Deadlift Mixed Grip Question

Hi guys.

I am wondering about how people do mixed grips. I searched on google about it and I found out that most people do mixed grips when deadlifting heavy - they also switch grips every set. Some go for a double overhand grip. Some also are doing double underhand grip. And a few switch grip every rep. I am one of these few ones and I currently switch grip every rep on deadlifts. I do a mixed grip, execute a rep, then change switch sides(overhand to underhand and vice versa) and repeat.

Is there a disadvantage in doing it this way or I could have lifted better in doing switching grips every set instead of every rep. My deadlift is now very challenging.

Please advise.

Do it the same way every rep and every set. Don’t worry about ever changing grips

I would only use a mixed grip in competition personally. I see no value in using it for training. I would just use straps at that point. However, if you are making progress with your current approach, keep it up.

Switching grips every rep is essentially doing a “cluster set” or several singles in short succession. That is good if you really want to emphasize building that starting strength right from the floor. Keeping the same grip throughout the set and switching it up each set will allow you to perform your reps with less time/rest between them.

As TPunisher mentioned, using straps and a double overhand grip will be the safest approach that will allow you to really overload your back and hips with your Deadlifts. It won’t build the grip as well though, so if you are looking to compete in powerlifting you’ll want to perform at least some regular heavy sets without straps.

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
Switching grips every rep is essentially doing a “cluster set” or several singles in short succession. That is good if you really want to emphasize building that starting strength right from the floor. Keeping the same grip throughout the set and switching it up each set will allow you to perform your reps with less time/rest between them.

As TPunisher mentioned, using straps and a double overhand grip will be the safest approach that will allow you to really overload your back and hips with your Deadlifts. It won’t build the grip as well though, so if you are looking to compete in powerlifting you’ll want to perform at least some regular heavy sets without straps.[/quote]

As a powerlifter, I have not found that to be true. The only time I pull without straps is in a meet. I do make sure to train my grip just lik e everything else. I like timed holds with captains of crush grippers.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
Switching grips every rep is essentially doing a “cluster set” or several singles in short succession. That is good if you really want to emphasize building that starting strength right from the floor. Keeping the same grip throughout the set and switching it up each set will allow you to perform your reps with less time/rest between them.

As TPunisher mentioned, using straps and a double overhand grip will be the safest approach that will allow you to really overload your back and hips with your Deadlifts. It won’t build the grip as well though, so if you are looking to compete in powerlifting you’ll want to perform at least some regular heavy sets without straps.[/quote]

As a powerlifter, I have not found that to be true. The only time I pull without straps is in a meet. I do make sure to train my grip just lik e everything else. I like timed holds with captains of crush grippers.[/quote]

Yeah, you can certainly do grip specific work to supplement not getting the work in while DL’ing. More than one way to skin a cat.

you could also make the argument for training in comp conditions if training for one - eg use mixed grip in training if you’re going to use it in comp.

[quote]caveman101 wrote:
you could also make the argument for training in comp conditions if training for one - eg use mixed grip in training if you’re going to use it in comp.
[/quote]

I don’t understand the benefit of doing this though.

In my training, I try to put myself in the ideal position to get stronger, whereas in a competition, I try to put myself in the ideal position to demonstrate my strength. I find that rarely do the former and the latter actually meet up. When I squat, I don’t come anywhere near depth and I never do singles in training, and doing this helps me build up the strength on a meet attempt, whereas whenever I trained competition depth heavy singles I rarely made progress. The same applies with my deadlifting, where I pull multiple reps with straps touch and go.

It may stem from my time in martial arts, where I learned that you don’t go 100% in sparring, but instead use it as an opportunity to develop the skills to be a better fighter.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]caveman101 wrote:
you could also make the argument for training in comp conditions if training for one - eg use mixed grip in training if you’re going to use it in comp.
[/quote]

I don’t understand the benefit of doing this though.

In my training, I try to put myself in the ideal position to get stronger, whereas in a competition, I try to put myself in the ideal position to demonstrate my strength. I find that rarely do the former and the latter actually meet up. When I squat, I don’t come anywhere near depth and I never do singles in training, and doing this helps me build up the strength on a meet attempt, whereas whenever I trained competition depth heavy singles I rarely made progress. The same applies with my deadlifting, where I pull multiple reps with straps touch and go.

It may stem from my time in martial arts, where I learned that you don’t go 100% in sparring, but instead use it as an opportunity to develop the skills to be a better fighter.[/quote]

I always thought it was recommended to do lifts how they were meant to be done in competition regards squat depth, pausing the bar on the chest etc I also thought it was usually recommended to work on the weak parts of a lift with things like deficit deadlifts etc.

When i trained for combat sports the saying was always train hard fight easy which again differs from you lol

I have no where near your experience or results for that matter but it seems that what you say is the opposite to what i was lead to believe so I’m really interested in your view point from a learning point of view as what you do clearly works very well for you and i could definitely benefit from your advise.

Going back to the original question i always use an over hand grip for my warm up sets but switch to the mixed grip for my work sets.

You will have to remember for the combatv sport example, I was referencing intensity in sparring, not difficulty of training. I was not saying that I did not train hard, but that I did not fight when I sparred, I sparred.

Surely when you trained combat sports, you performed training drills at lower intensities than you would have fought at, yet the intent of these drills was to become a better fighter. Stuff like rolling at 60% where you both weren’t trying to kill each other.

Thanks for the reply T3hPwisher please don’t take what I said the wrong way as I wasn’t trying to be negative as I said you know a lot more about training than I do.

With regards to drills when learning something new sure I practiced slow, other than that though I pretty much put at least 90% effort in especially with sparring and grappling but when I say combat sports I’m talking about judo and boxing rather than MMA which allows you to go hard without causing as many injuries as MMA .

Without wanting to hog someones thread I was wondering if you could answer another question for me regarding frequency, ie how many times a week do you train the big 3 ie bench, squat and deadlift as I was thinking about reducing my bench to once a week ?

I think you and I are still getting effort and intensity mixed up. 100% effort should be given, it is the intensity that is moderated. You train to win competitions, not to win training. The significance being that, when you trained, the end goal was to become a better fighter, whereas when you fought, the end goal was to demonstrate your proficiency, not build upon it.

As for how I specifically train, I’m not able to post the link, but I wrote up my current training approach in my blog “mythical strength”. If you google “the mythical strength method”, it’ll pull up the blog. It was a post I wrote on 8 Dec.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
I think you and I are still getting effort and intensity mixed up. 100% effort should be given, it is the intensity that is moderated. You train to win competitions, not to win training. The significance being that, when you trained, the end goal was to become a better fighter, whereas when you fought, the end goal was to demonstrate your proficiency, not build upon it.

[/quote]

I agree regards weights that slow is better than flat out, but when it comes to sparring if you hold back to much ie don’t push the pace it won’t do you much good come fight time and you’ll end up running out of steam pretty quick. After all we tend to do what we practice.

Having said that what works for one person doesn’t always work for another, so I’m not saying your right and I’m wrong I’m just saying my approach regards combat sports works better for me just as your method works great for you.

Thanks for the link regards your training methods i’ll definitely check it out :slight_smile:

[quote]tredaway wrote:
I agree regards weights that slow is better than flat out, but when it comes to sparring if you hold back to much ie don’t push the pace it won’t do you much good come fight time and you’ll end up running out of steam pretty quick. After all we tend to do what we practice.

Having said that what works for one person doesn’t always work for another, so I’m not saying your right and I’m wrong I’m just saying my approach regards combat sports works better for me just as your method works great for you.

Thanks for the link regards your training methods i’ll definitely check it out :)[/quote]

I am not saying to go slow in sparring or not push the pace.

Let me try to explain myself again.

Lets say that you are an experienced boxer. You are attempting to become proficient at Muay Thai. You go to a Muay Thai school to learn this new art. You are now sparring in the Muay Thai school to learn how to become better at Muay Thai. When you are sparring at this school, would you only rely on your previous boxing skills so that you can “win” the sparring matches, or would you attempt to use the Muay Thai skills you are learning so that you can develop a skillset you are weak at during your training session?

Now, flash forward to fight night. Your opponent has an opening. Do you hit him in the liver with a shovel hook, a technique you have spent years training with your boxing and have become incredibly proficient in, or do you attempt to clinch and knee him, something you have been working on in your training, but don’t have as much proficiency in?

This is what I am trying to explain. In training, you are building strengths, in competition, you are demonstrating them. This is why, in training environments, you put yourself in positions where you are better able to build your strength. When you were learning how to box, I don’t imagine your coach threw you in the ring with a professional fighter and had him stomp you to death because that’s what it would be like in a fight, but instead gradually built up your foundation through constant repetition and building upon previous lessons.

If your experience in combat sports was entirely different from this, then the analogy will not work, but I trained at several schools and they all seemed to follow the same approach of gradually building up and putting you in a position to build your strengths.

Sorry for the late response guys and thanks for the replies. Not only I got an answer from my question, I also learned a lot from your posts. :slight_smile:

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
I would only use a mixed grip in competition personally. I see no value in using it for training. I would just use straps at that point. However, if you are making progress with your current approach, keep it up.[/quote]

Somewhat relevant hijack:

I use a very similar approach to deads, though I also add some additional double overhand deads w/ holds on a separate day (in addition to CoC training). I like it: it seems to be a very effective way to train.

But, you say you never use a mixed grip in training. Occasionally in training (but not very often), I will use a mixed grip for heavy singles to try and maintain the “feel” of the competition lift. Is this necessarily a bad thing?

[quote]Apoklyps wrote:

Somewhat relevant hijack:

I use a very similar approach to deads, though I also add some additional double overhand deads w/ holds on a separate day (in addition to CoC training). I like it: it seems to be a very effective way to train.

But, you say you never use a mixed grip in training. Occasionally in training (but not very often), I will use a mixed grip for heavy singles to try and maintain the “feel” of the competition lift. Is this necessarily a bad thing?[/quote]

I just don’t see the benefit of doing it personally. That said, I also never pull heavy singles in training, and only deadlift off the floor once every 2 months, so I rarely find myself in a situation where that could necessarily be employed. Same with all of the competition lifts. I honestly don’t think there is a lot of value in training the lifts like competition lifts in terms of getting bigger and stronger. I find that the form demands of a competition lift promote limited strength gains compared to tailoring the lift to your own needs.

Whenever I pull mixed grip in a competition, the adrenaline is flowing enough that I don’t notice anything different about the mixed grip compared to the double overhand. It seems pretty natural to me.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]tredaway wrote:
I agree regards weights that slow is better than flat out, but when it comes to sparring if you hold back to much ie don’t push the pace it won’t do you much good come fight time and you’ll end up running out of steam pretty quick. After all we tend to do what we practice.

Having said that what works for one person doesn’t always work for another, so I’m not saying your right and I’m wrong I’m just saying my approach regards combat sports works better for me just as your method works great for you.

Thanks for the link regards your training methods i’ll definitely check it out :)[/quote]

I am not saying to go slow in sparring or not push the pace.

Let me try to explain myself again.

Lets say that you are an experienced boxer. You are attempting to become proficient at Muay Thai. You go to a Muay Thai school to learn this new art. You are now sparring in the Muay Thai school to learn how to become better at Muay Thai. When you are sparring at this school, would you only rely on your previous boxing skills so that you can “win” the sparring matches, or would you attempt to use the Muay Thai skills you are learning so that you can develop a skillset you are weak at during your training session?

Now, flash forward to fight night. Your opponent has an opening. Do you hit him in the liver with a shovel hook, a technique you have spent years training with your boxing and have become incredibly proficient in, or do you attempt to clinch and knee him, something you have been working on in your training, but don’t have as much proficiency in?

This is what I am trying to explain. In training, you are building strengths, in competition, you are demonstrating them. This is why, in training environments, you put yourself in positions where you are better able to build your strength. When you were learning how to box, I don’t imagine your coach threw you in the ring with a professional fighter and had him stomp you to death because that’s what it would be like in a fight, but instead gradually built up your foundation through constant repetition and building upon previous lessons.

If your experience in combat sports was entirely different from this, then the analogy will not work, but I trained at several schools and they all seemed to follow the same approach of gradually building up and putting you in a position to build your strengths. [/quote]

Surly that would mean training your lifts from their weakest points ie deficit pulls etc as it would be easier to do rack pulls for most people which is the opposite to what you said earlier or did I misread your post ?

[quote]tredaway wrote:

Surly that would mean training your lifts from their weakest points ie deficit pulls etc as it would be easier to do rack pulls for most people which is the opposite to what you said earlier or did I misread your post ?
[/quote]

I feel as though I have lost you on the analogy and that we will not be able to understand each other through written forum. I wish you luck on your training.