For years, the use of gym chalk (magnesium carbonate) was reserved for the most serious powerlifters or weightlifters or gymnastics gyms. Recently, the increased popularity of functional fitness that incorporates powerlifting, weightlifting, and gymnastics into everyday workouts has made gym chalk a must-have for all gyms. But the question is: does using chalk increase grip strength, weightlifting and gymnastics ability? The resounding answer is yes it does!
If you are curious about why chalk helps in the gym, how to use gym chalk or the best gym chalk check out below.
The Science Behind Using Chalk in the Gym
There are no published scientific journal articles that outline the benefits (or lack of benefits) of using magnesium carbonate/chalk during lifting weights. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t some literature to look at. Most of the scientific studies have been focused on the benefits of using chalk when rock climbing.
Rock climbers carry little chalk bags around their waists and dip their fingers into the chalk from time to time to help them with their grip as they climb up natural and man-made pitches. But does chalk really help rock climbers? The scientific literature says so.
Gym Chalk’s Impact on Friction
Amca and colleagues looked at the effect on the amount of friction between fingers and two different rock types. They found that the use of chalk increased the amount of friction between the fingers and sandstone and limestone rock types by 21.6% and 18.7%, respectively (Amca, Vigouroux, Aritan, & Berton, 2012). These are huge increases that can drastically increase a rock climbers’ ability to climb.
These authors concluded that better performance with chalk may be due to:
- Changes in skin roughness
- Changes in skin elasticity, allowing fingers to adapt to the surface they need to grip to
- Changes in water behavior at the skin
Gym Chalk’s Impact on Grip Strength
Bacon also looked into how chalk affects open-handed and pinch-grip weight assisted pull ups. The subjects in this study performed weight assisted pull ups so that they only had to pull up 50% of their own body weight. They performed both open-handed and pinch-grip with and without chalk with 72 hours of rest between trials of different pull up types.
Bacon et al. found that with chalk the subjects were able to perform significantly more open-handed and more pinch-grip weight assisted pull ups. The authors suggest that chalk be used to increase performance. Bacon et al. found that with chalk the subjects were able to perform significantly more open-handed and more pinch-grip weight assisted pull ups. The authors suggest that chalk be used to increase performance (Bacon, Ryan, Wingo, Pangallo, & Bishop, 2018).
Finally, Kilgas et al. found that recreational rock climbers were able to statically hold onto a rock-climbing hold for longer durations when they used chalk versus when they didn’t. However, this group looked at a number of other variables and saw no effect of chalk on those metrics (Kilgas, Drum, Jensen, Phillips, & Watts, 2016).
Based on the scientific literature coming out of the rock-climbing world chalk has a positive effect on holding onto surfaces and seems to increase grip.
Read More:
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Benefits of Using Chalk in the Gym
We know that chalk increases friction between your hands and what you are holding onto – whether it be a rock, barbell, rope or pull up bar – but there are a ton of benefits to using chalk in the gym.
Chalk and Grip Strength
Obviously, because chalk increases friction between your hands and what you are holding onto, it will help you hold onto objects longer. Using chalk in the weight room will allow you to hold onto farmers carries for longer, have longer hangs from bars, maintain grip on gymnastics movements and chalk gives you a better grip on your deadlifts.
The grip is often (or in my case, always) where you will fail in these lifts. By using chalk, it helps to decrease your limiting factor – allowing you to increase time under tension or the load that you can lift, both of which are keys to muscle growth.
Added tip: Lifting on the right barbell is a key to improving grip strength. You need the right stiffness, spin, and knurling on the bar. That’s why getting the RIGHT barbell is a key home gym essential. Click the link to check out the rest of the essentials.
Gym Chalk and Safety
One of the more underrated benefits of using chalk in the gym is its impact on your safety.
When your grip starts to go in lifts like a deadlift, the bar starts to shift in your hands or starts slipping into your fingertips. This is when things can get dicey.
In these instances, people often try to either adjust their grip mid rep or adjust the rest of their body to complete the rep. Either option is a great way to put your body into a compromising position where structures are put under load that shouldn’t be.
Additionally, when doing high volume gymnastics movements (*cough* CrossFit *cough*) at some point your hands will start to get sweaty, your forearms burn and you start to lose grip on the pull up bar or gymnastics rings you are using. Having chalk on your hands may be the saving grace between finishing your set or losing complete grip of the bar and ending up in a viral YouTube video.
Life Pro Tip: You want to make sure you’re doing the right number of reps for your goals. If you’re curious about what set and rep scheme works best for different types of gains, check out my article here.
Hand Care
High volume lifting – whether weightlifting, powerlifting, kettlebell or gymnastics puts a lot of stress on your hands. Using chalk can help save your hands from the blisters, calluses and rips that come with high volume training.
Gym chalk helps to dry out the hands, which helps to keep the equipment you are holding in one position in your hand rather than sliding around.
When your hands are a bit wet/sweaty and equipment like a kettlebell slides around in your palm it starts to wear the skin and leads to a blister. This is like when your heel rubs against your shoe when you walk around all day in shoes without socks – the damage can be ugly.
Having gym chalk on your hands decreases the moisture in your hands and keeps you holding onto the equipment meaning it won’t slide around and cause blisters.
You may also want to use lifting straps in your workouts, in addition to chalk. If you are wondering how to use lifting straps, check out my step-by-step picture guide.
How to Use Gym Chalk
How to use your chalk will depend on if it is liquid chalk or block/powder chalk. Regardless of what type of chalk you are using, the key is to put a bit onto your palm (and maybe your thumbs). It is always better to go back to get more chalk between sets than to put a thick layer of chalk on your hands, which could be a negative performance factor.
How to Use Liquid Chalk
Liquid chalk comes in bottles and needs to be squeezed out into your hands. Once the liquid chalk is out of the bottle it starts to dry because of the alcohol in it.
Once you squeeze a small amount of liquid chalk into your palms rub your palms together. If you are hook gripping your barbell, you may also want to rub some onto the back side of your thumbs
How to Use Block/Powder Chalk
Block or powder chalk is usually made from magnesium carbonate.
If your chalk comes in block form, try to keep it in large chunks/blocks for as long as possible. This stops you from making a mess anytime you want to chalk up
Use the corner of your block to rub onto your palms, with an emphasis on the pads just below where your fingers meet your palms – which is where calluses typically build up.
Personally, I rub my chalk onto my palm, then take my one hand and wrap it around my opposite thumb a couple of times to get chalk on my thumbs too.
If you are using powder chalk, it is probably held in a container somewhere in the gym. I like to put my hand in the container with my fingers spread and pat the chalk a couple of times with each hand.
After I’ve patted the chalk with each hand, I rub my palms together (over the chalk bucket – don’t make a mess) to get rid of some of the loose bits. Then I wrap my thumbs as I mentioned above.
Liquid Chalk vs. Powdered Chalk for the Gym
There aren’t a lot of articles out there saying if liquid chalk is better than powdered chalk or vice versa.
As a breakdown, inspired by Alex at climbingblogger.com, here are some comparisons between liquid and regular chalk:
Ease of Use
Liquid chalk is squeezed out of a tube so it can be quicker to apply to the hands and you can get an even coat. But when in the middle of a workout and the adrenaline is building, you probably don’t want to be messing around with a tube. You want to grab a block rub it on your hands and get back to work.
Durability
The general consensus in lifting and rock-climbing communities is that liquid chalk lasts longer on your hands. This means fewer walks over to your chalk bucket in the middle of a workout, which can be a huge advantage in timed work outs.
Quickness
Liquid chalk has alcohol in it, which means it dries very quickly.
This means that as soon as you put the liquid chalk onto your hands it starts to dry. That could be a positive or a negative. If you happen to be a Chatty Cathy, you may squirt some liquid chalk on your hands and get distracted before you even get to rub it in. But if you need dry hands quick (mid-WOD anyone?), then liquid chalk could be your go-to.
Irritation
Regular chalk will dry out your hands, like it is supposed to, but once you wash your hands after your workout there usually isn’t any residual effects on your skin. With liquid chalk, because of the alcohol, it can cause some serious irritation if you have sensitive skin.
Messiness
Some gyms, even CrossFit gyms, are getting away from having regular chalk in their gym because of the mess that it makes. If you have ever knocked over a chalk bucket with a bunch of chalk powder in it, you know what I mean. A vacuum, mop, rag, disinfectant and hose still aren’t enough to clean up a spilled chalk bowl off rubber floors.
Liquid chalk is virtually no mess. Liquid chalk is a lot more localized when applied, so there isn’t nearly as much clean-up and there is no powder flying all over during lifts like what is seen with powder chalk. This in itself may be enough for a lot of people and gyms to make the switch.
Cost
Liquid chalk definitely costs more than regular chalk.
You can get regular blocks of chalk from places like Rogue for about $16.00 CDN (1lb) or powdered chalk for $12.00 CDN (2.5 ounces). Rogue suggests that 16 ounces of regular chalk can last for “months of daily use.”
Rogue offers liquid chalk starting from $11.00 CDN for 250ml (1.5 ounces).
The Verdict on Gym Chalk
Based on the above reading it is clear that you need chalk in your home gym if you are serious about strength or gymnastics training. Chalk will help your deadlifts, Olympic lifts, barbell cycling, gymnastics movements and overall grip strength.
I have very sensitive skin, so liquid chalk doesn’t work with my hands. Because of that, I use chalk blocks in my training.
However, if the alcohol in liquid chalk didn’t bother my hands, I would only use liquid chalk in all of my training.
Read more: The science has finally concluded that exercise order matters! Check out my summary of the newest review and meta-analysis here.
References:
Amca, A. M., Vigouroux, L., Aritan, S., & Berton, E. (2012). The effect of chalk on the finger–hold friction coefficient in rock climbing. Sports Biomechanics, 11(4), 473–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/14763141.2012.724700
Bacon, N. T., Ryan, G. A., Wingo, J. E., Pangallo, T., & Bishop, P. A. (2018). Effect of Magnesium Carbonate Use on Repeated Open-Handed and Pinch Grip Weight-Assisted Pull-Ups. 14.
Kilgas, M. A., Drum, S. N., Jensen, R. L., Phillips, K. C., & Watts, P. B. (2016). The Effect of Magnesium Carbonate (Chalk) on Geometric Entropy, Force, and Electromyography During Rock Climbing. Journal of Applied Biomechanics, 32(6), 553–557. https://doi.org/10.1123/jab.2016-0009