Grip strength is usually overlooked in strength athletes’ development. Lack of grip training leads to a muscular imbalance that never allows the individual to reach his or her full potential (Sorin, 2001). Improved forearm and hand strength allows for greater force production (Sorin, 2001) because you are better connected to what you are holding – whether it is a medicine ball, barbell, pull up bar or sledgehammer. Using thick grips or Fat Gripz will add serious strength and endurance to your grip.
What are Fat Gripz?
Fat Gripz are a commercially-available thick grip attachment for barbells and dumbbells. Coming in normal (2.25” diameter) and extreme (2.75” diameter) they are able to convert any standard bar into a more challenging thick implement. The approximately $40 investment into Fat Gripz is a much cheaper and more versatile option than buying thick grip dumbbells or an axle barbell.
Check out the price of the standard Fat Gripz on Amazon here, or the Fat Grip Extremes.
Oversized handles demand the hand to be more open than a normal barbell (Sorin, 2001). Having a semi-open hand better mimics grip demands of the real world. Very rarely do we grip things in the real world that are the size of normal barbells.
With softer implements, such as Fat Gripz, there is also some shifting of load in your hand as you squeeze the Fat Gripz. This requires the hand and forearms muscles to constantly (re)stabilize the weight in your hand (Sorin, 2001). This increases the demands on your forearm and hand and leads to improved grip strength over time.
Why do people use thick grips and barbells in strength training?
- Improve grip strength and neural drive allowing you to lift more
- Thicker implements better mimic gripping demands in real life than a standard barbell
- Sport performance – rebounding in basketball, linemen battles in football, grappling in wrestling, hitting in baseball
- Decrease tendinitis and tendinopathy at the wrist and elbow
- Stronger hands
Thick Barbell vs. Thin Barbell
During the lowering portion (eccentric) of pulls (deadlift and rows) the muscles of the forearm work isometrically. This means that the muscles are contracting but not changing their length. The forearm muscles, both extensors and flexors, have to fight against the weight of the bar and gravity to continue to grip the bar. Therefore, the flexors and extensors are the limiting factor during these movements (Channell, 1990).
With a regular sized barbell, the hands can simply “hang on” to the bar. Often, we see this when the bar slips into your fingertips as your grip fatigues. The bar is still in your hands, but you’re not really gripping it.
It’s nearly impossible to let the bar slip into your fingers with a fat bar. As a result, the muscles of the forearms are constantly contracted when using a fat grip barbell (Channell, 1990). Thicker implements, therefore, increase the demands placed on the forearms. It is suggested that the increased demands will lead to greater grip strength (and potentially forearm size).
Because thick grip training is more taxing on the forearms and hands you will likely see a decrease in the loads you can lift when using thick handles or Fat Gripz. For instance, a study found that using thick barbells during deadlifts decreased 1 rep-max ability by about 30% compared to a normal barbell. The same study found a 9% decrease in 1RM in the bent over row (Ratamess et al., 2007).
The key here is to remember that this doesn’t mean you’re weaker when using a thick barbell. Instead, your grip strength has a bigger impact on the amount that you can lift when using a thick barbell. Despite lifting a lower load, the stimulus on the forearms/hands is still very high. This should result in improved grip strength which can be used later to lift heavier loads – because your grip strength will be less of a limiting factor in the future.
- Check out the Rogue Axle Bar (seen below) and their “stubby version“.
Do Fat Gripz work and make you stronger?
Thick Grip/Fat Gripz Before and After Results
Surprisingly, there is not a ton of research on the impact of thick grip training on strength and/or sport performance. One study (Cummings et al., 2018) looked at how an 8-week training block with Fat Gripz impacted strength and golf driving performance in Division 1 golfers. The results are shown below.
As we can see, both groups saw an increase in all the strength measures (Table 3, on the right). The number of subjects in the study was small and I think that is impacting the significance (column header p), so only a couple of changes between pre and post testing are significance. However, I would argue that the trends shown in Table 3 suggest that training with Fat Gripz for 8-weeks may lead to greater strength gains than training with a regular bad (at least in this population).
Table 4 (on the right above) really highlights the impact of thick grip training on golf performance. The Fat Gripz group saw large, significant improvements in ball speed, ball carry and driving distance compared to training with a regular barbell. This suggests that if you want to improve how far you hit a golf ball you should strength train with a thick barbell.
Fat Gripz to bust through plateaus
I haven’t seen any research about thick grip training to help get through strength plateaus but it’s a common suggestion in the fitness world.
It is suggested that using a thick grip or Fat Gripz will lead to greater neurological drive when performing lifts. This has been shown (to a certain extent) in some studies (Krings et al., 2019). Increased neural drive can lead to greater recruitment of muscle fibers – which in theory should lead to strength gains.
As a result, if you have hit a strength plateau you may want to experiment with some thick grip training to try to bust through.
If you’re looking for other tips on getting through a strength plateau, I wrote a short guide here.
When to Use Fat Gripz and Thick Barbells in Training
The above information really suggests that you should incorporate some thick grip training into your training. However, thick implements should not be used all the time.
I would suggest using thick grips in your off-season, general prep phase or when focused on hypertrophy. Thick grips lend themselves well to higher volume, lower percentage of 1RM work.
Once you are trying to push max weight, the thick grips will limit your ability to lift high percentages of your 1RM. As a result, you would not get the strength stimulus that you are looking for.
When in a max strength phase, you could use Fat Gripz in your accessory work to continue to build strength and endurance in your forearms/hands but move heavy enough weights in your main lifts to get what you want out of your training. CrossFit athlete Sara Sigmundsdottir uses this technique in her training to get the strength gains in her main lifts, plus a little extra at the end using Fat Gripz.
Check out the Standard Fat Gripz on Amazon.
Or take it up a notch with the Extreme Fat Gripz, available on Amazon.
References:
Channell, S. (1990). The fat bar. National Strength and Conditioning Association Journal, 12(4), 26–27.
Cummings, P. M., Waldman, H. S., Krings, B. M., Smith, J. W., & McAllister, M. J. (2018). Effects of Fat Grip Training on Muscular Strength and Driving Performance in Division I Male Golfers: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 32(1), 205–210. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001844
Krings, B. M., Shepherd, B. D., Swain, J. C., Turner, A. J., Chander, H., Waldman, H. S., McAllister, M. J., Knight, A. C., & Smith, J. W. (2019). Impact of Fat Grip Attachments on Muscular Strength and Neuromuscular Activation During Resistance Exercise. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Publish Ahead of Print. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000002954
Ratamess, N. A., Faigenbaum, A. D., Mangine, G. T., Hoffman, J. R., & Kang, J. (2007). ACUTE MUSCULAR STRENGTH ASSESSMENT USING FREE WEIGHT BARS OF DIFFERENT THICKNESS: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 21(1), 240–244. https://doi.org/10.1519/00124278-200702000-00043
Sorin, B. (2001). Grip Training for the Athlete: Strength and Conditioning Journal, 23(5), 42. https://doi.org/10.1519/00126548-200110000-00011