How to Improve Your Grip Strength

Grip strength is not a simply hand strength. It is a measure of how much power you create with your hand muscles and forearms. It is also a good indicator of upper body strength and overall strength because to increase muscular strength you need to be able to hold weights. Strong grip strength includes all the muscles from the elbow to the fingertips. As you move down, the grip muscles go through the forearms, wrists, hands, fingers, thumbs and back of the forearms as well. When you train the lower arm, you should remember to train all of these muscles in order to maintain a balance between antagonistic muscle groups such as flexors and extensors. there are many cases of inflammation-related forearm pain, for example, tendinosis and epicondylitis, that can appear from improper training of the forearm muscles or neglecting certain muscle groups or movement patterns. Let’s see how to build grip strength in this article.

Pull up with a Towel

You can use towel as a grip strengthener as well. to It will help to create tight and dynamic grip surfaces. You can try to perform pull-up with a towel. First, throw a towel over a crossbar. Second, do the pull-ups. Third, attach it to a cable machine for rowing and pull-ups. Also you can wrap it around a kettlebell, if you want more dynamic and metabolic method of grip training.

Dead Hang for Grip Strength

How to get better grip strength with an exercise named «Dead hang»? If you have a bar or a chin-up bar, try to make dead hangs or pull-ups in a prone position to increase grip strength. Hang from the bar with your body and arms extended in a supine position as long as possible. At the same time try to retract your shoulder blades to pull your shoulders down and back away from your ears. If it is too easy for you, do pull-ups on the bar for 20-30 seconds at a time. Main dead hang benefits are that you can always reach better grip strength by using additional weight. 

Increase your Grip Strength with an Additional Weight

You can always add an additional weight in any exercises to increase your grip strength. Add weight gradually, don’t lift big weight at the beginning. Be very careful not to harm yourself.

Farmer’s Walks

One of the easiest way on how to increase grip strength is that exercise. Great news: you can use any equipment or object for performing farmer’s walk. It is necessary to walk for as long as possible while carrying the weight. Take a heavy kettlebell in one hand with arms down at your sides, then walk forward in a straight line. Don’t let the kettlebell hit the side of your leg. Continue for 40-60 seconds. Rest for 40-60 seconds, then repeat. Perform this exercise three to five sets.

Plate curls

How to make your grip even stronger? Grasp the edge of the 25-pound plate with your thumb and support it with your palm and straight fingers. Slowly try to perform a twisting motion with the plate. Please, pay attention on not to bend your wrist and fingers under pressure. This is one of the easiest methods of grip training, but, at the same time, one of the most difficult.

Plate pinches

Choose two or more plates of equal size and take one in each hand between your thumb and ring finger, hands at your sides. Squeeze the plates as hard as you can and hold for about one minute. Rest for 40-60 seconds. Common combinations include 4 tens, 2-25 and 7 fives. If you can squeeze 5 tens, 2-35 or 8 fives, then you have an excellent grip. If you can squeeze 6 tens, 2-45 or 3-25, you have world class. Perform three or four sets.

Reverse Push-Up

Backward-facing push-ups is one more exercise on how to improve grip strength. Reverse push-ups build upper-body strength. When performed properly and regularly, this push-up variation builds strength in your forearms, triceps, deltoids, core, and pectoral muscles. Place your hands behind you on a bench or sturdy chair. Lower yourself until your arms are almost parallel to the floor. Do push-ups until your arms are straight again. Then repeat the movement.

Press-Ups – fingers only (advanced level only)

As you see from the designation, this exercise is a little tricky, but if mastered, it’s a perfect way ton how to strengthen grip and improve the strength of your fingers, wrists, and forearms. Get into a push-up position. Put your hands shoulder-width apart. Lift up on your fingertips. Lower your body until your chest is a centimeter off the ground, then rise sharply upward. Repeat 8-10 times.

Conclusion

What are the benefits of hand grip exercises? There are many reasons on why you should strive to have a strong grip. Let’s look on them closely:

1. Better endurance. When your hands and lower arms are strong, you can perform more reps per exercise set, thereby burning more calories, losing more fat, and building more muscle.
2. Better quality of life in the future. Studies have shown that grip strength is a reliable indicator of quality of life in old age.
3. A firm handshake. Psychologists say, that when you shake a person’s hand firmly in return, it makes a person seem more confident, trustworthy, and credible. And if you shake hands with the proverbial “dead fish,” you lose credibility and may even come across as sly and weak.
4. Better resistance to injury. Muscles and connective tissues that are strengthened are more resistant to injury, and if an injury does occur, the stronger tissues usually recover faster to get you back on track.
5. Big lifts. When you have a strong grip, you can lift heavier weights in the gym. It will help you improve your training results by increasing your strength.

Now we’ve learned, that grip strength exercises involve much more than just using the hands, and how useful a strong grip is. Please, consult the doctor before performing any exercises.