Grip and hand care

These notes combine advice from 38 reviewed passages across 36 workouts.

Overview

Chalk and magnesium are standard grip aids in bar training. They are used freely, in whatever way is comfortable, and they see most use on the bar, where the hands do the holding. On holding work, magnesium keeps the grip from slipping and stops the body from swinging.

Some slipping is normal, even for professional athletes, and a sweaty hand can slide despite chalk. When a bar keeps slipping from your hand, grip strength is the limiting factor and the thing to develop. Bar work is done without gloves, and the marks the bar leaves on the hands are accepted as part of the process.

Slipping and grip strength

When the bar slips, use precautions: a strap you tie on or the grip technique you have been shown. At the starting weights a normal hold is fine; grip problems get solved as the load increases. The more grip strength you have, the more your overall strength increases.

Once a movement is manageable under easier conditions, do not avoid a slippery bar, switch to a drier bar, or reach for gloves or chalk just to get through it. Training under demanding grip conditions builds more strength; the aim is to perform when conditions are hard.

Dry hands, chalk, and grip aids

Palms differ between people: some stay dry on their own, while others become wet through a session. For continuously wet palms, magnesium works, including in its dry form.

For handstand work, dry the insides of the hands first. Dry hands are an advantage in a handstand.

Liquid magnesium takes effect on the grip immediately because it reduces friction between the hand and the bar.

Starting a bar session with magnesium on the hands is common practice, and it causes no problem once you know how to use it.

Chalk is a standard item. Every athlete should carry it and use it during training.

Adhesive tape on the bar is not bad, and it gives some ease at first. Rotations such as the giant spin are made easier by a grip you hold in the hand, the kind seen in gymnastics competition.

For the Reverse Roll, a cloth or towel can be held as an alternative to the normal arm grip, and you can assign the movement that way.

Hand skin under bar work

In his own training, the coach’s palm began peeling a lot. It came from repeatedly squeezing the handle and from the impact of the repetitions; the handle material, metal or plastic, made no difference.

He prefers a bare metal bar with a little magnesium on the grip over a taped bar.

While working on the false grip, his hands slipped on the bar, so he uses magnesium to keep them from sliding.

At a festival, he faced a two-minute hang on a bar someone had greased so heavily that oil dripped from his hand. A little magnesium could not hold against the grease, and the effort was harder than any he remembered, though he finished the two minutes.

His own grip slips as well: when he does several repetitions in a row, at least one will slip.

In his own hands, the parts that peeled and rebuilt are harder than other parts and grip a bar or the floor better; the softer parts grip less well.

During a phase of mostly static, pull-up-focused training, grip straps helped him; he connects their benefit to the pull-dominant nature of the work.