The importance of grip strength

Grip strength training is an area of weight training that is often overlooked, but certainly shouldn’t be as this is a hugely important part of weight training.   There are four different types of grip strength, pinch grip which is the thumb and fingers squeezing inwards, supporting grip e.g. holding onto something like a hammer, and crushing grip, e.g. squeezing someones hand with your hand.  The fourth is opening your hand something that does not play a huge part in weight training.

Pinch grip – one of my favourite exercises for improving pinch grip is just lifting a t bar using a pinched grip like illustrated in the picture below.

Supporting grip – farmers walks are a great way to increase supporting grip, just use dumbbells and walk until your hands are exhausted.

Crushing grip – Use a hand gripper performing combinations of low and high rep sets.