Get a grip

Grips are categorized as prone (palm facing downward), supine (palm facing upward), and neutral (palm facing to one side). How do these grips affect your workouts?

The biceps curl is a great example of how grip can change the impact of the exercise. The typical grip is a supine grip. When using this grip, the forearms do not perform as much work. The palm provides a surface for the weight of the dumbbell to rest upon. The majority of 'work' is performed by the biceps brachii, the main muscle of the biceps that forms the bulge when your arm is flexed. It is interesting to note that the exercise is traditionally performed with a straight wrist - this involves engaging the muscles of the forearm to keep the wrist straight. To further isolate the biceps brachii, you can let your wrist hang limp (so the back of your hand drops towards the floor) to diminish the involvement of the forearm.

Reverse the grip on the dumbbell, however, and the exercise changes significantly. With a prone grip (palm facing down) your fingers and hand are now forced to actively hold the dumbbell to resist gravity. In order to do this, the brachioradialis is engaged. This muscle runs the length of your arm from the wrist to the elbow joint. Taking a prone grip puts the biceps brachii at a mechanical disadvantage and forces the brachioradialis to take over.

Take a grip in between, a neutral grip, and you begin to engage both muscles. The brachioradialis is still the main mover, but the biceps brachii will become more involved and is at less of a mechanical disadvantage than in the prone grip. This is a compromise between working your biceps and forearm muscles.

One special type of curl, the Zottman curl, involves multiple grips during the same exercise. To perform a Zottman curl, begin with a supine grip and contract the dumbbell towards your chest. At the top of the movement, reverse your grip, i.e. turn your hand so your palm is facing downward in a prone grip. Then lower the dumbbell back down. This exercise involves both the forearm and biceps in the same movement.

Your grip can impact a variety of other exercises as well. For example, you can use prone, supine, and neutral grips on the triceps push-down in order to emphasize different parts of your upper arm. The same can be done with triceps extensions, bench presses, pull-downs, pull-ups, and virtually any other exercise involving grip.

One more important factor of grip is not just the grip itself, but the grip position. The bench press is the perfect exercise to illustrate the impact grip can make. In order to visualize how grip position affects exercise, think in terms of what joints are moving and how far each muscle has to move. By understanding what is moving during the exercise, you will better understand how it targets various muscles.
In a typical bench press, the bar is gripped at just about shoulder width. The bar is lowered until lightly touching the chest. During this movement, there are two key joints that move. The elbow joint moves slightly from fully open at the top of the movement to a 90-degree angle at the bottom. The upper arm also enjoys a similar range of motion and it is this motion of moving your upper arm from parallel to perpendicular that involves the chest muscles and makes this primarily a chest exercise. The change in angle of the elbow joint is due to the involvement of the triceps, which function to extend the arm.

Now, consider gripping the bar with your hands just about one palm width apart (a very narrow grip). The mechanics of the movement change dramatically. First, your upper arm moves less due to the extreme bend at the elbow. The elbow enjoys are far wider range of movement and goes past 90 degrees into an acute angle of 45 degrees or less. As you may have guessed, the reduction of movement in the upper arm means less tension and work for the chest, while the increased movement about the elbow joint indicates further involvement of the triceps. The close-gripped bench press is primarily a triceps movement, so by changing the grip position, we've effectively changed the main muscle that is targeted from chest to upper arm.

It is important to consider both grip style (supine, prone, or neutral) as well as grip position when performing your exercises. Learn the appropriate grip to target the muscle you are working and understand the variations on grip so that you can make simple adjustments to your workouts to involve more muscle groups. When it is time to change your routine, sometimes it is as simple as pointing your palm in a different direction to create an entirely new exercise experience and 'get a grip' on your workout routine.