The Grip Strength Superthread- Read Here First

[PMedMoe]

I'm female with thin arms and small hands and I got 64 this morning (requirement was for 48).  Don't forget, you do it twice with each hand and they take the best combined total.

 

[Harley Sailor]

I have a friend who fails the express test every year because of the grip test. He gets 85% of the over all requirement with his right hand.  He has a med problem and can only get 10% with his left.  He is hoping to get the full 100% with his right some day.

 

[rdtul]

Grip strength isn't too tough to pass, as long as you have two good hands/arms.  It's a combined total from both hands, and they take the higher of two tries each side.  There was only one person in my platoon who made passed the test with one hand, but nobody failed it.
The stress ball that was mentioned is a great start, and if that's too easy, use tennis balls.

 

[Kebel]

I did it last week and seriously, don't worry about it. I managed to do 26 pushups (which is not much) and i'm not very strong. I, however, get the passing grip mark with only one hand. You will need to get 75 with 2 hands but chances are you'll hit over 50 with only one hand... So you should easily pass it.

 

[the_man06]

don't stress, just think about how often use you use your hands. it's pretty hard not to fail.

 

[nocknee]

There seems to be a divergence of opinion on how easy the grip strength is to pass. Some say it's easy to pass, others that it's easy to train for, and others still that it's hard to get if you don't already have it. I'm 5'11" and 145 lbs on a good day, not exactly Arnold Schwarzenegger. My question is for those who have already passed it. What was your grip strength AND what can you deadlift, pinch grip and/or farmer's walk? I'm looking to gain confidence in this part of the test as I have no idea where to find this kind of dynamometer outside of CF recruiting centres. Other parts I believe will be a cakewalk for me, and I just did 13 chinups FWIW.
thanks,

 

[gcclarke]

There seems to be a divergence of opinion on how easy the grip strength is to pass. Some say it's easy to pass, others that it's easy to train for, and others still that it's hard to get if you don't already have it. I'm 5'11" and 145 lbs on a good day, not exactly Arnold Schwarzenegger. My question is for those who have already passed it. What was your grip strength AND what can you deadlift, pinch grip and/or farmer's walk? I'm looking to gain confidence in this part of the test as I have no idea where to find this kind of dynamometer outside of CF recruiting centres. Other parts I believe will be a cakewalk for me, and I just did 13 chinups FWIW.
thanks,

I'd say that if your grip is strong enough to hold for 13 chinups, you are likely able to pass the grip portion of the EXPRES test with a fairly wide margin.

 

[Flasbang]

I wouldn't be concerned. I'm about your size and have below average size/strength in hands and I passed it no problem.

 

[prima6]

I don't think I've heard of anyone failing the grip strength test.  As to what you asked:

Deadlift: 365 lbs x 7 (last week, predicted 1rm around 440 lbs)
Grip Strength : ~180 lbs (last October)

 

[kratz]

This current BMQ serials in Borden had some members fail the grip test. Normally it is nothing to wory about for most people.

A quick search of MilNet using, "grip test", will offer many threads discussing the topic, even the calculation on how many pounds pressure per point to pass the test.

 

[bdave]

I can deadlift 2 plates a few times. I don't have a particularly strong grip. Farmer's walk is like 80 pounds for 30 seconds.
I weigh 145 and can do about 15 pull ups (not chinups).
I did 91 pushups and my grip was 50 for both hands (as in 50 each hand, total of 100).

My grip sucks.

 

[Dean22]

If you can hold yourself on a pull up bar for 60 seconds and your weight is over 75kg you can most likely pass the grip strength test.

The best way to prepare for the test is chin ups. Screw farmer's walks they barely do anything when I did them. Chin ups improve your grip vastly especially if you can't do them. I have absolutely horrible grip and I still managed to pass with around 50kg per hand. I screwed up on one of the pulls because I held it wrong.

Oddly my left hand has more grip than my right even though for pushing and push ups my right hand is more favorable.

 

[George Wallace]

If you can hold yourself on a pull up bar for 60 seconds and your weight is over 75kg you can most likely pass the grip strength test.

The best way to prepare for the test is chin ups. Screw farmer's walks they barely do anything when I did them. Chin ups improve your grip vastly especially if you can't do them. I have absolutely horrible grip and I still managed to pass with around 50kg per hand. I screwed up on one of the pulls because I held it wrong.

Oddly my left hand has more grip than my right even though for pushing and push ups my right hand is more favorable.

???

I'm not a physical fitness expert, but this sounds like BS to me.  I am sure that there are better ways to improve your grip, such as squeezing a tennis ball or a soft rubber ball, or any other of a number of tools found about a gym or physical fitness facility.  Hanging from a bar for 60 seconds just doesn't cut it in my eyes; nor do chin ups.

 

[GAP]

If you can hold yourself on a pull up bar for 60 seconds and your weight is over 75kg you can most likely pass the grip strength test.

The best way to prepare for the test is chin ups. Screw farmer's walks they barely do anything when I did them. Chin ups improve your grip vastly especially if you can't do them. I have absolutely horrible grip and I still managed to pass with around 50kg per hand. I screwed up on one of the pulls because I held it wrong.

Oddly my left hand has more grip than my right even though for pushing and push ups my right hand is more favorable.

GW is right...one's got nothing to do with the other....grip strength is based on muscles working two ways, not stretched one way....

 

[Dean22]

???

I'm not a physical fitness expert, but this sounds like BS to me.  I am sure that there are better ways to improve your grip, such as squeezing a tennis ball or a soft rubber ball, or any other of a number of tools found about a gym or physical fitness facility.  Hanging from a bar for 60 seconds just doesn't cut it in my eyes; nor do chin ups.

Hanging from a bar isn't for improvement just to gauge your ability.

The chin ups part is just from my personal trainer who got his masters in kinesiology. I went from 0 chin ups in a month to 10 chin ups and my grip getting very strong and my balance on push ups and bench getting a lot better.

It would be pushing your muscles to the limit to make them grow as fast as possible.

First do sets of your comfortable chin up level, then do sets of reverse chin ups when you can't do the normal chin ups and when you can't do reverse chin ups start at the top of a chin up and hold with yourself dangling and then go down to 50% of the chin up and hold and when you get exhausted at that you lower yourself slowly.

Your arms are like jello but the amount of improvement you get for strength is awesome. I did this for push ups as well where you hold the push up at half way and it helped a lot.

I would recommend this to anyone over doing as many reps as you could as many times as you can since this exercise will built your lactic acid threshold much much higher than doing as many reps as you can as often as you can.

 

[Dean22]

GW is right...one's got nothing to do with the other....grip strength is based on muscles working two ways, not stretched one way....

I didn't say grip strength improving by holding onto a bar. I said doing it as a gauge for what you can do since not many people hold the tools to measure their grip like the CF.

 

[George Wallace]

So?  Your posts have absolutely nothing to do with the title of this topic?

 

[Dean22]

So?  Your posts have absolutely nothing to do with the title of this topic?

???

I thought it was the grip strength super thread where you either ask questions or post tips/advice.

Isn't this the thread for all the information you can get for grip strength?

 

[George Wallace]

Chin ups have nothing to do with this topic.  Hanging from a bar, may in your eyes be a good guage as to how good your grip is, but it really isn't, nor does it improve your grip.

 

[Dean22]

I was just providing tips on how to improve grip strength which, is what chin ups practically are best for.

That or you can work as a carpenter hitting nails all day. They'll crush your hands with their grip. But I doubt that's a sound way to improve grip.