Grip Strength in the Deadlift: Grip Function and Training

By: Noah Hayden, PBC

The most fundamental goal of strength training is developing the capacity to produce more force. For it to be useful, though, this force production must be transferred to our external environment—through the long kinetic chain of the body. That kinetic chain usually begins on the ground and most often terminates at our hands, frequently with us gripping and trying to hold on to various objects. While we focus most of our training on strengthening the large, powerful muscles of the legs, trunk, and upper body, your grip is potentially the biggest impediment to applying that strength to the everyday tasks of life.

At some point—usually sooner than later—back and leg strength will outpace grip strength in the deadlift. The reason why is simple: Whereas the back, hips, and legs contain most of your body’s muscle mass, there are only relatively small muscles in your hand and forearm that contribute to grip. Smaller muscles tend to adapt more slowly to training and, over time, will require much more volume than is typical for the main compound lifts in a strength-based program.

Deadlift Grip

There are three grips we typically use for deadlifting. The standard grip (also called the double overhand grip) has both palms facing the body. When you grip the bar this way, it attempts to open your hands by rolling out of your fingers. Nothing is helping your muscles prevent this from happening.

A more secure grip than double overhand is a mixed (or alternate) grip. For a mixed grip, you supinate one hand, turning it outward. This balances the “rolling” action of the barbell: As it attempts to roll out of one hand, it rolls into the other. This means that the only force to contend with is the force of gravity pulling straight down on the bar. For your grip to fail, the bar will need to slide out of your fingers, which is resisted by the friction of knurl scraping against skin.

While this is much more secure than a standard grip, we often do not prescribe it for lifters because of the inherent asymmetries of a mixed grip. When a hand is supinated, it moves laterally away from the body. This is known as a “carry angle,” and the distance varies from person to person. The greater the carry angle, the more pronounced the asymmetrical loading on the body. The pronated hand can be moved out to reduce this asymmetry, but this results in the bar being lifted higher. Perhaps this is an insignificant increase in overall work, but it forces the lifter to bend over more in the setup—making back extension more challenging—and to carry the bar higher on the thighs at lockout—potentially crowding the groin for those with shorter arms. Supinating a hand also compromises the efficient action of the latissimus dorsi, often leading to the bar “drifting” away from the leg on that side.

For all of these cons, a mixed grip is a great option for competitive lifters who struggle with a hook grip. Many federations do not allow lifting straps or other grip assistance equipment, so a mixed grip may be the only practical option.

A hook grip places your bent thumb against the back of the bar and traps it there by wrapping your fingers around it. The security of this grip comes from the much higher friction coefficient between the fingers and the thumb, with your thumb becoming a ledge your forefingers can hold on to. This is an excellent grip that can securely lift the heaviest of loads, with none of the drawbacks of a mixed grip—although it can take some time to get used to. It can hurt—a lot—especially for lifters with shorter fingers. Give it a chance and see if it works for you.

Because a hook grip relies so heavily on friction (much like straps do), it is not a good option for training your grip strength.

Lifting Straps

Even if other grips work for you, it is worth it to have a pair of straps. If you hook grip, lifting straps give you an option if your thumb skin needs a break—especially with higher volume work. If you use a mixed grip, straps allow you to symmetrically train your lats—especially on volume sets. For either strategy, straps can come to the rescue if you tear a callus.

For trainees who do not have an interest in competing, we recommend using straps when your grip starts to fail. It continues to train the body in exactly the same way as before and virtually guarantees you can hold on to any weight you can lift. This added security makes it easier to focus on the effort of challenging reps.

How to Train Your Grip

The amount of force you can produce with your grip depends on the security of the grip itself. There is an inverse relationship between how secure your grip feels and how much gripping force you produce—meaning, you can grip a lot more forcefully with a double overhand grip than a mixed or hook grip. The more secure the grip, the better you can train your deadlift, but the less forcefully you have to use your gripping muscles to hold on to the bar. (See https://www.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/jn.1996.75.5.1963 for an example of this.)

This means you should take steps to deliberately train your grip strength once you change your deadlift grip for work sets. Your grip strength should not limit your deadlift training, but just because you hook grip your work sets does not mean you should hook grip your warm-ups as well (at least after you have practiced this new grip enough to be confident using it). The simplest way to do this is to continue to use a double overhand grip for all the warm-ups that you can. As your deadlift progresses, your warm-ups will get heavier as well. This can provide enough stimulus to continue training your grip alongside your deadlift for quite some time.

Most lifters do not need specialized grip training if they are using the above strategy. Some sports and hobbies require extra grip strength, and some people just want to develop an impressive grip. If you pursue dedicated grip training, you will likely need to employ assistance lifts.

Here, instability is your friend. You can start by simply holding onto a bar at lockout for 30 seconds using a standard grip. This will help develop the muscular endurance required to make it through fatiguing deadlift sets. Dead-hangs from pullup bars are another great option.

Dedicated Grip Training

So far, we have been discussing “supportive” grip strength: the capacity to maintain an isometric contraction against gravity. Many grip training enthusiasts will identify two other types of gripping feats: a crushing grip and a pinching grip.

If you want to develop these, various specialized training implements have been devised that are very effective. The classic option is spring grippers for crushing strength. A wide variety of pinch block shapes challenge your pinching strength by suspending weights from them. If you want to go down this rabbit hole, a quick Google search will reveal many products for sale.

Grip training can be a fun diversion for the intermediate lifter who wants to add some novelty to their routine. Having a stronger grip can only improve your quality of life and your performance in other athletic endeavors.