It used to hurt because the gripper was stuck to my hand but pulling it apart at the same time.

That happened to me too as a teenager. I'm actually surprised all my callouses healed, but then again I thought I wouldn't lose any muscle or strength even if I took a break from lifting, lol.

I try and use double overhand for as much deadlifting as possible

Thanks for the advice Joe, I'll stick to it as long as I can.

The only time I've had this happen to me was with grippers. It used to hurt because the gripper was stuck to my hand but pulling it apart at the same time.

Go easy on the chaulk if you use it, in my experience chaulking up a babysoft hand tends to hurt because the chaulk 1) dries your hand 2) really increases how tight you can grip something and 3) when your grip weakens the bar tends to hang onto the part of your hand it was resting on, its sort of like a pulling (from the hanging on) and grating (from the knurling). Once your hands have toughen up a little bit, go nuts. I like using lots of chaulk, probably more than I need to.

I've never had these problems. But then again I've never had baby soft hands . Except maybe when I was a baby.

I try and use double overhand for as much deadlifting as possible but of course there comes a point where fatigue or the shear weight of the barbell will prevent a double overhand from being used (without straps anyway). I never use a mixed grip if I can get by with a double overhand.

Just as an FYI, there will come a time when you will need to do some supplemental grip training if you want to keep using a double overhand grip for your heavy deadlifting.

One point I'd like to make is that increasing the demand on your grip should be reserved for 'lighter' exercises. Higher density rows, pullups or chinups, and static holds, the sort of exercise where your grip is challenged but not to the point where it can mean a failed attempt/rep. In those cases, a padded glove would do the job. If you think about it you don't really want to increase the difficulty of holding onto a heavy deadlift, they can be hard enough to hang onto and it could be the difference between a failed lift or switching to an over-under grip. Switching grips or losing your grip is counterproductive to the way you're intending to train your grip.

Quite frankly, now is the time that you want to switch to a bare hand because you're not using maximal weights. It should be a reasonable transition for you. Go easy on the chaulk if you use it, in my experience chaulking up a babysoft hand tends to hurt because the chaulk 1) dries your hand 2) really increases how tight you can grip something and 3) when your grip weakens the bar tends to hang onto the part of your hand it was resting on, its sort of like a pulling (from the hanging on) and grating (from the knurling). Once your hands have toughen up a little bit, go nuts. I like using lots of chaulk, probably more than I need to.

it's practical to have hands that are matched to the job.

This makes sense, the reason I had started wearing gloves is because my mom really disliked that & I had just started out lifting weights, when I starteed lifting again I read that they make the grip work harder, so I kept using them, but after my deadlifts started slipping, I really decided to reconsider it. I've already got some callouses growing, cause I have a cheap pair of lifting gloves & they don't prevent calluses, but do make my deadlidts slip. So I'll ditch those.
Thanks!

Some gloves can add a bit of friction and help with grip but no a whole lot. Chalk works much better. And some gloves just slip.

As you said, gloves "kinda" prevent calluses but calluses are caused by pressure. So only highly padded gloves could really prevent them and they would make the bar tougher to grip. In fact, a way I recommend to build up calluses is to lightly tape the hands to allow the calluses to build up while the tape helps protect the underdeveloped calluses from being ripped off if your grip slips…since most gyms don't allow chalk.

It's really a personal choice unless you think using gloves is "wimpy". I think to really lift heavy you need to toughen your hands. To me it goes with the territory. But not because you're a tough guy just because it's practical to have hands that are matched to the job.

From a bit of a physics point of view, your fingers are applying pressure to the sides of the plate and that transfers through the plate, into the contact point between the two (or more plates) and then out to your thumb. If you cannot transfer a force great enough to overcome gravity, the plates will not stay in your hand. The more plates you have the more frictional force (via pinching) you have to supply to hold the stack together. If the force of friction is weakest at the fingers or thumb, the plates will fall, if the force is weakest amongst the plates, the plates will fall.

You can do a quick experiment to see it. You can try a couple plates and then a few plates to see the difference. Or you can take a weight you're used to doing and mess around with the contact point (put plastic wrap or a bit of grease between the plates ;) ). Or you can clamp a stack together and pinch it and then try the same stack without the clamp.

I know when I do my ghetto db pinch deadlifts, when I start to lose my grip one dumbbell shifts downwards relative to the other. They very rarely both shift in unison. And they have a softer plastic sticker displaying the weight one each end.

So we should get into that crosswise brick thing…

So, on the plate pinches, you know there are all sorts of reasons why I don't like them as much as these other options. Including them being a pain to set-up, especially if you want to use assorted weights. But that thing about the friction between the plates I wasn't aware of. So, you are saying that the friction between the plates actually helps? I just thought that the friction held the plates together but it was your grip that was holding up the plates. I guess if you were using the same plates all the time it wouldn't matter because any help would cancel out. But if you switch around then that is even more inconsistency than normal, since plate pinches are so difficult to progress in a consistent way.

That paving stone idea is pretty good too. Its along the same lines as a hockey puck hub but its a lot less work than drilling a puck and using chains and eye bolts. To be honest I'm not a fan of plate pinches. Unless you have a true, smooth, iron plate and you chalk it up it is very difficult to actually say you are pinching the weight of the plates, there is always some friction, but we want to avoid unnecessary friction, and a lot of plates nowadays (in commercial gyms anyway) have a rubber or plastic shell on them so that they look good. You could do pinches with an unholy amount of weight, but you could have a very weak pinching strength. On the other hand, a pinch deadlift is very unbiased. The plates are smooth and there is no added friction between the plates to help you out, its just a matter of friction between your hand and the plate not your hand and the plate and another plate.

You know, I was going to buy a set of bands for the extensions but they were 20 bucks or so and I realized that I could adjust the strength of the band by using different thicknesses of rubber bands. They don't have to be broccoli elastics either, any type of elastic in any kind of combination will work, it just has to be the right size for your fingers!

Are you referring to the crosswise brick exercise?

All this talk about bricks made me remember I need to 'borrow' a block and a couple bricks from work so I can do some pinch grip training at home. I don't know if they appreciate me doing it at work. :P

Good point with the CoC grippers, they are the creme de la creme of torsion spring grippers but they are not a must. Like you said they have very good precision, I know that my #2 is pretty close to the strength they advertise it as. Plus they get into some very high resistances, the number 4 is 365lbs. But as long as you start off with one set of grippers and keep them consistent, progression is all that really matters. Personally, I'd go with the CoC's because they're comfortable (as opposed to some of the other gripper handles I've encountered) and the big one for me is that I know what resistance I am closing. Peace of mind really. I DO own some regular sporting good store grippers, I would recommend at least one of them to use for warmups.

I'm planning on making a small guide, in my blog, for hand grippers in the near future.

I've been passing my set (trainer, #1, and #2) around at work and to friends so they can try and nobody has managed to close the #2. Even with 2 hands. I've managed to get 3 reps with my right but only 1 with my left, for some reason I can't quite get it to set the same in each hand. I'm not saying I have strong hands, but a #2 is starting to get up there.I bought the trainer for reps, the #1 for a few reps and the #2 for very few reps. In the next 6 months or so I hope to buy a #3, but I hope to buy lots of things lol. My wishlist is quite long these days.

Here's a video of a good trick for progressing with the grippers, I like this method because you don't have to buy another gripper :P

I have a couple friends around the 160lb mark and I was thinking of asking them if I could use them as 'dbs' once I had progressed that far.

Haha, carrying people is much harder! Especially if your friends have big heads.

I do want to mention that while COC grippers are the best of the best there are grippers that are similar and much less expensive for those who are new to it and just want to experiment without dropping too much coin or those that are not officianados. I'm certainly no expert in grip strength competitions but I suspect the big difference is accuracy. But if accuracy doesn't matter and you just need progression then you can get less expensive ones. I'd recommend COC as a first choice, of course.

Lots of good ideas in there for grip work.

One of my favorite things now for pinch grip work is to use a brick (I use a brick shaped paving stone) with a weight tied to it. I use duct tape around the sharp edges of the brick so that it doesn't cut into my skin as I grip. That's a very cheap way to do pinch grip that is easy to slowly progress. A big problem with plate pinches is you can't micro-load and progression is very tricky. Some people use a piece of 2x4 with a hole drilled so weights can be tied from it. That gives you a more balanced load the the brick.

Great idea to save the bands from brocolli and such…hey, might make you eat more veges.

Joe, do you remember that other cool brick exercise we talked about? My favorite grip exercise period.