The 8 Best Grip Strength Exercises
Grip strength - you use it every day. Whether it be from lifting weights at the gym, carrying a suitcase through a busy airport, or opening packages, it is a massive part of our lives! However, some people might need to give their grip strength some extra attention. If you feel pain, weakness, or discomfort, it’s worth learning how to increase your grip strength to make life easier.
In this article you will learn:
What is Grip Strength?
Grip strength is just as it sounds - how strong your grip is. It’s all about the force your hands and forearm muscles can produce. We encounter displays of grip strength when opening jars of pickles or carrying heavy bags of groceries. Some of the more impressive examples come from rock climbers or American Ninja Warrior athletes.
In the gym, we only seem to acknowledge it when it’s holding us back (which is a mistake)! Your grip is most critical during pull-based movements when you’re hanging from a bar (i.e. pull-ups) or holding free weights (i.e. an RDL). You might notice that your back and legs feel strong and can move the weight, but your forearms and hands burn and can’t hold on anymore.
Those things would be an indicator of a weak grip and it’s stealing your gains!
Why Is Grip Strength Important?
As stated in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning, grip strength is an indicator of your overall strength, as well as a predictor of muscular endurance. And while grip strength is certainly important inside the gym, the benefits it holds outside the weight room for long-term health are far greater.
It has been shown by the Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy that “Grip strength in adults begins to decline at a rate of 1% per year after middle age.” In addition, many older adults need help with even simple day-to-day tasks due to their lack of grip strength.
Establishing a consistent weight lifting routine is crucial to maintaining a healthy and mobile body and grip strength cannot be emphasized enough.
Importance of Grip Strength Summary:
Predictor of long-term health
Better muscular endurance
Makes day-to-day tasks easier
Lowers mortality risk
How to Increase Grip Strength
You increase your grip strength the same way you do any muscle group. Simply put - you progressively lift more weight over time! And while some grip strengthening exercises will isolate your forearms and hands specifically - others you might have already built into your training routine! Down below are some of our favorites at Ladies Who Lift.
The Best Exercises to Increase Grip Strength
1. Deadlift
While the deadlift is typically thought of and is a lower body and back strengthening exercise, it involves a ton of grip strength! If you’d like to increase your grip strength via this exercise, resist the urge to use helpers like lifting straps. Instead, stick to a double overhand grip, mixed grip, or hook grip to help strengthen your hands, forearms, and overall grip strength.
2. Farmer Carries/Walks
Simple, but effective. The Farmer Carry is an extremely effective exercise when it comes to building grip strength. Hold a heavy weight in one hand or two, for a challenging amount of time, while walking, marching, or standing in one place. You’ll never have to take more than a couple of trips from your car to the house carrying groceries again!
3. Dead Hangs
A dead hang will have you simply hanging from a pull-up bar for as long as you can. This exercise gets difficult quickly! We recommend starting with 30-second intervals and working your way up from there.
4. Bottoms Up Kettlebell Presses
A bottoms-up press has the benefit of being a great grip strengthening exercise and as shoulder stability exercise. You hold a kettlebell from the handle, but with the butt of the weight facing up to the ceiling instead of down to the floor. With the displacement of the weight, your hands, wrists, and grip need to work hard to keep the kettlebell from tipping to one side or the other.
5. Hand Extensions (Band, Sand, or Rice)
There’s specific equipment that you can buy for this, but you can also use something simple like a rubber band or a bucket of sand/rice. Open your closed fingers against the band or sand resistance and feel the burn in your joints and tendons.
6. Plate Pinches
Similar to the farmer's carry, plate pinches involve holding, marching, or walking with a weight plate pinched between our fully extended fingers. Start light before going for a heavier weight! Common theme - these exercises get tough quickly!
7. Wrist Rollers
A wrist roller involves holding a stick or small bar that has a weight hanging from it by a long string. With your arms extending out in front of you, re-grip the bar and slowly roll up the weight. This one is a killer on the forearms!
8. Use Fat Grips
While Fat Grips are a product and not an exercise, they are a way that you can work on strengthening your grip without having to change a thing about your programming.
Fat Grips increase the diameter of your barbell, dumbbell handles, or pull-up bars which makes them harder to hold onto. Your grip strength will be improved by this thicker grip by forcing the smaller muscles in your forearms and hands to work harder than they normally would.
Increase Your Grip Strength With Our Online Training Programs!
Training your grip strength is something that will happen naturally with almost any training program. Once you are lifting weights, you are in turn training and strengthening your grip. Whether increasing your grip strength is your main goal, or simply something you see as an added benefit, Ladies who Lift can help you! Choose from our non-custom training programs, or get your program customized to your grip strengthening goals today!
about the author
Rae Reichlin created Ladies who Lift after watching many of her female clients have the physical and mental breakthroughs they never thought possible through learning to lift properly and with confidence.
Having experienced it herself, Rae understands the fear, apprehension, and misinformation, that can sometimes come along with lifting and getting stronger, and wanted to create a space and environment where women felt comfortable to come together to learn and perfect this method of training.
Ladies who Lift promotes empowerment through pushing one's own boundaries, and being there for others who are trying to do the same. By educating women about each of their bodies needs and impressive capabilities Ladies who Lift aims to leave clients ready to lead happy, healthy, connected lives.
Rae’s certifications include NASM, PRECISION NUTRITION, FMS, PRE/POST NATAL, & STICK MOBILITY.
