Grip Strength, Could Be a Life Saver:
By Coach Patrick
What if I told you that grip strength has one of the strongest correlations to longer life-expectancy of any metric, and should be one of the most important areas to focus on for overall fitness?
If I have your attention, let me first make two points that will set up the rest of your read.
1) Am I saying that having a strong grip is the key to a longer life? No, but doing many of the things that strengthen our grip; carrying, hanging, lifting etc., are.
2) Importance, in this context, is applied based on the number of other areas a particular strength or weakness will impact.
Almost all of you are familiar with our fitness hierarchy: Nutrition, metabolic conditioning (cardiovascular endurance), gymnastics, weight lifting and sport, listed in order from most to least important. While you clearly notice grip strength not listed, one could make an argument for it to be placed right between metabolic conditioning and gymnastics. We all know why conditioning is important; if it’s lacking, even the things we are normally good at, fall apart. With grip strength, a deficiency can have almost as big of an impact. Chances are sometime in the past, you’ve had to put down a barbell or kettlebell or had to come off of the pullup bar because your grip was failing. We’re forced to stand around, watching the time tick away, as we try to regain the use of our hands. UGH! This shows us directly how grip strength can limit our fitness, more breaks = less intensity.
But wait, there’s more! A lack of adequate grip strength is not only going to make anything on the rig more difficult, but it may also keep you from even being able to strengthen the proper muscles to improve your gymnastics at all. How do you know if that’s you? One simple marker is if you are always dangling from your fingers when you’re on the rig. If you’re unable to hold proper wrist position, all of the banded pull ups and ring rows in the world likely aren’t going to move the needle.
“How do I fix it!?” There are some obvious answers: farmer carries, bar hangs, high-rep barbell complexes etc., but the lynchpin to success is the same as everything else. Consistency. Weaknesses must be addressed with a plan and the biggest part of that plan being, just stick to it. Taking a moment before the training day to remember your focus and to not let whiteboard results and/or ego get in the way, coming to open-gym (or simply a few mins before or after class) and putting in the work AND having the patience to allow the process to work. If all or some of this sounds familiar to you, reach out to your coach today and come up with a plan to crush those weaknesses!
Still not convinced? How about the fact that the number one reason for hand tears is deficient grip strength. Hand tears suck! They’re painful, can keep you from training, and cause you to post annoying pictures of your bloody hands on the grams! Fixing your grip strength can eliminate hand tears in all but the most grueling workouts. Hopefully you found this helpful and are provided some clarity on why this is important.
Reach out to your coach today and take the next step to a longer life.
