Weightlifters frequently argue over the deserves of pronation vs. supination with regard to grip.

Many imagine altering the way you grip a weight considerably impacts which muscle mass you practice.

As an illustration, they are saying performing pulling workout routines with a pronated grip tremendously will increase how a lot work your again muscle mass must do, whereas utilizing a supinated grip boosts biceps involvement. 

Are these concepts true?

Is there a transparent winner within the pronate vs. supinate debate, or are the variations extra nuanced than they seem?

Get evidence-based solutions on this article. 

What Is a Pronated Grip?

Pronation refers to a hand and wrist place wherein your palms face backward when your arms are by your sides. 

A “pronated grip,” also known as an “overhand grip,” is a technique of gripping the place your hand is in a pronated place. 

A pronated grip can look completely different relying on the place you place your arms relative to your physique. For instance, should you maintain a barbell with a pronated grip and your arms straight out in entrance of you, your palms will face the ground.

In distinction, should you maintain a barbell with a pronated grip and your arms overhead, your palms will face ahead.

Workout routines that use a pronated grip embody the barbell row, pull-up, bench press, and overhead press. Right here’s how these workout routines look:


Pronated Grip Exercises

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What Is a Supinated Grip?

Supination refers to a hand and wrist place wherein your palms face ahead when your arms are by your sides.

A “supinated grip,” generally known as an “underhand grip,” is a method of gripping the place your hand is in a supinated place.

Like a pronated grip, a supinated grip modifications relying on the way you place your arms. As an illustration, should you maintain a barbell with a supinated grip and your arms straight out in entrance of you, your palms will face the ceiling.

Conversely, should you maintain a barbell with a supinated grip and your arms overhead, your palms will face backward.

Workout routines that use a supinated grip embody the bicep curl and chin-up. Right here’s how these workout routines look:



Supinated Grip Exercises



Different Sorts of Grips

There are different methods to grip a weight past pronated and supinated grips.

Listed here are another grips generally utilized in power coaching.

Blended Grip

Weightlifters usually use a blended or “alternated grip” for deadlifts. It entails one hand utilizing a pronated grip and the opposite a supinated grip.

The benefit of a blended grip is that it helps stop the bar from rolling out of your fingers, permitting you to raise heavier weights. Nonetheless, it will probably result in muscle imbalances over time, and when the weights get heavy, it will increase the chance of struggling a biceps tear in your supinated hand. 

Impartial Grip

In a impartial grip, your palms face one another. Weightlifters generally use it for variations of the biceps curl, shoulder press, and cable row. It’s well-liked as a result of it’s gentler on the wrists and elbows, making it extra appropriate for these with joint points.

Hook Grip

Within the hook grip, you wrap your fingers across the barbell after which “hook” the thumb beneath your fingers. Whereas uncomfortable, it’s a steady and safe strategy to deal with heavy hundreds with out further gear, corresponding to lifting straps. 

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Pronation vs. Supination: Variations

Pulling Workout routines

Many weightlifters imagine utilizing a pronated grip for workout routines just like the barbell row and pull-up targets the again muscle mass over the biceps. In addition they suppose utilizing this grip for biceps curls emphasizes the forearms and brachialis (a muscle beneath the biceps brachii).

Conversely, they imagine a supinated grip is more practical for coaching the biceps throughout pulling and curling workout routines.

Nonetheless, analysis challenges these beliefs.

Research present that your again muscle mass are equally engaged, no matter the way you orient your fingers throughout vertical pulling workout routines.

The one refined distinction is that the pull-up is barely higher at coaching your lats and decrease traps, and the chin-up marginally will increase muscle activation in your biceps. However these minor variations are unlikely to considerably affect long-term muscle development.

This sample additionally holds for horizontal pulling workout routines (barbell, dumbbell, and cable rows). Whereas altering grip orientation barely alters which muscle teams you practice, it’s unclear if this meaningfully impacts muscle and power growth over time.

Pushing Workout routines

One research by the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic Faculty discovered that the reverse-grip bench press (supinated grip) prompts the higher pecs greater than the common bench press (pronated grip).

Biceps Workout routines

Most research present that biceps activation is analogous whether or not weightlifters use a pronated or supinated grip throughout pulldown workout routines

Nonetheless, a notable research from 2023 inspecting wrist place’s impacts on biceps muscle activation throughout curl workout routines offered barely completely different outcomes. 

It recommended that curls carried out with a supinated grip had been more practical than these with a pronated grip.

However, there have been a number of methodological flaws with this research that make it robust to belief.

As an illustration, the weightlifters didn’t use constant kind or practice significantly exhausting, and the supinated curl was solely superior through the lifting part; through the reducing part, each workout routines had been equally efficient. 

Given these peculiarities and the actual fact these outcomes battle with most different research, it’s honest to conclude that there’s no clear proof supinated curls practice the biceps greater than pronated curls.

Pronation vs. Supination: The Advantages of Completely different Grips

Whereas altering your grip most likely gained’t make a night-and-day distinction to which muscle teams you practice, various your grip over time continues to be helpful for muscle and power positive aspects for a number of causes:

For instance, rowing workout routines that let you flare your elbows are more practical for coaching your higher again than workout routines the place your elbows keep tucked to your sides. A pronated grip is extra appropriate, sensible, and safer for rows with flared elbows. In distinction, impartial or supinated grips would possibly really feel unnatural and hurt your shoulders.

  • Reduces damage threat: Repetitive stress accidents can happen while you do the identical workout routines in the identical method for lengthy durations, particularly while you use heavy weights. Sometimes various your grip can scale back this threat and spare you a visit to the bodily therapist.
  • Retains coaching attention-grabbing: Repeating the identical workout routines can turn into monotonous. Utilizing completely different grips retains exercises participating and enjoyable, which might make coaching extra productive.
  • Improves grip power: Coaching your grip in several positions doubtless boosts grip power greater than coaching it in the identical place, which can assist enhance athletic efficiency and is related with residing an extended, more healthy life.

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Conclusion

Though many weightlifters examine pronation vs. supination, analysis usually reveals that the way you orient your grip doesn’t affect which muscle mass you practice to a major diploma.

Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless helpful to modify up your grip on occasion. 

Doing so may help you keep per coaching, stop accidents, and promote balanced muscle development. Subsequently, utilizing quite a lot of grips in your routine is probably going more practical than sticking to only one grip.

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