Literally me. I deadlift 700 with hook grip, 500 double-overhand, and I still struggle. I just smack the lid on the edge of the counter a bit to help.
Everyone starts somewhere. Those numbers are dangerously close to my lateral raise! Keep it up!
Stick the tip of a spoon under the lip of the lid and push the handle towards the jar. That should open a little gap that releases the pressure inside the jar and it’ll open pretty easily then.
If climbing has taught me anything, it’s that lifting (deadlifting in this case) is no indication of grip strength.
OP should try opening the pickle jar with their thighs
Kinda. It can help grip strength a lot, or at least holding weights in that way can. But its not a grip strength exercise. Deadlifts, barbell/dumbell shrugs, farmers carry, curls, etc… stuff like that can all help improve grip strength while not being the primary goal of the exercise.
What do you suggest for increasing it? I normally do dead hangs and wrist curls
Either lots of pull-up bar related exercises, like hang-toughs, towel-pulls, and L-sits, or these things
Any sort of exercise that removes the thumbs and metacarpophalangeal joints from the equation, if you can close your hand, lock your grip and hang off of your skeleton you’ll only add so much to your grip. There are actual crimping blocks and rolling handles you can attatch to weights to strengthen your grip.
Emil Abrahamsson seems to think that hangboarding is the answer to this problem, he suggests holding a hangboard without lifting your total weight off of the ground on the smallest ledge you can manage, twice a day, every day, to turn your grip into iron. He recently beat a lot of pound for pound grip championship records so I think his training techniques are worth paying attention to.
That being said, climbing itself might be the answer since these elite dudes routinely hang off of the absolute tips of their fingers while lifting their bodies up a wall and even for someone who can deadlift a shitton getting used to lifting your weight on crimps takes months to achieve.
It’s also worth saying that you have very few muscles in your hand and grip strength is more a game of strengthening tendons and ligaments, which takes a lot longer than strengthening muscles, which might be why one of the guys with the most world records in grip strength right now is 70+ years old.
Metacarpophalangial, look at Dr. Knuckles over here
For some reason I’m picturing a red hedgehog in a white coat now
I looked it up because I couldn’t figure out how the hell to refer to a specific row of knuckles, first? second? do you count from the palm or the tip? figured better to be precise.
I dig it. I inferred that joint from your description but had to look up the term to be sure.
Punch knuckles, not door knocking knuckles. Climbing needs more strength in the door knocking knuckles, whereas many grip strength exercises like deadlift do more work on the punching knuckles, the metacarpophalangial joints.
I’ve seen doodads that connect to the fingertips to focus work on the proximal interphalangeal joints.
Great descriptions! Lately I’ve been working on the (pardon me, I couldn’t find a use for them) distal interphalangeal knuckles, just hanging from my finger tips. Pretty much all the good climbers at my gym can do that with weight added on a belt so I’ve still got a long way to go. But yeah I used to lift pretty heavy and this was pretty much impossible before I started practicing, just seem like totally different parts of the body although they’re all in the hand.
Get those spring hand grip strengtheners?
Hand grippers.
Basic grippers -> Power grippers -> Captains Of Crush grippers
I will eventually get away from 135lb power grippers
They are hard to open due to a vacuum seal. So just take a very small flathead screwdriver and put it under the lid, and apply a small amount of upward force to break the seal. The jar pops, releases the pressure, and now a toddler can open it. I use the nail file on my pocket Leatherman. Works every time.
Won’t you bend the lid and lose the ability to reseal it properly though?
Very dumb trick but I use a rubber band to have better grip around the lid, as they are usually quite slippy imo
I actually keep a pair of grippy work gloves in my junk drawer specifically for opening stubborn jars.
This pair to be specific if anybody is interested.
Fun Fact: If you use a hammer, the pickles will just fall right out
My favorite part is the pickled glass shards
The crunch really leaves an impression for a long time too
Don’t forget the fun times on the loo sometimes later. Fermented stuff really is good for your guts after all!
Reading this made me flinch
It fulfills your daily recommended intake of glass
Screw the microplastics, I’m all about that micro glass. Get those two to fight each other.
Exceeds it, even. That’s how you know it’s good.
Until you pee out all the excess.
Using brain more than raw power helps for a lot of things in life.
It’s because you’re not using the same muscle groups. Simply set the pickle jar on the ground, put your power foot on the jar, grip the lid, and heave with your entire lower back and glutes in the open direction
Most of us non gym people are the other way around. Not me, I’m weak everywhere.
Yea, idk why the pickle jar is so hard to open at the gym. It’s like it’s trying to embarass me!
Makes sense, 200 lbs is pretty weak for a deadlift.
Maybe OP only weighs 80 lb and then that’s a pretty solid DL. If OP is like 150… there is room for growth we will say.
It depends tbh, I am a (late?) teen, and when I started, I couldn’t even bench a bar without hurting myself, I can now bench 140, I am proud of it but it will probably be very unimpressive for someone who started at 90
Yes, it depends if you’re weak.
I’m going to disregard the original comment because a lot of factors are going into the impressiveness and everyone’s body is different, but you can’t really compare your flat bench progression with your deadweight lifts accurately to gauge progress. Either way, progress is progress and congrats on your gains friend!
I actually only do RDL’s because regular deadlifts kinda messes the rest of my lift, especially since its works all of the posterior chain and quads, so I kinda have trouble trying to fit them in my PPL split
I get it. I do standard deadlifts first thing on my back day because I don’t like fatiguing my posterior chain on leg day, but it definitely causes grip problems by the end of my workout. Maybe it’s just me, but you’ll probably be lifting lower weights typically with an RDL which may be where the comments are coming from.
Bro I’m in the same boat as you, I just started lifting about a month and a half ago and I could barely move our Olympic bar, now I’m moving weight I literally thought I’d never touch. It’s still laughably low for anyone who’s been moderately athletic/ strong their whole lives but it starts somewhere right?
It’s a journey, we all start somewhere, the best are the ones who keep moving forward
Hell yeah. Congrats on 200 bro, I just hit 115 this week and I was only shooting for 100 😤 haha
We’re all gonna make it brah.
youre supposed to help him open the jar, not give him depression!
Turn it upside down, slap the bottom a few times, and it’ll open right up.
Just like my ex!
Using a fork and pushing it between the threads of the lid with a twist also works
…j-just like his ex?
Well, it do be an ex for a reason
I just wanted to say that a 200lb deadlift isn’t all that impressive, especially if you look like buff doge. I guess he skips leg day a lot
Just heat up the lid a little bit.(if the lid is metal)
You can use hot water, although I have found rolling the lid on my electric stove for 10-20 seconds works better because then it’s not wet after.
I’m not falling for the ol’ spicy pickle lid again
Slide the tip of a dull knife under the side of the lid, then apply a little leverage so air can get in. Even easier, and wastes no power
And also ruins the seal permanently so that they can’t be resealed well
If you keep the pickles in the fridge and eat then within a week or two it doesn’t matter
I wonder if they actually use the same trick to actually put the lid on as-well to create as-tight of a seal as possible
I assume all parts are heated first because that’s how you ensure it’s sterile. It also serves to make a slight vacuum once cooled which will keep everything sealed.
There’s usually a high friction between the jar lid’s deformable seal, and the lip of the glass jar itself.
A gentle knock of the lid on the edge of the counter will reduce the friction effect, making it far easier to open a ‘stuck’ lid.
I dent the lid with a butter knife’s blunt edge
If you want to reuse the lids, you can just pry the lid a little and let the pressure equalize. That way there is no dent and sealing it again will work properly.
