If you are having trouble holding the bar on your max deadlifts or if you require the use of straps then you you should be looking at how to improve grip strength. If you are then you have come to right place I found this cool video on some exercises to improve grip strength but if you wanted a shorter version I have added the main points in some notes below.
Basically Elliott talks about the benefits of a strong grip, mostly what is know as “irradiation” which is the recruitment of other muscles to perform a specific task, in this case the recruitment of the forearm, bicep, tricep, shoulder and back muscles in clenching a fist. This extra strength can translate extremely well with other exercises such as chin-us or the bench press.
When he does get to the good stuff he list a number of exercises to help imporve your grip strength:
1. Supinated (palms up) Barbell Hang
For this exercise load up the bar with a deadlift weight you could do 10-12 reps with. Hold the bar in front of you in a supinated grip and time yourself. Do this at the end of a workout and try to improve your time each time you perform this.
2. Fat Grips
Use wide grips on any of your bar exercises. This will force the hand and the forearm to work much harder than usual and help improve your grip strength whilst maintaining your normal routine.
3. Dumbbell and plates squeeze
Hold a dumbell in one hand by gripping the wide part of the bell with your fingers. Hold for as long as possible and time your efforts. The plates squeeze is exactly the same but instead squeeze 2 plates between your fingers this time.
4. Dead Hangs
Very simple, grab a chinup bar and hang as long as you can. Make sure you time it and compete to beat your time when you perform the exercise.
