grip training

Adrienne Harvey Senior PCC Grip Training

Many times we associate grip strength and grip training with those ubiquitous spring-tension grippers and strongman training. While I really enjoy grip training with heavy odd objects, giant kettlebells, etc. it’s also very possible to train for a monster grip using bodyweight training only. With just a little creativity, bodyweight grip training presents infinite variations and challenges—and you can do most of it just about anywhere.

Having a strong grip is a prerequisite to so many bar-based calisthenics exercises—if you can’t hang on long enough, then you won’t be able to do a meaningful number of reps. Beginners will often need to build up their grip strength, as modern life and desk-based jobs don’t seem to test or build our grip.

As many PCC instructors and instructor candidates already know, grip strength is essential to passing the Century Test—you’ve got to be able to hang out on that bar for a while to do those twenty knee raises. In the excitement of testing, those twenty knee raises can seem to take a very long time, and you’ve got to hang on for every single one of them. Then, after the knee raises, the guys still need to do 10 pull-ups, and the ladies have to do their 10 Aussie pull-ups as well.

Convict Conditioning Vol. 2 remains one of my absolute favorites, and that’s not just because of the flags, it’s also the focus on grip training. The book begins with a comprehensive guide to hand and grip strength, and every time I look at it, it gives me more new ideas for training, some of which are presented below.

All Angles and Surfaces

At the PCC and in the Convict Conditioning book series, you’ll notice that there’s a variety of grips demonstrated—the “tactical” no-thumbs overhand grip most commonly seen on pull-ups, overhand with thumb wrapped, the chin-up grip with palms facing you, neutral grip with palms facing each other, wide grips, narrow grips, just a few fingers on each hand, two-arm, one-arm, finger-tip grips, and more.

Adrienne Harvey Bar Grip Training Collage — A few examples of the nearly infinite number of bodyweight grip training options.

Inspired by old time strongman training—which, properly scaled, is great for absolutely everyone—Paul Wade even includes adding a towel (and later two towels) to timed hangs for an extra challenge. A towel is hard to grip and hang from given its large diameter when bunched up, and because the hand is challenged in a less-familiar and surprisingly challenging vertical orientation.

One day, frustrated by the lack of a plain straight pull-up bar in a commercial gym, I came up with the following variation. I put one hand on one handle, but then looped a small hand towel around another one, then did a short set of 5-6 pull-ups. I made sure to switch sides every other set. It was a great grip challenge and can be done most anywhere.

I’m always looking for new places to do pull-ups. While my city is not constantly covered in scaffolding like NYC, I have been able to find great grip-challenging pull-up spots like I-beams, vertical rafters (very difficult, just doing short hangs there), open stairwell stairs, hand-only rope and pole climbs and more. The next time you visit a playground with young relatives, look around for grip challenge opportunities.

Chamber Press Neutral Grip — This is a favorite place to practice flag regressions like the chamber press. The “easier” neutral grip lets me focus on the rest of the movement.

One of my all-time favorite tips from Zach Even-Esh, author of The Encyclopedia of Underground Strength and Conditioning, is to vary the grip on each set of pull-ups (or push-ups) in a workout. Towards your last sets, you might be forced to get very creative.

Speaking of push-ups, if you haven’t tried, them, Neuro-Grip push-ups are a fantastic challenge of yet another angle of grip strength and training. I’ve found that the focus and strength required from them has helped with other exercises like dips, etc. on rings and even when performed on parallel dip bars.

Neuro-Grip push-ups Your Grip = Your Health?

Recent studies have found that grip strength is often an indicator of health. While it seems to be generally accepted that our grip strength declines as we get older, this is yet another opportunity to rebel against the mainstream. We can build up, increase, and maintain our grip strength into our later years if we keep training intelligently. Good health, grip strength and general strength will help us remain safe and independent in our senior years. That sounds good to me even now.

It Goes Both Ways: Train Your Extensors!

Adrienne Harvey Fingertip Pushups

Keeping our hands healthy means that it’s also important to “go the other way” too. In workouts which really emphasize grip training, I like to pair a grip intensive exercise with another exercise that either stretches or challenges the extensors—basically a superset. The extensor exercise can be something as simple as a well executed straight arm plank for time, push-ups, frog or crow stand, handstands if appropriate—or if you’re ready for it, you may want to experiment with fingertip straight arm planks or push-ups at this time too. There’s really no limit to the level of difficulty. It’s important to be patient and gentle though, as fingers seem to take a while to strengthen, and just a second to injure.

Here’s a sample combination from the last part of a favorite at-home workout:

45 second pull-up bar straight arm hang
30 second or longer crow stand
rest
60 second pull-up bar straight arm hang
45 second or longer crow stand
rest
90 second (or keep going for a max PR) pull-up bar straight arm hang
45-60 second straight arm plank

Grip Confidence and Breaking Through Mental Barriers

This last section might not apply to everyone, but I’ve observed both with myself and others that once we really begin to work on—and TRUST—our grip strength, then we’re often suddenly able to make a lot more progress on the skills which were otherwise right at the edge of our abilities. Getting the vertical chamber press and the next few human flag steps after it (human flag with one leg straight, one leg bent) were absolutely dependent on my confidence in my grip. I knew I had the strength, especially through the core, but in the past, kicking all the way up to vertical was fairly iffy. Turns out, my brain was putting the breaks on. Training my grip while still working on the rest of those progressions (but with a stall-bar-based neutral grip) was key. After finally putting the pieces back together, I’ve been able to reliably do the move on the first try and I’ve still been (slowly) progressing forward.

Adrienne Harvey PCC One Leg Flag

Is there a bar or vertical pole move that’s proved extra challenging for you? Could it be improved with a stronger grip and/or greater grip confidence?

Please share your experiences and questions in the comments below.

Train STRONG!
Adrienne

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Adrienne Harvey, Senior PCC Instructor, RKC-II, CK-FMS, has been RKC Certified since 2010, and RKC Level 2 certified since 2011. Kettlebell and bodyweight training have been crucial in Adrienne’s personal quest for fitness. A core member of the PCC team, Adrienne loves sharing her knowledge with small groups and individuals. She also loves to develop recipes and workout programs to further support performance, body composition, and of course—FUN. Visit her website, GiryaGirl.com for workouts, recipes, and more.

Handshake

I’ll never forget Gary. It’s not that Gary was such an amazing person, in fact he was quite bland. Imagine shaking hands with someone’s limp lifeless, overcooked soggy noodle hand. That was what made him disappointingly unforgettable. We’ve all met someone like that, and it creeps most people out. Shake my hand like you mean it!

On the other side of the spectrum is Rich. Rich has been crowned the World Arm Wrestling Champ many times. After introducing him to my father, my dad said, “that was like sticking your hand into a bunch of bananas! I wasn’t sure I was getting my arm back!” Your handshake says a lot about you. Grip strength says even more.

Al Kavadlo Human Flag — Grip strength is an essential part of many advanced calisthenics exercises, such as the infamous human flag, demonstrated here by PCC Lead Instructor Al Kavadlo.

How can a strong grip help? First, your grip is the linkage between your body and whatever it is you’re trying to control. If you’re trying to put heavy objects overhead, a crushing grip can actually tighten the linkage in your shoulder and give you a safer press. If you’re a calisthenic ninja, killer grip can keep you on the bar for more pull-ups or help your handstands as you grip the ground and drive upward. But how on earth can you develop card tearing grip strength using only calisthenics? According to Paul Wade in Convict Conditioning II, finger tip push-ups and towel hangs are all you need. From my own experience, he’s right!

Finger tip push-ups are simple; just do a push-up on your finger tips! Well, there’s a bit more to it than that. This one killer exercise strengthens the entire hand from the fingers up through the forearms. It’s easy to let your ego get in front of you with this one, so be sure to progress slowly and cautiously. I recommend starting these as incline push-ups. This enables you to keep your technique spot-on and stay injury free.

Fingertip Setup Hand Position — Make sure you set your hand up with your fingers locked and spread.

It’s important to make sure you set your hand up with your fingers locked and spread. Try and create a tall wide support structure with your fingers. Ideally you want your fingers to look like they are flowing right up into your arm, there should be no odd bends or strains.

As you make progress with these just keep moving closer to the floor, and once you’re able to do 8-10 quality fingertip push-ups, try one arm push-ups, or 3 finger push-ups.

AlKavadlo Three Finger Incline Pushup — PCC Lead Instructor Al Kavadlo demonstrates a 3-finger incline one arm push-up, unofficially known as the “Heavy Metal” push-up.

Towel hangs can start out easy, then progress to a battle of will between your body and your mind. These work amazingly well for developing grip endurance as well as thick muscled forearms.

Again I strongly suggest starting out with a grip training drill you can do fairly well and slowly progress to the harder stuff like one arm hangs, thicker towel hangs, longer hangs, or even pull-ups or leg raises with a towel. I would also encourage you to pull the shoulders down away from your ears while you hang. This tightens up the shoulder complex and creates more stability. Once you can hang for about a minute I’d suggest you bump it up a bit. Remember, everything can be made more challenging with simple calisthenics tweaks.

Corey Howard Towel Hangs for Grip Strength — I love to use towel hangs for developing my grip!

I caution you about pushing too hard and trying to progress too fast. Sometimes you can overwork these smaller muscles and not even know it until you have a painful case of tennis elbow. Remember for most people, grip is the smallest link in the chain. The last thing you want to do is allow your brain and larger muscles to overpower your grip work and cause an injury.

Grip training can be tricky but the rewards are huge! I can tell you from my own experience, Paul Wade’s combo rocks! After doing these two movements fairly consistently I’ve had to add a link in my watch, and can no longer slip my wedding ring off for any pull-up work. My forearms, wrists and fingers have thickened up a bit. If you increase the size of the motor, most of the time you increase the output as well…. More grip strength! More pull-ups! Fire it up!!

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About Corey Howard, PCC, RKC, CK-FMS: Corey Howard strives to constantly become stronger, and to help others to achieve their fitness goals. He is the owner of Results Personal Training, and can be reached at www.resultsptonline.com or www.coreyhoward.com.

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