I have never understood this idea. If grip strength is what's limiting my pullups, doesn't that mean practicing pullups is already working my grip to its limit? Why would adding more grip training help? Wouldn't that just fatigue my grip more, making me less able to practice pullups?
Not tyring to challenge anyone, I am genuinely curious. I have seen this type of "more work for the weak point" advice a lot and I just don't get it.
Good question.
I am not a sports scientist so I can't tell you a hundred percent why grip work has helped my pullups (although I have a few theories. see below).
I can offer you my experience and my clients and training partners.
All of them had big improvments in pullups,chinups and DLs.
I have a few theories.
1.
Irradiation and Tension
Pavel explains (Power to the People) that strength is the ability to generate tension.
He also explains ( pg. 34) that the Law of Irradiation states that "a muscle working hard recruits neighberhood muscles and if they are part of the action it amplifies their strength"...
The more force/strength the forearms can generate the more the other muscles in that movement (biceps,lats) can generate.
2.
Compensation
It is true that pullups in theory should work the grip strength adequetly enough that no specialty training should be needed. However many times i have found that pullups unevenly works the lats and biceps more than the forearms despite the fact that the forearms is the majority working muscle in the upper half of the pullup.
If you watch people when they hit their max reps and pullups you will often see they are trying to generate tension out of their lats and biceps at the top of the pullup (when their chin is trying to go over the bar) instead of their grip. This is to compensate for lack of proper forearm strength and it bleeds out strength for future reps.
After improving my grip I found that i needed to work my lats less at the top of the pullup so I had more power in the bank for more pullups.
Yeah… makes sense to me.
I’ve done a few pull-ups over the years, and I can’t say that failing grip has ever been a limiting factor.
I cant speak to anyone elses experience but my own and the people that I have trained around.
I will try to post a video of one of my friends that worked on his grip alongside his pullups.
his form is perfect (look like he is floating) and he can effortlessly knock out 30 pullups...and one arm chinups