What is grip force? Why is it so important? How to develop grip strength in the gym? Today I help you with all these questions!
When it comes to building body strength, grip strength is something we rarely aim for but it really does play a role if we are looking for more muscle development.
Even if you are involved in other strength or grip sports, grip strength is a characteristic that deserves some attention. What’s more, if you have trouble opening the jam jar, you should keep reading.
What is gripping force?
Grip strength is often thought of as simple hand strength, but there are actually many other things to consider when thinking of this term. Basically, the grip strength includes: the ability to apply pressure using the muscles that originate near the elbow to the muscles of the fingers.
And it makes sense to think of it this way because many of the muscles in the forearm and flexors in the hand actually originate above the elbow, and at some point, a muscle crosses a joint, which will influence grip in some way.
As we move down the arm, the grip muscles pass through the forearms, wrists, and into the hands, fingers, and thumbs; and not just across the front of the forearms, but also across the back of the forearms.
This is important for you to remember, because when we focus on the grip in this way, we begin to see that there are many movement patterns that are poorly performed due to lower arm muscles.
It must never be forgotten that in order to have a good movement pattern, a proper balance must be maintained between the antagonistic muscle groups, such as the flexors and the extensors.
In fact, many cases of forearm pain are related to a process of inflammation (tendinitis, tendinosis or epicondylitis) that can arise due to improper development of the forearm muscles.
Why is it important to develop the grip force?
Grip training essentially influences the amount of weight you can safely lift, primarily by developing your forearms to a degree that prevents the weight from overcoming the force of your hand.
In general bodybuilders, and indeed other athletes from other sports, do not often wonder how much they can grip, press or lift.
However, grip strength training can have a positive impact on most athletes, both in terms of the quality of their training routines and the type of results they achieve.
Muscle development and aesthetics aside, a strong grip could certainly help you if you are involved in a fight, where the power of your control over the opponent could determine the outcome.
Types of grip force
Before seeing how you can improve your grip strength, it is important to know what the types of grips are.
And let me tell you that there are several defined types of grips. Some primarily involve the hands, while others also involve the action of the wrist and forearm. But first we must talk about the strength of the wrist…
THE FORCE OF THE DOLL
Obviously, strong wrists are crucial in many of the bodybuilding exercises. Weak wrists can cause injury.
Because of this, you have to develop wrist strength, which can be done through barbell lifting exercises, and wrist curls.
These exercises also help the development of many visually useful forearm muscles.
GRIPPER GRIP
The pincer grip uses the strength of the thumb and fingers. This can be a very difficult grip, considering the awkward position of the hands where the fingers do not touch the palm.
Tightening grip
Unlike the previous one where the thumb has the main role, the tightening grip involves the use of the palm and fingers. The thumb, here, only acts as a support.
This grip can be seen in movements when crushing (or trying to crush) a can, shaking hands, etc.
Support grip
The support or support grip is the one most used in real life situations. It is the one that uses all the muscles of the hand.
In terms of muscle building exercises this grip will help you shrug your shoulders, do curls, presses, deadlifts, and a handful of other upper body exercises.
Grip training tips for beginners
While everyone can benefit from including grip training in their routines, not everyone is at the same level of resistance and some people may be more susceptible to injury. This must be taken into account and do not perform exercises with excessive weight or tension.
- If you want to know what are supination or pronation grips, visit:
Types of grips in weight training
TRAIN THE EXTENSORS: To keep progressing, make sure to include the muscles of the back of the hand, the extensors, in your routine (I’ll explain how later).
How to improve gripping force?
Let’s see below a series of exercises and accessories that will help us develop grip strength. And there are no excuses not to do them eh, in several of them we do not need to be in the gym to exercise our grip strength.
The force grippers (hand grips)
There are many types of tweezers on the market. The goal is to squeeze them so that the handles touch each other.
Some companies have certifications for the closure of their clamps. Grippers are probably the most popular form of grip training. They are even sold with different resistors.
Train grip pressure with discs
This is done by joining two or more discs with the smooth sides, which must be lifted off the ground using a pincer grip.
Training the pincer grip, which has little real application in life contest, will add strength to the thumbs and help develop both the extensor and flexors of the forearms.
Curl with discs
Take a disc with the pincer grip, resting it on your palm and fingers straight.
Next, try to do a plate curl, trying to keep your wrist and fingers from bending under pressure.
Suspension exercises
For this exercise, you just have to hang from a bar by passing a rope through them and holding it with a neutral grip for a specified period of time.
A variation on this movement is to use your fingers to hang from a beam rather than from a bar.
Static lifting of bar
This movement increases the supporting force. It is a very simple exercise that consists of taking a bar and holding it up for a maximum of 90 seconds.
Gripping using a towel to thicken the bar is a variant that will maximize potential strength development.
Exercise for hand extenders
Wrap an elastic band around your fingers and thumb and then push them open against the resistance of the band.
This is a surprisingly effective way to work the extensors.
If you can do more than 20 reps, then try adding another rubber band to increase resistance or hold the open position for 2-3 seconds before doing the next rep.
- Muscle Strength and its influence on training
- What is Maximum Force and how is it Calculated?