The most common failure point in many powerlifting exercises is the grip. The forearms are a small and skinny muscle group, and the hands are typically very weak when compared to other potential failure points in the body. Building up your forearm and grip strength is a key to performing better in both powerlifting competition as well as in your normal lifts. Improving the amount of weight you can move will allow you to hold more weight when deadlifting, and control more weight when bench pressing. Additionally, it will provide you with greater support when you’re using exercises to target those ancillary body parts which support the lifts such as the deadlift. Rowing, lat pulldowns, and other movements become more effective when grip strength improves. Here are a few tips for increasing your grip and forearm strength. Remember that the goal of this training is not to develop large, vascular forearms seen on a bodybuilding stage. Rather, we are working to develop as much functional strength for the forearms and hands as possible. Therefore, training will emphasize strength, and not appearance.

Static barbell and dumbbell holds

This aspect of your training is easy to plan and carry out. Pick up a barbell or a dumbbell. Hold is for as long as you can. Put it down and wait 2 minutes. Repeat. Continue for 15 or 20 minutes. Your ability to hold a heavy weight for a long period of time will increase greatly over the coming weeks. Dumbbells may be preferable, in that they hang to the side in a more manageable way. Barbells sitting to the front can cause leg, ground, or stomach discomfort from the weight rubbing against the body.

Grip specific training in the gym

Your gym likely has a few machines dedicated to forearm and grip training. If it does not, ask our gym owner to add them to the rotation. Barbell wrist curls and reverse barbell curls are terrific for building up not only forearm mass, but strength as well. Use them 1 to 2 times per week on back, chest, arm or shoulder days.

On the road again…

Keep a paid or forearm grippers in your car. As you travel, use the non-driving hand to grip the grippers in periods of 60 to 180 seconds. Or, measure your gripping by the length of a song on the radio. Three to four minutes of each forearm, repeated 3 to 4 times on the way to work, will build those forearms into bowling pins in no time!

Leave the wraps at home

Wrist wrap are a terrific aid in the gym for helping a bodybuilder to hang in there when wrist grip fails on major lifts. However, their use also encourages the forearms to remain small and weak. Leave them in your gym bag, opting for their use only when absolutely necessary, on those final sets when you’re repping for triples and failure is imminent. They are a tool with excellent utility, but only when used in moderation, on no more than one-third of your total sets.

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