Novice Deadlift Grip Strength

[strengthstarter]

Rip,

I am on a novice progression for deadlift, doing CF Football strength programming. I can overhand about 2 reps at 325#, but reverse grip doesn't seem to help much; i've been stuck at 355# twice in a row now (got 2 reps last week and 3 reps this week). My hands feel strong at first but then just totally die, and in the process of dying, my fingers get all ripped up by the bar slipping out of my hands.

So, I think I should be doing some grip strength training for deadlift. All of the grip people seem to be obsessed with bending nails and other weird shit. What do you recommend as a simple addition to a strength program to train grip, perhaps on light pull days?

Some ideas I've had, read about, or have been suggested: one-armed DL, pull-and-holds, training with a gripper machine.

It makes most sense to me that one-handed deadlifts opposite heavy deadlift might be the way to go with this. Any advice?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think you must have short fingers and fat hands. Grip work received from the double-overhand grip during warmups and alternate grip on worksets is usually enough. If not fat bar work may help. But if you have short fingers and fat hands, grip will always be a problem.

[milk-grinder]

I was having the same problem of bar slipping after first two reps or so until switching to hook grip. If your hands are big enough try it out. (more than once to really see if you can use it)

The motion seemed more natural for me doing hook grip versus alternate.

[Mark Rippetoe]

If his hands are small, as I guessed, they are too small to make a hook. And if they are big enough to make a hook, he can get them strong enough to hold on to his deadlifts.

[strengthstarter]

I think you must have short fingers and fat hands. Grip work received from the double-overhand grip during warmups and alternate grip on worksets is usually enough. If not fat bar work may help. But if you have short fingers and fat hands, grip will always be a problem.

Thank you for your thoughtful answer.

Actually, I think I have rather large hands, though I do have long and kinda skinny forearms, if that means anything. As I've went up in weight, I've been using double overhand grip for all 5, 3, or 1 of my worksets as far as I could, and only using reverse grip for the remainder of the workset (although with this weight I am now just using reverse grip).

I've seen a fat bar. One even exists at my gym. Come to think of it, I think you briefly mentioned it in your book, although I don't recall you saying too much about it. What should I do with it? I kind of want to start DLing twice a week alternating fat and normal bar, the idea being the fat bar and my grip strength will prevent me from overtraining. (That and its not too much more frequent that a SS progression: 8 vs. 6 times per month)

I was having the same problem of bar slipping after first two reps or so until switching to hook grip. If your hands are big enough try it out. (more than once to really see if you can use it)

The motion seemed more natural for me doing hook grip versus alternate.

I will try this but hook grip has always felt a bit uncomfortable for me, and I've always had the sense that deadlifting heavy weights with it would be thumb-crushingly insane.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Use the fat bar for a single back-off set after your regular deadlifts. Don't be shocked when the weight is cut in half for this set, maybe more. And about the hook, I apologize for the discomfort. Being comfortable is very important.

[MazdaMatt]

Nobody asked the obvious... are you using chalk?

[strengthstarter]

Use the fat bar for a single back-off set after your regular deadlifts. Don't be shocked when the weight is cut in half for this set, maybe more. And about the hook, I apologize for the discomfort. Being comfortable is very important.

I walked into that one. Thanks for the programming advice. I'll give it a try.

Nobody asked the obvious... are you using chalk?

Yep. Real chalk, even, recently, as opposed to that tree-hugging eco stuff which works almost as well, but just not quite.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Wait... somebody makes fake chalk?

[Eivind]

You're saying reverse grip... Do you actually supinate both of your hands when deadlifting? A mixed grip is what you're after.