Why Grip Strength is vital when doing Bodyweight Training!

Are you one of those many people who for some reason just can’t break their own PR for maximal pull up repetitions in one set? If that’s you, this article is for you! Learn why a good, solid, stone crushing grip is of extremely high importance if you do Bodyweight training.

”The body is only as strong as it’s weakest point”

Have you ever thought about why it is that you suddenly can’t do more pull ups in a set? Why you after 10, 15, 20 or perhaps even 25 reps just can’t get your chin over the bar again? Well maybe you should start analyzing your arms a little bit and I’m not talking about your upper arms (the biceps), I’m talking about your forearms and hands.

As the heading says: ”The body is only as strong as it’s weakest point”. This is so true for what I am about to tell you. You see, no matter how big biceps you’ve got, no matter how big a back you’ve got, no matter how big lats you’ve got, you will never, ever be able to do more pull ups than your grip strength allows you to do.

You see, if you can’t hold a Dead Hang Hold for more than for example 2 minutes, then I guarantee that you will never be able to do more than m

aximum 20 pull ups. I don’t even think you will be able to do that many.

So what’s the point of getting big ass arms, if you can’t even hold on to the bar and keep on doing pull ups till your biceps fatigue? That’s right, there is no point in that.

Your biceps will never be able to live up to and unfold their full potential, unless your grip strength is as strong or even stronger than your biceps!

And that’s why you HAVE to train not only your biceps, but also your grip strength which comes from your forearms.

When you are training biceps, you want to be able to hold on to the bar and do for example chin ups till your biceps fatigue, not your grip. You don’t want to drop down from the bar before that happens. But unless your grip strength allows you to keep on squeezing the bar, you will never be able to hold on to the bar long enough for your biceps to fatigue.

You want your grip strength to be strong enough to hold on to the bar for a longer time than it takes for you to fatigue your biceps when doing for example chin ups.

You will never get to enjoy the true feeling of the strength in your biceps, unless your grip strength allows it. Therefore: TRAIN YOUR GRIP STRENGTH!

There are a number of ways to train your grip strength, but personally I think there is one method that beats them all! DEAD HANG HOLD! To do this exercise, simply hold on to a pull up bar, arms locked out and hold on for as long as you can. It’s as simple as that.

To make the exercise more challenging, you can use added weight (a weight belt with weight plates for example). This will make the exercise so much harder for your grip strength!

Another thing you can do to make the Dead Hang Hold harder, is to hang from a thicker bar. The thicker the bar is, the more challenging and hard it will be for you to hold on, because you will have to squeeze the bar so much harder.

I hope you found this article useful!

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Best regards!