Weak Grip Strength Could be Holding Back Your Gains

I’m about to tell you something that nobody is telling you… and it’s the leading cause for why you and so many people continuously plateau at the gym, which in turn absolutely kills your momentum and motivation: YOUR GRIP STRENGTH IS WEAK.

There, I said it. Allow that to sink in. Your grip strength is WEAK!

For some of you, this resonates; for others, it triggers. But, unless you’re Popeye, it's quite simple – the thing that is holding you back at the gym is your grip strength, or lack thereof.  

When weight training, you need to think of your body as a chain. You will ONLY be able to lift what the weakest link in the chain can hold. In the vast majority of the lifts you do, your grip strength will be that weakest link.

Take a deadlift for example. To complete that lift, the activated major muscle groups consist of your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back, but it cannot be completed without holding on to the bar. So, in this case, the weakest link in the chain will be your forearms.

What else would you expect?

‍Forearms, and the joints and tendons required to hold a bar, are relatively tiny compared to the size and strength of your other major muscle groups in the chain. So, it is not difficult to logically conclude that the strength of your grip can never compare with the potential strength of your other larger muscle groups.

So then why are we allowing our lack of grip strength to dictate how much weight we can pull in a workout? Why are we robbing our other major muscle groups of lifting to their full potential?

If your goals at the gym are to grow, increase strength, and drop fat, it is essential that your muscles get to fatigue and failure. It's never the first two reps at the gym that count; it’s the LAST two. That’s where the growth comes from. When your muscles are stressed to the point of fatigue and failure, THAT’S when they grow. THAT’S when your metabolism kicks in and burns fat to help recover your depleted muscles.  

Recent studies suggest “the strength you hold in your hands, wrists and forearms says a lot about how healthy you are. It’s also an indication of your risk for injury, mental health conditions and more. People who maintain their grip strength age more slowly. They stay healthier longer and are stronger throughout their bodies.”¹

When you’re dropping the bar early due to grip fatigue, you’re essentially robbing your other muscles of their ability to get to failure. THAT, my friends, is why you’re plateauing. How can you expect to grow stronger consistently when the only muscle burning out and fatiguing is your forearms, and none of your other muscle groups?

In order to get stronger, you MUST remove the weakest link in that chain. Period.

Now I know, because I hear this ALL THE TIME, some of you are saying “if you can’t grip it, you shouldn’t lift it.” I couldn’t disagree more. It’s a cop out. If I had arthritis, and could only hold 40 lbs comfortably, but my body could lift 250lbs, should I just lift the 40lbs? What kind of gains should I expect if I can only lift what I can grip?

Please though, don’t get me wrong – grip strength is INCREDIBLY important. In fact, I would venture to say it's one of the most important muscle groups to train. Recent studies suggest “the strength you hold in your hands, wrists and forearms says a lot about how healthy you are. It’s also an indication of your risk for injury, mental health conditions and more. People who maintain their grip strength age more slowly. They stay healthier longer and are stronger throughout their bodies.”  

Therefore, it is crucial that you train your grip. However, you need to train it SEPARATELY, like it’s its own muscle group, because it is (and lucky for you, you just received a JerkFit Hand Grip Exerciser in your Lift Box to get you started!). 

There are tons of grip strength exercises you can do to increase your strength, and I highly recommend you do them, but you should NEVER allow your weak grip to hold back your other muscle groups, or you will continue to spin your wheels and hit plateaus.

So how do we remove the weakest link? 

With a simple tool that everyone should be using at the gym, lifting straps. They allow your arms to become an anchor for the weight, massively relieving the strain on your grip, and allowing your muscles to hit EVERY LAST REP without dropping the bar early from grip fatigue.

JerkFit has created the most premium, most comfortable, durable and grippy lifting straps on the market with Death Grips. They take 80% of the strain off of your forearms and are so incredibly grippy, you can virtually lift your fingers off the bar and the grips are still hanging on.

If you want to make consistent, measurable gains at the gym, you NEED a pair of lifting straps like Death Grips from JerkFit.  Simultaneously, you need to work on your grip strength, separately, to ensure you build that muscle for long term health, strength and vitality. You CAN and SHOULD do both.

Do that, and just watch how quickly you’ll be smashing through your PRs on a regular basis. This will keep you motivated and coming back for more, and hopefully for years to come!

Make the commitment to your body, invest in a pair of Death Grips right now and save 25% at JerkFit.com.

Stay Active, Stay Healthy

Jeff Hunter

Co-Founder and CEO JerkFit LLC

JerkFit.com

IG: @jerkfit

¹ https://health.clevelandclinic.org/grip-strength/#:~:text=Researchers%20call%20grip%20strength%20an,mental%20health%20conditions%20and%20more.

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