Grip Strength and Kettlebells

A popular claim:  kettlebell training increases grip strength. An area of interest with many kettlebell lifters and trainees is grip strength. Think about this for a moment.

My experience with this topic: I have been a serious student of hand strength for years now and I have trained with kettlebells for years now. In the area of grip strength, I can:

• Close a Captain of Crush gripper #3 in either hand.
• I have deadlifted 385lbs using an overhand grip on a 2″ bar.
• I have lifted 300lbs on a 2″ vertical bar, pinch lifted a pair of 35 plates with two fingers
• Lifted 100lbs block weight heads,
• Bent and broke wrenches, steel stock, and horseshoes
• Picked up 430lbs with one middle finger, 230lbs with one pinkie finger
• Torn over a thousand decks of high quality poker cards
• Performed many other feats of hand strength…most people would agree I have a set of strong mitts.

If kettlebell training was a superior method of grip development, thousands of people would be closing bigger grippers and score much better on support feats. This of course is not the situation we observe.

On a related note, people will contact me and ask how to build a stronger grip to use for KB lifting. Perhaps they feel their swing or snatch is limited by grip strength. These people will often ask what gripper they should buy in order to increase their # of lifts. Once again, closing a gripper is not specifically the same as holding on to the bell.

If you want a stronger grip, you must train for the quality you want to possess. Specifics rules everything in the realm of human performance.

Q. What is hand strength and how does it apply to kettlebells?

First function is support grip

The fingers and thumb are flexed around an object and held in position. In terms of gross weight moved- support grip is the strongest quality of hand movement which allows the most quantity of weight moved. Examine the barbell deadlift: the implement is secured by the holding strength of the fingers and thumb.

Swinging, cleaning, and snatching a kettlebell is support grip. Juggling Kettlebells is the best way to use kettlebells to build strong hands and arms.

The hand does not need any additional engagement other than what is required to hold on to the handle. To this end–no matter how hard you squeeze the handle, the resistance remains the same. You can accelerate the bell on the back swing to tax the grip somewhat more, but this is still just 36lbs, or 53lbs, or 70lbs. Not exactly a demanding load to the same hand form which can hold on to hundreds of pounds in resistance during a big pull. The difference is when we add speed, and that is where kettlebell Juggling pays high rewards.

The next form of the hand is closing, or crush grip

This is what people are doing when they squeeze a torsion gripper such a captain of crush. The crushing strength of the hand is inferior to its gross supporting strength. I will add from examination of my personal training, and the training of other accomplished grip athletes: Increasing crushing grip does not automatically translate to a stronger support grip.

If this were true, we would observe the strongest gripper closer would proportionally be the strongest in support feats. This is not the case. So swinging, cleaning, and snatching kettlebells will not yield impressive gains to the crush grip. Doing more crush grip work will add little improvement to your snatch numbers, it will not make long sets of swings easier, and shall not give you the extra “ompf” to the clean.

The third form of the hand is the forceps power of the thumb in pinching

When we look at pinching, we find dynamic pinching and static pinching. Once again, the closing and holding strength of the thumb plays little role to the support grip, especially a closed hand support such as when you hold the kettlebell. So if your focus in on kettlebell technique, you will find pinching to be a waste of effort.

The thing you must understand: specifics rule everything

I have now said that twice. If you need more support grip for your kettle bell training, the solution is found in training with kettlebells. Not on a V bar, not with an axle bar, not a torsion gripper. I write this to save you time, and help you focus your efforts to best reach your goals.

For the end of this, as you look at your own grip strength development, ask yourself a question:

Ask yourself if your gains in hand strength have been exactly where you wanted them to be at. I had this conversation with a trainer a few months back. He told me how he could close a #2 COC. I asked him how long he had been training with KBs before he could do that. “Two years,” he replied. I assure you, I can help you reach a #3 in less than two years, with moderate amounts of specific practice.

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