Chalk your hands before lifting
A slight amount of perspiration on your palms significantly reduces grip strength. And grip strength is a determining factor in success during “pulling” lifts like cleans, deadlifts, and pull-ups. Kettlebell athletes chalk up before a set of kettlebell snatches. To get better at these exercises, use gym chalk.
Gym chalk is a drying agent; it substantially improves your grip.
Unfortunately, most commercial gyms and fitness clubs ban the use of weightlifting chalk. Even though it’s probably the most useful weight lifting accessory, it makes a mess and gym owners don’t like it.
Newer gym chalk comes pressed into blocks, balls, or cakes. These chalk balls are much less messy than traditional powdered chalk.
It only takes a few seconds longer to chalk your hands using a cake than it does to dip your hands in loose powder, but these few seconds can mean the difference between being a concientious gym patron or being the kind of weight lifter who makes a mess.
Because of gym chalk’s reputation for making a mess, there is an entire generation of weight lifters who are unfamiliar with the instant benefits from chalking the hands before a heavy lift.
It’s time we got back to using chalk in the weight room.
What is weight lifting chalk?
Weightlifting chalk is powdered magnesium carbonate.
It is sold in several different forms:
- Ground up in a loose powder
- Pressed into convenient cakes
- In a chalk bag used by rock climbers
Coating your palms and hands with chalk is faster with the loose powder. But the cakes make much less mess.
So, it’s a tradeoff between convenience and cleanliness: take your pick.
Keep gym chalk in a closed, airtight container or Ziploc bag.
