6 Foolproof Ways To Improve Your Grip Strength Today

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6 Foolproof Ways To Improve Your Grip Strength
Today
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(No Transcript)
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• Grip is something in strength training called a
  limiting factor. For example, you can have the
  back strength to deadlift 600 lbs, but if your
  grip cant hold the weight, then youre limited
  to what those hands can hold. 

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• At times, improving grip strength can be an
  incredibly frustrating process. And in my
  experience as a coach, its typically the clients
  who havent had a ton of previous exposure to
  grip-oriented sports that tend to struggle the
  most.
• This is when grip training needs to get more
  strategic in nature because simply working
  with more reps at various weights  while
  certainly useful can sometimes not be
  enough. In this article, well go over five
  methods and exercises that are fantastic for
  improving grip strength for nearly every fitness
  level.

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Grip Training Specificity 

• An important training variable to consider when
  working to improve grip strength is specificity.
  Like every muscle group, I like to think about
  grip as having multiple levels that need to be
  trained and accounted for. For example a strong
  grip should include

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• General Strength A baseline foundational level
  of grip strength.
• Muscular Endurance The ability to hold desired
  loads for various amounts of time. 
• Maximal Strength The capability to hold maximal
  weight per ones overall strength.

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• The types of grip strength above can help shape
  your grip training based on where youre falling
  short. If you can define why you want to improve
  your grip in the first place, then you can build
  in and implement strategic exercises and methods
  that make the most sense. 

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1. Tempos and Holds

• Great for Training General strength, muscular
  endurance, and maximal strength
• Tempos and holds can be used for more
  than improving lifting postures and increasing
  time under tension for hypertrophy gain. These
  training tools can also be fantastic for
  improving grip strength in nearly every respect
  when applied to various pulling exercises with
  calculated intensities. 

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Examples of How to Apply Them to Your Training

• For General Strength Use 1-2 second holds at the
  top or mid-rep pauses on working set deadlifts
  that are anywhere from 60-85 of your 1-RM.
• For Endurance Use 3 second eccentric tempos on
  exercises like cable, dumbbell, and inverted
  rows.  
• For Maximal Strength Perform 1-2 second holds at
  the top of 85 1-RM deadlifts. 

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2. Holds From a Pull-Up Bar

• Great for Training General strength and muscular
  endurance
• Holds from a pull-up bar are often times
  underutilized when it comes to improving grip
  strength. If your goal is specific to climbing,
  then few exercises will have as much carryover to
  your performance than this movement. The best
  part of performing these is that the barrier to
  entry is incredibly low, and holds are very easy
  to scale for multiple fitness levels. 

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• Examples of How to Apply Them to Your Training
• For General Strength Perform 4-5 sets of holds
  for 10-20-seconds at the end of your workout. You
  can even perform shorter hold times with one hand
  if youre advanced.  
• For Strength Endurance Perform 3-4 sets for max
  holds at the end of your workout. 

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3. Farmers Carries 

• Great for Training General strength, muscular
  endurance, and maximal strength
• Another fantastic grip training exercise are
  farmers carries. This movement is simple in
  nature and can be performed virtually anywhere,
  in fact, every week that you go grocery shopping
  youre essentially performing a modified farmers
  carry. No matter your training goal, this
  movement can be easily applied to boost grip
  strength.