10 (Finger)Tips for Awesome Grip Strength
How to hang in there just a little longer.
Gabrielle asked me a question while we were watching American Ninja Warrior: USA vs The World the other night — specifically Stage 2, which is almost 100% upper body.
How do they toughen up their hands for these obstacles? My hands get sore so fast but I don’t feel like they get tougher at all.
When I suggested that they probably just naturally get tough by training on obstacles and climbing walls regularly, she challenged me to research it and come up with ways that we could build up our own hand toughness and strength more quickly.
So I did.
10 (Finger) Tips for Building Grip Strength At Home
After scouring google and a few other sources, these are the 10 best grip training exercises I could find. You can do almost all of these at home or by visiting your local park, assuming you have a pull up bar (or access to a small swing set) and a few inexpensive weights (I recommend grip plates).
Let’s get handsy!
1. Train Bare Handed
This seems to be a recurring theme in OCR training literature. We initially starting training using workout gloves, because — well, they make hanging onto things easier. When you’re trying to do pull ups on a thick swing set bar and you can barely do 2 or 3 as-is, you need all the help that you can get.
Since then, we’ve started doing more work bare handed (me especially), but there does seem to be a baseline of strength you need to develop before you can effectively move into that. I’d say if you can do 4–5 pull ups (or pull up training exercises, which Gabrielle does and we’ll have to talk about another time), you’re ready to start going bare handed.
Before that, there’s no shame in using gloves to help build up your arms and back.
2. Train on Climbing Walls
This is the one thing you’re almost certainly going to have to pay for, so I’m getting it out of the way. Most major cities have at least one place with a climbing wall you can use for a fee, and I highly recommend it.
Climbing is a phenomenal workout for your whole body, but especially for your hands, arms, and shoulders. We’re fortunate to have a few options in the area; hopefully you have at least one nearby.
3. Train on Monkey Bars
Every children’s playground worth the name has a set of monkey bars. They’re usually underutilized, in my experience as a parent who visits parks pretty regularly. Feel no shame: get up there, and get to work!
Adults will often have to bend their legs to pull this off, but that’s fine. Bend at the knees to work your hamstrings, or lift them up toward your stomach for an extended hanging crunch.
4. Train with Ropes
Holding onto a rope, depending on its coarseness, can be pretty tough on your hands. It’s also a great workout, and one you can do in your own backyard.
We actually just bought a 15' climbing rope, which we’ll be hanging from our tree tonight — check Facebook or Instagram if you want to see it in action.
Climbing ropes are found in a number of obstacle course races, especially the more challenging ones, so it’s an important skill to develop.
You can find a list of affordable climbing ropes in different lengths here.
Battle ropes are another great backyard option for building grip and arm strength. We don’t have one at present, but that could change. You can find these online, but I suspect picking up a thick length of rope from a local hardware store would work just fine.
5. Grip While Running
You can also train your grip endurance by carrying hard-to-hold objects in each hand while running. These could be small logs or big sticks, weights, or an over-sized phone (it’s on you if you drop it — I take no responsibility). Just make sure it’s difficult enough to hang onto that your hand will get tired.
Items with a rough texture, like logs or sticks are great because they can toughen up your palms too.
6. Grip Squats
Obstacle course racing is a full body sport, which means you need to train every part of yourself to be strong. To that end, try doing your squats and lunges while pinching a pair of disc-shaped barbell weights (grip weights) between your fingers.
Two 10 pound weight pinched between the fingers of each hand will add a decent bit of weight to your leg workout while also fatiguing your hands and forearms, making these exercises more full body than they usually are. Depending on your current strength, you can get the same effect by using smaller or larger weights.
7. Towel Curls and Towel Ups
A lot of people think that just lifting weights more often will train your grip for obstacles. While there’s some truth to that, that strong full-handed grip is the easiest hold to train with, and there will be many times you can’t get a great hold on the course.
Instead, try wrapping towels or short lengths of rope around your dumbells or run them through grip weights and hold onto that when lifting instead of the handle. Make sure you’ve secured them tightly and firmly so you don’t end up with a weight on your toes (again, I take no responsibility if you’re careless here)!
Along the same lines, you can also train your grip by running a towel or rope over your pull up bar (or swing set) and using that for pull ups instead of the bar itself. Just make sure you’re using something strong enough to support your weight — I hope I don’t need to make that disclaimer again!
8. Switch Your Grip
When training pull ups on a bar, you can build grip endurance and adaptability by switching your grip while hanging after each rep. You never know what a course might throw at you, so this will make you both strong and adaptable.
To do this thoroughly, start with an overhand pull up. When you lower yourself down, reverse the grip of your right hand, then do your next rep. After coming down, reverse the grip of your left hand before the third rep (you should now be doing an underhand pull up).
Continue alternating which hand you reverse the grip on for as many reps as you can handle.
Note: This is not a good way to learn how to do pull ups. If you can’t manage at least 5 or 6 in a row without switching your grip, focus on continuing to build on your fundamentals before trying something more advanced like this.
9. Dead Hangs
Dead hangs and cliffhangers are a common feature on more difficult obstacle course, so train for them!
Practice hanging from a bar, ledge, or climbing hold for as long as you can. Start by aiming for 10–15 second, and keep working your way up every time you train.
Once you can hang for 60 seconds, it’s time to amp up the challenge. Try doing things like switching your grip every 15 seconds (as with the Grip-Switching Pull Ups in number 8), moving side-to-side along whatever you’re holding onto, or even turning yourself around to face the opposite direction.
10. Resisted Hand Opening
I give full credit for this one to Coach Mark Barroso on the Spartan blog.
Start by touching the tips of your fingers to your thumb tip, like you’re making a bird’s beak with your hand. Then wrap a rubber band around your fingers and thumb, just before the nails (so it doesn’t slip). Now, slowly open and close your hand against the resistance of the band.
This will train your hand and forearm muscles to grab more quickly and powerfully.
Key Sources:
- Down and Dirty: The Essential Training Guide for Obstacle Course Races and Mud Runs
- Spartan Race Blog
- My Personal Experience Training and Watching Pros train on Social Media
We’ll be getting right to work on building up our hand strength and toughness using these exercises, but I’m curious: what other great techniques are out there?
If you have a handy tip for getting a grip, please let me know!
Full Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this story which I may profit from.
