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Building a strong grip is one of the most overlooked aspects of strength training. In fact, in the majority of situations, it is not trained at all.
If you ask me, why do I need a strong grip?
Well... so you do not fall while you are on your way to the Top of the World.
Yes, I know you wanted to know if it will enhance your workouts and improve performance across sports. Lucky you! That’s true as well!
The truth is that a little grip training may go a long way. It can pay off in every other aspect of strength and fitness.
To begin with, weak grip strength is a significant limiting factor in other workouts such as pull-ups, bench press, rows, deadlifts, lunges, and so on. When your grip strength improves, so will the rest of your lifts.
Why Is Grip Strength Important for Exercises Apart from Lifting?
If you want to get stronger, this is an obvious option. Strong hands are rare to develop without a strong body, yet there are plenty of powerful bodies without strong hands.
Lifting greater weight throughout your workout equals more calories burned if you want to lose body fat.
Grip exercises can also help avoid some pain syndromes, such as chronic inflammation and tendonitis, which are commonly caused by neglecting specific muscle groups and overusing others.
Top 5 Grip Strength Exercises:
Here are our five great grip exercises to use along with the type of grip they challenge:
1) Hand Grippers
Using hand or torsion grippers is without a doubt one of the best techniques to improve your crush grip.
Actual hand grippers, as opposed to the plastic, should be difficult to close.
You may exercise with hand grippers by going for repetitions and max closes, or even holding a close for a set or maximum duration of time.
Make sure we first understand how to correctly set and close a gripper because exercising with them takes a specific amount of ability and strength.
Begin with 2-4 sets of 8-10 repetitions with a lighter gripper and work your way up from there.
2) Barbell Holds
This works perfectly in a squat rack, with the pins placed just below where you would lock out a deadlift.
The idea here is to hang onto the weight rather than deadlift it up, so a couple of inches is good.
Stand tall after grabbing the bar with a double overhand hold approximately shoulder width (example, deadlift lockout stance).
The aim here is to hold for a set amount of time, and depending on your expertise, 5-10 seconds will enough for the majority of trainees. 3-5 sets should be plenty to get started!
3) Farmer’s Carries
Farmer's Carries, which are often performed with two dumbbells or kettlebells, require you to stand up with the weights and walk a set distance or duration.
This adds motion to your grasp, challenging not just your forearms but also your core muscles, shoulders, and hips.
Try walking 20 feet and increasing to 40 feet with big weights!
4) Plate Pinches
We suggest plate pinches for pinch grips, so all you need are two plates that are flat on one side and can clamp together for a time (flat side out).
Begin with pinching two 2.5kg plates for 30 seconds for a couple of sets. If that becomes too easy, increase to two or three 5kg plates.
5) Hex Dumbbell Holds
Hex dumbbells hold is another wonderful technique to challenge your open grip.
All you have to do is hold the dumbbell's head for 30 seconds.
Repeat for just need a few of sets.
Make sure to include a couple of grip-exercises to your workouts. You can improve your whole upper-body strength as a result, in addition to the strength of your hands.
Always keep in mind that you are only as powerful as your weakest link.
If that's your grip, why not start there?
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