Grip strength is often revealed to be the limiting factor when progressing the deadlift. This is especially true for novice lifters, despite the fact that the deadlift is one of the most effective exercises used to strengthen one’s grip. Since our back, hips, and legs can lift heavier weights than our hands can hold, lifters use a variety of techniques to overcome this limitation. In this article I will review the four main grip variations that are generally used when performing the deadlift and discuss the pros and cons of each. I have reviewed them in the order in which they are recommended.

1. Overhand Grip

2. Hook Grip

3. Lifting straps

4. Mixed Grip

1. Overhand Grip

The overhand grip is the most intuitive way to perform the deadlift. However, because there exist a number of grip variations one might use, it is important to identify the foundational technique from which the others are derived. To assume an overhand grip, one simply bends down and grips the bar with both palms facing down toward the bar. When an overhand grip is assumed, the back of the lifter’s hands will be facing forward.

The overhand grip is the standard grip that everyone who is just learning the deadlift should adopt. It allows for the deadlift to train the strength of the hand just as it does the rest of the muscles involved in the lift. It is common among inexperienced lifters to immediately adopt what is referred to as a “mixed grip” when performing their deadlift, in which the palm of one hand is facing the opposite direction. This is done usually for a number of reasons:

a. The person has done a little research on how to deadlift, and the informational source they came across instructed them that this was the way to do it.

b. They saw enough people in the gym doing it this way and only this way, and without any real context or explanation for it, assumed they should do it this way also.

c. They are in fact aware of the advantage that the mixed grip provides, and so they use it by default, because when they last tried to lift whatever amount of weight they had loaded on the bar using a standard double overhand grip, they discovered they lacked the adequate grip strength to perform it.

The main benefit of using a double overhand grip, especially for a novice lifter, is that it allows grip strength to increase, just as the the strength of the posterior chain increases. The hand is the first point of contact with the resistant tool, in this case the barbell, and so it is critical that it be strong if a kinetic chain through the entire body is to become strong. A person cannot lift what they cannot hold onto, and this component of the kinetic chain should be given the chance to develop honestly. Techniques that get around this limitation should not be incorporated before the limitation has actually been discovered. The only real disadvantage of the standard overhand grip is that you can’t use it forever.

2. Hook grip

The reason that one’s grip eventually fails during a deadlift is ultimately not due to a loss of handling capacity in one’s fingers. It is simply because the position of the thumb is lost. The lifter’s thumb slips off and then the bar rolls out of the fingers, which are all positioned on one side of the bar. When we take a closer look at the positioning of the fingers and thumb in a standard overhand grip, we can see that the thumb is not doing much, which is why it is ineffective at heavy intensities.

When the bar is pulled off the floor, it is settled over the Proximal Interphalangeal Joint i.e., the second knuckle of the fingers. At increasingly heavier weights, the bar continues to roll down into the Distal Interphalangeal Joint (the first knuckle) as a result of the thumb's inability to maintain its position over the top of the fingers.

This is because the thumb is not naturally in an advantageous position to exert adequate force on the fingers to keep the hand closed around the bar. Think about making a fist. Make the tightest fist you can. Now relax your hand and repeat making a tight fist a few times. Try to make it a little tighter each time to get a good sense of the mechanics involved. Is the tightening of your fist facilitated by pressure from your thumb pressing down on the far side of your fingers? It is not. [See Figure 2.2] Tightness in the grip actually comes from the musculature of the fingers themselves, as they flex at the knuckle joints to drive themselves into the palm to make a fist. That is why when the bar is heavy to the point where your fingers cannot keep the bar securely in your palm, your thumb drops away from contact with the fingers first and only then does one lose a secure grip on the bar. If the thumb stayed, the bar would have stayed, and you would have finished that last rep of your heavy deadlift set instead of dropping the weight once it got up somewhere around your knees, if it even got that far off the ground in the first place.

A hook grip does not increase grip strength. It simply solves the problem of the thumb slipping off from around the bar by creating a situation where friction between the pad of the middle finger and the thumbnail is established to such a degree that the thumb is immovable.

Establish a hook grip by first placing the palms of your hands on the bar just as you normally would during the setup of an overhand grip. Then, instead of wrapping your fingers over the bar first and then closing the thumb around on top of them, you wrap the thumb around the bar first and then close the fingers down on top of the thumb. The pad of the middle finger is effectively placed onto the side of the thumbnail closest to you.

Due to the positioning of the thumb between the loaded bar and the middle finger, the barbell is pressing the thumb down into the pad of the fingers when the bar is lifted. The thumb is trapped between the loaded barbell and the pads of the fingers and thus cannot move. The thumb stays “hooked” under the bar, allowing the lifter to maintain their grip. Ironically, the heavier the loaded barbell, the more immovable the thumb is and the more secure the grip.

Advantages of a hook grip:

i. Bilateral symmetry is maintained in the set-up and throughout the range of motion just as it is when using an overhand grip. This is the primary argument for placing the hook grip above the use of a mixed grip technique.

ii. The set-up is fast as compared to the lift being assisted by the use of additional equipment. Unlike straps that also allow for weight to be lifted beyond the lifter’s capacity to adequately hold, the hook grip requires no additional time.

iii. Using a hook grip for the deadlift provides the lifter the opportunity to practice it, so that proficiency developed with the technique can carry over to the Olympic lifts such as the clean and the snatch.

Although grip strength is no longer being trained strictly when using a hook grip, the demands on the digits, the thumb especially, are still being subject to compressive stresses which do produce an adaptation in the musculature and connective tissue of the hand.

Disadvantages of the hook grip:

i. It can hurt like hell at first. This is usually the main reason that people do not use the hook grip, even if the advantages of the technique have been demonstrated to them. It is important to remember that the muscular and connective tissue involved in maintaining the hook grip is subject to the same phenomena of adaptation that the rest of the body responds to. The tissue adapts, and the relative discomfort diminishes over time, but only if adequate stress is applied through practice. If you don’t ever train the hook, it will never get more comfortable.

ii. Since a hook grip is maintained through friction rather than strength of the hand's musculature, one is no longer training their grip strength when incorporating the technique. The argument is that the increase in weight that can be performed in the deadlift as a result of using a hook grip more than makes up for this concession.

iii. You may develop calluses on your thumb in new places at first, which may be uncomfortable or distracting. As with any new training stress, an adaptation will occur with appropriate recovery. A number of companies manufacture various kinds of athletic tape, with some even specifically branded as “hook grip tape” to remedy this situation.

3. Lifting Straps

Lifting straps load the weight on the lifter’s wrists and the backs of their hands. The barbell is then held within the wrapped portion of the strap, with the lifter’s fingers and thumbs positioned in the same way that they would be in a standard overhand grip.

Advantages of lifting straps:

i. Straps allow the lifter to lift more weight than their grip strength would otherwise allow.

ii. The use of straps maintains bilateral symmetry in the set-up and throughout the effective range of motion.

iii. Lifting straps may compensate for a worn down or otherwise inadequately manufactured knurl. A barbell found in a commercial gym is likely to have been used by numerous members on a daily basis. One of the characteristics of high use of a barbell is a worn down or “dull” knurling, which makes a barbell much more difficult to hold onto. Knurling is a feature of a barbell for a reason, but it can degrade over time. Gyms that serve the general population may also intentionally provide barbells with less aggressive knurling , so as not to upset their members with more delicate and unadapted hands. Lifting straps are not very expensive and at the time of this writing can easily be acquired for less than $10 USD.

Disadvantages of lifting straps:

i. Ironically, one of the disadvantages of using lifting straps is nearly identical to the description of its primary benefit: they allow the lifter to lift more weight than their strict grip strength permits. In some cases, the built-in limiter of one’s grip strength can serve as a threshold to prevent an inexperienced lifter from attempting to move more weight than the musculature of their posterior chain is capable of. The adage, “if you can’t grip it, you can’t lift it,” is fundamentally true, which is why lifting straps might be recommended but not prioritized.

ii. Straps add to the amount of time needed for setting up the starting position of the deadlift. The degree with which this is disruptive, if it is at all, is obviously dependent on the individual. New lifters, particularly those that are overweight with larger torsos, may find the bent over starting position of the deadlift especially difficult to be in, so any additional time spent down there getting straps set up correctly may lead to distraction when the lift is eventually performed.

iii. If you need them all the time, you must have them all the time. Once a person is dependent on a piece of equipment, if it is ever lost or becomes damaged to the point where it cannot be used, it may prevent the successful completion of the day's training.

4. Mixed Grip

The mixed grip is easily assumed by supinating one hand and grabbing the bar with the palm of that hand facing forward. It does not matter which hand is positioned this way. Both should be experimented with, as one side may end up being preferred.

Advantage:

The very reason that a standard overhand grip eventually fails is why the mixed grip works. As the loaded barbell approaches a lifter’s maximal capacity to maintain their grip, it is inevitable that the bar will begin to roll out of their hands, as described in Section 1 in the review of the overhand grip. A mixed grip functions because of the flipped positioning of the hands. As the bar begins to roll out of the closed grip of one hand, it is actually rolling into the other. This is how the grip is maintained on a loaded barbell that is otherwise too heavy to hold. Grip is maintained because the barbell has nowhere to go. This is the only advantage of the mixed grip. One may find the negative aspects of the technique to outweigh this single benefit.

Disadvantages:

i. By its very nature, a mixed grip creates an asymmetry in the set-up with the supination of the one hand in the starting position. This asymmetry may produce a rotation of the torso along the transverse plane during extension. The loaded bar cannot help but roll out of the lifter’s hand, the phenomenon that allows it to work as a grip-assisting technique in the first place. However, as the bar rolls down out of the supinated hand, there is a tendency for it to move slightly forward of the mid-foot balance point. As this happens, the hand holding onto this portion of the bar must also move forward, which then pulls the arm forward bringing the shoulder with it. The torso has no choice but to move as well which may produce a rotation. Any movement of the barbell that does not contribute to a vertical bar path in direct opposition to gravity is an expression of inefficiency and loss of force transmission when performing the lift.

ii. The bicep tendon on the supinated hand’s side is exposed to incredibly high stresses that are not only unnecessary but potentially dangerous. A tendon separation on the bicep’s distal insertion point becomes a stronger possibility.

iii. Due to the asymmetry, the lats are no longer subjected to equal training stress. The idea that inexperienced lifters tend to quickly formulate is to alternate which hand is being supinated whenever they deadlift. Although this solution appears to be grounded logically, it is uninformed, as the result has been the decision to intentionally train the deadlift inconsistently. Changing one’s set-up, anatomical position, and muscular tension relationships, while actively performing the movement with a bilateral asymmetry that changes every time you do it, that forces rotation in the transverse plane, can only be described as inconsistent.

Conclusion:

The hook grip solves the problem through a trick of friction. Aside from the possibility of experiencing the discomfort of one’s thumb being smashed between a nearly immovable finger and a loaded barbell, the technique is highly effective without introducing muscular asymmetries and the negative factors that come along with them, while still producing an adaptable training stress in the form of compression on the thumb.

Lifting straps solve the problem by loading the bar on the wrists as opposed to in the hands and by providing additional surface material in contact with the bar to reduce its downward movement. However, using straps requires that you get some, learn how to use them, and engage in additional set-up time once you do.

The effectiveness of using a mixed grip to effectively deadlift when grip strength has otherwise failed cannot be denied, as the technique certainly works. However, if we are to perform the deadlift from the position that balance, symmetry, and efficient application of force against gravity are first principles of performance, the mixed grip cannot help but fail to fulfill them. The mixed grip is the only technique that not only requires an inherent asymmetry be adopted laterally across the body, it diminishes muscular engagement in the lats of the supinated hand in addition to introducing an incredibly high tension stress on an exposed bicep tendon.

If the lifter can perform the deadlift with their lumbar spine locked in extension, while keeping the bar moving vertically over the mid-foot through the entire range of effective motion, then they certainly should not allow a inadequate grip to limit how much weight they can use. The deadlift is likely being performed as the primary developer of back strength, with grip strength increasing as a passive development as the weight of the deadlift increases, making the grip no longer the primary concern. Once any technique for holding the bar other than the standard overhand grip is utilized, grip strength is no longer required as a significant component of the deadlift. Techniques are designed to circumvent an otherwise limiting factor. If one has already made that concession in favor of prioritizing actual weight lifted, it is of higher priority to utilize a technique that at least attempts to maintain the criteria of the lift that were important up until one’s grip was exposed as insufficient.

A Recommendation for Grip Technique When Progressing the Deadlift