You want an easy way to improve grip strength for pullups, right?
There are several ways to improve grip strength for pullups. First, experiment with a thumbless grip, closed grip, and hook grip. After that, try mixing up your grip width and orientation, perform towel pullups, do eccentric only pullups, perform dead hangs, do weighted pullups, incorporate standard grip strength exercises, and work on your forearm strength. All of these techniques are paths to an increased grip strength for pullups.
Pullups are supposed to be an upper back exercise, and we want to keep it that way. By making sure your grip is strong, you can eliminate one limiting factor and make greater gains with pullups.
Why is Grip Strength Important for Pullups?
There are several important strength factors in a pullup:
- Lat strength
- Rear delt strength
- Biceps and forearm strength
- Grip strength
If you are lacking in any one of those areas, your pullup will suffer. A weak grip is often the culprit in many pulling exercises. Since the main target of pullups is supposed to be your lats, being limited by a weak grip can really set you back.
Often, people will just avoid doing pullups altogether if they have a weak grip. They may substitute lat pulldowns or pulldowns with bands. Although these are fine exercises, they are no substitute for the mass and strength building power of the basic pullup.
Sometimes, people will use lifting straps to help a weak grip. Although it’s perfectly fine to use straps on certain exercises (and occasionally with pullups), you really shouldn’t need to rely on them.
The ideal solution is to find ways to address your grip weakness instead of relying on straps or changing up exercises. The first way to address a grip weakness is to make sure your grip technique is on point.
How Should You Grip the Bar for Pullups?
There’s no one exact method on how to improve grip strength for pullups. is not a hard science. You will have to experiment and find what works best for you. That being said, there are two schools of thought when it comes to optimal grip for pullups:
Thumbless Grip
The idea behind the thumbless grip is a bit counter intuitive at first. Generally speaking, when you have a closed grip (as opposed to thumbless), your grip strength is stronger. So, why would a thumbless grip be of any advantage for grip strength?
Well, many people find a thumbless grip to be more comfortable. When your thumb is wrapped around the bar your wrist is moved slightly forward. This can be uncomfortable and actually lead to a weaker grip for some folks. This is especially true the wider the pullup grip.
With a thumbless grip, many people will find that, at first, you may feel weaker. As you do it more, you will become more comfortable with that grip and many claim to feel stronger after that adaptation has occurred.
Closed Grip
With the standard closed thumbs around the bar grip, you are able to concentrate more power in your hands for a stronger grip. Consider the following: flex your biceps with your grip open. Now flex them with your grip closed. There is naturally a lot more power when your grip is closed.
Now, as we’ve already seen, there is some trade-off in comfort (for some people) in closing your grip on the pullups. You will have to see which grip works better for you.
Hook Grip
Not to be confused with the deadlift hook grip, the hook grip variation on pullups simply involves moving your thumb further down your fingers towards your pinky. Some people prefer this grip variation for pullups. Personally, I find it feels almost exactly the same as the standard closed grip.
Seven Methods to Improve Grip Strength for Pullups
Mix up your grip width and orientation
When most people do pullups, they almost always perform the same standard pullup: hand grip is pronated (palms facing away) and shoulder width apart. While this is the gold standard for pullups, changing your grip width can go a long way to improving grip strength.
Try performing pronated grip pullups with a grip wider than shoulder width:
Another thing to try is using a supinated (palms facing you) grip. It feels really awkward to do these wide grip because of the stress it places on your wrists, so I recommend to do them with a closer grip:
Make sure to keep your elbows in when performing them this way.
Finally, if you have access to a pull up bar with neutral grip handles, then try doing those. The neutral grip is another way of mixing it up and challenging your grip in a new way:
Towel Pullups
Towel pullups are a classic grip strength training exercise. Seriously, if you haven’t done these before, you will be stunned at how challenging they are. Your grip will fail before anything else on this exercise, that is for sure.
You can perform this exercise one of two ways: either throw a towel over a pullup bar, grab both ends, and perform pullups, or use two smaller towels, throw them over a pullup bar, and grab both ends with each hand:
I recommend doing 3-4 sets of these after your normal pullups. You will definitely notice an increase in grip strength if you do these consistently.
Eccentric Pullups
Eccentric pullups are simply the lowering portion of pullups only. So, you would use your legs to jump up and put your chin above the bar and then slowly lower yourself down for a specified number of seconds. Five seconds should be good. Your grip will be burning on the way down.
Dead Hangs
Dead hangs are one of the most respected grip strength exercises in the fitness world. The 100 second hang challenge has been an internet sensation for a while now. Dead hangs are exactly as the name implies: hang on a pullup bar, exactly as you would in the starting position of a pullup. Time yourself on this one and try to hang longer each time. You can also keep the time static and add weight. Another option is to use fat gripz:
Weighted Pullups
So many people only do pullups with their own bodyweight, missing all of the benefits of weighted pullups (which I won’t go into here). If you are only used to pulling your own bodyweight up, then adding weight can challenge your grip. You will notice after doing weighted pullups, normal ones seem a lot easier! Don’t be afraid to do low reps and go heavy here.
Grip Exercises
There are several grip exercises which can have a profound effect on your grip strength for pullups:
Plate Pinch
This is a classic grip exercise which will have your fingers killing you within seconds. Just take a couple ten pound weight plates, pinch them together with your fingers, and hold:
Dumbbell Hold
While standing, hold two dumbbells for as long as you can. Do this for 2-3 sets and try to beat your time week after week.
Hand Grip Strengthener
This little device is awesome for strengthening your grip. All you do is squeeze it together. Pretty simple!
Farmer’s Walk
Grab a 45 pound plate or dumbbell in each hand and walk around with it for as long as you can. Love this one!
Forearm Exercises
Working your forearms often directly translates into improved grip strength. The forearm muscles are tied together so closely with your grip strength that a forearm workout and a grip workout are often almost indistinguishable. A few great exercises to try:
Wrist Roller
Using a wrist roller training device, simply attach weights and roll it up.
Pinwheel Curl
Also known as the “cross body hammer curl”, this standing exercise involves curling a dumbbell across and up your torso until the top of the dumbbell is at chin level. Pause for a moment, lower, and complete the other side.
Reverse Curl
Reverse curls are great with a barbell, but even better with an EZ bar. Simply perform a standing barbell curl, but with your grip pronated. This one really burns the forearms.
Increased Grip Strength Equals a Better Pullup
Now that we’ve explored a number of options for increasing grip strength for pullups, it’s time to put these techniques and ideas to the test. Some of them will work for you and some of them probably won’t. That’s okay. Part of this whole game is figuring out what works for you.
Experiment with all of the different techniques, have fun, and keep making gains!
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