How to Properly Hold the Barbell
As we discussed earlier, there are three ways to hold the barbell if you’re worried that your grip might slip . You can use the straps, you can face with the palms in different directions (mixed grip), or you can grab it with a crochet hook. A grappling hook is more reliable than a mixed grab, but one thing scares off many: pain.
I am happy to report that after nearly two years of Olympic weightlifting (where the hook is neither a fear nor an argument, but just a part of life), I now believe that the hook is nowhere near as painful as it is thought. And yes, I am the person who wrote in that previous article that grabbing with a grappling hook “hurts like hell.” This is partly because I am used to it, but partly because I did it wrong.
Pay attention to the panel you are using
If you have small hands or use a thicker barbell, grabbing with a hook may be more awkward, or perhaps even impossible.
This is one of the reasons the female bar is used in Olympic weightlifting: the female bar is 25 millimeters in diameter to provide a more comfortable grip for smaller hands. (The men’s placket is 28 millimeters.)
The barbells in a typical gym can be different . Power bars are usually similar to men’s olympic bars – 28mm or 29mm. The squat bar, which you usually only find in powerlifting gyms, is heavier and thicker than a regular power bar. The thickness makes them more comfortable on the back, but this is mainly because these barbells need to support heavy plates while being stiff enough not to bounce too much. They are often 32 mm.
On the other hand, deadlift barbells are thinner (but not as thin as the women’s Olympic barbell) at 27mm. Deadlifts and Olympic lifts are the most common exercises people use the grappling hook for, so only these barbells are designed with that in mind. (Some powerlifting federations use the bar for the deadlift; others use the bar for the deadlift. Powerlifting does not use a different bar for men and women.)
All of this goes to show that if you’re having trouble gripping your hook, make sure you use the thinnest bar you can use. I can’t get hold of the squat bar, and I even find the power bar not very comfortable, but I have no problem grabbing the hook on a female bar or deadlift bar.
Place your thumb parallel to the bar.
A common mistake – and which makes the grip more painful than it needs to be – is placing your thumb on the bar incorrectly.
Don’t feel like your thumb is wrapping under the bar; it doesn’t look like a claw against your fingers.
Instead, place the last joint of your thumb along the bar parallel to its length. When you grip the bar, your thumb should be in contact with your middle finger somewhere between the last and penultimate joints of your middle finger.
The exact point of contact will depend on the proportions of your body, but I’m trying to emphasize that you shouldn’t try to wrap your thumb under as many fingers as possible and shouldn’t try to wrap it deeply around the bar. If you feel pain in the joint where the thumb meets the palm, you are most likely doing it wrong.
Exercise
Even if done correctly, your first deadlift can be painful, or at least uncomfortable. But if you use the appropriate bar and hold it correctly, the discomfort will not last long.
If any pain, bruising, or calluses appear, they should be mild and occur approximately parallel to the length of the thumb and on the side of the thumb, not in the middle of the ball of the thumb or on the joint.
A thumb band can help a little; Wrap the sports tape around your thumb, bypassing the thumb joint, or use elastic band around your thumb. This provides a little compression so that the pressure isn’t as strong, and it can also be more comfortable so that the knurling on the bar doesn’t dig into your thumbs as hard.
As you get used to your grappling hook, use it on as many climbs as possible, but it’s okay if you don’t use it on every climb. For example, you can warm up before the deadlift using the hook on the lighter sets, and then use the mixed grip or straps for most of your work sets. When it’s time to pull a heavy single, you can only use the grappling hook for that rep . Over time, you will be able to deal with a lot of problems. However, even experienced lifters often use straps on high rep sets.