Grip Strength

**SamHarber** · Posted On: 2/03/2005 5:47am

My left hand can't grip enough to complete my deadlift sets.

How do I strengthen my grip?

**Judah Maccabee** · Posted On: 2/03/2005 6:00am

One of the best techniques to improve grip comes from rock-climbing conditioning.

Starting off with light weights, put your hands down at your sides and pinch together two weight plates so that you have four fingers on one side and your thumb on the other. As your grip gets stronger, up the weight.

You can also use a "Fat Man" bar which is extra-thick, or just wrap a towel around a standard Olympic bar (45lbs) to widen the grip.

**SamHarber** · Posted On: 2/03/2005 7:00am

Originally Posted by samurai_steve

Starting off with light weights, put your hands down at your sides and pinch together two weight plates so that you have four fingers on one side and your thumb on the other. As your grip gets stronger, up the weight.

What sort of time period should I be looking at holding them for?

**Sungam** · Posted On: 2/03/2005 7:26am

I know I shouldn't say this in this forum ... but start wanking with your left hand :-)

I used to weight train and did alot of reverse forearm curls (like a normal bicep curl but with your hands over the other way) and also forearm curls where you sit down, get a dumbell in left hand, place back of forearm on left thigh with wrist at knee and then let the dumbell roll down tha hand to the end of the fomgers and then bring it back up by curling your fingers back into a fist and then bring the fist up as far as it can go. Also the same thing but with your hand over the other way. Also using a normal bar , sit down, put both forearms on thighs with wrists at knee and move hands up and down. Not sure if these exercises are good for you but I got a very strong grip. Make sure you stretch well afterwards.

**Judah Maccabee** · Posted On: 2/03/2005 7:29am

Originally Posted by SamHarber

What sort of time period should I be looking at holding them for?

"Till fatigue" worked for me.

You can also carry around a racquetball or the like and constantly squeeze at it during the day.

**Matadon** · Posted On: 2/03/2005 8:48am

If you do pull-ups, try doing them on your fingers, or if you have the space and a spare $45 - $90, get a climbing hangboard with a set of pinch-holds on it, and hang from those until failure.

Also from climbing, make a roller -- a bar with a thin rope through the middle, tied to weights. Roll up the rope with your arms straight, and roll it down; when one full up-and-down becomes easy, up the weight.

Plate grips (detailed above) are good, too.

**Judah Maccabee** · Posted On: 2/03/2005 9:06am

Oooooh, yes, the roller is a good one. That's mostly killer on the forearms, but it gets the grip too.

Thread a rope through the weight and attach it to a bar, stand on a box, and hold it parallel to the ground. Just reiterating what Matadon said.

**VikingPower** · Posted On: 2/03/2005 10:53am

Ya'll knew I'd be jumping on this one like a foreign whore jumping on a soldier on payday :)

For individual hands, there's a lot you can do. Plate pinching, as mentioned before, is great. You can also try with the thumb and the last two fingers instead of all four as that's typically the part of your grip that goes first. Stress balls, tennis balls, and hand grippers are perfect as well (a CoC will set you back $20 and get you plenty of good hand strengthening). Another fun one is you know the Chinese balls you roll around in your hands? Get good with a set of those, then start doing it upside down. You'd be surprised how much harder it is and how well it works your grip. I just found out about these a few weeks ago and these babies are a blast. One-arm pullups will help that out too, just start them off assisted at first (right hand grasping the left wrist) and rock on from there.