How to Get Stronger Deadlift and Hanging Support
When you first start deadlifts, you’re probably thinking about how heavy they are on your back, glutes, and legs. But once movement becomes second nature, another part of the body comes into play: your hands. Once the weight is heavy enough, you may have trouble keeping it.
There are ways to instantly improve your deadlift ability, and we’ll cover them here . Almost everyone uses an alternate grip (one underneath, one overhand) or a grappling hook. Belts are comfortable in many situations, although you cannot use them in powerlifting competitions. But almost all of this requires a certain amount of strength in your hands to hold the position.
This type of grip is called “supportive grip”.
Remember last week we mentioned that there are several different types of capture ? The crush grip is what you do when you squeeze the grip. A supportive grip is what you need for the deadlift. Your fingers form a hook to hold the barbell and you don’t move your fingers; it is static, not dynamic effort.
The support grip also helps hold the barbell during pull-ups or other hanging movements. Do your hands get tired when you carry heavy bags of groceries? This is also a support handle.
How to strengthen your deadlift grip
The bread and butter of your support handle will hold. Just hold the barbell in the deadlift. Keep it. Yes it. r / griptraining has a detailed breakdown of deadlift exercises that are similar to what we are discussing here.
You can use them in your workout routine. Whenever you do deadlifts or barbell rows, do some or all of the following:
- For warm-ups, use a more difficult grip than usual, such as a double overhand instead of an alternate or hook.
- After the last rep for each set, hold on to the bar for as long as possible before lowering it.
- At the end of your workout, remove some of the weight, then grab a barbell and hold for about 30 seconds, or as much as you can.
If your arms get too tired during the warm-up to successfully complete the heaviest rows, use the straps . They’re a training tool, not a cheat, and here’s why: Without them, you can skip grip training to keep your arms fresh for deadlifts. In this case, the grip remains weak. Or you do just as much deadlift as you can grab, in which case your back and leg muscles do not become as strong because your deadlift is not really challenging them. If you train your grip several times a week and then use the hardest deadlift straps, you will get the best of both worlds. Just remember to take a break from your grip training when you have a competition coming up.
When you have a good grip, you can impress your friends with movements like the thumbless deadlift . This was roughly 90% of my deadlift maximum at the time:
How to learn to hang from the bar
If you are more interested in hanging and bodyweight movements, the principles are the same, but you are hanging from the bar, not the bar.
Start by hovering with two hands. Just grab the bar and hold on. As it gets easier, try the following options:
- Hanging with weights . Use a weighted vest, a push-up belt, or a dumbbell between your feet to make your arms support more weight.
- One hand is hanging . Just what they look like! If you’re good at it, a fun exercise is to take off your shirt or jacket while hanging from the bar.
- Hover curves . This can help close the gap between one-handed and two-handed hovering. With one hand, grip the bar firmly, and with the other just hold on with one or two fingers. Or, place a towel over the bar, place one hand on the bar, and grasp the towel with the other.
We now talk about crush grip training and maintenance grip training. That’s not all, and a good universal grip workout will help with all aspects of arm strength. So stay tuned for other ways to improve your grip and let us know how your deadlift or hang is progressing!