5 Basic Exercises for Beginners to Improve Their Grip Strength Using a Hand Gripper

Soniya
A strong grip is essential specially when you are performing heavy weightlifting. (Image via Unsplash / Victor Freitas)
A strong grip is essential specially when you are performing heavy weightlifting. (Image via Unsplash / Victor Freitas)

Grip strength is often an overlooked area in the overall health and fitness. It’s usually a limiting factor for several other lifts and something that can produce excellent results on more established lifts.

A strong grip is an essential element of exercise as it forms the foundation for good hand strength. Hand grippers make lifts easier. Grip exercises increase hand strength, which enables you to perform routines with greater stamina.


Effective Exercises to Improve Grip Strength Using Hand Grippers

Grip strength exercises can be divided into several types, each one targeting a different muscle group. Here are the most common types:

1. Hand Extension

This exercise may look easy, but it's pretty hard! It trains the muscles needed for grip strength. It also keeps your hands and wrists healthy and balanced, which prevents many types of injuries.

youtube-cover

This exercise isn't technically a grip exercise, but it is a good preliminary workout to get your hand and wrist muscles to train hard so that you can prevent injury and overuse of those muscles. It improves your grip strength!


2. Open Crush Grip

This hold comes in handy for opening jars; plus it's great for building your open crush grip strength.

youtube-cover

Whether using metal or thick bars, your fingers should be spaced apart and have a wide open arch. Your thumb should be above your fingertips. The purpose of crushing objects together in the gym is believed to increase pinch grip, but remember the rush grip is just as crucial as the pinch grip.


3. High Rep Grip Exercise

High reps using grippers is a great way to build your grip strength endurance, which increases your ability to hold onto objects for longer duration. The 15-20 rep range is standard with high reps. It's also ideal as a warm-up before heavier sets with greater resistance.

youtube-cover

As you build your strength endurance, you can hold on to objects for longer. That's how you get jacked-up hands.


4. Pinch Grip

Use your little finger to pinch. It improves grip strength and is crucial for a number of tasks around home. Try doing rows of pinching, alternating which hand is dominant and which is the support. While continuously pinching the object, gradually increase the pressure. As you increase pressure, your grip strength will naturally improve.

youtube-cover

5. Crush Grip

A crush grip is the action of closing your hand around something and squeezing it. When you hold a dumbbell in your hand, you perform the same set of motions.

youtube-cover

Why Hand Grip Strenghtening Is Important?

For those interested in getting stronger, strong hands are a no-brainer. Without strong arms, it's unlikely that you'll be able to lift more weight during your workout. But if you want to decrease body fat or burn more calories, you'll want to lift more weight during your workout.

youtube-cover

It's also important to exercise your grip muscles as they can help prevent pain due to chronic inflammation, tendonitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Your body may respond to exercise by strengthening other muscles in your shoulders, arms, and back. The rotator cuff muscles are especially important because they help keep your shoulder joints healthy.

When you squeeze your fist as hard as you can, all the muscles in your arm and even your core will tighten up. Use this technique during exercises like bench presses or deadlifts to instantly lift more weight and protect your shoulders!


Benefits

1. Your forearms will get more muscular when you exercise them with hand grips. The muscles that control your fingers, flexors, and extensors are the ones benefited. These muscles control the closing and opening of your hand.

2. When you work out with hand grips, your hand endurance automatically goes up because you are increasing the amount of force that your hands can apply. Another way to improve your hand endurance is by increasing the length of time that you can apply pressure.

3. Another fantastic advantage of hand grips is increased strength in your fingers, wrists, and forearms. This will help you in several ways, around the house, in the gym, and at the tennis court.


Takeaway

If you are looking for a way to challenge yourself and your grip strength, then hand grip exercises will add value to your training. The main thing to remember is to never compromise form for more weight and slow down at the start of every set.

Quick Links