I deadlifted 3x340 just yesterday. When I went up for rep #4, my grip was too weak to hold on to it in lockout. So I dropped the bar JUST before locking it out and getting a solid, undeniable PR. Which really sucked.
Is there any amount or type of grip training I can do during my upcoming deload week (I’m on week 3 of a 5/3/1 cycle) to strengthen my grip enough so that it isn’t the weak link in deadlifting, while minimally impeding whatever other recovery has to be made during the deload and, of course, letting my grip itself recover by the time the next cycle starts?
I feel your pain, I have short arms and smooth tiny girl hands so grip in the deadlift is normally a big issue for me too.
As opposed to tacking on something at the end of the cycle, I’d implement some grip work as accessory on a day other than deadlift day. (I suggest not the days immediately before or after.) Doing it this way would make it a consistent part of your training and your benefit wouldn’t just be limited to doing it one week out of the month. You could spread it out more, be fresher and train harder with it if you let it spread over the whole four weeks.
There are a lot of great grip exercises to choose from, this article from Andy Bolton has a lot of great ideas, and from an obviously trustworthy source. There are a few other grip articles around the site, but this was one of my favourites.
Personally for me, what helped me the most was High-Rep Dumbbell Rows (Kroc Rows). Grip being your concern, and not so much back strength, I’d lower the weight appropriately down so you can hit a good 25-30+ reps on a top set and have your hands take most of the work. I schedule it in on Bench day to counter-act the whole push-pull equilibrium, and it’s a couple days out from deadlift day so it doesn’t interfere with my recovery. At the very least it’s worth adding in for a few cycles to see if it makes a difference, and replacing it with something else if it doesn’t.
Anything that actually helps my grip (high rep db rows, farmers walks, heavy shrugs) I feel like they’re harder to recover from than about anything else.
OK, thanks. The reason I ask for during deload is because I already do 3 sets of barbell holds for 15-20sec on Wednesday and Friday, and I deadlift Monday. So I’m open to any tips, but mainly I was hoping that I could just do smth like bomb my forearms during the first half of my deload week, let them recover for the second half, and be recovered but have stronger grip by the start of the new cycle.
I guess if I want to get better at squeezing heavy things I’ll just have to practice squeezing heavy things more often. Thanks for the articles, I’ll read those and figure out what to do.
i naturally have small forearms and im only deadlifting about 200 lbs and using reverse grip. But one thing i have started doing is forearm rolls. It seems to be working. I do them on a machine were theres a rope tied to a weight and you forearm roll the weight up. That may help you not sure how effective it is but seems to be working for me so far.
If you have access to a buffalo bar or something of the sort, use it! Really good stuff for grip work. I like loading one with a weight that feels pretty heavy on my grip, doing a few reps and holding it until my grip fails on the last rep.