When was the last time your grip failed during a heavy set and you thought, "Fantastic. Free forearm work"?

Never.

You muttered a word that would shock your grandma, dropped the bar, and shook your hand like you had just grabbed a live electrical fence.

You can test this out for yourself, Brosefus.

Take your normal deadlift that you can pull even after a few tasty adult style beverages at the local watering hole discuss squat mechanics, ISA, and watching a demo of Irish clog dancing after midnight. Oh wait, that was my actual sat night this past weekend.

Now add a pair of blue fat grips or use an axle. The added diameter will literally stop you in your tracks. If you can't hold it, you can't lift it and feels like Zeus came down and zapped all your strength.

Dr. Mike Israetel recently put out a video that covered grip work. I agree with most of it. Where he loses me is grippers, and I will get to that.

"Training your grip on compounds" is making grip the limiting factor… not ideal. — Dr. Mike Israetel, RP

He is right about that part. Letting your grip fail during a heavy row is not some brilliant two-for-one training strategy. You did not train your back and grip simultaneously as your grip hijacked the exercise, pulled the emergency brake, and left your lats standing beside the road wondering what the hell happened.

Here is my breakdown of Dr. Israetel's advice and what I would change.

Most of Your Lifting Should Be Strapless

My default is simple: perform most of your work without straps.

Not because straps are cheating. That is meathead morality theater.

The reason is that your hands are part of the kinetic chain as I stated above. If you strap into every set of every pulling exercise, you quietly outsource an entire link in that chain—and then act shocked when your grip has the structural integrity of wet cardboard.

Straps are a tool with a specific job description:

Late sets. Heavy days. Exercises where your grip is about to limit the muscle you are actually trying to train.

Doing RDLs when your hamstrings have plenty left but your fingers are filing an official complaint with management?

Use straps.

Finishing the last two sets of pull-ups when you are chasing lat volume instead of forearm fatigue?

Perfectly reasonable.

Using straps on every set of every row for the past four years because it "feels better"?

That is no longer a tool, it is a poor life choice. Do not pass Go or collect 200 clams.

Chalk First

Before straps, try chalk.

Chalk does not replace your grip. It removes the sweaty little friction problem preventing your actual grip strength from showing up.

Trying to hold a slick, knurl-free commercial-gym bar with sweaty hands is not necessarily a strength problem. It is physics being an A-hole yet again.

Your nervous system can scream "SQUEEZE" all it wants, but if the coefficient of friction has packed its bags and left town, that bar is still headed south.

Use chalk first.

If you lift in a commercial gym that shuns this glorious white powder (not creatine, chalk), then you can use liquid chalk instead.

If your grip remains the limiting factor—and the target muscles still have useful work left—then add straps.

That order matters.

Train Grip With Grippers?

This is where I wander away from the standard advice and into the weeds carrying a flashlight.

His fix for a limiting grip is to strap the compound and train the hands separately. I am with him on that. It is his list of what "separately" means where we split:

"Better Grip Training: Grippers, wrist curls, direct forearm work." — same slide

Grippers being those devices you see everywhere that look like a metal spring you close.

In my experience and my grip coach Adam Glass – who has competed at the highest level in grip sport, grippers just don't transfer to most lifts and hence are not worth your time.

Here is why I think that is.

A gripper trains exactly one thing: a closed crushing action. Fingers curl toward the palm. Thumb does almost nothing. Wrist stays locked in one position. The resistance peaks right where your hand is already strongest.

Now look at what your hands actually do under a bar.

A deadlift is a support grip. You are not crushing anything — you are stopping a bar from sliding out of a partially open hand for six seconds while your fingers slowly unroll. A fat-grip row is an open-hand demand. A plate pinch is thumb against fingers with no crush involved at all. A heavy carry is support endurance.

Not one of those looks like squeezing a spring.

Strength is stubbornly specific to the position and the pattern you train it in. Grippers make you very good at grippers, in the one hand position your regular lifting already hammers. The positions where your grip actually fails are the ones a gripper never touches.

If you like using them and you compete using them, then by all means go hog wild; however we have found that the return on your investment of time is not worth it.

Here are the top 3 to train for the most transfer to your life and the rest of your lifts.

Top Grip Exercise 1 = Fat-Grip Accessory Work

Use fat grips on accessory movements, not necessarily your heaviest pulls.

Rows, curls, carries, and moderate-load pulling exercises work well.

The thicker diameter forces the fingers and thumb to operate in a more open position, turning an ordinary accessory exercise into a direct assault on your entire hand.

You get your normal training effect plus grip work without creating another expedition to the gym.

Top Grip Exercise 2 = Plate Pinches

Pinch two or three old skoooool metal plates together with the smooth sides facing outward, then hold on while gravity attempts to expose your character flaws.

This puts more emphasis on the thumb, which is the forgotten hillbilly cousin of grip training.

Everyone hammers the fingers, ignores the thumb, and then wonders why thick handles or hook grip feel about as secure as a political promise.

My fav is the pinch grip deadlift. Pinch some plates with 1 hand and pick them up off the floor.

Top Grip Exercise 3 = Open Hand Plate Curls

Grab an old skooool metal plate by the rim, place it flat on your hand and curl it.

Your fingers stay more extended, the hand remains open, and the demand looks nothing like the closed crushing pattern used with a gripper.

That is exactly why it belongs here.

You are building strength in positions that standard barbell work and grippers tend to neglect. Plus this is a great one for developing wrist strength.

It is harder than it looks and most trained meatheads when they start have been humbled by a 25 lb metal plate.

Stay with it and in time you will be rewarded. Work up to the 35 lb metal plate for reps as a longterm goal. If you want elite status even amongst grip lifters, the 45 lbs plate is one only a few such as Adam have done.

You Need Far Less Grip Work Than You Think

Here is the beautiful part:

This does not require a 12-week Soviet Secret Squirrel Grip Specialization Cycle performed beneath a blood moon while wearing a singlet.

A few hard sets each week can move the needle. Add them to the end of a session or perform them during rest periods when they will not interfere with the main lift.

Eight or ten minutes is plenty for most people.

You do not need a dedicated grip day, a motivational grip manifesto, or a garage filled with medieval hand-torture devices and old skoool Inch replica DBs like your favorite nerd here, although it is super fun.

All you need is a few intelligently selected exercises—and the discipline to keep doing them after the novelty wears off.

Benefits

1) A stronger grip raises the ceiling on your pulling movements. Your hands stop ending sets while your back and hamstrings are still waiting for something interesting to happen.

2) A hard grip may change what happens upstream.

Gripping hard on the bar appears to increase neural drive through the forearm, elbow, and shoulder complex. The data here are mostly acute and mixed, so file it under plausible rather than settled. You may create better tension, greater stability, and more force where you actually want it.

Over time, the small effects accumulate: better tension across more reps, improved control of heavy loads, and hands capable of keeping pace with the rest of your body.

3) Thicker, more capable forearms.

Nobody has ever looked down at a set of armored forearms and whispered, "What a tragic waste of adaptation."

4) Grip strength is highly associated with longevity.

Pooled across roughly 3 million people, every 5 kg drop in grip strength tracks with about a 16% higher risk of all-cause mortality (1-3). The data here would say it is a proxy for overall strength, but I suspect it may be a two way street and perhaps increasing your current grip strength could add years to your life. That is just my bias and no data on that yet.

Summary

Lift without straps by default.

Use chalk before deciding your grip has failed.

Bring out the straps for heavy pulls and later sets when your hands—not the intended muscle—are ending productive work.

Then pay your grip back directly with fat handles, plate pinches, and open-hand training a few times each week.

Keep doing that for days, weeks, months, years, decades.

Your back gets trained, your hamstrings get trained and your hands become violently useful.

Meanwhile, the grippers can remain in the drawer with the ab shocker and the shake weight.

Much love, chalk dust, and brutally strong hands,

Dr. Mike

P.S. If your grip is the weak link—or you simply want the kind of hands that make all pickle jars fear you—the Gonzo Grip Course gives you the full system. You will learn how to train crushing strength, open-hand strength, pinch strength, support grip, and the other strange little hand adaptations that ordinary gym programming leaves behind.

Get the Gonzo Grip Course here: https://miketnelson.com/gonzo-grip-strength

Nerd Fuel

1) Celis-Morales CA, Welsh P, Lyall DM, Steell L, Petermann F, Anderson J, Iliodromiti S, Sillars A, Graham N, Mackay DF, Pell JP, Gill JMR, Sattar N, Gray SR. Associations of grip strength with cardiovascular, respiratory, and cancer outcomes and all cause mortality: prospective cohort study of half a million UK Biobank participants. BMJ. 2018;361:k1651.

2) Wu Y, Wang W, Liu T, Zhang D. Association of Grip Strength With Risk of All-Cause Mortality, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Cancer in Community-Dwelling Populations: A Meta-analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2017;18(6):551.e17-551.e35.

3) García-Hermoso A, Cavero-Redondo I, Ramírez-Vélez R, Ruiz JR, Ortega FB, Lee DC, Martínez-Vizcaíno V. Muscular Strength as a Predictor of All-Cause Mortality in an Apparently Healthy Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Data From Approximately 2 Million Men and Women. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2018;99(10):2100-2113.e5.

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Mike T Nelson CISSN, CSCS, MSME, PhD
Associate Professor, Carrick Institute
Owner, Extreme Human Performance, LLC
Editorial Board Member, STRONG Fitness Mag

Mike T Nelson is a PhD and not a physician or registered dietitian. The contents of this email should not be taken as medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any health problem - nor is it intended to replace the advice of a physician. Always consult your physician or qualified health professional on any matters regarding your health.

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