How To Build Grip Strength

Grip strength is one of, if not the, most functional types of strength you can build.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a strength athlete, fighter, rock-climber or a 1-trip grocery diehard - if you can’t get a grip you can’t do the thing you want to do, no matter how strong the rest of you is.

Grip strength is also just cool…

So… how do you build serious grip strength?

The best thing you can do is find things that break your grip. (movements you can take to failure)

The simplest option is simply to hang from a bar. You can start with two-hands on a regular bar, upgrade to a thick bar and eventually to 1-hand hangs.

My face is actually exaggerating how happy I am when I do this…

Now before you think hangs are too basic I want to tell you about Andrus Murumets - he was an Estonian Strongman who competed at the Arnold Classic a few of the first years I was there and set world records on the farmers walk, timber carry and the rolling thunder - all grip-centric events.

(This is Andrus on the Rolling Thunder)

His advice, and the most significant part of his training, was just hanging out (lol) but seriously - just hanging from a bar to build up his grip. He thought it was better than anything else, even the grip specific things like “grippers”.

I’ve found the same thing to be true but you can also implement things like holding a barbell for time (especially if you add band weight on top to make it harder) or things like long distance farmers walks - especially with KBs which tend to have slightly thicker handles.

With these ideas in mind, here’s what you should do:

Once, or twice (max) per week you can choose a grip movement and do a single set (once you’re warmed up) to failure on the grip-lift of your choice.

That’s it.

(If you want to train twice they need to be two different movements and you’ll likely want to make sure you’re not blasting your forearms too hard - if you start getting elbow pain scale back!)

Once your progress stalls with one set per week you should then add a second set (aiming for 50-60% of the same time or weight as a target.)

I know this sounds simple (which it is) but don’t overcomplicate it OR OVERWORK IT.

Your grip will come if follow this protocol and choose from the kinds of movements listed above.

Good luck!