What Are CrossFit Grips and What Are They Used For?

Gymnastics grips are a strip of material worn across the palm and fastened at the wrist. They sit between your hand and the bar. That is the whole idea, and everything else is detail.

In CrossFit they get called a lot of things. CrossFit grips, hand grips, bar grips, rig grips, gymnastics grips. Same product. This guide covers what they do, when you actually need a pair, how to pick between chalk and chalkless, and how to get them to last.

What are CrossFit grips?

A grip is a hand protector. It covers the part of your palm that meets the bar, and it is held on by a strap around the wrist. Most are made from leather, synthetic fabric or carbon fibre. Ours are carbon fibre.

They do two jobs at once. The obvious one is protecting your skin from a bar that is doing its best to take it off. The less obvious one is doing some of the holding for you, so your forearms are not the thing that fails first.

Gymnastics grips came out of artistic gymnastics, where athletes have used them on the high bar and rings for decades. CrossFit borrowed the idea and changed the shape. Gymnastics grips have finger holes and a dowel. Most CrossFit grips do not, because the movements are different and the transitions are faster.

What are they used for?

Anything where you hang, pull or swing from a bar for long enough that your hands become the problem.

• Pull-ups and chest-to-bar. High volume is what tears hands. A grip spreads the load and keeps the skin off the knurling.
• Toes-to-bar. Long sets, constant swing, and a bar that keeps moving in your hand. This is where grip fatigue usually shows up before anything else does.
• Muscle-ups, bar and ring. The transition is the risky part. A grip that holds its position through the turnover keeps your hand where you put it.
• Barbell cycling. Snatches and cleans in volume, particularly touch and go.
• Kettlebell swings and rope work. Both punish the same patch of skin.

If your session is squats and a run, you do not need grips. If there are forty toes-to-bar in it, you will notice the difference.

Do you actually need a pair?

Not on day one. Grips solve a problem you have to earn first.

The signal is repetition. If you are doing bar work once a week and your hands are fine, keep training. If you are ripping, or breaking sets early because your hands went before your lungs did, or you are protecting a tear that has not healed, that is when a pair starts paying for itself.

Plenty of people buy their first pair the week after a bad tear. That works, but it is a slow way to learn it.

Fingerless or finger holes?

Traditional gymnastics grips have holes you push your fingers through, which anchors the grip in place. Plenty of CrossFit athletes still train in them.

We only make fingerless. The reason is contact. A fingerless grip leaves your fingertips on the bar, so you can feel what you are holding and adjust without stopping. Finger holes take that away, and they take longer to get on and off between movements.

The trade is that a fingerless grip has to be held in the right place rather than hooked in one. In practice that is a few sessions of getting used to it.

Chalk or chalkless: the bar decides

This is the only question that really matters, and the answer is nothing to do with how good you are. It is about the rig in your gym.

Chalk works by drying your hand and adding friction against bare steel. On a coated or painted bar there is far less for it to bite into. That is why athletes on modern powder-coated rigs end up chalking up between every set and still slipping.

Look at the pull-up bar in your box. If it is painted or feels smooth, take the chalkless pair. If it is bare or rough steel and everyone is chalking, take the chalk pair. If you train in more than one gym, a lot of people end up owning both and picking on the day.

The full version of this is in chalk or chalkless grips, which covers how to identify your rig surface by look and feel, why rings are their own answer, and why the same pair can let you down in a heatwave. If you just want a quick answer, which grip is mine settles it in about a minute.

Sizing

Measure from the base of your palm to the tip of your middle finger.

If you land between the two, email us the measurement before you order. Getting it right first time is quicker than an exchange, and we would rather do that than post you two pairs.

How to use CrossFit grips

Most of the value is in the first week of using them properly.

1. Set the position. The material should sit across the part of your palm that meets the bar, not bunched at the base of your fingers.
2. Let the grip do the work. Fold the material over the bar so it forms a hook. Squeezing harder to hold the grip in place defeats the point and tires your forearms out faster than going bare-handed.
3. Break them in. A new pair is stiff. Wear them for warm-ups and lighter sessions for a few days before putting them in a workout that matters.
4. Secure them between sets. Both of our grips carry MagnaSafe, a magnet in the grip and a matching one in the seam of the sweatband. Flick the grip back and it holds flat against your wrist instead of twisting round the back of your hand. The magnet-compatible sweatbands come in the box because the system needs both halves.
5. Chalk to match the grip. The chalkless pair does not want it. The chalk pair does.

Looking after them

• Dry them flat after a session. Rolled up in a wet bag is how a grip ages fast.
• Keep them out of damp storage. The boot of a car counts.
• Rotate two pairs if you train most days. One for daily work, one kept fresh for competition.

A worn grip is not just tired, it is less predictable. If the surface has gone glassy, replace it before a comp rather than after.

What grips will not do

They will not make your grip strength better on their own. They take load off it, which is useful in a workout and unhelpful if it becomes the only way you ever train.

Keep some bar work bare-handed. Add farmer's carries, dead hangs and barbell holds. If your wrists are the limiting factor rather than your hands, that is a different problem and wrist wraps are the fix for it.

Grips also will not save skin that is already gone. If you have a tear, let it close.

Common questions

Are CrossFit grips and gymnastics grips the same thing?
In practice, yes. The names are used interchangeably in most gyms. Traditional gymnastics grips tend to have finger holes and a dowel, and CrossFit grips usually do not.

Can I use grips for weightlifting?
For barbell cycling, yes. For a heavy single, a pair of lifting straps does a different and better job.

How long does a pair last?
It depends entirely on how much bar work you do and how you store them. Volume and damp are what kill them.

Do I still need chalk?
With the chalkless pair, no. With the chalk pair, yes, that is what it is built around.

Will they stop me tearing completely?
No. They make it much less likely at the volumes that usually cause it. Technique and how much you do in one session still matter.

Where to start

If your gym has coated or smooth bars, start with the UltraGrip+ V2. If it is bare steel and chalk, start with the HyperGrip+ V2. Both are fingerless, both are carbon fibre, both come with magnet-compatible sweatbands, and both are made in two sizes.

You can see the full range of CrossFit grips, or read chalk or chalkless grips if you want to be sure before you order. UK orders placed before 4pm go out the same day, delivery is free over £70, and returns are open for 30 days.

The next generation UltraGrip+ V3 is confirmed and on the way. The V3 waitlist hears the spec and the launch price first.

Still not sure? Email us and a person will reply within one working day.