Improving Grip Strength

By Emil Chang

Can’t PR your deadlift because the bar is falling out of your hands? Having trouble doing pull-ups because you’re slipping off the bar? Maybe you’re stalling on your presses? It sounds like you need to improve your grip strength.

Importance

Hands connect us to most objects we interact with during the day. We need to hold, push, and pull objects all the time. Although they're probably not shaped like a barbell, they still depend on our hands and fingers working properly. If we spend most of the day on the computer and in the car, our fingers and wrists are stuck in relatively the same position. Keeping our hands strong and healthy is important not only to lift and carry heavy things, but also to maintain functionality.

In terms of exercise, grip can be a frustrating limiting factor. For example, you may have the leg and upper back strength to pull a 315lb deadlift, but if you can’t hold onto it, then what? You lose a percentage of force transfer with poor grip. Just like abdominal bracing or upper back tightness, grip is a point in your lift where you can potentially leak energy.

Programming

Improving grip strength will ultimately require an increase in frequency. While grip can fatigue quickly, it also recovers quickly. This makes it optimal for higher frequency training- something like 3-4 times a week. Grip training should be an addition to your normal workout, usually as an accessory. It’s a small and specific muscle group that is an accessory to many movements, but not neurologically or psychologically taxing enough to warrant a dedicated day of training. That being said, if you are doing heavy deadlifts, pull-ups, rows, or other grip-heavy exercises, you probably want to wait until after to do grip work as to not affect the day’s main training.

Exercises

Many of these exercises can be done for time or until failure and can easily be placed at the end of a workout. Think 20-30sec range with a moderate to heavy weight for 3-4 sets. Usually, you want it to be challenging enough to feel a decent amount of fatigue by the end of the set.

Regular Farmer Carry: With a neutral posture, grip the kettlebell with your thumb around the handle. Keeping your shoulders active, walk for a distance or simply hold the kettlebells in place. If you’re using a heavy weight, go for 10m at a time. With a lighter weight, go longer. 

Vertical Dumbbell Carry: With neutral posture, hold the dumbbell with an open palm grip. The wider spread will require you to really squeeze with your fingers to keep the dumbbell in place. Again, walk for distance or hold in place. 

Pinch Grip Carry: With neutral posture, grip a weight plate with your thumb on one side and your fingers on the other. Try to keep your fingers acting as one unit. Pinch the weight plate between your thumb and your fingers to keep it in place. Walk for distance or hold in place.

Bottoms Up Carry: There’s an added shoulder stability factor in this one and your grip strength will be crucial to keep the kettlebell in place. Make sure your wrist, elbow and shoulder are in line and try to keep your elbow at ninety degrees. 

 In both these landmine exercises, you’ll be holding onto the sleeves of the barbell (where plates are usually loaded). Since the diameter is wider than the shaft of the barbell, you will take more of an open-handed grip, which will be more taxing

Single Leg RDLs- Face your body parallel with the bar. Hold the sleeve of the barbell with your opposite hand or with both hands and perform a single leg hip hinge with the leg further away from the landmine. Keep your hips and shoulders square as you hinge.

Single Arm Bent Over Rows- Face your body parallel with the bar. Take a strong hinged position and perform a row with the arm closer to the landmine.

Hanging: Just hanging from the pull up bar can also build grip endurance. Make sure your entire hand is wrapped around the bar and you aren’t just holding on from your fingertips.

(Bonus) Grippers: There are also products like this that are built specifically for grip strength. These are small so you can use them in the office. Think of them as really hard stress balls.

In Conclusion 

These are just some examples of grip-focused exercises. Sprinkle these into the end of your workout, on recovery days, or even between sets of non-intensive grip exercises like back squats. As with anything, you have to put time in to actually make improvements. 

Isolating grip training is a rather advanced concept. It means you’re competent enough in your main lifts and movements to start worrying about little things. But, as Coach Wooden said, “Little things make big things happen.” So, if you’ve identified grip strength as a weak link, that’s great. You’re probably already pretty strong and dedicated to improving your fitness. Now, you just have to hold on.

3 Fitness Tips for the New Year

By Daniel Jauregui

I’ve never liked the idea of New Year’s Resolutions. If you wanted to commit to doing something, you probably wouldn’t wait until the first of January to get started. Nevertheless, everyone seems to be more willing to try to develop good habits at this time of year. So with that said, here are 3 tips to help make 2020 a better and healthier year for you.

1. Start training at least 3 times a week.
Several of you are already doing this, so great work! But if you’re training fewer than 3 times a week, it's likely you’re not reaping all the benefits of exercise. These include (but are not limited to) improved body composition, higher metabolism, improved hormonal profile, reduced risk of heart disease, more strength, better cardiovascular endurance, and the list goes on. If you’re only spending 1-2 days a week exercising, the lack of frequency can slow or potentially stall performance progress you’re trying to make. In 2020, work to increase your overall physical activity, and start setting aside a minimum of 3 days for training every week. If you’re already doing that, try to set aside 4 or 5.

2. Set some realistic performance goals for yourself.
Many people measure the efficacy of their workouts with things like how hard it felt or how sweaty they got or how sore they were the next day. In my experience, none of these are all that useful. The only measure of an effective workout is whether or not it actually contributed to getting you better at something. What that something is is ultimately up to you. In BHIP, we’re constantly trying to improve your capabilities across different modalities, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have your own individual focus. Whether you want to improve your number of push-ups, increase your deadlift, or run a mile faster, you can always get better. Having a goal will also help to focus your training. Rather than going through the motions and trudging along, you will have a purpose that you’re training for. The key is to make your goals performance oriented. Stop worrying about how much you’re sweating and start trying to improve what you can do. If you’re not sure how, we’re here to offer suggestions!

3. Improve the quality of your recovery.
In 2019, probably for the first time in my life, I found I wasn’t recovering enough from my training. My knees became constantly achy, body fatigued and weak, and nagging pains plagued much of the exercise I did. There were several things contributing to this, but what it boiled down to was the very low effort I put into my recovery. I wasn’t making time for stretching or foam rolling, wasn’t sleeping enough, and was pretty much eating what was convenient. I’ve seen patterns like this one repeat themselves in many BHIPers and other clients I work with. Anyone that neglects recovery, regardless of age or capability, will eventually get to a point where injuries and irritations easily develop. If you’re training regularly, then as much time as possible should be spent focusing on what you can do to continue performing well. It is during this recovery time that growth and progress actually occurs. Exercise is the stress that breaks your body down, but recovery is what allows your body create adaptations that improve your fitness. This includes stretching/foam rolling to reduce the tension and inflammation surrounding your muscles and tendons. It also includes getting the optimal amount of sleep, which most research seems to indicate is between 7-9 hours for the average person.

Doing all of these things may not always be convenient, but progress has never been easy. Comment below with any questions or other habits you’re hoping to develop in 2020.