While your drive to improve grip strength could be as simple as wanting to hold on the chin-up bar longer, science says that grip strength could be even more important to mastering sets of chin-ups.
One study, published in the British Medical Journal, looked at more than half a million people from 17 different countries around the world and found that grip strength, which was measured via a hand dynamometer, was the best predictor for knowing how long would a person live. Specifically, for every 5kg decrease in grip strength, the study found that participants were 17% more likely to die from cardiovascular complications, 7% more likely to have a heart attack and 9% more likely to chances of having a stroke.
Whether you take this study seriously or not, grip strength is important. It is essential for daily activities, such as going shopping, and to have a better performance in the gym. So if you feel your grip giving way before your muscle fatigue or endurance, it's worth spending some time improving it.
Why is grip strength important?
We humans have had the pleasure of evolving with opposable thumbs, allowing us to grasp, tear, and carry large loads. When seeking maximum force and even power output, the grip can play a critical role in neuromuscular activity and muscle contraction. When we grasp an object tightly, the nervous system receives a signal from motor neurons in the hand, forearms, and up the body.
People who struggle to hold a bar during deadlifts or snatches, pull-ups, or even intensive grip training sessions can greatly benefit from specific grip training. With grip strength improvements, lifters will prepare better and stay stronger throughout the lift.
Not only is grip strength inversely associated with all-cause mortality, every five kilogram decrease in grip strength is associated with a 17 percent increased risk.
How to train your grip
The muscles responsible for the grip are just that: muscles. Just like you would train your arms, your grip muscles will respond to overload over time. The grip muscles are small compared to other muscles in the body, so they don't need a dedicated training day. You can perform two exercises from the list that we teach you below in two days of training. It is recommended to try to perform four sets per grip session to accumulate eight sets in total.
Increase repetitions, distance or time
Whether you're performing pull-ups, a plate pinch, or farmer's steps, an easy way to improve each workout is to increase your reps, time, or distance. The body only knows that stress is being applied and that it needs to recover and adapt to the stress that we are inflicting on it.
Do your best rep, time, or distance, and then push yourself to do more, just a little bit, each workout.
add more weight
The same goes for the amount of weight we lift. If you can't or don't want to take the dumbbells further for the loads, you can increase the load. Let's say you're performing three sets of 40-meter carries with 25-pound dumbbells. Next week, do two sets of 40-meter carries at 25lbs and the last set at 30lbs. The following week, do two sets of loads with 30 kilos and one with 25 kilos. Once you've completed all three 40-meter carries with 30 kilos, repeat the process with 35, and so on.
test your grip strength
Here are two ways to test your grip strength and three exercises you should include in your training plan to improve it.
dead grip
How long can you hold onto a pull-up bar until your forearms start to burn?
- Less than 30 seconds: very little
- 45 seconds to 1 minute: little
- 1 to 2 minutes: normal
- 2-3 minutes: excellent
- 3 minutes or more: very excellent
farmer steps
Can you carry your body weight (50% on each hand) for 50 meters without stopping? If not, work your way up to carrying your body weight doing farmer's steps.
Exercises to improve grip
Here are the best grip exercises to help you develop a strong and effective grip. They are perfect for gripping bars, dumbbells, plates, or kettlebells.
Farmer Carry Hold
Grab a kettlebell or dumbbell in each hand, stand in perfect posture with the dumbbells in Farmer's Step position for 1 minute. You can increase the intensity by performing sets with one hand.
Choose dumbbells that weigh approximately 25% of your body weight in each hand. Hold 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 meters. Don't rest the dumbbells on the sides of your legs.
grab a record
Do the same as above, but this time grabbing disks by the edge. Start with 5 kg discs and gradually increase. You will work the muscles of the fingers, in addition to improving the resistance of the forearms.
There are a couple of ways to perform this exercise. You can pinch a single 20 kilo plate as both are thicker than standard iron plates and hold up over time. Or you can squeeze two 10 kilo iron plates. Make sure your chest is up, shoulders are down to maintain good posture. Check to see how long you can hold the plates and aim to improve your time.
Hold kettlebells upside down
It's easy to grab the kettlebell by the handle, but to extend your grip, hold the weight at the widest part. Obviously, you won't be able to hold very high weights because they won't fit in your hand, but you will still improve your resistance.
Pick an 8-pound kettlebell to start. Raise it so that your arm is bent at 90 degrees and the horn of the kettlebell is sitting on the flesh of your palm. Take a moment to stabilize the weight, then slowly press it overhead. Hold the top position for a while, then slowly lower it back down with control.
Chin-Ups with towel
This is quite a higher level exercise, but if you're strong enough I encourage you to give it a try. Lay a towel over the bar and hold onto the ends as you hold with your chin above the bar.
Lay two towels over the top of a pull-up bar, shoulder-width apart. Grab a towel with either hand, then hang completely. From there, perform normal pull-ups.