The perfect match

Kettlebell and grip training have so many crossovers for me that they are almost the same thing-

The amount of reps you can perform is limited by your grip endurance.

The weight of the kettlebell you can use is limited by your grip strength.

While I appreciate this is very generalised, it is also very true. Your hip complex and quads will always outlast your hands with any swing exercise and the snatch is known as the hand destroyer for a good reason.
Regarding maximal strength, it is your grip that decides which weight does or does not leave the floor for various exercises. You may well be able to deadlift bodyweight or more but that does not mean a 32k kettlebell snatch will come easily and 80% of this exercise is a bone crushing grip combined with an explosive and precise demonstration of power in the hips and traps. Chances are you can also shrug at least bodyweight and much more so again the grip will be the weakest link here.

When I was first introduced to kettlebell training many years ago a few minutes of 16k swings left me near death and swinging my 32k any higher than stomach height prised my hands open due to the additional force produced beyond the weight of the kettlebell. After training for a couple of years I found the missing link and added grip training to my workouts with great success. The kettlebell snatch went from 24/32/40/45/50kg and cleans eventually got to 65kg at 74kg bodyweight. There was also a phenomenal impact in endurance as well. 160 x 24k snatches in 10 minutes, 270 with a 16k in the same time, 2003 16kg snatches in 3 hours and 1200 x 16k 1 hand swings in 1 hour. Now the grip was actually the strongest link and my body would give out before the hands when pushing myself. This turnaround meant that my strength and fitness levels went through the roof and I would think nothing of training between 2 and 3 hours a day. Even a 1 hour strength/power circuit requiring rest periods could be completed with no rest apart from writing down what I did on a note pad. As a result of being able to train with bigger kettlebells and for longer I could complete 3, 4 and even 5 hour kettlebell marathons.

Taking yourself to the limit is not for everyone and certainly carries a price tag unless you know how to properly recover and pace yourself. Also, this type of grip work will only have moderate carryover into kettlebell competition training as that is more about being able to find active rest during your workout. And as the competition population in the UK is about 17 at present this article is geared more towards general users wishing to up their strength and fitness with kettlebells and grip training.

Next week

So how do we train our grip to help with kettlebell training?

So what do you think? Leave a comment below and if you like the article, link to us!

Why not go a stage further - tell us how you want this to unfold in terms of grip training for kettlebells and we can tailor it to your requests!