Pull and grip
The most under-trained pattern in almost every adult.
- Length
- 4 weeks
- Sessions
- 2-3 a week
- Each
- 20 min
- Improves
- Dead Hang
Nobody in a desk job pulls anything heavy, so the capacity goes quietly. Grip is the part that fails first, and it is what the Dead Hang measures.
The session
Same movements every time. The load changes, not the list.
Dead hang
3 × till you have to let go
This is the Body Quotient test. Note the time each session.
Dumbbell row or barbell row
3 × 8-10 each side
Lat pulldown or pull-ups, or band pulldowns
3 × 8-10
Seated cable row
3 × 8-10
Four weeks
- 01Week 1: record your honest starting hang time.
- 02Week 2: add a fourth hang set.
- 03Week 3: add weight to the pulldown and row.
- 04Week 4: retest your dead hang against week 1.
Then retest your Dead Hang
Four weeks is long enough for this number to move. Take the Body Quotient before you start so you have a baseline worth comparing against.
The reasoning behind this
Grip strength is a biomarker, not a party trick
Hand strength predicts a startling range of outcomes it has no business predicting. Here is why, and why our dead hang test is an imperfect stand-in for it.
How many reps, and how heavy
Four to six builds strength, eight to fifteen builds muscle, and the research showing five to thirty works does not mean reps stopped mattering.