power lifting Archives - Breaking Muscle

The Role of Your Grip

Dresdin Archibald — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 21:40:51 +0000

A strong grip is important in most sports. We are certainly aware of that in weightlifting and powerlifting. You have to be able to hold on to that bar. It is also important in wrestling, rock climbing, tug-o-war, gymnastics, canoeing, kayaking, and many other sports.

Less obvious examples include ball throwing (baseball or football) and horse racing. The better one’s grip, the more spin one can give a ball. Many might be surprised at the grip strength of jockeys, those little men who barely top one hundred pounds. They need to control a horse weighing 10-12 times their own weight. They cannot afford to lose their hold on the reins because that could be fatal. As a result, they all have phenomenal grip strength.

When we talk about grip strength we should be more specific. There are three types of grip strength. The most familiar one is that of crushing strength where the fingers are contracted around an object with the goal of crushing it like an empty beer can or at least maintaining contact with it as seen in a pull-up.

The importance of gripping strength is most obvious when we iron-heads clean or deadlift a barbell. We can have great leg or back strength but if that is combined with a weak set of hands the lift may need to be dropped before it can be completed.

The second type is gripping strength as seen when a heavy object is pinched between the thumb and other fingers. A favorite test of pinching strength when wide-lipped barbell plates were standard involved holding two 45 pound plates together back-to-back merely with pinching strength alone. Very few could do this. Most who attempted it were at least smart enough to keep the plates’ position well away from their toes, for dropping them was the usual abortive outcome of such attempts.

The above two gripping feats involve single attempts at demonstrating strength, similar in concept to doing heavy singles. Progression, in that case, consists of gripping ever-heavier objects as the grip gets stronger. So far, so good.

Gripping gets more interesting (read: difficult) though when endurance becomes the objective. It is difficult enough to grip a heavy object only momentarily. It is quite another to maintain that grip for a longer time. Such a gripping feat is then an isometric movement.

Examples of this will include repetition deadlifts, farmer’s walks, or wheelbarrow pushing. Progression then takes the form of holding the grip on a certain weight for ever-longer periods (or distances as in the farmer’s walk) or gripping ever-heavier weights for the same time period. Usually, both are trained.

What Influences Grip Strength?

What physical factors most influence gripping strength potential? These are two-fold—one’s genetic endowment and the current strength one’s gripping muscles derived from proper training. Let’s start with one’s physical endowment.

The most obvious factor influencing grip strength is that of body height. Height? Yes, height. The taller a person is the longer one’s hand will likely be. And the longer the hand, the longer the fingers. There may be exceptions but this is generally true.

From there it can be seen that longer fingers are able to grip more of the object, imparting more force. Lucky you if this is your situation. Gripping will be much easier for any strength level. Shorter fingers mean a weaker grip.

Closely related but not often considered is hand width. A wider hand will also have more contact with a gripped object so again more force can be exerted. Of course, hand length and width are closely related. If a hand is longer it is usually wider as well. Those who have large hands can do well at the deadlift.

This is why relatively tall people are often the deadlift record holders in each weight category. That same height is not so advantageous in the bench or squat, so they seldom hold the total records. Old-time lifters Paul Anderson, Doug Hepburn, and John Davis were world beaters at most lifts but their small hands could put them at a disadvantage if they had to deadlift.

Women are on average five inches shorter than men, so inevitably they will have more problems with their grip. That is why Olympic weightlifting uses a thinner barbell for women, 25 instead of 28 mm. Shorter men have just as much difficulty gripping the 28 mm bar as the women but they do not, so far, have the option of using a smaller bar. The reverse is true for women in powerlifting. They must use a 28-29 mm bar regardless of size.

A person cannot do much to increase their hand size. One has to work with what they’ve got. All is not lost though as one can train grip strength just like any other muscles. Besides the small muscles in the fingers, the main grip muscles are those in the forearms. Their flexors and extenders supply the strong foundation of those in the hand, as they cross the wrist joint providing a solid foundation.

Improve Your Grip

There are several ways to improve the grip. One is to train with larger diameter barbells or conversely to artificially increase the width of the bar. After a period of such training, a reversion to the standard barbell handle will feel, and be, much stronger.

In training, one can use straps to literally tie the hands to the barbell when doing pulling movements but that is a mixed blessing. True, this allows more weight to be handled but straps have an obvious drawback. They improve the lifter-barbell connection but do not improve gripping strength. The strap does all the work.

This prompts many coaches to advise against their use in pulling exercises, especially if there is a sub-optimal level of gripping strength. This sounds like reasonable advice since the grip will then not be sufficiently trained. This all gives the lifter a false sense of his or her pulling ability.

It is disingenuous though since the rest of the pulling muscles will then not be adequately challenged if poundages have to be limited to what can be pulled with a weaker grip. The solution is obvious. Weaker grips must be trained separately from other pulling work until grip strength matches pulling strength.

Another grip strength expedient is the reverse grip where one hand grips the bar overhanded while the other goes underhanded. This is a stronger grip although it can cause problems because it can twist the spinal column slightly. This is standard procedure in the deadlift while strongmen use it to continental-pull a non-revolving bar to their chests.

The weight is pulled up in this manner to the top of the abs where the grip is quickly released and re-attached in overhand fashion before heaving it up the rest of the way to the shoulders. The bar in question is usually an extra thick one which is great for improving grip strength in the first place.

Alternatively, some remedial bodybuilding may be advisable. Bodybuilders develop a lot of gripping strength via their many pulling and arm exercises. This is not always realized by those in the other weight trained disciplines.

I remember one time that our local weightlifting people wanted to publicize how strong their athletes were, especially vis-a-vis bodybuilders. What better way than to have a tug-o-war battle between the two. It was incorrectly assumed that since weightlifters are always stronger than bodybuilders that they would easily win such an event. This would result in an embarrassing defeat of the “body-beautiful boys” and a propaganda coup for the lifters.

Well, no such thing happened. First of all, the bodybuilders were bigger than most of the lifters, so had an advantage right off the bat. Most bodybuilders were 180 pounds or over while the lifters had a number of smaller men. Another thing the lifters did not count on was the superior gripping endurance of the bodybuilders.

All had much more impressive forearms which do most of the heavy work in gripping. It was really no contest. The bodybuilders won easily with greater grip endurance while the lifters had to give up when the contest ended up lasting longer than expected. The lifters had to go home re-calibrate their egos. (I won’t get into tug-o-war technique (yes, it exists) which was another factor again.)

You Have to Have Grip

The bottom line to grip strength is simply how important it is to overall strength. We in weightlifting always like to point out that leg and back strength is far more important than arm strength in determining the fitness of athletes, regardless of what the general public may celebrate.

But even a sport that is more dependent on lower body strength will find its practitioners at a complete loss without adequate grip strength. Arm, leg, or back strength are meaningless without the ability to hold on to whatever needs to be moved.

It Takes Two: A Better Way of Warming Up to Lift Heavy

Charles Staley — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 16:00:00 +0000

Charles is here on a weekly basis to help you cut through the B.S. and get some real perspective regarding health and training. Please post feedback or questions to Charles directly in the comments below this article.

Last week I had a few people ask me about my warm-up procedure for heavy lifts, so here are a few thoughts on that subject. I’m going to start with what I consider the ideal warm up for anyone about to lift heavy weights.

The Two Warm Up Set Method

In an ideal world (and of course, it never is), I’d recommend doing two warm up sets for each weight jump, until you get to about 75-80 percent of max.

If you do one set per weight jump, as most people do, each new set is by definition harder than the set before it, if for no other reason than the fact that it’s heavier. Obvious, right?

But if you take, for example, 2 sets of 5 with 45lb, 2 sets of 5 with 95lb, 2 sets of 5 with 135lb, etc., you get the chance to do an apples-to-apples comparison with each new weight, which allows you to appreciate how your warm up sets are working for you. So let’s say you do your first set of 5 with 135lb. As soon as you re-rack the bar, you do an internal assessment of how it felt. Ask yourself how heavy was it, was anything hurting, do you feel tighter than usual, and so on.

When you take your second set with 135lb, you’ll do the same analysis, but in comparison to the first set. Did the second set feel easier in any way? Lighter, smoother, faster? Now you can better understand how well your warm up is working for you in real time.

Ideally, and this is just a theoretical exercise, you’d keep doing sets of 5 with 135lb until the next set doesn’t feel any better in any way than the previous set. When that happens, it’s time to move on to the next weight.

Getting Warm and Staying Warm

Now onto the lifts themselves. If we’re just talking about the three powerlifting events, I tend to need the most warm up on squats and the least warm up on bench. The deadlift is right in the middle. I’ll break down my approach to all three lifts.

Warming Up the Squat

Before I even get to the gym, I’ll take a long, hot shower as a passive warm up. Over the years I’ve found this to be really helpful, and it’s a staple practice for me now. Looking back at my last 100 workouts, I’ve only missed maybe two or three times.

Before I jump in the car, I put my knee sleeves on. This helps to maintain the tissue warmth I created in the shower and increases knee comfort overall (just as a bit of background, my knees tend to be a bit “creaky” and need much more warming up than my other joints).

When I get to the gym, I’ll do anywhere between 2-5 sets of bodyweight squats, usually in sets of 5. I do these mostly as a mobility drill – I work hard to make depth, push my knees out, and achieve the most upright position possible.

Once I feel that the bodyweight squats have done all they can for me, I move to the squat rack and start my warm up sets, which usually look like this:

45lb (1-2 x 5)
95lb (1-2 x 5)
135lb x 5
185lb x 3-5
225lb x 2-5
275lb x 2-5

And so on, depending on the goal for that workout and the reps I’m planning to use. My belt goes on at 225lb.

Warming Up the Bench

Just for reference, my 1RM for the bench is currently about 260-265lb. My bench warm up looks like this:

45lb x 10
95lb x 8
135lb x 6
185lb x 4

The following sets will depend on what’s planned for the day. My belt goes on at 185lb. Typically, I don’t have shoulder issues so I move up in weight much quicker than I do in the squat, even though my 1RM squat is currently 385-400lb.

Warming Up the Deadlift

My current 1RM is 500lb. I warm up for the deadlift in the following way:

135lb (2-3 x 5)
225lb (1-2 x 5)
275lb x 5
315lb x 3-5
365lb x 3-5

The following sets will depend on what’s planned for the day. Belt goes on at 315lb.

I tend to have healthy hips and low back, so I sometimes take bigger jumps. In fact, just as a goof, last year I pulled 455lb stone cold and without a belt.

Making the Warm Up Work for You

If a given weight isn’t feeling as good as expected during warm ups, I’ll often repeat it until it does.
If your last working sets feels the best, it might indicate the need for more warm ups. If your first working set feels the best, you probably warmed up too much.
I recommend occasionally taking bigger or faster jumps as a way of challenging yourself and testing whether or not your current warm up strategy is optimal.
I don’t use a general warm up, as you can see. My rationale is that you’re better served using the exercise you’re warming up for to increase body temperature, since that way you’re killing two birds with one stone. By squatting light weights as my squat warm up as an example, I’m both increasing my temperature and rehearsing the exercise I’m about to do.
No, I don’t stretch. I’ve been thinking about it lately, however, so I’ll keep you posted.

This Week’s Training

Volume: 37,357lb (Last Week’s Volume: 37,87lb)

Significant Performances:

Bench Press: 260lb x1

Very good bench pressing this week, but the squat felt lukewarm to say the least. I also worked up to a casual beltless 435lb pull, which felt fairly good. So sitting here two weeks out, I feel 100 percent on track for the bench and deadlift, but less confident about the squat.

I’ll probably log two sessions next week as I wind down toward the meet, and my primary goal will be to get a good squat in on Monday for confidence building.

That’s about it for this week, hope your training is inspired and on track. Check out the videos, and I’ll be back with you next week.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Bodyweight: 202.4lb

Volume: 8,190lb

Squat

Set 1: 45lb × 5
Set 2: 95lb × 5
Set 3: 135lb × 5
Set 4: 185lb × 3
Set 5: 225lb × 2
Set 6: 275lb × 1
Set 7: 315lb × 1
Set 8: 350lb × 1
Set 9: 315lb × 2

45° Back Extension

Set 1: 150lb × 8
Set 2: 150lb × 8
Set 3: 150lb × 8

Leg Curl

Set 1: 80lb × 8

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Bodyweight: 202.8lb

Volume: 4,155lb

Bench Press

Set 1: 45lb × 10
Set 2: 95lb × 8
Set 3: 135lb × 6
Set 4: 185lb × 4
Set 5: 205lb × 2
Set 6: 225lb × 1
Set 7: 245lb × 1
Set 8: 255lb × 1
Set 9: 260lb × 1 (Video Below)
Set 10: 265lb × 0

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Bodyweight: 203lb

Volume: 14,972lb

Deadlift

Set 1: 135lb × 5
Set 2: 135lb × 5
Set 3: 185lb × 5
Set 4: 225lb × 5
Set 5: 275lb × 3
Set 6: 315lb × 3
Set 7: 365lb × 2
Set 8: 405lb × 1
Set 9: 435lb × 1

Back Extension

Set 1: +140lb × 8
Set 2: +140lb × 8
Set 3: +140lb × 8

(Video of this entire workout below)

Friday, November 6, 2015

Bodyweight: 201lb

Volume: 10,040lb

Bench Press

Set 1: 45lb × 10
Set 2: 95lb × 8
Set 3: 135lb × 6
Set 4: 135lb × 6
Set 5: 185lb × 4
Set 6: 205lb × 2
Set 7: 225lb × 1
Set 8: 235lb × 1
Set 9: 245lb × 1
Set 10: 225lb × 2
Set 11: 225lb × 2

Chin Up

Set 1: 5 reps
Set 2: 5 reps
Set 3: 5 reps

Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)

Set 1: 50lb × 8
Set 2: 60lb × 8
Set 3: 70lb × 8

More on strength and conditioning:

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