How To Improve Grip Strength At Home

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If you’re wondering what you can do to improve your grip strength at home, you’re in the right place! As a pole dancer, you rely on the strength of your own grip to hold you up.

Grip strength is an overlooked part of working out and fitness routines. However, having a strong grip is fundamental to many different sports;

Weightlifting
Pole, circus and aerial
Climbing
Any sport with a racket or bat

Having a poor grip could undermine your other skills and gains, so it’s important for us as pole dancers to constantly work to improve our grip strength.

Signs That You Need To Improve Your Grip Strength

Even if you’re not a pole dancer or workout enthusiast, it’s beneficial in your day-to-day life to have good grip strength. If you notice any of these signs or symptoms, this means that your grip is weakening and you should aim to improve it:

You struggle to hold pole poses for more than a few seconds or your hands slip a lot – this is a classic sign that your grip strength needs work. If grip aid products are not helping you then it may be that its your hand strength that is lacking.
Your hands ache a lot after carrying bags or other items – if you notice that your hands are aching more than usual, this is another sign that the muscles in your hand could do with a good stretch and strengthening session.
You notice that you get hand cramp even if you’re not doing anything strenuous – this is definitely a sign that you need to improve your grip strength. You should not notice cramps in your hands, wrists or fingers, but if you do – consider a grip strengthening routine to see if this helps.

How To Improve Grip Strength At Home

If you want to improve your grip strength at home without having to venture out to the gym, you’re in luck. Working on your grip at home is the best place for this – you can do many of these hand, finger and wrist exercises while watching TV or during your downtime at work.

You only need a few minutes at a time for a grip-strengthening session, you don’t even need to change into workout gear!

Grip Strengthening Exercises You Can Do From Home

Here are some awesome grip-strengthening exercises that anyone can do at home or on-the-go.

None of these exercises should be painful, and these can all be performed by anyone with any strength level:

1. Towel-Wringing

This is an old-but-classic grip strengthening exercise.

It’s quite simple, you take a towel and soak it with water so it’s dripping wet. You should feel the weight of the water inside the towel.

Then, you simply twist the towel as tight as possible to wring out as much water as you can, then un-twist it and repeat in the opposite direction.

You can repeat this exercise once per day.

2. Stretch Your Wrists & Fingers

It may not sound like much, but stretching your wrists and fingers often can go a long way to help improve your grip strength.

There are various ways to stretch, here are some you can try:

Prayer stretch – exactly like it sounds, bring your hands to your chest and engage your wrists until you feel a gentle stretch. Hold this stretch for 15-20 seconds, release, then engage the stretch again. You can repeat this 6-8 times.
Finger stretch – similar to the prayer stretch, but start with only your fingertips pressing together. Then increase the pressure until you feel the stretch. Repeat this 6-8 times.
Fist-to-fan stretch – do this one one hand at a time. Form the tightest fist that you possibly can, hold it for 20-30 seconds. Next, slowly release your fingers and stretch them out into the widest fan that you can manage. Try to maximize the span of your hand. Hold this fan position for 20-30 seconds, then return to a tight fist. You can repeat this 6-8 times each day.

See also: How to Get More Flexible

3. Carry The Bucket

Get a couple of buckets filled with water, sand, stones or anything that’s heavy (but not too heavy, you should be able to carry it!).

Next, form a tight grip around the handle of each bucket and walk forward 10 steps, then release. Repeat this 8-10 times and increase the weight of the bucket contents as you get stronger.