Push exercises put pressure on your wrists. Pull exercises pull the bar out of your hands. Gripping bars correctly prevents problems like wrist pain or torn calluses. This article will teach you how to grip the bar correctly.
Push Exercises. These are weight lifting & body-weight exercises where you push the weight/yourself away. StrongLifts 5×5 includes 3 push exercises:
A common error is to put the bar high in your hands, close to your fingers. Your wrists then roll back and get stretched by the weight. This causes wrist pain. Wrists wraps & wrists curls won’t help. You need to grip the bar correctly.
Left: incorrect grip technique, wrists roll back. Right: correct grip technique.
How to Grip Bars: Push Exercises. Put the bar close to the heel of your hands. Thumbs around the bar to avoid accidents. Squeeze the bar hard to increase power transfer to the bar. This also prevents the bar to move in your hands.
Left: incorrect grip technique, too high. Right: correct technique, close to the fingers.
Pull Exercises. These are exercises where you pull the weight or yourself against gravity. Stronglifts 5×5 includes 4 pull exercises:
The bar will slide down during pulling movement if you put the bar in your hand palm. This folds your palm skin, increasing callus formation. Bigger calluses rip off more easily, especially during heavy Deadlifts.
Torn calluses take 2 weeks to heal. Lifting feels uncomfortable, forcing you to lower the weight. It takes another 2 weeks for your skin to toughen up. During those 2 weeks the callus can rip off again.
How to Grip Bars: Pull Exercises. The solution is to put the bar close to your fingers. Grip the bar into the hook of your fingers. This minimizes skin folding, and thus callus formation.
If you gripped the bar incorrectly until now, the new grip technique will feel uncomfortable. Persist. Think of the benefits. Lower the weight if necessary, and keep practicing. You’ll get used to it.
