Grip, chins, and pull-ups

[Jihoon]

Hey guys I've always been on the weaker side. Luckily practicing the barbell lifts has made me substantially stronger in all areas that is except for my grip. My grip has always been my weakest point. It's horrifically terrible. Long story short I decided to start working on it. I don't plan to go out of my way to work my grip but I am planning on implementing a few tweaks to my current program in order to get the extra grip work in, nothing special really.

In addition to my barbell lifts, I've recently started doing pull-ups. I'm planning on wrapping some towels around my pull-up bar to increase the radius of the bar to work my grip more. I'm planning on hanging from the bar After my pull-up sets (done with the normal bar) and after I've trained enough to hang from the thickened bar for more than one minute, I plan to use the thickened bar to do the pull-ups as well as additional hang work after my sets.

But on that note, I've also been thinking about Pull-ups and chins. I get back-work already from doing deads, rows and cleans and my biceps never really got any real work. so Ive been considering switching to chins for a more full-body approach. On this I have a few questions: will it be better to do my hanging from the bar with a DOH or DUH grip? Should I stick to pull-ups or is my switchover to chins understandable and reasonable?

Finally, on my deadlift days I plan on doing farmer carries/holds with dumbbells directly after i finish my deads. so all in all i'd be putting extra grip work in about twice per week.

What do you all think about this? any comments, advice or anecdotes would be much appreciated.

[Meshuggah]

Buy some Captains of Crush grippers from Ironmind.

[Chebass88]

Here are some things that work for me:

1. The Herman Goerner Deadlift variations - Brooks Kubik wrote an article on this. Deadlifts with only one finger per hand, two fingers, three fingers, etc. Start light & work your way up.

2. Sledge hammer levering. Start with an 8lb hammer & mark the handle in inches. Use regular progression.

3. Steel bending - also bending other things like horseshoes, hot rolled steel, etc. Start with 60D nails wrapped in shop rags, progress to 1/4" x 6" bolts (steel). Also for bending - box wrenches (the forged steel ones, available cheaply at the local harbor freight)

4. Pinch lifts

5. Rectangular Fix - a reverse curl where the barbell is held at the 90 degree angle in front of the body. Brutal on grip. The longer you hold it, the more grip work you get. I use a three count (when in position).

6. Pullups - as many as possible. If you can, go to the local playground and chin on the playground equipment. Doing pull-ups from a 3" support bar is much different on grip than a standard pull-up bar. Also from anything that is convenient (wooden joists, etc.). Just don't be like a CrossFit asshole & be obnoxious about it.

7. Mental aspect - decide that you will not let your grip fail & most likely, it won't. For example, say you're doing a rectangular fix with 100lbs - lock your hands onto the bar & once locked, just do the lift.

Just go in the gym & try it for yourself. Repeat it regularly for 4 months & then assess your progress.

[PackMule]

Dumbbell rows.

Grab the heaviest dumbbell you can hold on to for maybe 5 reps and do 10+ reps with each hand. Use that weight until you can hold onto it for all or most reps, then go up.

Or farmers walks, same deal.

I have baby hands but these things + chins and I've never had issues with my grip.

[Michael Loucas]

Buy fat grips, or make/buy a fat bar and do backoff sets of 10 deadlifts double overhand after your regular deadlift sets. Go as heavy as you can, and only switch your grip to mixed if you have to and don't increase that weight until you can do all the backoff sets double overhand.

[osv2]

As for chins/pullups, do both and rotate them as they target your arms in different manner. If you have equipment, do neutral-grip variations and chins on rings/TRX as well. Besides, variety prevents overuse injuries.

If you insist on choosing between chins and pull-ups, and doing only one, I'd suggest chins.

[Dada]

Rope climbing and rope pullups are awesome for grip. Also whatever you do, never use wrist straps because you'll lose your grip strength fast (been there, done that).