How to Improve Grip Strength: What Actually Works?

Train your grip directly and specifically. Heavy carries, dead hangs, static holds and lifting without straps all challenge your hands and forearms. Research in older adults found general exercise only modestly improves grip, while training that targets the task works better. And it's worth doing: grip strength is one of the strongest predictors of long-term health.

For lifters, grip is often the first thing to fail on deadlifts, rows and pull-ups. Here's why grip matters, what the research shows, and a simple plan to make yours stronger.

Why Does Grip Strength Matter?

For two reasons: lifting and long-term health. In the gym, a weak grip limits how much you can pull, so your back and legs never get fully trained. Outside the gym, grip strength is closely linked to overall health. A study of nearly 140,000 adults found weaker grip predicted higher risk of death and heart disease.

That 2015 study in The Lancet, part of the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) project, followed 139,691 adults aged 35 to 70 across 17 countries for a median of four years. For every 5 kg lower grip strength, the risk of dying from any cause rose by 16%.

Health outcome	Risk change per 5 kg lower grip strength
Death from any cause	16% higher
Death from cardiovascular disease	17% higher
Stroke	9% higher
Heart attack	7% higher

Grip strength was a stronger predictor of death than systolic blood pressure. It's an observational finding, though: the authors noted more research is needed to show whether improving strength actually reduces those risks.

Does Regular Lifting Improve Grip Strength?

Somewhat, but not as much as training grip directly. A meta-analysis of exercise programs in older adults found only small improvements in grip strength from general training. The authors noted that training specific to the task, along with varied training, seemed to work best. In other words, grip responds best when you train it on purpose.

That 2019 meta-analytical review in Gerontology pooled 24 trials with 3,018 older adults and found a small effect on grip from a range of exercise programs. It was a study of older adults rather than young lifters, but the principle applies: strength is specific to how you train it.

Heavy pulling helps, especially if you skip straps. But if grip is the weak link in your deadlift, adding direct grip work will close the gap faster.

What Are the Best Exercises for Grip Strength?

Exercises that make your hands hold heavy weight for time. Farmer's carries, dead hangs from a pull-up bar, heavy static holds at the top of a deadlift, and thick-grip or towel pulls all work. Wrist curls train the forearms too, but holding heavy loads is closer to what your grip does in real lifts.

A practical list:

1. Farmer's carries: walk with heavy dumbbells or kettlebells for 20 to 40 meters.
2. Dead hangs: hang from a pull-up bar for as long as you can, then rest.
3. Static holds: hold a heavy barbell or dumbbells at your sides for 10 to 30 seconds.
4. Double-overhand deadlifts: pull with both palms facing you instead of a mixed grip, for as long as you can hold on.
5. Pull-ups and chin-ups: our guide on pull ups vs chin ups covers the grips.

These recommendations are practical guidance rather than research findings; there's little research comparing specific grip exercises in young lifters.

Is Grip Strength a Good Measure of Overall Strength?

It's a useful health marker, but not a perfect measure of how strong you are. The PURE study called grip testing "a simple, inexpensive risk-stratifying method" for health. But the 2019 review of exercise programs warned that grip shouldn't be used to judge every kind of training, since many programs improve other strength without changing grip much.

That makes sense in practice. A lifter can squat and bench a lot while having an average grip, because those lifts barely challenge the hands. Grip reflects the strength of your forearms and hands, plus your general activity and health. If you want the forearms to look bigger as well, see how to get bigger forearms.

So treat a strong grip as one good sign among several, and train it alongside, not instead of, your main lifts.

Should You Use Lifting Straps?

Use them selectively. Straps let you train your back and legs with weights your grip can't yet hold, which is useful for heavy or high-rep pulling sets. But if you use them on everything, your grip never gets the work it needs. A good compromise is to do your lighter sets without straps and save straps for your heaviest work.

That approach gives your hands regular practice holding weight while still letting you push your back and legs hard. Over time, as your grip improves, you'll need straps less often.

Chalk is another simple fix that improves your hold without taking grip out of the equation, if your gym allows it.

How Often Should You Train Grip?

Two or three times a week works well for most people. Strength gains tend to increase with how often you train a movement, so short, frequent grip sessions are effective. Adding a few minutes of carries or hangs to the end of two or three workouts a week is usually enough to see progress.

A 2026 meta-regression in Sports Medicine found strength gains rose with training frequency, with diminishing returns. A 2017 meta-analysis in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research also found heavy loads built maximal strength better than light ones, so make your grip work challenging.

If your elbows or wrists start to ache, reduce the volume for a week or two. Our guide on how many rest days a week you need covers recovery in general.

How Long Does It Take to Improve Grip Strength?

Most people notice their grip holding up better on deadlifts and pull-ups within a few weeks of direct training. Early gains come largely from your nervous system learning to recruit your forearm muscles. Bigger, lasting improvements take months of consistent, progressively harder work, just like any other strength.

Track something simple, like how long you can hang from a bar or how far you can carry a set weight. When those numbers rise, your grip is getting stronger. Our guide on how long it takes to build muscle explains why strength often comes before size.

The WHO recommends muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days a week for adults, which is easy to combine with grip work.