If you’ve ever found your grip giving out in the gym, this is for you. Maybe it was at the end of a pull day, where you’re doing rows and curls and pulldowns. Maybe it was during a deadlift workout, and your legs were able to lift more but your hands betrayed you. How do you finish your workout when your hands feel like the weak point? You have lots of options, actually. Let’s explore.
When your hands hold onto something, you’re using muscles that we will generally call your “grip” muscles. Most of the muscles that flex and extend your fingers and stabilize your wrist are located in your forearms. That’s why your forearms may feel sore after a workout where you do a lot of pulling movements, or where you’re using your hands a lot, as in rock climbing.
Pulling movements are more taxing on your grip because your fingers have to curl to hold onto the weight or object as you pull it toward yourself. These kinds of movements include rows, deadlifts, pullups, and lat pulldowns.
Pushing movements like bench press and overhead press aren’t as affected by grip issues because your fingers aren’t doing much in a press. You just push against the weight with your palm, while your fingers can more or less relax.
To deal with this issue, I recommend a two-pronged approach: strengthing your grip and finding some quick-fix solutions that will let even tired hands get a workout in just fine. We’ll start with the quick fixes and move on to the long-term plan.
First, a quick tip to take care of your skin: Make sure you are holding the bar (or dumbbell or handle) so that it is nestled against the bottom of your fingers. You don’t want to hold it at the top of your palm, because then a bit of the skin of your palm will get squeezed between the bar and your fingers.
By holding the bar at the base of your fingers, you’ll avoid some of the worst calluses and blisters that can form there. That will help to keep your hands pain-free as long as possible.
The thicker a bar or handle, the harder your grip has to work to hold onto it. Dumbbells often have a fairly thick handle, so if your grip fatigues toward the end of a dumbbell workout, consider replacing some of your moves with their barbell equivalents.
Dumbbells also need to be carried to and from the rack, which adds extra time that the weight is in your hands. Barbells, on the other hand, are usually loaded with plates while you’re in the rack, so you’re not walking around the gym with a loaded bar.
If you use machines, like cable machines, consider whether you might be able to swap out the attachment you use for one that’s easier to grip. For example, tricep pushdowns are often done with a rope, but your grip muscles will have a much easier time if you use a straight bar.
On deadlifts or similar exercises like RDLs (Romanian deadlifts), consider using mixed grip. This is when the palm of one hand faces toward you, and the palm of the other faces away. It helps because the bar wants to roll downward, unpeeling your fingers from the bar, but whenever it rolls this direction relative to one hand, it’s rolling up the other hand. Mixed grip, sometimes called alternate grip, is an easy way to add literally hundreds of pounds to the amount of weight you can hold onto.
Another grip that is very secure is hook grip, commonly used by Olympic-style weightlifters. To do this, you sandwich your thumb in between the bar and your fingers. (For best results, make sure your thumb is running almost parallel to the bar. Think of pointing your thumb tip toward your pinky finger.) Hook grip hurts at first, but once you get used to it, it’s very secure, and many lifters feel it’s worthwhile. Try using hook grip on your lighter lifts as you warm up, and over time, you’ll find it feels more and more comfortable at heavier weights.
If your gym has a chalk bucket, now is the time to learn to use it. Either dip your hands into the chalk dust at the bottom, or pick up one of the blocks of chalk and use it like a crayon to scribble all over your hands. Rub off the excess while your hands are still in the bucket, please. No need to leave a pile of chalk on the floor or clap it into a cloud in the air.
Chalk provides extra friction between your hands and the bar. If your hands are sweaty, the chalk particles mix with the sweat to form a gross but effective grip-enhancing layer. Wash your hands after using chalk, and ideally also moisturize, since it can dry out your skin.
If your gym doesn’t have a chalk bucket, get yourself some liquid chalk, ideally in one of those little keyring bottles. Even gyms that have “no chalk” signs tend to be fine with liquid chalk, because it doesn’t leave a mess on the floor. You squirt it on your hands and rub—just like hand sanitizer—and what starts as a clear-ish liquid dries into a layer of grippy white chalk. (Only rub it on your palms, obviously; no need for extra grip on the back of your hands.)
For barbell lifts, the ultimate assist for a weak grip is a set of straps. This is also the ultimate tool for grip training, since it lets you train your grip as hard as you want, without worrying about whether your sore grip muscles will get in the way of training deadlifts or other lifts.
There are several types of lifting straps, and I have an article detailing the differences here. If you just want a cheap, basic option, though, get these. Make sure to wrap them so they’re going the opposite direction from your fingers. If your fingers go over the bar, the straps should wrap underneath.
For pullups or other lifts where wrapping a strap would be inconvenient, grips may be better. Gymnastics grips like these are good for pullups and Crossfit workouts. For more casual gym use, Versa Gripps are easy to use on dumbbells and machines in addition to barbells.
I have several articles on grip training. Here’s one on the best grip training exercises, and here’s one that is specifically on training your “support” grip, the kind that gets used for deadlifts and pullups.
Some gym bros will tell you that forgoing straps is all you need to train your grip, but that makes no sense. People who specialize in grip strength (it’s a whole sport on its own) train their grip as a specific training goal, and they use straps as needed so that a fatigued grip doesn’t get in the way of training the rest of their body.
Dead hangs are one easy way to get started: hang off a pullup bar and see if you can make it to 30 or even 60 seconds. (When that gets easy, either hang some weights off your waist with a dip belt, or move on to a harder exercise.)
Deadlift bar holds are great, too: At the end of a set of deadlifts, take some weight off the bar and just pick the bar up and hold it for a while. Again, when you can do a few sets of 30-60 seconds, it’s time to add weight.
Wrist curls and finger curls are great, too, and can easily be done in a superset at the end of your workouts. Working with fat grips or a towel wrapped around a dumbbell or barbell can also challenge your grip muscles, but I’d use that in addition to the exercises above, not instead. Grip trainers may look like a fun way to work on grip outside the gym, but they tend not to be as effective as the exercises above. Basic holds and wrist and finger curls will get you a stronger grip, faster.
