Improving Grip Strength: How To and Why It's So Important

Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. ~ Edward Stanley

Improving grip strength is a goal that many individuals have at the gym, but for many other people, it's completely ignored. This is unfortunate, because your grip strength plays a large role in how your body is able to perform in other exercises. If your grip fails on an exercise, than you won't even have a chance to effectively target your other muscles.

Therefore, it's very important that you work on improving grip strength with the right moves, tips and techniques. You'll increase your overall body strength, your performance in other exercises which are dependent on grip such as dead-lifts, pull-ups, and much more, and you'll add some great muscle to your body as well. With the following techniques, including both forearm isolation moves and more complete exercises which target the forearm muscles, you'll be able to boost your grip quite substantially and get huge forearms as well.


- Exercises for Improving Grip Strength -


Wrist Curls and Reverse Wrist Curls: A wrist curl is performed while sitting down and holding a dumbbell in one hand, rested across your leg, with your palm facing up. Curl up your hand with your wrist and squeeze it at the top, and then roll it back down to complete a repetition. Reverse wrist curls are done with your palm facing down, and work the opposite side of your forearms. Both are important for improving grip strength.
Farmer's Walk: The farmer's walk might be the single best exercise to work on your grip, and it's fun to do, because you'll feel like you're competing in a strong man competition. Pick up a dumbbell in each hand, and then walk around holding the weights for as long as you can without dropping them. Aim to go for 60 seconds, and increase the weights you use once you can meet and exceed that.
Barbell Behind Back Forearm Curls: Step in front of a barbell, bend down at the knees, and grip it with both hands behind your back. Now stand straight up, and curl up the weight, squeezing with your forearms, similar in concept to the standard seated dumbbell wrist curls already mentioned.
Deadlifts: Your grip strength is a major component of how much weight you'll be able to effectively handle while performing certain exercises, especially the dead lift. However, the dead lift is also a great training tool for improving grip strength. Use a moderately heavy weight that you can only complete six or eight repetitions with, and at the top of every rep, really squeeze with your forearms and hold the position for five to 10 extra seconds, and your forearms will be burning in the best way possible.




Don't forget, you never want to overlook your grip strength because it's a vital piece to your overall body capabilities and your performance in other exercises. With the above tips, you'll be able to get started improving grip strength, but for more information and resources, you should look below to find everything you need.


I'm Aaron McCloud and I run Complete Strength Training, a site devoted to providing high quality information about strength training. To get more info about improving your grip strength, check out this page on grip strength exercise tips and techniques. I've been lifting heavy things and practicing Japanese martial arts for quite a while, so there's a lot of info about how to get stronger, more powerful, and more ripped. - Copyright: You may freely republish this article, provided the text, author credit, active links, and this copyright notice remain intact.

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