Train the Whole Hand – Different Grips

You can’t just expect to maximize the strength and resilience your hands are capable of by squeezing 1" diameter cylinders (otherwise your mom would be an armwrestling world champ). Grip isn’t one movement pattern — there are crush, pinch, support, crimp, and open-hand gripping strength. Your hand and forearm have over 35 muscles working together, and different grip styles load them in different ways.

Crush Grip – This is all about closing your hand as hard as possible around something. Think of using grippers, holding a thick bar, or squeezing a grip tool. You’re activating the deep finger flexors (FDP, FDS), intrinsic hand stabilizers, and thumb flexors if there's thumb opposition involved. It’s powered by high dynamic tension—you're not just holding; you're actively squeezing throughout the movement.

Support Grip – Here, the goal is to keep your hand wrapped around an object without necessarily squeezing harder. Picture farmer's carries, deadlift holds, or hanging from a bar. The flexors still work, but at a lower intensity—focusing on endurance over time rather than raw force. It builds grip durability instead of sheer crushing strength.

Pinch Grip – Clamping something between your thumb and fingers heavily recruits the thumb muscles (adductor pollicis, thenar muscles) and small intrinsic hand muscles. 

Crimp Grip – Bending the fingers in a hinged position, like climbers do on small edges. This position places massive stress on the flexor tendons, finger pulleys (A2/A4), and stabilizing muscles like lumbricals and interossei. Very powerful for tendon strength and joint stability—but also high-risk—so approach with controlled loads and low repetitions.

Open-Hand Grip – Gripping something that's almost too big to grasp (sounds philosophical) so that the finger flexors are working from a stretched position. Open hand training can be a great tool in rehabilitation from conditions like carpal tunnel and is paramount for building the type of grip strength applicable for feats like stone lifting, grappling, and climbing.

Quick notes and programming cues

• Crush vs Support: same muscles, different emphasis. Crush = peak force; support = resisting fatigue over time. Train both.

• Angle variation: rotate wrist and finger angles across sessions to hit different length-tension and pulley loads.

• Crimp caution: crimping places very high stress on pulleys and FDP — use low reps or short-duration isometrics and progress slowly.

• Isometrics: excellent for both tendon adaptation (longer holds at submax) and peak strength (short, near-max holds).

• Progression: build general multi-finger strength first, then isolate (pinches/crimps/mono work) to avoid early overload of small pulleys.
  
  

Training all these grips keeps your hands balanced, tough, and ready for anything. That’s why tools that let you pinch, crimp, support, and crush with endless variety are so valuable.