The deadlift, despite being one of the best and most complete exercises that we can perform to gain strength and stay in shape, is at the same time one of the exercises in which we can most easily injure ourselves.
Taking care of the technique with which we perform this exercise will be essential if we want to avoid an injury that could leave us sequelae for the rest of our lives. And the grip is one of the aspects of the technique that we must take care of the most, since starting the movement with a bad grip will cause the lift to be inefficient and will force us to adopt an uncomfortable posture and compensate for that deficit, which could lead to a injury.
Find out how to find the best grip to do the deadlift .
The importance of grip in the deadlift
A correct posture during the execution of the deadlift movement starts from a good grip that must be, mainly, firm and solid to prevent the bar from slipping from our hands or from adopting an uncomfortable position and that we have to rectify later.
Starting from an incorrect grip in the deadlift can mean a potential risk of injury, because we can tend to try to rectify our grip during the execution of the movement and this can lead to an injury, so this is one of the most important points. important to keep in mind when practicing this exercise.
Since there are different types of deadlift grips , we must test to see which of them we feel most comfortable with when performing this exercise. We must also point out that one of the peculiarities of the deadlift is that if at any time we feel that we may suffer an injury or that the bar may fall, we can release the bar without danger of it falling on us, as it does, for example, in the squat or military press.
Types of deadlift grip
1. Double grip
The double grip is the most classic grip of the deadlift , and consists of grasping the bar with both hands in supination, encircling it with all five fingers.
This type of grip is what every beginner starts with and allows us, among other things, to quickly release the bar in the face of any unforeseen event to avoid injury. On the other hand, if we do not have a good grip strength with our hands, the bar can slip and we can fail in the attempt to lift the bar if we are working with high loads.
2. Mixed grip
The mixed grip is one of the most used in the execution of the deadlift. In my opinion, it is a grip that can be very useful to perform a semi-heavy deadlift , since by placing one hand in pronation and the other in supination we will prevent the bar from rotating over our hands and causing us some kind of discomfort .
However, a negative point of this grip could be the excessive tension that can be generated in the biceps of the hand that is placed holding the bar in pronation, so we must evaluate the sensations that we have with each grip and according to the weight that Let’s load on the bar
3. Hook grip
To perform the hook grip , the first thing is to surround the bar itself with our thumb as if it were a hook and, later, we will proceed to surround our thumb with the rest of our fingers. This gesture will help to “secure” the grip of the thumb as if it were a padlock, but it presents a negative point: it is a grip that can be painful since we are somewhat trapping our thumb against the bar, so to Performing a heavy deadlift may not be the best option.
References
- Michael Matthews. How to Find the Best Deadlift Grip For You. For Muscleforlife. [Revised January 2018]
