guss
MuscleHead
- Aug 11, 2010
- 380
- 189
One way to increase your numbers in the deadlift is to strengthen your grip. Often a lack of grip strength will show at lockout and the lifter will drop the bar. Gripping the bar with the tightest grip possible is essential for locking your body into a solid weight bearing position. There are many types of grip strength; supporting, pinch, crush, levering, bending and tearing are all examples. For the purposes of this article we’ll focus on supporting, or holding strength, as that is what most directly carries over with your deadlift technique.
Here are 3 simple movements that will help your deadlift grip.
Double- Overhand Deadlifts (double pronated)
This simple adjustment to your normal alternated grip will provide huge gains in your supporting strength. Taking your normal deadlift stance, load down into the bar and grasp the bar with a double over-hand grip. You will be quickly humbled by the amount of weight you can pull, or in this case, cannot pull.. Typically, a person who has never done this will only be able to pull around only 60-70% of your 1RM. The weight will just roll right out of your hands. On a normal training day, use this grip until you can’t hold onto the bar anymore, then switch to your normal alternated grip and finish your workout. Make sure you don’t use a hook grip, where your fingers wrap over the tops of your thumbs. While this is also a double overhand grip, it allows you to hold more weight as it is virtually impossible to drop the weight without ripping your thumbs off. Great for holding the bar, bad for training your grip, so keep your thumbs on top.
Thick Bar Lifting
If your gym doesn’t have a thick bar to use then improvise by adapting 2” ABS plastic pipe to fit around a standard bar, then use it every workout; for cleans, deadlifts, military press, bent-over rows, benchpress or any exercise you can use a regular bar for… The hand and wrist strength you will gain from incorporating thick bar work will transfer your grip strength over to new PR’s.
Wide Pinch
Working your grip in this outstretched position will fatigue the ends of your fingers and teach you to flex the palm of your hand. How do you work wide pinch in a typical gym? Take 3 25lb plates and place them all together, with outer two plates smooth side out. Grasp the 3 x 25’s with a double over-hand grip (fingers on the outside of the stack of weights) and pick them up and hold them for time. This is extremely brutal work and will probably leave your hands crippled the first time you do it but is well worth the pain for what it will do for your grip.
Cycling these 3 movements into your training will turn your grip into a vise, which will carry over to improved deadlift technique and those heavy singles in the gym. Just make sure to do them at the end of your workout.You don’t want your grip to be a limiting factor during your core lifts
Here are 3 simple movements that will help your deadlift grip.
Double- Overhand Deadlifts (double pronated)
This simple adjustment to your normal alternated grip will provide huge gains in your supporting strength. Taking your normal deadlift stance, load down into the bar and grasp the bar with a double over-hand grip. You will be quickly humbled by the amount of weight you can pull, or in this case, cannot pull.. Typically, a person who has never done this will only be able to pull around only 60-70% of your 1RM. The weight will just roll right out of your hands. On a normal training day, use this grip until you can’t hold onto the bar anymore, then switch to your normal alternated grip and finish your workout. Make sure you don’t use a hook grip, where your fingers wrap over the tops of your thumbs. While this is also a double overhand grip, it allows you to hold more weight as it is virtually impossible to drop the weight without ripping your thumbs off. Great for holding the bar, bad for training your grip, so keep your thumbs on top.
Thick Bar Lifting
If your gym doesn’t have a thick bar to use then improvise by adapting 2” ABS plastic pipe to fit around a standard bar, then use it every workout; for cleans, deadlifts, military press, bent-over rows, benchpress or any exercise you can use a regular bar for… The hand and wrist strength you will gain from incorporating thick bar work will transfer your grip strength over to new PR’s.
Wide Pinch
Working your grip in this outstretched position will fatigue the ends of your fingers and teach you to flex the palm of your hand. How do you work wide pinch in a typical gym? Take 3 25lb plates and place them all together, with outer two plates smooth side out. Grasp the 3 x 25’s with a double over-hand grip (fingers on the outside of the stack of weights) and pick them up and hold them for time. This is extremely brutal work and will probably leave your hands crippled the first time you do it but is well worth the pain for what it will do for your grip.
Cycling these 3 movements into your training will turn your grip into a vise, which will carry over to improved deadlift technique and those heavy singles in the gym. Just make sure to do them at the end of your workout.You don’t want your grip to be a limiting factor during your core lifts