Small changes to your wrist position while pumping iron can lead to dramatic muscle improvements. “It is often overlooked how a simple change in hand placement can make a difference in muscular outcomes,” explains Natalie Wolfe, CPT, NASM.
Without changing the actual exercise, “simply adjusting the position of your hand/wrist when lifting weights is a very effective way to train target muscles from different angles and put new and different stresses on the body.”
(Which is essential to taking your muscles to the next level.) Result? Your muscles gain strength from all angles, increasing endurance, strength, and muscle growth.
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Variation in grip/wrist position for muscle development
Now that you know the importance of changing your hand position when lifting items, let’s find out which grip variations are most commonly used.
“Avid gym goers should consider using grip variations such as pronated, supinated, mixed, neutral, and hook grips for training,” Wolfe says.
These variations can make all the difference in improving things in the gym.
Pronated grip (also known as overhand grip): Keep your palms facing away from you when performing resistance exercises. Often used for bicep curls, pull-ups, bench presses, deadlifts, and squats.
Supinated grip (also known as underhand grip): Your palms will be facing upward or toward you. Often used for activities such as chin-ups or reverse rows. (Palms towards you, knuckles away).
Mixed grip: A combination of supinated and pronated grip positions.
Neutral grip: A grip that is neither bent nor bent, but with the palms facing each other, as in the hammer curl exercise.
Hook Grip: A method of holding a barbell by overlapping the index and middle fingers over the thumb.
often used in strength-related sports such as Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, and CrossFit.
How to grip variations challenge your muscles
Small adjustments to hand position yield significant results.
Bench Press: Wolfe explains that most lifters place their hands on the barbell a little wider than shoulder-width apart, and in general, this gives the best results, hitting your pecs but also working your triceps. However, if you spread your hands just a few inches wider, you will put even more tension on your pecs, challenging your muscles from an even greater ‘angle’.
On the other hand, moving your hands closer to each other will have the opposite effect, increasing the demand on your triceps while relegating your pecs to a supporting role.
Stretching exercises: “Changing your grip width during stretching exercises like lunges and pullups has a similar effect on the muscles, explains Wolfe.
Going wide focuses more on your rear delts and upper back muscles, including your traps and rhomboids, while using a narrow grip forces your lats and biceps to work harder. “There are so many muscles of the back that simply changing your grip from pronated to supinated can change the target muscle,” she says.
Bicep Exercises: Typically, bicep curls are performed with a supine grip, (meaning your palms are facing toward you). “For the reverse curl, the hands are in an overturned grip, meaning your palms are facing away from you.
“Moving your grip palms-down will focus your forearms and your grip strength far more than a regular curl, resulting in a change in muscle tone,” says Wolfe.
“Your grip can also be kept in a neutral position when training the biceps,” says Wolfe, “and an example of a neutral grip exercise is hammer curls because you put the most tension on the forearms when doing them.”
These are just a few examples of what can happen when changing your grip on certain exercises,” says Wolfe, encouraging you not to be afraid to change it up every now and again. “There are so many other exercises and body parts that can be manipulated by doing this,” she says.
