lifting- problems with grip strength....help!

honsi

great tips , I'm going to ask the trainer to show me all the options, I'll only use straps if I really have to.

rybo

So in addition to the grip strenghtening advice. I'm also going to suggest a lot of forearm stretching exercises to go along with it. The basic pulling your hands forward and back. And also forearm massge. Get a lax ball a golf ball or anything you can use to roll out your forearms and the tension in them. It helps.

Squidgeypaws007

When you are sitting relaxing (watching tv, working at a desk) keep a jar of dry rice and swish your alternate hands in it. Really dig your hands in deep up to the wrists and grip fistfuls, release, and swirl your wrists around. Sounds a little weird, but a very experienced body builder and trainer recommended this to me, and it has really been helpful. Plus it's kind of relaxing and fun.

Do it a couple times a day for a few weeks and see if that helps.

Ooooh, I like this idea!

vtchica23

Have you tried rack pulls (basically a deadlift starting at the knees)? Youtube has some great tutorials. It will help with the second half of your deadlift as well. My trainer told me grip strength is not just in your forearms and wrists, it goes all the way from your traps down to your fingers. She had me do a rack pull then just hold for a count of 8, or as long as I could before I started slipping. It really helped. Went from a rack pull max of 165# to 225# in a month.
Best of luck!!!!

JoRocka

Have you tried rack pulls (basically a deadlift starting at the knees)? Youtube has some great tutorials. It will help with the second half of your deadlift as well. My trainer told me grip strength is not just in your forearms and wrists, it goes all the way from your traps down to your fingers. She had me do a rack pull then just hold for a count of 8, or as long as I could before I started slipping. It really helped. Went from a rack pull max of 165# to 225# in a month.
Best of luck!!!!

Yuppers- great idea too.
I do a full 8 count dead lift with a super deloaded bar (like 185 or 205). I lift- hold count for 8 and lower as slowly as I can. I do usually 2 or 3 sets of those at the end of my lift- seems to help.

No_Finish_Line

I always grip the bar as hard as I can but I haven't tried mixing the grip. I did buy chalk but no one at the gym uses it, I'll check the gym is OK with it or I might try the eco chalk if its less messy; i really want to avoid wearing gloves.that's for the advice.

i don't think gripping the bar as hard as possible is good advice.

if your expending more energy then it actually takes to grip the bar, then your going to tire faster then you otherwise would.

A lot of good suggestions on grip exercises. You can also go the equipment route those old school grippers that you squeeze will help, but the sell basically beefy rubber bands that you put your hands into that actually provide resistance when you expand your hand and this working of the opposite muscle group is supposed to improve grip strength.

I also have heavy duty rubber sleeves that fit over the bar to make it a few inches thicker. quite honestly i feel this provides the most objective specific training when it comes to gripping a bar. once you train with these for awhile the normal size bar seems much easier to grip. you can do it with dead lifts, pull ups, anything with a bar.

also suggest straps as a last resort

honsi

OK so I now have a couple of strengthening exercises to try: farmers walks and forearm curls. I used straps today for my deadlift and it was much better, I'll limit how much I use them though.