How We Ranked These Exercises

Each exercise was evaluated based on:

• Overall grip development

• Transfer to sports and daily life

• Progressive overload potential

• Accessibility

• Variety of grip types trained

• Long-term usefulness

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1. Monkee Grip Training ⭐

Best Overall

Instead of adding separate grip exercises after your workout, Monkee Grip Training turns many of your existing exercises into grip training.

By replacing traditional cable handles with Monkee Grips using the Cable Attachment Adapter, exercises such as:

• Lat Pulldowns

• Cable Rows

• Face Pulls

• Lateral Raises

• Rear Delt Flyes

• Triceps Pushdowns

• Cable Curls

• Functional Trainer Exercises

all become grip exercises.

Every repetition now challenges your fingers, forearms, wrists, and shoulder stabilizers while still training the intended muscle group.

This is one of the biggest shifts happening in grip training today—not adding more exercises, but making existing exercises work harder for your grip.

Rather than finishing your workout and saying, "Now it's time to train grip," you're building stronger hands throughout the entire session.

Develops

• Support grip

• Open-hand grip

• Grip endurance

• Shoulder stability

• Forearm strength

Learn More: Monkee Grip Training Hub

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2. Dead Hangs

Still one of the best foundational grip exercises ever created.

Dead hangs improve support grip, shoulder stability, and hanging endurance with almost no equipment.

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3. Farmer Carries

One of the best full-body grip exercises available.

Excellent for grip endurance and core stability.

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4. Pull-Ups

Every pull-up is also a grip exercise.

The stronger your grip becomes, the less often your hands limit your pulling strength.

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5. Rope Climbs

A classic grip challenge that develops crushing endurance and body control.

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6. Monkee Grip Dead Hangs

Once standard dead hangs become easy, hanging from Monkee Grips dramatically increases the challenge by introducing a freely rotating rope and a more demanding open-hand grip.

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7. Plate Pinches

One of the best ways to develop thumb strength.

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8. Thick Grip Carries

Larger handles force the fingers to work harder throughout the carry.

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9. Towel Pull-Ups

Excellent for wrestlers, climbers, and obstacle racers.

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10. Thick Grip Deadlifts

Increasing bar diameter immediately increases grip demand.

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11. Block Lifts

Great for pinch strength.

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12. Wrist Roller

Excellent forearm endurance exercise.

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13. Rice Bucket Training

Fantastic for balanced hand conditioning.

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14. Fingertip Push-Ups

Advanced finger strength.

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15. Sandbag Carries

Irregular objects force constant grip adjustments.

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16. Monkee Grip Rows

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17. Hanging Leg Raises

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18. Kettlebell Bottoms-Up Carries

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19. Deadlifts Without Straps

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20. Sledgehammer Levers

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21. Wrist Curls

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22. Reverse Wrist Curls

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23. Hand Grippers

Useful, but often overemphasized.

Great for crush grip.

Limited for overall grip development.

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24. Finger Extensions

Important for balancing heavy gripping.

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25. Barbell Holds

Simple but effective.

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Which Grip Exercise Is Best?

If you're only going to choose one exercise...

Dead hangs remain one of the best standalone grip builders.

However, if you're looking for the most efficient way to improve your grip without adding another training session, Monkee Grip Training offers a different approach.

Rather than treating grip as a separate workout, it integrates grip development into rows, pulldowns, shoulder exercises, carries, curls, pull-ups, and many other movements you already perform.

Over hundreds of repetitions each week, those additional grip demands accumulate into meaningful improvements in hand strength and endurance.

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A Better Way to Think About Grip Training

Most grip exercises are treated as separate workouts. You finish your rows, pull-ups, or shoulder exercises, then spend another 10–15 minutes training your grip.

Monkee Grip Training takes a different approach.

With the Monkee Grip Cable Attachment Adapter, nearly every pulling or cable exercise in this guide—along with many exercises not included here—can become a grip exercise simply by replacing the traditional handle with Monkee Grips.

That means movements like lat pulldowns, cable rows, face pulls, lateral raises, rear delt flyes, triceps pushdowns, cable curls, and many other cable exercises challenge your grip throughout every repetition while still training their primary muscle groups.

The same concept applies to many bodyweight exercises. Dead hangs, pull-ups, chin-ups, inverted rows, and carries all become significantly more grip-intensive when performed with Monkee Grips.

The only exceptions in this list are exercises that are already specifically designed around thick handles or specialized grip implements, such as thick bar training or thick handle carries. Those movements already challenge your grip in a different way.

As you work through the exercises below, remember that many of them can be made substantially more grip-focused simply by performing them with Monkee Grips.