How Can You Improve Your BJJ Grip Strength: Ultimate Guide

If you are just starting in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the first thing that comes into your will probably be BJJ grip strength . You may wonder how you can increase your grip strength after seeing other BJJ fighters with a firm grip. If that is so, you are in the right place.

Grip strength is significant for winning matches in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It mostly involves BJJ grip fighting and BJJ ground fighting, which rely on effective gripping. You cannot win the BJJ fight if you do not have grip strength.

• Before going into the details of improving your BJJ grip strength, let's explore the concept behind grip strength.

• BJJ grip strength measures how you can firmly hold your opponent’s clothes, body, or anything that will help you to take a submission over him.

• The more force you have for gripping your opponent, the more you will firmly hold your opponent, increasing the chances of you submitting your opponent.

There are three types of grip strength:

Pinch grip strength is the force applied when holding something between the thumb and fingers. This BJJ grip training can be done by holding on to Bumper plates for as long as possible.

• We can categorize grips as thumb over or thumb under the grip. Gable grip is a thumb overgrip , whereas the pistol grip is a thumb undergrip.

• Many begin to make the mistake of gable gripping with their thumbs under their thumb. It decreases the strength of the grip, making it easier for your opponent to break your grip.

• The thumb is not the primary contributor to overall grip strength. The following is a research breakdown comparing the total grip contribution of your fingers and thumb.

• Research was conducted on BJJ grip strength training in which the contribution of fingers and thumbs was discussed. Cha et al. 2014 attributed 17% of total grip strength to contributions from the thumb, less than the contributions of the middle finger 31% and the index fingers 22%. He reported the contributions of the ring and index fingers together at 29%.

• The stronger grips in grappling are often thumbless or thumb overgrips. Removing the thumbs from your Gable grip eliminates the space in your grip and makes it much harder for your opponent to break open your grips.

• The anatomy of gripping your hands is complex, with 27 bones and many interconnected muscle tissue systems involved in gripping. Some of the more dominant grips in grappling involve the thumbless grip, which focuses predominantly on the two muscles that control your finger strength.

• Strengthening your finger flexor muscles will yield more benefits in a grappling context than thumb flexor strength alone. 

• BJJ grip strength endurance is another term associated with BJJ gripping. It means or measures how long you can effectively hold your opponent’s body, clothes, or any other thing taking you to take submission.

• For effective gripping , you have first to learn and then improve both your BJJ grip strength and BJJ grip strength endurance.

The following are some benefits of BJJ grip strength:

1. Your forearms get stronger, which helps you to do BJJ grip fighting effectively.

2. Your chances of holding your opponent increase.

3. You can hold your opponent for a long time, allowing you to submit your opponent.

4. Your chances of winning in BJJ increase with higher grip strength and grip strength endurance.

5. You keep your opponent in control throughout the game.

6. You can execute any BJJ move or technique effectively.

7. Stronger grips help you to escape and transition from a submissive position to a dominant position.

8. There are fewer chances of getting yourself injured.

9. Improved overall performance in BJJ.

10. Your arm muscles get stronger, which helps you win in BJJ.

• You must improve your BJJ grip strength to win and excel in your BJJ career. You don't need to panic if you don't have stronger grips and lack BJJ grip strength endurance.

• We have explained ten ways in detail to help you increase your BJJ grip strength. These ways have helped many other BJJ fighters who lack effective BJJ gripping, and these will surely help you, too.

• The following are the best ways to improve both your BJJ grip strength and BJJ grip strength endurance.

• BJJ grip training with Gi grips is the first way to increase your BJJ grip strength.

• In this type of training, you will use BJJ Gi materials such as sleeves , lapels, etc. Start doing exercises, including BJJ Gi, such as BJJ Gi pull-ups in which you hold BJJ Gis instead of usual bars.

• This primarily affects your grip strength and makes you master BJJ gripping if you do it for a long time.

The most common forms of Gi BJJ grip training for increasing grip strength are:

In this type of BJJ grip training, you cross one hand over the other to grip the lapel and start pull-ups.

You just hold the lapel with both hands and start doing pull-ups.

You hold the shoulder portion of your Gi and do pull-ups.

The second way to increase your BJJ grip strength is by doing BJJ grip training with grip-strengthening tools.

• Elite Sports Essential Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu BJJ Grip Trainer

• Adjustable grip strengthener

• Extensor

• Fat Gripz Extreme

• Finger stretcher

• Hand Exerciser

• Flexbar

• Cannonball grips

• Hand gripper

• You should use these grip-strengthening tools to increase your BJJ grip strength. Using these tools daily will also help you increase your BJJ grip strength endurance.

• Some tools for grip strengthening include focusing on the fingers separately. You train your fingers and increase the strength of each finger individually.

• At the same time, some tools are designed to increase the strength of your hand grips overall. These tools focus on hand gripping strength, not on fingers separately.

• Rock climbing is the most underrated way to increase your BJJ grip strength. In rock climbing, you hold the rock firmly, which increases your grip strength. After that, you must keep holding the rock until you climb, which increases BJJ grip strength and endurance.

• The next benefit that rock climbing provides you is increased stamina . You climb the rock with your hands, which support your body weight when moving and climbing.

• All these benefits contribute effectively to an increase in BJJ grip strength .

• You should do rock climbing every once in a while, and after that, you will be used to it with increased stamina. Then you can do that daily. You should do rock climbing daily to increase your BJJ grip strength and BJJ grip strength endurance.

• You can also use rope to increase your BJJ grip strength. To use the rope, tie one side with something attached to the roof. For the other side, don't do anything with that, and you will hold that side for climbing.

• The rope must be in a way that it hangs down the wall, with one end firmly attached to the roof and the other end hanging freely. You must start climbing by holding the rope on the side near the ground.

• Climb upwards, holding the rope. Try to climb upwards as long as possible, reach the rope side, touching the roof. After climbing one round of it, start climbing again and do it daily.

• Try to do as many rounds as you can. This will increase your BJJ grip strength and endurance. The main thing rope climbing provides you is BJJ grip strength endurance.

• You may find it challenging to complete even one round at the start. But after doing it continuously for a few days, your stamina will be increased, and you start doing more rounds.

• Deadlifts can also increase your BJJ grip strength and endurance.

• Deadlifting is the kind of exercise in which you lift heavy weights . The heavyweights are on the ground, and you must bend to lift the weight. A barbell is mainly used in deadlifts. But you must know the correct way to deadlift; otherwise, you will hurt your back.

• Before deadlift, you should warm up yourself. After warming up, stand close to the barbell, not too close or too far. After that, bend and hold the barbell firmly. Your lower back and upper back must be straight and not curved. Your hips must be above your knees.

• This is the correct position for a deadlift. After correcting your position , start lifting.

• This will improve your BJJ grip strength and endurance because you have to keep it up for some time, hence increasing the BJJ grip strength endurance .

• Weaving can also be a good technique for increasing the BJJ grip strength and endurance.

• In weaving, you hold the bar above your height level.

• You make a jump and hang on the bar by holding the bar with both of your hands. Then, you start moving on the bar in the same hanging position.

• This will help you increase your BJJ grip strength . Your grip strength endurance will also be improved as you have to keep holding the bar firmly until you keep moving and move the other side of the bar.

• Another thing you can do to increase your BJJ grip strength is to walk while holding some heavy things in your hands. This will mainly affect your BJJ grip strength endurance.

• You should start with lifting lightwe ight things. After some days, you may have built your stamina, and then you can go on to hold on to heavy weights.

• You should do this every day for 30 minutes . Walk while holding weights in both your hands. Hold them firmly and continue walking for some time.

• This will increase your stamina, BJJ grip strength, and endurance .

• Hanging from the bar means that you will hold the bar and do dead hangs . You can imagine it as a push-up or pull-up, but in this case, you are not doing anything except holding.

• You must hold and grip the iron or steel bars used for push-ups or pull-ups. After holding them firmly, extend your arms and hold them freely.

• It is difficult to stay in this position for a long time. But you will be used to doing it after doing it for some days.

• Hanging from the bar or dead hangs gives you a lot of benefits for your fitness. It builds and strengthens your arm muscles like biceps and triceps.

• Holding them firmly will increase your BJJ grip strength, while holding them for a long time will increase your BJJ grip strength and endurance.

• You may know many benefits of pull-ups for building your arm muscles. You may be wondering why pull-ups with a towel. Why should I use a towel instead of pull-ups with an iron bar? Well, the answer is BJJ grip strength.

• Just compare holding a towel and iron bar in your mind for a second. Which will be easy to hold for a long time? Towel? Or Iron bar? Yes, the answer should be iron bar. You should do pull-ups with a towel instead of an iron bar. If you focus on increasing the BJJ grip strength, try to do towel pull-ups.

• Here is how you should do towel pull-ups.

• Hang the towel over the iron bar. Hang it so that it is equally hanging from opposite sides. The towel must be large. After hanging the towel, grip and hold the towel firmly with both of your hands. Then, start pulling up. That is exactly how you should do pull-ups using the towel .

• This will increase your BJJ grip strength to a large extent. The more difficult it is to hold and grip the thing, the more chances you have to increase your BJJ grip strength and endurance.

• Towel pull-ups will increase your stamina, BJJ grip strength, and endurance.

• Sandbags can also be used to increase BJJ grip strength and endurance. Sandbag BJJ grip training is common in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. However, using them for BJJ grip strength purposes is not common.

• Sandbags are not easy to train with. It has an irregular shape and is not light in weight.

• So gripping them and holding them for a long time is very hard. Here is how you should do sandbag training for BJJ grip strength purposes.

• Pick the sandbag and hold it firmly . You have to do nothing but just pick and hold them firmly.

• This will increase your BJJ grip strength, and if you continue holding it for some time, it will also help you improve your BJJ grip strength endurance . 

• Wrist curls are also helpful for improving your BJJ grip strength. In wrist curls, you pick something heavy and curl your wrists.

• The following is the correct way to improve your BJJ grip strength.

• Usually, a dumbbell is used for wrist curls and is best for improving BJJ grip strength.

• Pick a dumbbell. You can do it in both standing and sitting positions. However, sitting is preferred for wrist curls. Keep your elbows on something, maybe a desk. You can even keep your elbows on your knees while sitting.

• After setting your posture, curl your wrist s on both sides. First, move and curl your wrist in a downward position, then in an upward position. Do it slowly . You don't need to do it fast. You can start with one hand.

• After a few days, pick dumbbells in both hands and do upward and downward positions simultaneously from both hands.

• You can link your breathing with wrist curls for more benefits. You can do upward movement of your wrists and exhale. After doing downward movement, you should inhale. This is how you link your breathing with wrist curls.

• This is how you do wrist curls properly, and this will increase your BJJ grip strength and endurance. These are commonly used in BJJ training to improve BJJ grip strength.

• Kettlebells are very common in Brazillian Ji-Jitsu. These are bells shaped like a large ball and are made of iron or steel. They have a handle at the top for holding them. You can use them in your training for various purposes.

• You should hold it firmly with its handle in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to improve your grip strength and endurance. You can use both hands to grip them firmly depending on the weight.

• After holding them firmly, pick them up and move your arms upward and downward.

• This drill will provide many benefits, such as building muscles in your arms, increasing your stamina, and improving your grip strength and endurance.

There are various other ways to increase your BJJ grip strength and endurance. Some are the following:

• Plate pinches are very effective in improving grip strength. It is a straightforward way. Plates made of iron or steel are used. Hold the plates in both hands and continue standing with straight arms. You can move plates up and down for increased benefits.

• Barbells can also be used to improve BJJ grip strength and endurance. Just hold the barbells firmly and pick them up. Continue standing while holding the barbell for some time.

• Towel wringing is another easy way to increase your BJJ grip strength. Wet the towel and wring it.

• Carrying weights will also help you increase your BJJ grip strength and endurance.

• Do some squeezes. Squeeze anything for some time daily. This will increase your grip strength and endurance.

• Tennis balls can increase your BJJ grip strength if you want to do it at home. You can use tennis balls to increase your BJJ grip strength.

• The first way is very simple yet effective. Take the tennis ball either in one hand or both hands. Then squeeze the ball as hard as you can. Continue doing it for some time. Repeat this exercise every day. This will increase your BJJ grip strength and endurance .

• The second way to use a tennis ball to increase your BJJ grip strength is by holding the ball in your hand. Try to touch your thumb with your finger on the opposite side across the tennis ball. Try doing this daily for a few minutes.

• The third and last way is the most difficult . But this is the way that increases both your BJJ grip strength and endurance to a large extent. You need to have metal rings attached to the iron bar. Hold the ball in both of your hands.

• Then, place your wrists on the stand. Continue holding the tennis ball firmly. Your feet should not touch the ground. You can bend your legs to keep your feet off the ground.

• Hang in this position while holding the tennis ball firmly. This will increase your BJJ grip strength and endurance.

• This is very difficult to do. But you can start it by hanging for a few seconds . After a few days, increase the time.

• It is also called a false grip .

• Wrist rolling , although uncommon, is very effective in increasing your BJJ grip strength and endurance. It is very easy and simple to do. Most people underrate it. Try doing wrist rolling in the following way.

• You can do it easily in your home. Take a thick thread or rope and tie it with something heavy. You should start with something light in weight. But after some days, use some heavy things.

• Tie one thread or rope with a small wooden bar and another with something heavy. After arranging the equipment, hold the wooden bar and try to curl it so that thread or rope starts rolling on it.

• When the wooden bar touches the other side of the thread or rope, make opposite movements so that the distance between the wooden bar and the weight increases. Repeat this a few times according to your stamina, and do it daily.

• This will increase your BJJ grip strength and endurance; you can increase weights once every few days.

• There is no fixed BJJ grip strength chart according to which you can say your grip strength is good or bad. However, generally, grip strength of more than 100 lbs for men and more than 70 lbs for women is considered good.

• The rest depends on you. The more you do BJJ grip training, the more your BJJ grip strength will be, and the better it will be for you in terms of winning matches in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

You can measure your grip strength by using a dynamometer . Follow the steps given below for measuring your BJJ grip strength.

• Take the hand-held dynamometer.

• Bend your arms at 90 degrees.

• Now press the dynamometer as hard as you can.

• Continue pressing harder until you can't push it anymore.

• Note the last reading .

• Then, repeat the process and follow the same steps.

• Repeat it for a total of three times.

• Take the average of three readings.

• This average will be your BJJ grip strength reading.

• BJJ grip strength and endurance play a significant role in winning your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu matches. But you don't need to be worried if you don't have strong grips . No one is born with strong grips.

• As discussed in this article, you can improve your BJJ grip strength and endurance by using almost 20 methods . Once you have made your grips strong and increased grip strength endurance, you will be a favorite for winning any match.

• It provides a lot of benefits for you. Your muscles, particularly arm muscles, get bigger and stronger. You can hold your opponent firmly and for a long time.

• Chances for your opponent to escape from your grips will be much lower. You can execute any BJJ move or BJJ technique quickly and effectively.

• These benefits are enough to make you a winner in your next Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match.

There are three different types of BJJ grip strength;

•  Crush Grip  refers to the force generated by squeezing your fingers against your palm.

•  Pinch Grip  is the force applied when holding something between the thumb and fingers.

•  Support Grip  refers to someone's endurance in holding an object while the fingers curl into the palms.

• BJJ grip strength endurance measures how long you can effectively hold your opponent’s body, clothes, or any other thing taking you to take submission.

• For effective gripping , you have first to learn and then improve both your BJJ grip strength and BJJ grip strength endurance.

• BJJ grip strength and endurance play a significant role in winning your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu matches. It provides a lot of benefits for you. Your muscles, particularly arm muscles, get bigger and stronger. You can hold your opponent firmly and for a long time.

• Chances for your opponent to escape from your grips will be much lower. You can execute any BJJ move or BJJ technique quickly and effectively.

• These benefits are enough to make you a winner in your next Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match.

• You can improve your BJJ grip strength in many ways , such as using BJJ grip strengthening tools, rock and rope climbing, weaving, towel pull-ups, squeezing the tennis ball, deadlifting, weight lifting, wrist curls, and wrist rollers.

• You can measure your BJJ grip by using a hand-held dynamometer . Hold the dynamometer and press it hard. Continue pushing it harder until you can no longer push it more hard. Then, note the reading. Repeat the complete process two more times and note the reading again. After this, take the average of three readings; this will be your BJJ grip strength.