight lifted or just perform repetitions or holds for time. The implement shown above is the adjustable device used in grip strength contests. The Two Hands Pinch is one of the staple events.

Towel Training
Towels can be used for instant thick and dynamic gripping surfaces (make sure it is a strong towel that won’t rip). For instance, you can loop a towel over a bar and perform pull-ups (similar to the rope pull-ups below), attach one to a cable machine for pull-downs and rows, or around a kettlebell (shown above) for an even more dynamic and metabolic method of training the grip.

Plate Curls
Hook your thumb over the edge of a 25-lb plate and support it with your palm and straight fingers. Next, try to perform a curl with the plate, trying to keep your wrist and fingers from buckling under the pressure. This is one of the most basic grip training methods, yet one of the most difficult.

Inverted Dumbbell Lift

Stand a 30- to 40-lb dumbbell up on its head and try to lift it with one hand by the top in a claw grip. Use the number for a grip aid if you need to. Once you get it this way, try it without using the number. All dumbbells are different and vary in level of difficulty based on their shape, finish of paint, and more, but it is a very good training method.

Rope Training
Rope training is awesome for cardio and conditioning, but many do not realize how hard it hits the grip and forearms as well.

Grip Training Guidelines for Beginners

While everyone can benefit from including regular grip training in their workout routines, not everyone is at the same level of strength and some people may be more susceptible to injuries. Because of this, keep these tidbits in mind as you begin and progress.

Start out light: Begin by modifying some of your regular lifting so that it is more grip-intense and then from there add more work. For instance, you can use a towel as the handle on rows for a couple of weeks to get the hands used to working harder, then you can begin adding other implements and techniques into the training as well.

Move up slowly: For those just starting out with grip training, I like to suggest one or two grip-intensive lifts per session once per week for two weeks. After two weeks, move up to two workouts where you include grip-specific lifts. After a month, shoot for workouts where you train the grip with serious intentions up to 3 times a week. This is usually enough for just about everybody.

Watch the volume: When performing grip lifts separate from the rest of your routine, keep an eye on the volume. Think of training volume as the number of sets and reps in a workout. Most people progress very well with grip strength if they stay in the 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 repetitions range when performing lifts like the Two Hands Pinch. That is a total of roughly 9 to 25 total attempts in a workout. It’s not that much.

Train the extensors: To keep progressing, make sure to include training for the muscles on the back of the hand, the extensors. You can do this easily and on the cheap by using the large rubber bands found on heads of broccoli or with #84 rubber bands from Staples. Wrap the rubber band around the fingers and thumb and then open them against the resistance of the band.  This is a surprisingly effective way to work the extensors.  If you can do more than 20 repetitions, then try adding another rubber band in order to increase the resistance or hold the opened position for 2 or 3 seconds before doing the next repetition.
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Jedd Johnson is a strength coach and competitive grip sport athlete. He holds the World Record in the Two Hands Pinch, a staple event in many grip strength contests and loves spreading the world about Grip Sport and the importance of strong hands for athletes. For hundreds of free articles on Grip Training, check out his website at DieselCrew.com, and for a free 8 weeks of Grip Training workouts, sign up here: Grip Program.

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Tags: Exercises

The 6 Best Grip Exercises to Enhance Your Training Ability

You need to train your grip. A strong grip will help you hold onto to heavy weights for exercises like dumbbell single-arm rows. More grip strength will also help you dominate your sport — be it Jiu-jitsu, rock climbing, CrossFit, powerlifting, or any sport really. 

Below, we’ll go over the six best grip exercises to help you develop a strong and effective grip. We’ll also tell you what you need to know about working grip strength training into your current workout routine for optimal results. 

The Best Grip Exercises


Farmer’s Carry

The farmer’s carry is a simple, effective grip-builder. You pick up something heavy and walk for time or distance. Not only does the farmer’s carry and its variations strengthen your grip, but they also improve your conditioning and mental toughness. Another benefit is that your shoulders will become stronger as you hold a dumbbell at either side of the body without letting them rest on your thighs.

Benefits of the Farmer’s Carry

• This move strengthens your grip in a way that carries over to everyday tasks, such as carrying groceries. 
• The farmer’s carry taxes your core as you stabilize yourself in motion. 
• Your shoulders will get strong as you carry heavy dumbbells. 

How to Do the Farmer’s Carry

Choose dumbbells that weigh about 25%  of your body weight in each hand. Grip them in each hand, and keep your shoulders down and chest up to maintain good posture. Walk slowly and carefully in a straight line for at least 40 yards. Do not rest the dumbbells on the sides of your legs. 


Rack Pull

The reduced range of motion for rack pulls allows you to use more weight than regular deadlifts, which is great if you’re looking to improve your grip strength and lockout strength for standard deadlifts. Start with a double overhand grip first and when your grip starts to fail, go with a mixed grip, making sure to switch sides to maintain balance and symmetry.

Benefits of the Rack Pull

• Deadlifting from a reduced range of motion allows you to use more weight. As a result, you’re able to challenge your grip even more compared to regular deadlifts. 
• You’ll also improve your ability to lock out a deadlift. 

How to Do the Rack Pull

Load a barbell with weight and place each end of the barbell on either deadlift blocks or a single 45-pound bumper plate. Set up as you would for your regular deadlift, ensure your chest is up and upper back is engaged. Pull up and squeeze your glutes at the end of the movement. Slowly lower the weight to the blocks (or plates) and repeat. 


3-Way Chin-Up Hold

This exercise not only strengthens your grip in three different positions but helps you to achieve your first unassisted chin-up and improves your strength and performance with regular chin-ups. The isometric holds in each position will improve your core strength, as your abs fire to maintain stability in a mid-chin-up position.

Benefits of the 3-Way Chin-Up Hold

• You’ll build grip strength and more muscular forearms as you load the muscles with your own bodyweight. 
• Your core will work harder to stabilize your body in a mid-chin-up position. 
• This move has tremendous carry over to your standard chin-ups.
• If you can’t do a chin-up, this move can help you get your first rep.

How to Perform the 3-Way Chin-Up Hold

Either use a box to elevate yourself or jump up and grab the bar to get the top lockout hold position. Hold for 10 or more seconds and lower yourself until your arms are bent at 90 degrees. Hold for 10 or more seconds. Then lower to an elbow slightly flexed position and hold. That’s one rep. You can also reduce your time holding a position if you’re new. Five seconds is a good starting time. 


Plate Pinch 

Your fingers can be incredibly strong — strong enough for some people to climb mountains while supporting their entire weight with a few fingertips. While a lot of grip exercises use a crush grip, the plate pinch trains the pinch grip, getting the fingers and thumbs strong in tandem. This is a great exercise for football players and wrestlers to improve sport-specific grip strength.

Benefits of the Plate Pinch

• Improves your finger and thumb strength simultaneously. 
• This move has direct carryover to sport-specific grip strength for football players, climbers, and wrestlers.
• When performed unilaterally, this move will allow a weaker side to catch up to the stronger side.

How to Do the Plate Pinch

There’s a couple of ways you can perform this exercise. You can pinch a single 25- or 45-pound bumper plate, since these are both thicker than standard iron plates, and hold for time. Or, you can squeeze two iron 10-pound plates, smooth side. Make sure you have your chest up shoulders down to maintain good posture. Time yourself to see how long you can hold the plates, and aim to improve your time. 


Towel Pull-Up

Pull-ups on their own are a great grip-strengthener. After all, you’re supporting your own bodyweight with nothing but your hands. That said, when regular pull-ups become easier, gripping a towel is an easy (and cheap) way to make the more far more challenging — specifically on your grip. This version focuses on the forearms because of the neutral grip and the difficulty of pulling yourself up and lowering yourself from a  towel.

Benefits of the Towel Pull-Up

• Trains your gripping strength like with most pulling movements and builds crushing grip as you squeeze a towel.
• All you need is a towel to do this variation, so it’s cheap and accessible.

How to Do the Towel Pull-Up

Drape two towels over the top of a pull-up bar and set them shoulder-width apart. Grip one towel with either hand and then allow yourself to hang fully. From there, perform normal pull-ups. These are harder, so don’t expect to perform your normal amount of pull-up reps.  


Bottoms-Up Kettlebell Press

Flip a kettlebell upside down, so the heavy portion sits above the handle and the horn sits on the meat of your palm. This forces you to recruit additional muscle fibers in your shoulders and forearms to control the unstable load. When you add a press, the instability slows your lift down, improving time under tension, and overhead pressing technique.

Benefits of the Bottoms-Up Kettlebell Press

• You don’t need as heavy of a load to get a training effect because of the additional muscular tension needed to support the kettlebell.
• Strengthens your fingers, wrists, and forearms

How to Do the Bottoms-Up Kettlebell Press

Choose a kettlebell in the 15- to 25-pound range to start. Clean it up so that arm is bent at 90 degrees, and the horn of the kettlebell is sitting in the meat of your palm. Take a moment to steady the weight, and then slowly press it overhead. Hold the top position for a beat and then slowly lower it back down with control. 

Why Grip Strength is Important

As humans, we have had the pleasure to evolve with opposable thumbs, allowing us to grab, rip, and carry great loads. When looking for maximal strength and even power output, your grip can play a critical role in neuromuscular activity and muscular contraction. When we grab an object forcefully, the nervous system receives a signal from the motor neurons in the hand, forearms, and up the body, reciprocating in greater voluntary muscle contractions.

BLACKDAY/Shutterstock

Individuals who struggle with holding onto a barbell during deadlifts or snatches, pull-ups, or even grip-intensive training sessions can benefit immensely from some grip-specific training. With improvements in grip strength, lifters will set up better, contract harder, and stay stronger throughout a lift.

We’ve established grip strength is important for performance in and out of the gym, but it turns out that it’s a measure of health, too.

The Lancet published a study in 2015 that covered the health outcomes of nearly 140,000 people across 17 countries who were tracked over four years via various measures — including grip strength. Grip strength was not only “inversely associated with all-cause mortality” — every five-kilogram (kg) decrement in grip strength was associated with a 17 percent risk increase. (1)

How to Train Your Grip

The muscles responsible for your grip are just that — muscles. Like you’d train your arms (or any other muscle), your grip muscles will respond to being overloaded over time. Your gripping muscles are small compared to other muscles in your body, so they don’t need a dedicated day of training. You can tack on two moves from the list above onto two days of training. Aim to perform four sets per grip session so that you accumulate eight total sets. This is a good starting point for most folks. 

Here are two ways you can progress your grip training workout to workout. 

Increase Your Reps, Distance, or Time

If you’re performing pull-ups, a plate pinch, or farmer carries, an easy way to improve each workout is to increase your reps, time, or distance. Your body only knows that stress is being applied and that it needs to recover and adapt to the stress you’re inflicting on it. Even if you increase your number of pull-ups by one rep, your plate pinch by three seconds, or your farmer’s carry by two yards — that’s more stress for your body to adapt to. 

Record your best rep/time/distance, and then strive to do more, only by a little, each workout. 

Add More Weight

The same is true for how much you lift. If you can’t or don’t want to carry dumbbells further for farmer’s carries, then you can increase the load. Say you’re performing three sets of 40-yard carries with 50-pound dumbbells. Next week, perform two sets of 40-yard carries with 50 pounds and your last set with 55 pounds. The week after that, do two sets of carries with 55 pounds and one with 50 pounds. After you’ve completed all three 40-yard carries with 55 pounds, repeat the process with 60 pounds. And so on. 

More Grip Strength Training Tips

Now that you’ve learned the basics of grip strength and the best grip exercises, further your grip-training knowledge even more by reading these articles. 

References

1. Leong, D.P., et al. Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. The Lancet 386, 266-273 (2015)

Feature Image: BLACKDAY/Shutterstock

How to Increase Grip Strength for Weightlifting

Grip strength is necessary for performing many daily tasks as well as various sports. It is also essential for weightlifting. How strongly you can grab and grip the bar when performing strength training movements can significantly impact your performance. 

Some people are limited by their grip strength and seek to improve it. There are several ways of improving your grip strength through exercises, specific tools, and grip methods.

What is Grip Strength?

Grip strength is how much force you can generate with your grip. There are different types of grip strength, including:

• Crushing: This type of grip strength uses your fingers and the palm of your hand.
• Supportive: Supportive grip strength relates to how long you can grip or hang.
• Pinching: The strength of how forcefully you can grasp something between your fingers and thumb.

The muscles that comprise grip strength include the muscles of the forearm and hand. Thirty-five of the muscles that control finger movement originate in your forearm and hand. These muscles work together in all gripping actions.

The Importance of Grip Strength

Grip strength is not only important for weight lifting; it’s also relevant for overall health. In fact, evidence suggests that weak grip strength may indicate an increased risk of heart failure and mortality. Since grip strength is connected to muscle mass, it declines as you get older. Improving your grip strength and preserving muscle tone can be very beneficial to your long-term health.

When it comes to weightlifting, a strong grip is necessary to increase the amount of weight you can lift. This is particularly important for exercises such as deadlifts, barbell rows, pull-ups, and barbell snatches or high pulls.

How to Improve Grip Strength

Improving grip strength can be done by practicing the same weight lifting movements that use grip. There are also several other methods of increasing grip strength through specific exercises and tools.

Improving Grip Strength at Home

You can improve your grip strength at home using a towel, heavy book, tennis ball, grocery bags, or rubber bands.

• Towels: Wet a towel and hold each end horizontally in front of you. Grip the ends and ring the towel in opposite directions.
• Heavy book: Hold a heavy book in a pinched grasp between your fingers and thumb. If this is not challenging, try moving your fingers and thumb along the book’s spine from one end to the other and back.
• Tennis ball: Hold a tennis ball in your palm and squeeze with your fingers only (leaving your thumb up). Squeeze as tightly as possible before releasing. Repeat this exercise up to 100 times a day.
• Grocery bags: When you bring groceries home, use large, reusable bags that can hold a lot of weight. Carry them at your sides like a farmer’s carry. 
• Rubber bands: Place two or more rubber bands around the ends of your fingers and thumb and practice opening and closing your fingers by spreading them apart against the resistance of the bands. Add more bands as your strength improves.

Tools for Improving Grip Strength

There are some tools specifically designed to increase grip strength, such as grippers and grip building pads.

• A gripper is a tool that you hold in your hand and squeeze between your palm and fingers. There are varying resistance levels that can go up to 100 pounds.
• Grip building pads, or the pads that wrap around barbells, increase the diameter available for you to grip for your specific exercise. This leads to greater muscle activation in your hands, forearms, and upper arms to increase grip strength.

When using thicker bars with grip building pads, be sure to use a lower weight than you usually do since you may not be able to lift as much, and can risk dropping the bar.

Exercises for Improving Grip Strength

There are several exercises you can try—and modify—to target grip strength specifically. Add a variety of these exercises to your routine to improve various types of grip strength and muscular endurance in your upper body.

Pullups

Pull-ups use supportive and crushing grip strength. They are an excellent bodyweight exercise that can increase the strength of your grip and forearms.

1. Stand under a pull-up bar and hold onto the bar with an overhand grip, with your hands wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. With your arms straight, hang from the bar. Keep your body in a straight line and engage your core. Do not swing your body.
3. Raise your body by pulling your elbows down toward your sides at an angle.
4. Lift until your chest is near to the bar, squeezing your mid-back to contract the muscles.
5. Slowly lower back to the starting position.

Dead Hang

Try a dead hang to increase your supportive grip strength. This is particularly useful if you cannot yet perform a pull-up.

1. Get into a pull-up position. Stand under a pull-up bar and hold onto the bar with an overhand grip, with your hands wider than shoulder-width apart. With your arms straight, hang from the bar. Keep your body in a straight line and engage your core.
2. Instead of completing a pull-up, hang from the bar for as long as you can.
3. Repeat for as many reps as desired.

Deadlifts

Deadlifts require strong grip strength, especially as you use heavier weights. A lack of grip strength can limit your ability to lift the amount that you’re capable of. When gripping the barbell, squeeze it in your hand as if you are trying to bend it to apply pressure. 

It’s also essential to grip the bar along the knuckle-line between your palm and fingers instead of gripping the bar in your palms. 

1. With a barbell in front of you on the floor, stand facing it with your legs four inches or so from the bar.
2. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart, pointed straight ahead, or slightly turned outward.
3. Hinge your hips to squat down, maintaining a straight back, and grip the bar with an overhand grip about shoulder-width apart.
4. Keep your arms straight and fully extended as you stand up, holding the barbell.
5. As you lift your hips, your shoulders will rise, and your back will stay straight.
6. When you stand up, rotate your shoulder blades back and down before lowering the barbell back to the floor in a reverse motion.

Farmer’s Walk

The farmer’s walk (or carry) will increase your supportive and crushing grip strength and can be modified to improve your pinching strength as well. Farmer’s walks will also increase the strength of your forearms.

1. Place a heavy pair of dumbbells or kettlebells at your feet and engage your core keeping your chest up. Squat down to pick up the weights.
2. Stand and begin walking forward, holding the weights at your sides.
3. Walk as far as you can, and then place the weights down.

An alternative method of performing a farmer’s walk is to hold the dumbbells by their base instead of their handle. This will increase your grip strength even more. You can also carry weight plates in a pincher grasp to increase your pinching grip strength.

Zottman Curls

Zottman curls help to build forearm strength.

1. Stand with a pair of dumbbells in each hand with your arms extended by your sides. Keep your elbows close to your body and your palms facing each other in a neutral grip.
2. Rotate your palms outward so that they are facing away from you.
3. Begin by curling the dumbbell up toward your shoulders while keeping your elbows in place.
4. Once your dumbells reach shoulder-level, rotate the dumbells so that your palms are facing outward.
5. Lower your dumbbells back down to your sides with your palms facing the ground.
6. Lift the dumbbells back up toward your shoulders with your palms still facing the ground.
7. At the top, twist your wrists so your palms face you and reverse the curl motion.
8. Continue alternating curling with palms facing up and down for as many reps as desired.

Other Ways Grip Strength is Helpful

In addition to helping you increase your weight on various lifts, grip strength helps with other sports like rock climbing, where you will need a high level of supportive grip strength. Gymnastics, calisthenics, baseball, rugby, golf, and racquet sports also require strong grip strength.

Functional daily activities that benefit from a strong grip include opening jars, carrying heavy loads, and living a healthy, independent life as you age.

A Word From Verywell

Grip strength is comprised of several factors and is an essential part of living a healthy and active lifestyle well into your older years. For weight lifting, increasing grip strength improves performance and provides a better chance of you reaching your potential maximum lifts.

Improving your grip strength is possible with practice and effort. Utilizing the specific exercises and techniques in this article can help.

Getting a Grip: Improving Hand & Finger Strength

Grip strength is a significant factor for different sports such as tennis, baseball, rock or wall climbing, and mixed martial arts. As such, casual exercises and sports pros alike are always looking for the best ways to improve grip strength.

Some sports require serious grip strength, such as baseball, tennis, and lacrosse. Your level of hand strength can make or break your performance in these activities.

Below, we’ll provide actionable tips on how to improve grip strength. We’ll also take a closer look at what types of exercise you can do at home.

How to Increase Grip Strength with Exercise

Perform these exercises to increase your hand and finger strength:

1. Wrist Curls

If you’ve ever asked someone how to improve grip strength, the first they’d tell you is to probably try wrist curls. 

Wrist curls are one of the most common exercises for hand strengthening because it targets specific muscles in your forearm. Just like any other exercise, wrist curls should be performed with proper form and precision. You’ll also need dumbbells or weighted barbells to get started. 

Here’s how to do this exercise safely and effectively:

• Prepare dumbbells or weighted barbells and a bench or chair. If you’re a beginner, use dumbbells so you can focus on one forearm at a time.
• Grab the weights, assume a seated position, and hold them with your palm facing upwards.
• With a straight back, place the weights on your knees so that your wrists are hanging.
• Slowly lift the weights up and down to engage the muscles on your forearms. Each movement should be slow and controlled to avoid straining your wrists with the weights.
• Exhale as you lift your wrists upwards and inhale as you flex them downward. Your movement should only be focused on your wrists. Be careful not to move your forearm when flexing.
• Perform a single set of 10 or 15 reps. After that, take a short break then perform another set. 

2. Pinching Weight Plates

Performing pinching weight plates is a great exercise to improve hand grip strength. As the name suggests, what you’ll be doing is grasping weight plates between your thumb and index fingers.

All you need are a couple of weight plates and a pinch grip to perform this exercise. The exercise will target your fingers and forearm. Follow these steps:

• Start by choosing a weight plate with a weight you’re comfortable to grab onto and lift with your fingers and hands.
• Grab the plates and hold them on their rounded edge with your two index fingers or thumb. Lift the plates slowly and hold them in front of you or on both sides of your body.
• Hold this position for 30 seconds. 

If you can hold the weight plates for 30 seconds without difficulty, increase the weight of the plates and hold the position for longer. You can also increase the number of reps.

3. Use a Hand Grip

Hand grips are lever-type devices you squeeze to strengthen the muscles on your arms. Specifically, it’ll increase your “crushing” and “support” grip strength. They’re the same muscles at work when you’re making a fist.

To perform a hand grip exercise, follow this simple guide below:

• Position the hand grip’s handle at a 45 degree angle on your palm.
• Place your thumb above the handle and your fingers on the bottom part of the handle on the other side. Keep your pinky finger slightly hanging below the handle.
• Tighten your fingers around the grippers. Try to close the space between the grippers to work your forearm muscles.
• Try to get both handles to touch with each rep. 

The number of reps will depend on your preference. You can perform around 15 to 20 reps if your fingers can handle it. If you’re still starting out, you can try around 5 to 8 reps for each hand. 

Another thing you can do is prolong your grip when you get both handles of your gripper to touch. If you can, try to hold the position for about 15 to 20 seconds before letting go. 

4. Perform Finger Extensions

To perform a finger extension, you’ll need a resistance band. Wrap the band around your fingers then extend your fingers as far as they can until they’re fully spread apart. Perform 10 reps.

Once you can easily flex your fingers and the resistance isn’t doing much anymore, add another band or a thicker one. This will make it harder for you to fully spread out your fingers.

5. Deadlift holds

Deadlift holds are great for improving grip strength. Here’s how to do it:

• Grab the bar with a shoulder-width grip. Bend your knees until your shins touch the bar.
• Lift your chest, straighten your lower back, and lift the barbell.
• Hold for 5-10 seconds and perform 3-5 reps.

Improve Grip Strength Through Consistency

As with many forms of exercise, consistency is key if you want to improve grip strength. Even though it may seem difficult at first, you’ll need to put forth the effort to keep getting stronger. When that happens, you’ll notice the difference with your iron grip. Just always remember to be careful to avoid injuring your arm.

Want to learn more tips on how to build your strength and stay fit? Feel free to explore the LifeClinic blog.

How To Increase Grip Strength

Did you know that for most of the compound exercises – deadlifts, bench presses, and overhead press – most lifters will report that their grip strength fails before the working muscles? What is grip strength? According to Wikipedia, grip strength is the force applied by the hand to pull on or suspend from an object.

You might know grip strength better as how long you can hold during a pull-up or how much weight you can hold during a farmer’s walk. Grip strength can have a huge impact on the progress you make in your fitness program. Let’s review the reasons why you should focus on improving your grip along with how to increase grip strength successfully.

WHY SHOULD YOU INCREASE YOUR GRIP STRENGTH?

First, why should you bother with increasing your grip strength? Having a stronger grip can have ripple effect, providing a number of benefits throughout the rest of your fitness performance.

Stronger Lifts: Having a strong grip will allow you to hold, push, and pull more weight in the gym, especially with compound exercises such as deadlifts, rows, and bench presses.

Muscular Endurance: More grip strength equates to more hand endurance. If you’re able to hold more weight for a longer period of time, you’ll be able to increase repetition or seconds. This can increase the total volume for your program.

Reach Muscle Failure: Continuing with the point above, more strength and endurance ensures that you’ll reach muscle failure, not grip failure. As a result, you may see better gains.

Injury Prevention: A strong grip may help to prevent common injuries, especially in activities that require repetitive movements such as tennis. A strong grip supports shoulder stability and this will help to preserve function and health of the rotator cuff.

Aesthetics: One of the side benefits of grip training is developing bigger forearms, which can be a blessing for balancing out your arm size.

BEST GRIP STRENGTH EXERCISES

While not a comprehensive list of grip strengthening exercises, these are five of the best that you can start with right away.

Farmers Walk: Arguably the best grip strength exercise, the farmer’s walk requires you to carry a heavy pair of dumbbells for as long as you can with perfect form. We recommend using thick grips to increase the effectiveness of this exercise and for next-level gains. You should aim for a walk of 45 to 60 seconds to effectively target the forearms.

Plate Pinches: Use weight plates and face them between each other so the flat area is on the outside. Pinch the plates together and hold. Try to hold for one minute. Increase weight as your strength increases.

Thick Handle Dumbbell Holds / Hex Dumbbell Holds: Stand straight and hold hex dumbbells by the extremity. If you can’t access Hex dumbbells, use thick handled dumbbells in your hands. You can use Alpha Grips to increase the thickness of the grip. Aim for a 45 to 60-second hold.

Thick Bar Hangs: Grab a thick bar pull-up bar, get your feet off the floor, and hold until your grip gives out. From workout to workout, try mixing your grip: palms facing you, neutral, mixed grips, etc. When you can easily hold for one minute, we recommend you to increase the bar diameter. Don’t have a thick pull-up bar? Use Alpha Grips!

Towel Pull-Ups: If you don’t have access to a thick pull-up bar or thick grips, you can use a towel. This is an extremely hard exercise and requires you to have impressive grip strength to execute. Put a towel on a pull up bar so half of the towel is on each side. Then grab each side of the towel with your hands and try to do a pull up.

OTHER WAYS TO INCREASE GRIP STRENGTH

Outside of the exercises above, there are other ways to increase your grip strength:

Stop Using Lifting Straps: If you think you’re doing your grip a favor by using lifting straps, think again. Lifting straps are an asset when you’re going for a new personal best and you’ve maxed out your grip strength. But make no mistake about it: For normal training, they aren’t doing you any good. The only way to improve your grip strength is to use it. Lifting straps take that away from you.

Thick Bar Training: If your gym has a collection of thick barbell or thick dumbbells on hand, you’re in luck for some serious grip strength training. Thicker bars have been used in old school weightlifting and bodybuilding gyms as a way to increase strength and explosiveness on lifts. Requiring an immense effort, thicker bars help to enhance your grip due to the unique challenge they provide. Want to know more about thick bar training? Check out our article on the benefits of thick bar training.

Alpha Grips: If your gym does not have thick bars, you can still reap the benefits with an attachment called thick grips. Simply slide an Alpha Grip on to any barbell, dumbbell and cable attachment and you’ll instantly convert it into a thick bar piece of equipment. Same benefits at a fraction of the cost.

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO INCREASE GRIP STRENGTH?

If so, what tactics do you use for a stronger grip? Are there methods we missed? Have a video of your grip strengthening routine? Tag us on Instagram so we can share it!

How to increase grip strength

Grip strength is an underrated skill.

“Having a strong grip will help you lift heavier in the gym, especially with compound movements, and give you increased endurance,” says professional rock climber and Bulk Nutrients ambassador Anna “Queen of the Grip” Davey.

“It will also help you to impress your friends when you can whip out your mad ninja grip skills!”

Davey shares her top six top exercises to improve grip strength, ranked from easiest to hardest. 

Exercise 1: Grip tools — easy

Exercise 1 (Supplied)

Train using grip tools such as Club Strong forearm pumpers (pictured) or hand grips. Try 6 sets of 15, three to four times a week.

Exercise 2: Climbing — easy to advanced

Climbing anything is the fastest way to build your grip strength. Courses in climbing gyms are graded from very, very easy climbing to extremely hard! Try adding in climbing once a week for some versatility. It will also work your core, back and shoulders.

Exercise 3: Barbell finger curls — easy to moderate

Kneel down on the floor and hold a barbell with both hands and your palms facing up about shoulder-width apart. Lower the bar as far as possible to the ends of your fingers, then roll it back up and squeeze the bar in your palm. Do 3 sets of 10-15 with around 15-30kg depending on strength. You can also just do this with dumbbells at each side (pictured below).

Anna Davey (Supplied)

Exercise 4: Pinch blocks — moderate

These are tools such as ones made by Club Strong. Fasten a weight (start at 10kg) and hold for 8 seconds at a time in each hand. Keep increasing the weight by 5kg until you reach your max for 8 seconds. Do 3 sets of 8 seconds using each hand with your max weight. If you don’t have access to pinch blocks, you can also use weight plates by pinching them between your thumb and fingers. 

Exercise 5: Deadlifts — moderate

Try focusing on gripping really tight when performing deadlifts. Make sure you are using correct form and don’t lift more than what you are capable of lifting. Ask a PT for help with this. Gradually document and increase your weight as you get stronger.

Exercise 6: Dead hangs — moderate

Jump up to a bar and hang for as long as you can in a dead hang (no shaking out one arm) Aim for 1–2 minutes at a time. Rest for as long as you hung and then repeat for 3-4 reps. Dead hangs will increase your forearm endurance and grip strength.

READ NEXT: How to build a stronger grip

How to increase the strength of the grip of the hand: training, exercises

Every man a priori should have strong hands, unless it is a prince of white bloods, a pianist or a representative of a profession where the development of fine motor skills is more important than a dead grip. If you do not consider yourself one of those, then for sure once in your life you would dream of bending steel pipes, rolling nails into knots and breaking your enemies’ hands with just the force of a grip. Well, in this blog article boxingblog.ru we will try to reveal all the cards of heroic skill, show with examples how to increase the grip strength of the hand, and tell why not everyone will be able to achieve the same results when performing the same exercises.

Table of contents of the article:

1. What determines grip strength
2. General Principles of Training
3. Kinds of grip
4. Complex of exercises for grip strength
5. Records and Standards for Powerlifters

What determines the grip strength

Long scientific dissertations can be written about the power of hands, the depth of the topic we are considering is amazing. So what does grip and wrist strength in particular depend on? On the fly, at least 5 main factors can be identified that determine the degree of grip development in specific people:

• Physiological features of the structure of the hands.So people with wide palms and short fingers will have much more advantages over the owners of long thin fingers and narrow palms;
• Muscular development of the forearm. Of particular importance is the development of the ulnar and radial flexor, which provide rolling and rolling movements of the wrist;
• Finger strength plays an important role in the development of an iron grip. It provides the development of the muscles of the superficial flexor of the fingers;
• Correct synchronized movement of each finger is essential for a strong grip.The palmar aponeurosis provides smooth flexion and extension of several groups of phalanges. This is the most common cause of occupational diseases of the fingers, so you should be careful when training at home;
• A training plan is an integral part of a strong grip and is often overlooked by novice athletes.

The physiological component is not a decisive factor in the development of the grip. There are many other minor but important elements of effective training, which we will talk about next.

General Principles of Training

Do not forget that the growth of grip strength is a slow process. The development of muscle mass can continue for several weeks after an intense workout. In this regard, in order to ensure the productivity of the training process, it is worth seriously thinking about the frequency of training for grip strength.

Let’s break our principle of efficiency into several points for a more complete understanding of the question:

• First of all, we note the need for a slow increase in power loads on the muscles of the forearm and hand;
• Muscle strength will grow more intensively not so much from the increase in the severity of training, but from the number of approaches and repetitions;
• A sharp decline in development is possible when training more or less than a certain time interval.So an interval of at least 7 days between workouts is optimal for the development, growth and rest of the above muscle groups;
• The rest time should not be extended by more than 10 days. This will inevitably lead to the termination of the effect of supercompensation, which determines the development of muscles during one period of training / rest;
• Maintaining the percentage of chemicals such as serotonin, testosterone and growth hormone at a normal level is directly dependent on a properly formulated diet.

As you already understood, the grip is a complex physiological process, for training which you will need to apply not only the strength of the hands, but also the head. So in order to understand in which direction to move, it is important to understand what types of grip exist in general, and how to train them.

Grip types

There are not many basic types of grip that we encounter in life in one way or another, but if you develop them well enough, you can significantly increase the general ability of the hands to resist various efforts of the outside world.As mentioned above, a man in any case should be interested in the development of the strength of his hands, at least in order to please his chosen one with remarkable abilities. So here we go:

• The squeezing grip is not determined by dynamic squeezing, that is, the position of the body does not change with this grip. These are handshakes, nut cracking;
• The holding type of grip implies a certain, not full, squeezing force of any object to keep it suspended, or when pulling, if you need to drag a heavy object a distance.Various types of holding grip are applicable for pull-ups;
• The steel grip features a powerful locking force for the fingers in the locked position. That is, ideally, the steel grip should not withstand competition from either iron or other athletes;
• The pinch grip also works for holding, but it does not use the force of the entire hand, but only the fingers. The most common among climbers, loaders, people who need strong fingers for professional activities;
• Twisting – the same grip that allows you to roll nails and bend pipes.To develop this grip, a group of special exercises is provided, which we will analyze further along with training in strength and other types of grip.

Each type of grip has its own plan of training activities, which are not recommended to be mixed, if only because different grips imply different physical fitness, but we will discuss this point in the next part of the article.

Complex of exercises for grip strength

As it was correctly noted above, you cannot immediately rush to perform exercises on a twisting grip, because this is a direct path to injury.In any case, first you need to perfectly master the initial grips, which we all use in life, holding on to the handrails, carrying food bags, doing various sports.

So for training a good squeezing grip it is worth getting a suitable wrist expander, first a rubber one, and then a lever one. This is the simplest simulator that cannot harm your body, but periodic training throughout the year will bring the forearm into working shape, increase the volume of the hand, and make the grip more masculine.

In order for the squeeze exercises to be effective, the presence of the following components is important:

• Comfortable posture – 50% success;
• Rhythmic squeezing movements about 90 times in 1 minute;
• Perform the last few movements with strength, they contain all the juice;
• 5 minutes of relaxation between sets;
• No more than 7 trips in one training period;
• Compulsory rest of at least 7 and no more than 10 days between active workouts.

To increase the holding force will help:

• Grip strength training on the horizontal bar;
• Rhythmic execution of deadly efforts;
• A barbell or dumbbell with a thick bar – holding for a physically possible time, but not until the hands are completely weakened;
• Keeping the bar on your fingertips, slow rolls and rolls;
• Walk with heavy dumbbells until a burning sensation appears in the forearm area;
• Hanging on the horizontal bar with 4 fingers for the maximum possible time.

The thicker the diameter of the held object, the more effective the training. The number of approaches is determined by your physical development, but should not exceed reasonable limits to prevent possible injury.

The plucked grip is trained as follows:

• The closed elastic is pulled with the force of the fingers to the maximum possible limit, held as far as the strength is enough;
• The spring expander is squeezed alternately by the force of the thumb, index and middle fingers, and then the thumb, ring and little fingers.One approach – one squeeze, delay no more than 30 seconds, no more than 4 approaches;
• The barbell pancake is held by the force of squeezing the fingers of both hands. It is best to start the first exercises with a minimum weight of 2 kg;
• Push-ups on the fingers are one of the most effective and energy-intensive exercises, in order to avoid injury, it is performed after achieving results in previous types of training.

The twisting grip is trained using levers. You shouldn’t jump into training right away with this type of grip; first, master the technique of squeezing, holding and pinching grips, because to perform complex elements, you will need good physical preparation of the forearms, hands, fingers.In short, the twisting exercises are performed as follows:

• Take a lever with a weighting agent at the end;
• Depending on physical capabilities, its optimal length is selected;
• Smooth twisting movements of the right and left hands are performed alternately in a range of 180 degrees relative to the horizon;
• Further, the movements for adduction and abduction of the lever in the vertical plane are performed.

Twisting grip exercises are performed until the onset of pain.Recommended at the end of general workouts or after a good warm-up. Each new achievement is recommended to be consolidated with visual indicators that can be seen using a special grip strength meter (wrist dynamometer). Using it, you can determine the strength characteristics of the muscular system of your own body. This is done by dynamometry – a method of measuring the strength of contraction of various muscle groups.

Records and Standards for Powerlifters

The steel grip deserves special attention and even, probably, a separate article.It is mainly used in powerlifting, where there is nothing to do without heroic hands. Exercises for a steel grip are heavy physical activity using a huge amount of iron, which is too heavy not only for beginners, but also for many professional athletes.

World records in armlifting are tens of kilograms of force for compression and hundreds for lifting weights. So for a professional powerlifter, a deadweight grip of 320 kg is considered a very good indicator.If we talk about compression, then 165 kg – the weight of the closure of the famous captains of crush expander – could be mastered by only 5 athletes: Tommy Heaslip, Magnus Samuelson, David Morton, Nathan Hall and Joy Kinney.

These are truly unique people whose records are worth striving for. For the average athlete who is professionally involved in powerlifting, 60 to 90 kilograms per compression will be good indicators. At the same time, as practice shows, the presence of muscle mass is not so important as a correctly composed training system, the desire to achieve the goal and, of course, willpower.

90,000 seven best exercises for trapeze artists. Articles of the company “Props for trapeze artists Circus-Pro. European product quality at Ukrainian prices! ”

Oct 30. 2018

Trapeze artists are some of the strongest athletes in the world. During the performance, they fascinate with their complex tricks, courage, fearlessness and dexterity. Working without insurance requires focus, professionalism and strength. Even if a gymnast is engaged in a gymnasium, circus studio, or simply trains for himself, you need to additionally develop endurance, stability, balance, power and muscular strength in order to withstand the weight of your own body on gymnastic equipment.In this article, you will learn: how to increase grip strength at home and the rules of strength exercises.

Why develop grip strength?

For an aerialist, a well-developed grip strength is a guarantee of high-quality gymnastic elements on apparatus, personal safety and health preservation. Here are some arguments in favor of performing special exercises and their positive effect on the health of a gymnast:

1. Taking a large weight .It is important for aerial gymnasts to lift a lot of weight, because all types of gymnastic tricks are based on manually raising their body to a height. Therefore, a developed grip plays an important role. For its progression, it is necessary to perform sets of exercises, which we will discuss below.
2. Best endurance . The gradual increase in the number of repetitions increases the strength of the grip and, in turn, endurance.
3. Trauma resistance . Stronger muscles and connective tissue become more resistant to injury.Even when stretched, recovery is much faster.

It would seem, what can be the classification of the grip. But there are three main types, the development of which significantly changes the quality of trainee training, namely: squeezing (squeezing in the palm), finger (developing thumb strength) and power grip (taking weight and holding it in the hands). All of them affect the long-term retention of their own weight at height. For pumping, a wrist expander is suitable for squeezing and stretching, training for holding a bottle with water with your fingers or squeezing the wrists.

Exercises to increase grip strength

The basis of grip strength is the amount of strength in the tendons of the forearms, muscles, ligaments in the hands and fingers. There are a number of exercises that can help you increase your grip strength.

• Tennis balls for strengthening the hands

Tennis balls not only train the hands and grip, but also the fingers:

1. Static exercise – you need to squeeze the ball and wait until the hand “falls off”.
2. Pressing in the ball with four fingers.
3. Thumb pressure only (suitable for developing a pinch grip).
4. Compression with two palms.

The rope climbing exercise develops agility and grip strength well. It is best to use professional rope equipment with a diameter of 6 cm. You need to climb to a height without legs. This exercise will be more effective when performed on one hand. But first you need to learn how to pull up without the help of the second hand.

• Hand Expanders

The expander is a wonderful piece of equipment that develops the hands. The shells are in tension and compression, but they are designed for the same resistance of the elastic part. Squeezing / unclenching perfectly trains muscles, keeps them in good shape during forced pauses and idle times in training.

• Pancake holding

Pancakes should be taken with your fingers and try to hold as long as possible. Better to start with 5-10 kg.The more experienced gymnasts increase the load, further developing the finger grip.

• Return outlet with weight

This type of exercise strengthens the hands, forearms and fingers. It is performed like a normal lifting of a kettlebell over your head, but only the bottom needs to be lifted up.

• Vis on the horizontal bar

Exercises on the horizontal bar, namely pull-ups, strengthen the hands, increasing their strength. It is advisable to pull up on a thick bar or hold on with 2-3 fingers.

• Pinching or grabbing

The exercise consists of a plucked hang on boards 4-6 cm thick. To assess the difficulty of the exercise, divide your body weight by 2. The result is a weight that can be easily lifted with one hand. If you can’t lift, you need to continue training to increase grip strength.

Train properly for a sense of flight and increase in strength

Aerogymnastics is the best type of spectacular sports and circus art for beginners and professionals.Stretching, flexibility and grip strength are very important for practicing on aerial belts, rings or belts. Their gradual development from element to element, the use of the correct equipment is the best guarantee of the safety and rapid development of athletes. Do not miss the chance to try your hand, for this you need to buy all the necessary equipment and clothes in our Circus-Pro online store!

The simplest way to develop a powerful grip

The development of muscles and tendons in the forearms occurs in any strength training session when it is necessary to hold some weight in the hands.The main thing is not to interfere with the process, but this is what people often do, after which they are surprised at their weak grip. I’ll tell you how not to make such mistakes.

Decide on priorities

This article is primarily for those who, having forgotten the wrist straps at home and not finding them in the gym, cannot exercise normally. Because any burden, more than two-thirds of its own weight, simply falls out of the hands. And also for people who tie themselves to the horizontal bar, even if they pull themselves up without weights on the belt.That is, they simply cannot keep their own weight hanging for 20-30 seconds.

Someone will smile, they say, this does not happen. Well, I’m happy for you and for avoiding rookie mistakes by developing enough grip strength. But such people are few. I constantly see a funny picture in gyms, when, even with medium weights in blocks, on a barbell and not with the heaviest dumbbells, people constantly use wrist straps.

Someone makes excuses, they say, “ I take the extra load off my forearms in order to focus on the working muscle group and not think about my arms .”This seems reasonable. But, unfortunately, only it seems. In fact, the abuse of the wrist straps not only leads to stagnation in the development of the muscles of the forearms, but even to their degradation.

That is, below we will talk about the reasonable development of grip strength in order to avoid imbalance in the hands. And for further progress in power, in general, this is useful.

As for the extreme work on the development of the strength of the fingers and forearms, when nails are bent, coins and the iPhone is crumpled in the fist, then this is a topic for a separate article and it has nothing to do with today’s conversation.

What to do for effective grip development

First of all, do not waste time on useless exercises. Especially in the early stages of weight lifting. We are talking about all kinds of flexion and extension of the hands with a barbell and dumbbells, such as:

I have never seen a person who really pumped up his forearms with such exercises, and he himself tried it in the past – nothing came of it. But to injure their hands – once or twice!

The fact is that with a reasonable increase in the weight of the weights , the forearms adapt to the load easily and naturally .Moreover, the load is large enough, which I will talk about a little later with my own example.

But there are several conditions.

First, do not use gloves . It seems that they even increase the load – out of habit it can be even more difficult to hold a barbell or block than without gloves. It’s just out of habit. In reality, gloves (especially good, branded and expensive ones) steal part of the load from the forearms, increasing the frictional force between the palm and the bar or horizontal bar.That is, it is easier to keep them.

Plus from gloves one – no corns appear. But this is more true for girls. Although I cannot say that calluses from the inside of the palm are very noticeable and somehow negatively affect the appearance of a person as a whole.

Second – use a full-fledged lock (thumb wraps around the bar / horizontal bar from below), and not a “bear” grip (thumb on top) . The latter also facilitates work, and in this mode, the muscle chain is disrupted and the forearm works, as they say, for wear.

If you do not go into the anatomical details, then muscles, tendons and fascia are a single system, the violation of individual components in the work of which leads to problems in other parts. Take the same squats with a barbell, which, with the correct technique of performing the exercise, are safe for the knee joints, since the muscles stabilize them. With the wrong technique, on the contrary, you can get a lot of trouble with your knees. It’s the same story with the forearms.

Third – try not to use wrist straps until you reach critical weights. The problem with the wrist straps is not only that they take some of the load off the forearms, but they also crush the hands, disrupting blood flow and pinching the nerves. The brain’s response to this bullying is to send a signal to relax the muscles in the forearms. That is, it seems as if you are pulling the weight more and more, and the forearms work worse and worse, up to degradation.

Personal experience of grip development

It’s a shame to admit, but there were times when I could not keep myself on the horizontal bar for a long time and used wrist straps for pull-ups.Why, when pulling up, you pull a 70 kg block to your chest (with your own weight of 110 kg) and also with straps. You do a deadlift with 80 kg or a barbell pull to the stomach – again with straps. All this is strange and inconvenient. After all, I really forgot my sports accessories at home several times, and the training turned into a nightmare, since the local equipment left much to be desired.

Moreover, it was in those days that I tried to actively load the forearms with all sorts of flexion and extension of the hands, walks of the farmer, expander, squeezed the ball with my fingers … all in vain.The grip strength did not grow much.

I also used gloves. Almost got rid of calluses, but little joy.

At one point I realized that it was necessary to somehow solve the problem and it was not a weak articular-ligamentous apparatus, but the very “crutches” that I used every day. An attempt to load the hands with additional exercises was unsuccessful.

Of course, I didn’t want to roll back on the weights, because it seemed that I would not be able to work without straps at all, but the devil is not so terrible as he is painted.

In fact, the forearms adapt very quickly to the load, especially if you knead your hands well, plus give them a little prophylaxis at the end of the workout.

Prevention is simple – rotate the brushes left and right 20-30 times, thoroughly knead the square pronator with circular movements of the thumb, then wrap the brushes with an elastic bandage without pinching them, and leave it for several hours. This will improve the nerve conduction of the muscles (innervation) or restore it if they have already managed to harm the abuse of the straps.

At first it was a little uncomfortable, the usual weights tried to get out of my hands, I had to strain more. Then I got myself a week’s rest from training and returned to work, reducing the workload by 30-40%. I raised it very smoothly. A month later, I got to the usual working weights, but without the straps. This did not cause any problems. The increase in load took place in a planned manner, the forearms did not become a restraining factor.

At the moment, I can easily keep myself on the horizontal bar without straps, when doing pull-ups with a weight of 30+ kg on the belt.I also do deadlifts with a weight of 130-140 kg without any additional accessories. Moreover, my own weight is 102-103 kg. When there is more than 140 kg on the bar, then I put on the straps, since the muscles of the back and legs are pulling, and the fingers are no longer holding (yet).

I noticed that after strengthening the grip, problems with the hands, minor injuries, pain and inflammation disappeared. It also stopped “hammering” the forearms during back training, especially after pulling blocks.

How can you additionally load the forearms to train them

I highly recommend not touching the straps until you work with weights that are at least equal to your own weight.If you have time to nag with them, roll back on the weights and force your forearms to work again, adding the prevention described above at the end of the workout.

When you have improved your grip well enough and you want to develop your forearms more actively, it is enough to add hanging on the horizontal bar at the end of the workout. Hang until your fingers begin to unclench. Little load and annoying to hang – attach an additional weight to the belt. Even after completing the shrug exercise in the last approach, from time to time I continue to hold the dumbbells or the barbell until the projectile begins to fall out of my hands.

The use of different kinds of grip extenders is an option, but I don’t see much point in this if you do not plan to participate in the relevant competitions.

There are other options, like the same hand expanders, holding heavy pancakes in your fingers, etc. But, I repeat, it makes sense to apply all these methods when you get to more or less serious working weights in basic exercises without the use of wrist straps. There is a decent set of exercises on SportWiki.

As a bonus, I suggest taking a look at video by Yaroslav Brin about hand training. He talks directly about the hands and forearms in the interval from the 8th to the 15th minute:

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The development of muscles and tendons in the forearms occurs in any strength training session when it is necessary to hold some weight in the hands.The main thing is not to interfere with the process, but this is what people often do, after which they are surprised at their weak grip. I’ll tell you how not to make such mistakes. Let’s define the priorities The article is primarily for those who, having forgotten the wrist straps at home …

Roman Yuriev

@bigbeastus

Meticulous blogger, gadget addict, bald and bearded fitness methodologist.I am fond of technology, sports and nutrition.

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Grip strength – training, effective and useless exercises

Grip strength characterizes every man when shaking hands. A weak and soft palm leaves not the best impression.In addition, you need to have strong hands and fingers if you are seriously involved in sports, for example, working with weights or on a horizontal bar. Therefore, comrades athletes, let’s train a strong grip!

Grip and big sports

Strong grip is the main characteristic of athletes performing in such a form of weightlifting as armlifting. This is a professional sport that brings athletes worldwide fame, good prizes and, of course, a sense of pride in the result. In general, there is something to think about – maybe you will be able to achieve great heights in this sport.

Armlifting is not as popular as football or tennis, but an army of thousands of fans still exists.

The super grip is useful not only by itself. The developed muscles of the hands are of great importance in armwrestling, powerlifting, bodybuilding, workout, the same tennis, hockey. In any sport where you need to hold a significant weight with your hands – grip is of great importance.

Grabbing and normal life

A man’s meeting begins with a handshake.His strength is a man’s calling card. When you greet with a strong grip, it already makes the other man understand – “strong”.

This is the first reason why there should be a fortress in the palm of your hand.

Men regularly pick up something – at work, at home, while shopping for groceries. When you did not have a car, you carried bags (and earlier – nets) with groceries to your home. Remember how hard it was sometimes? Like fingers unbent by themselves under the weight of the bag. Most of you now have cars.Maximum, you carry the same packages to the car. And then from the car to the house. In “horseless” times, the grip was stronger, that’s for sure.

But, for example, an emergency situation when you need to climb a couple of meters up, and this is a matter of life and death. Again, the power of the brushes will solve this situation in the direction you need.

And if your hands are weak, you can lose a lot. This happened during earthquakes, falls, landslides, persecution. A good example of this is the movie The Cliffhanger, starring Sylvester Stallone.

And, of course, the visual perception of the forearms cannot be left aside. After all, hand training involves the active work of these particular muscles. Massive and powerful forearms immediately place the emphasis on the question: is it worth it to talk to you casually or rudely?

A firm grip (or even better – a perfect grip) is the key to confidence. Its significance is great, as you have already noticed, not only in sports, but also in everyday life.

Principles of Grip Training

Grip training is the only way to strengthen your hand muscles.Without this, it is unrealistic to achieve extraordinary results. However, a person’s genetic predisposition also plays a role.

Not always the muscle mass of an athlete speaks of the strength of his grip. It happens that the outcome of the competition is decided by the thickness of the tendons of the forearm, and not at all the volume of the muscles. Moreover, the girth of the biceps does not in any way affect the force of squeezing the hand – the flexor of the shoulder does not participate in this movement.

So, the forearm has 19 different muscles. Only 4 of these 19 provide turns. The rest are responsible for flexion and extension.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8C3CxRQxnQ

There are a number of exercises that are good only at the beginning of training. With prolonged exercise, they are able to maintain the current level of muscle development, but they will not be enough for further progress. We are talking about grip strength.

Hanging on the horizontal bar

Permanent hanging on the horizontal bar strengthens the grip at the initial stage of training. When you can hang for about a minute, holding on to the bar with your hands, your progress will stop.Then you can increase the hanging time, but the strength will not increase. Each person has a different habituation time, someone will stop progressing after a 30-second hang.

Of course, such a vis itself is very useful. In particular, the longer you hang, the more the spine will stretch (this is more often good than bad), and the endurance of the wrist muscles will noticeably grow. Strength is not, progress will stop over time.

Manual expander of the same type

Very often the lack of results from training with a manual expander is associated with a constant load on the muscles.There is training, but there is no progression – that is, you just maintain a certain level of strength, but do not grow further. Quite a few people are faced with this.

If you carry a “donut” in your pocket and squeeze it all the time, your strength will grow until a certain point, and then progress will stop, because the resistance of the simulator is constant.

Musculature requires adaptive training: that is, as soon as the muscle has the opportunity to do a little more, this opportunity should be used immediately, forcing the muscles to make more significant efforts.

The same statement can be made for almost any exercise. The main thing is not to use one weight.

The key to success is a complex load

The development of grip strength is a versatile occupation. You should do different exercises, gradually increasing the load.

Although, if you are satisfied with a slightly more powerful grip than your friends, a few round resistance bands are enough for you. Just remember to periodically put heavier loads on your wrist muscles.

For best results, the rest of the body should be trained in addition to the hands. This is a simple truth, not obvious to everyone. Isolated training of just one grip will not give the desired result. The body must work harmoniously.

You can do any physical activity. You can work out in the gym, do your favorite sport, or exercise in the morning. If you want – just run, it will give you basic stamina. Grip strength training will be more effective if all other muscles are developed.

Cardio, by the way, besides developing endurance, has another side – improving blood circulation and saturation of body cells with nutrients and oxygen. Thanks to the accelerated metabolism, the muscles will work better.

Exercises

Not all athletes know how to increase grip strength. And not always those who have an impressive figure can boast of success in this area. So what to do, how to strengthen the brushes?

Changing the resistance bands

To get started, go to the nearest sports store and find a “donut” there.Try to work with resistance bands of different elasticity, decide which one is moderately hard for you to work with. Take 2 expander at once – the one that you liked and another one, a little heavier for compression.

Work with the lighter version first. Achieve 50 squeezes with each hand. Sometimes you can twist your fists while the expander is clenched – this will be more difficult. You do not need to keep your palm clenched for a long time, a second is enough.

Please note that when you work with a ring expander, the muscles of the different fingers tense in different ways.Try to make all of them experience approximately the same amount of load.

When you can do 50 squeezes with each hand, move on to a heavier expander. And so, as the progression progresses, you will need to buy a new one.

One day you will have to give up the “donut” and buy a V-shaped expander. It has more resistance and will be the next level trainer for you.
Additionally, you can practice finger push-ups, rope climbs, and other exercises.

Using the extensors

In addition to the flexors of the hand, it is helpful to pay attention to the extensors. Extension of the palm with effort does not have any practical application, but in general, complex muscle training will give the best effect.

The simplest thing is to put a strong elastic band on your closed fingers and spread them. You can invent your own way to load the palm when unbending, here ingenuity and imagination are welcome.

Tracking Progress

If you want to track your progress, you will need a wrist dynamometer.This is a device that allows you to see how much effort your hand develops when squeezing. The numbers will be your guide.

Training the forearms

Watch for tension when the fist is clenched. That’s right, the inside of the forearm. Apparently, this muscle should also be pumped?

Directly it is pumped by flexion of the hands with a barbell. Try it – you won’t regret it. Do not forget about the progression of weights (but not mindless, but in accordance with your capabilities).

In addition to these flexions, there are many biceps exercises that actively engage the muscles of the forearms. In particular, these are dumbbell hammers.

By the way, don’t forget to warm up. The muscles of the hand are the same muscles as the triceps, biceps. You do not go to bench press the barbell right away from the maximum weight, but approach this weight gradually.

Remember nutrition

Muscles are composed of muscle and connective tissue. It is important that the tendon is firmly attached to the periosteum on one side, and to the muscle body on the other.To do this, you need to eat foods that are high in protein, vitamins necessary for the connective fibers of unsaturated fatty acids (Omega-3 and 6).

90,000 best grip strength exercises will also improve your forearms and larger arms

In fact, getting big hands should start with large forearms. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing to some, strong forearms can also help you live longer, science suggests.And if you want to grow larger forearms, you need to look at the best exercises to increase your grip strength, as they also increase your forearm girth.

• Best Push-Up Workouts for Big Chests AND Big Arms: Increase your abs workout with these tips.

A stronger grip can be achieved by incorporating grip strengthening exercises into your workouts: we hope this is somewhat obvious. But implementing these forearm and grip exercises is actually easier than you might think.The best whole-body workout should include exercises that improve your grip, and indeed, this workout actually involves one exercise.

If you are interested in more than just one of the best exercises for increasing grip strength, read on.

What is grip strength and why to improve it

There are many different types of grip strength, all of which can help you become a better athlete or invader. The different types of grips include:

• Crush Clutch: is when you close all your fingers to hold the best barbells or best dumbbells.Or the best weights. Do you understand.
• Grip Grip: is a grip-type grip where you press objects with your thumb against your other four fingers to hold the objects.
• Support Handle: You use this when hovering, which admittedly doesn’t happen often, but can come in handy when you’re doing pull-ups versus pull-ups. And if you think it’s not that hard to hang yourself from the bar, we will let you know that the current world record for dead hands is less than three minutes.And you thought that sheathing is difficult.
• Extension / Reverse Grip: This force is used when you extend your fingers outward. The finger extension is admittedly the least useful way to impress other people, but it can still come in handy in a wide variety of everyday situations.

Of these four types, we will mainly focus on crush and support exercises that strengthen the grip, mainly because they can actually increase the girth of the forearm and give you a Popeye look.

If you want to improve your grasping grip strength, you can try to perform back-side bandages using barbell plates or ballistic rods. To increase extension strength, we recommend using rubber bands wrapped around the fingers and extension fingers.

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Best Grip Exercises

(Image Courtesy of Getty Images)

Kettle Swing

Often doing kettlebell swings not only increases overall strength and improves core muscles, but can also increase grip strength.The best way to increase your grip strength with kettlebell swings is to do lots of them quickly in a row. For example, you can follow this 10,000-swing kettlebell workout which takes only four weeks and, in the words of its creator, Dan John, “increases grip strength and performance.”

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(Image courtesy of Getty Images)

Farmer’s Walk

Often the simplest exercises are also the most effective. Take the farmer’s walk, for example: all you have to do is lift a couple of dumbbells or dumbbells and walk with them. It may sound simple, but walking with weights takes a lot of effort.Not to mention, it significantly improves traction.

If you have more limited training space, you can try using kettlebells or dumbbells to shrug. Hold the kettlebell in the same way you would for a farmer’s walk, but instead of walking, just lift your shoulders up and then release them back. This, too, will do wonders for your traps (those are the muscles around your neck).

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(Image courtesy of Getty Images)

Dead Hover

Even if you can’t pull the windows, you should try dead hovers, how doing this exercise can help you build the grip of the support you need to actually be able to pull up windows after all.Dead hangs can also improve shoulder mobility as well as build muscle if you can do it long enough.

And finally, once you can hang briefly, you can try pulling up to get a good V-shape and increase upper back and biceps strength. Pull-ups are notoriously difficult to master, but getting a few strong resistance bands can go from being unable to do any pull-ups to becoming a master of pull-ups.

(Image credit: future)

Reverse curl

Reverse curls are great for creating bicep definition and forearm strength. Since you are holding a barbell or dumbbells with an overhand grip, you make your grip more difficult than doing standard bicep curls.

If you want even more activation, you should get some fat grips: these “fat dumbbell adapters” increase the girth of the bar / dumbbells, so they are harder to hold and therefore you use more forearm strength to hold the bar.

(Image courtesy of Getty Images)

Deadlift / Barbell Hold

The King of Elevators proves once again why this exercise is important for anyone looking to build stronger muscle. The deadlift requires you to lift heavy weights from the ground, which requires serious compression force. It also develops the indicated grip strength, especially if you hold the bar in the highest position for longer than one or two seconds. Add a firm grip to this mixture and your forearms will be in no time.

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How to Train Your Powerful Grip: 5 Tips

And doing a farm walk can be a great end to your workout program.

3. Lift heavy weights

Instead of training your grip with many light wrist curls for an infinite number of sets, work your grip at the same time as the rest of your body. By including heavy rows and pull-ups, you can develop your entire arm, not just your grip. The deadlift from the plinths is a variation of the deadlift that is aimed at working out the upper part of the amplitude and allows you to load more weight on the barbell, therefore, it makes it difficult to grip. For pull-ups and deadlifts, constantly challenge yourself by changing your grip every few reps during your set.By releasing and then grasping the bar, you force your forearms to adapt to different positions. Also, do not neglect exercises such as dumbbell lunges as they provide a great opportunity to develop a strong grip.

4. Use a grip training device

You can add the use of a towel to your work for added incentive. While adding weight to the bar is usually sufficient progress in your grip, this technique can help you improve your performance by increasing your need for strength.Try wrapping a towel around the bar or handle for any exercise to increase the thickness of the hand grip. Squeeze the towel as you exercise, but remember that you will probably need less weight than usual for the extra task. Likewise, hanging on two towels while pulling up turns a simple exercise into torture for a weak grip.

5. Squeeze the barbell

The simplest and most powerful tool is the one we often forget about.Active squeezing of the bar with your hands during the approach leads to greater activation of the grip and, therefore, a greater increase in grip strength. Don’t let the bar slide towards your toes during the set. Instead, hold the bar firmly in your palms and wrap your thumb around it to hold it in place. During the approach, focus on squeezing the bar as much as possible. As you tighten your grip as you exercise, you may find your strength numbers skyrocket.

Read also:

how to strengthen the grip? – Moscow 24, 18.06.2019

Moscow 24 TV channel columnist, fitness expert and TV presenter Eduard Kanevsky told how to help your hands when there is not enough grip strength to perform an exercise.

Photo: Eduard Kanevsky

More than fifty percent of all clients of a fitness club regularly visit the gym. And those who regularly work out with “iron”, one way or another, faced a problem when, performing an exercise, for example, “pull-ups on the bar” or “deadlift”, the target muscle groups (those that directly contract in a particular movement) cope with a load, but the hands, palms simply can not stand it.This is faced not only by those who are engaged in a modern fitness club, but also by fans of street workouts on workout grounds.

So how can you help your arms withstand the weight of the weights so you can exercise well? Let’s take a look at a few options.

Photo: Eduard Kanevsky

1. First, I will tell you about the main mistakes that beginners often make. The first is the use of fitness gloves. Many people think that due to the fact that there is no slip, they strengthen the grip, but in fact they make it weaker, because the fabric between the palm and the bar still moves, which forces you to strain your hands more, which makes them get tired faster.Personally, as a weightlifter, I am categorically against the use of any kind of gloves, but in my sport it is generally prohibited. Therefore, they can be used, for example, if your palms are sweating a lot or you are irritated by calluses, but then you will need another method of strengthening the grip, which I will write about below.

The second is an attempt to “pump up” the muscles of the forearms so that the grip becomes stronger. A serious mistake, because grip strength is a so-called static load, and certain muscle fibers take part in its work.At the same time, when you, performing specialized exercises for the forearms, swing a different type of fiber, which is responsible for the volume of the muscles, and not their strength.

2. The lock is one of the ways to make the grip stronger, the method came to us from strength sports. The technique is frankly painful, because you pinch your thumb between the bar and your fingers, and when you take the weight, there is strong pressure on it. I would not recommend this method to anyone.

Photo: Eduard Kanevsky

3. Rifle grab.An excellent way to significantly increase the grip, this method makes it possible to work with a significantly greater weight. This technique is great for the deadlift exercise, but unfortunately, pulling up and performing a number of other exercises using this grip will not work because of the inconvenience of performing a specific movement. For example, pulling up will be categorically inconvenient. The meaning of the grip is simple, with one hand, strictly symmetrically, you take it from the top of the bar (see photo), and with the other hand you take it from the bottom.Thanks to this method, I can easily take 215 kilograms in the deadlift, while I can overpower only 150 kilograms using a regular grip. But it is important to understand: due to the fact that there is a slight rotation of the arm, the load on the spine is not distributed so evenly.

4. But it also happens that even when using a different grip, your hands still do not hold the weight well, and sweat is to blame, even if you do not feel it. Here good old magnesia comes to the rescue – this is the white powder that weightlifters are always smeared with in competitions.Apply magnesia to your palms liberally and your hands will automatically become “stronger.” Magnesia is of two types: dry and liquid. Dry costs a penny, but it is free-flowing, gets dirty, it must be applied constantly during training. Then I recommend trying liquid, alcoholic magnesia. It costs significantly more, but it does not get dirty, it is enough to apply it once per workout.

Photo: Eduard Kanevsky

5. In those cases when you do not set records, do not want to stain yourself with a dubious white powder, or calluses confuse you, and a strong grip is needed not only in deadlift, use the so-called wrist belts, their also called straps, traction.