Workout Routines: How To Grip Part 1 by Frank Zane

The way in which you grip dumbbells and workout bars makes a difference in the effectiveness of each exercise you perform. The most common ways to grip are:

a. Under hand grips: Your palms face away from your body

2. Underhand grip: Where palms are facing away from your body

3. Mixed Grip: Where one hand faces your body and the other hand faces away from your body

d. Neutral grip: Your palms face each other.

The different styles have pluses and minus for specific exercises. Below is a list of some of them and advice on when best to use each one.

Pronation means turning your wrist inward as you move it toward your body, and supination is turning wrist outward as you move it toward your body. Using an overhand grip when gripping a bar keeps your hands in the same position when you do exercises like reverse curls, and this is fine.

When you do exercises like pulldowns, wide grip chin ups, bent over barbell rows, your wrists will pronate when you pull the weight toward your body, particularly if your thumbs are wrapped around the bar.

One serious disadvantage of this is that it can lead to injuries on the elbow�the outer elblow in particular. Unfortunately I had to learn this through experience having sustained injuries for years.

Conversely, with the underhand grip, at the start when you grip the bar and as you pull the weight towards you, your wrists are in a supinated position. This puts a great deal of stress on the inner elbow and lower biceps. Again, I learned this from making the mistake-the resulting injury takes a long time to heal. (I found the way to heal this injury is by doing high reps on barbell wrist curl with a light weight).