DeadLifting

How should I grip the bar? Heres the problem. When I use and alternate grip my poundage goes way up. And I feel the movement throughout my entire body. One problem is though I think it is creating a lat imbalnce in my body. My right lat is larger than my left lat. Weird??? Then when I use a two-overhand grip my poundage goes way down becuase my forearms give out after 4-5 reps. So what do you guys use? What would you do use the alternate grip and heavily stress my body while maybe creating a lat imbalance, or use the overhand grip and lighlty stress my body? It may sound confusing, but if you understand please give me as much information as you want! Thanks guys!!!

Learn to use a hook grip. It’s very secure. It does hurt quite a bit at first, but once you get used to it it’s pretty comfortable.

If you want to stick with a mixed grip, though, try alternating which hand is pronated/supinated.

I use a pronated grip with lifting straps. I’ve never been a big fan of the mixed grip for some reason.

I generally do forearm work the same day as my deadlifting and also try to do atleast one of my work sets without straps. I perform all of my warm up sets without them as well so I can help develop my forearms. Occasionally I will do the alternate grip though for a little variety, being sure to alternate which hand is pronated and supinated to help avoid an imbalance.

um why dont you alternate your alternate grip. have your right supinated and left prontated one set and on the next do it with you left supinated and right pronated. if you do an even number of sets all should be sweet

Try using some weight straps, the reason your poundage goes done with the double overhand grip is probably only due to a grip strength issue.

If you use straps, you will never improve the problem in the first place. I used to use straps for a while, for DB rows, bent rows, etc. BOY WAS I SURPRISED at how weak my grip was compared to everything else. It takes a few months to get your (strap-free) grip up to the levels of the rest of your body, but it is totally worth it. However, in the case of deadlifts, I am still trying to eliminate my own grip as “the weakest link”, as the poundages are obviously higher. I’m sorry I used the straps in the first place. I suggest not using straps, if you do use them, lose them the sooner the better. The advice about alternating the alternate grips was good.

after using straps for too long I went to an alternate grip so that my deadlift poundage stayed roughly the same but my forearms got some work. The problem was that I was creating an uneven rotational force within the lumbar area even though I was alternating the grip round per rep (i.e. put the weight down swithced my pronated hand to supinated and vice versa for the other hand and then performed the next rep) unfortunately this uneven force on my lumbar area caused my left sacroiliac joint to tighten up and cause me postural problems (adams position)which caused me pain and funny sensations down my right leg. as such I just stopped deadlifting with a mixed grip and went to deadlifting with an overhand grip even though my poundage was way down. If you are creating an imbalance through your alternate grip I would stop - especially considering the lats effect the postural position of your shoulder, lower back and possible your hip area - which will have a major effect on many of your other lifts. you are only as strong as your weakest link so just concentrate on bringing up your grip strength untill you feel the movement taxing your whole body again

Your weak link is your grip. Either test the hook grip (hurts like hell and I couldn’t see myself not getting a seriously messed up thumb joint down the road from it) or train your grip. Probably the single best adjunctive exercise for the grip is the static holds with the adjustable Crusher gripper followed by slow negatives. Loading the barbell down in the rack with significantly more weight than you can Deadlift from the floor and just holding it in the upright position for the length of a set also helps if done after your normal sets.

Increasing grip strength is always good, but with certain types of lifts there is no fucking way that your grip strength will be strong enough to get the maximum results out of the movement. If deadlifting a considerable amount of weight, ie. 400lbs and up use straps. As for the player haters who think this is a bad idea, what the strong man comp. on espn some time. All those fuckers use straps on lifts similar to a deadlift.

If you are in a competition and are allowed straps then great, but in this years british strongest man comp they had to do a deadlift hold and were not allowed to use straps. the best time was way smaller than the record without straps but you could tell who did work with straps and without. I’m not saying straps aren’t valuable in aiding to build whole body strength but they shouldn’t be used continuosly and there are times when just wroking with the weight you can grip will prevent injuries by giving certain muscles a reduced load whilst still taxing other areas of your musculature that need attention.
some times I stop and wonder why lifters grips give out before other muscles? is it a natural response by the body to prevent injury to an area, like the way your teeth and jaw will crack before your neck if you recieve an impact in the face or the way the golgi tendon organs and muscle spindles send inhibitory signals to the muscles before they create enough tension to rip them apart?

I alternate which hand is pronated/supinated. And what I’ve been doing is my first two sets of deads (225lb and 245lbs) are done with no straps. As my grip strength develops, I will be performing the 275lb dead with no straps, and so on. Until that time, any pull 275 and above, straps are used.

Hey KB I tried the hook grip, felt interesting… it was like my palm wasn’t feeling any sensation but my thumb was. It didn’t hurt much, but it was kinda distracting. Then the day after it felt like my thumb was “annoyed” hmm… hard to describe. This was with 225 for about 5 reps (I actually don’t really count them…)

Yeah, I know what you mean by the “annoyed” feeling. Just keep at it, it does become natural after a while. Doing rack holds for time with 100-120% of your 1RM helps a lot. I’ve worked up to 600lbs for 10 seconds and my grip holds up just fine.

You could also try using the hook grip on other exercises like rows, pullups, shrugs to build up a tolerance to it.

Once you get used to it, you will never go back to the alternate grip.