I had one of the World’s most premiere authorities on Grip training, Jedd Johnson, at TPS for a Grip seminar a few weeks ago. Jedd went over a ton of content on improving all aspects of Grip strength and how to improve it. Today, I’m giving you the Two Fastest Ways to Improve Your Grip Strength because a strong grip is important. It’s your weakest link in your battle against the bar and in many life circumstances.
I talked with Jedd today about this to clarify a few points. I’m no slacker on Grip strength knowledge, but I will defer to Jedd on this matter. He wanted me to make sure and clarify a few things, which I will do as
I tell you the Two Fastest Ways to Improve Your Grip Strength.
But, before I do that, let’s review why Grip strength is important.
Having a strong(er) grip is critical because it:
- Allows you to do more work
- Increases Radiational Tension
- May save your life when the apocalypse hits
- Is very important in sports and certain professions
- Gives you more control over whatever object is in your hands
- Allows you to open pickle jars without asking for help
Of all these, I feel the pickle jar is the most important. It’s embarrassing to ask someone to open a jar for you, and what good is a cheeseburger with no pickles?
Looking at the fact it allows you to do more work, let me explain. Let’s say you are doing dumbbell rows with 100’s and you fail at 8 reps because of…..your grip.
A strong(er) grip allows more reps which means more work. I can over explain it, but you get the idea, and before you say use straps, I’ll go into my next point.
Using straps is great sometimes, but having a strong(er) grip is better because it allows you to generate more radiational tension. Radiational tension is generated when you squeeze something hard. Squeezing your hands allows you to generate more force throughout your body. Try it.
I’ll double up on the next two points: it may save your life when the apocalypse hits and it is very important in sports and certain professions. Imagine that you were a firefighter and have to control a hose, or if you were a cop trying to restrain someone, or a mechanic using a wrench. Get it.
And in the apocalypse there are countless situations where a strong(er) grip could be useful.
Lastly a vise like grip allow you to have more control over objects in your hands. This can be anything from sports uses like a baseball bat, or a hockey stick to day to day events.
Now with that out of the way, here are my The Two Fastest Ways to Improve Your Grip Strength, courtesy of Jedd Johnson.
Up first is Thick Bar training.
Thick bar training is AWESOME and easy to do, plus it really builds the shit out of your grip. The simplest way to add thick bar training into your sessions is to use Fat Gripz. They slip over a dumbbell or a barbell and work like gangbusters.
Toss them in on your rows, presses, pulldowns, or whatever. If you are new to Grip training, you’ll feel it the next day. Don’t be surprised if you can’t handle as much weight as usual when you first start. That’s normal.
As your grip strength improves, you’ll find that when you go back to not using them for a week or so, your strength has improved.
You can also use thick bars and attachments.
Whichever you choose, and we suggest the Fat Gripz, because they are easy to add in and portable, just add them in.
One thing that Jedd pointed out is that he did quite a bit of work with clients and himself and saw no carryover in thick bar deadlifts to actually improving your deadlift. Sure, it may build your grip, but many people do them to build the actual lift. In his experience, it did not. We both agree that this is not the case for Strongman athletes who should do Axle and thick bar deadlifts because they are events that one will see at a show.
Next up on the list of my The Two Fastest Ways to Improve Your Grip Strength is good old pullups.
Here is where Jedd asked me to clarify. He uses pullup variations to rapidly improve grip strength with his athletes. He wanted me to point out that using pullup variants with people who cannot do pullups was a waste of time.
So, if you cannot do a pullup-skip this section until you can. But, if you can, adding in grip variants will blow your grip strength up FAST.
There are countless ways to do this.
A cheap and easy way is to loop a bath towel over the pullup bar and get after it. If you do BJJ or Judo, we have had great luck having athletes throw their Gi over the bar and use it for pullups.
Some of my favorite grip tools for pullups are:
And the monster:
The Tarzan straps will humble all but the strongest hands in the world.
They all have a slightly different effect but your grip strength will explode; fast.
So to sum it up for you, my Two Fastest Ways to Improve Your Grip Strength courtesy of Jedd Johnson as well are Fat Gripz for all of your Assistance and Accessory work and all types of pullups with a grip modifier. Get after it and never have to ask someone to open a pickle jar for you again.
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Vincere vel mori
C.J. Murphy
July 28, 2022
