What is False Grip?
The False Grip is a skill that will benefit most of your Pull skills and overall workout. It is a tool and gateway to many skills that you thought was impossible. Learning it will transform your Calisthenics journey, making it a more exciting and rewarding experience. You will also experience much more gains in the physique aspect. It was an absolute gamechanger for me and it will be for you too.
The False Grip involves placing your wrists on top of the pull-up bar or rings, rather than gripping them with your fingers wrapped around in a standard grip. This means the bar or rings rest across the base of your palms. It is optional to then rotate your wrists inwards, facing each other and wrap your fingers around the bar as shown here: 
3 Benefits of the False Grip
It’s an essential technique for movements like muscle-ups, slow muscle-ups, and front levers. While it takes practice to hold and pull effectively, these 3 benefits make it well worth the effort:
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Makes Skills easier to Learn
The position of your wrists makes the movements such as the Muscle Up way easier. Since your wrists are already positioned at the top of the bars, you require less effort to transition to the Push phase of the Muscle Up.
Calisthenics is all about levers and fulcrums. When you move the point of loading from your fingers to your wrists, you are shortening the lever distance from the load to the fulcrum. This reduces the torque needed to be produce by your muscles and hence reduces the effort needed. A good example is the Front lever. Using a False Grip is considerably easier than a Normal Grip.
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Trains your Wrist Joints and Forearms
This awkward position will increase the load on the joints of your wrists, conditioning it to become stronger. Your ligaments and tendons will also be strengthened. This is super important for other Calisthenics moves that require strong wrists, which is essentially most moves. Strong joints and ligaments lower your chances of an injury, and I cannot stress the importance of remaining injury free (insert blog).
This position also works your forearms. Want bigger and more defined forearms? Use the False Grip in your exercises and target this additional muscle group as well.
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Body Awareness & Control
Once you master this grip, you will feel more in control of your entire body. This enhances proprioception, improving your ability to control your body through space. This will give you greater engagement of your core to stabilize your body, especially during exercises like front levers or ring transitions.
Ultimately, when you are in control of your body, you are able to fully engage and utilize all muscle groups involved in the skills, leading to greater gains and increased athleticism.
Tips to Master the False Grip
- Warmup: Stretch your wrists and prepare them adequately for your workout. Read our full warmup guide here (Insert link)
- Formwork: Begin by practicing false-grip hangs on lower bars to build wrist and forearm strength. Hold for 5-10 seconds and gradually increase the duration.
- Try Doing Pull Ups: Once you are able to hang for 10 seconds, move on to do Pull Ups with the False Grip, maintaining your form as much as possible.
- Use Chalk: Chalk reduces slipping and improves your ability to hold the false grip, especially when sweating.
In all my years of experience, the False Grip is a treasure that I found too late. I could have progress faster if I had learned the proper False Grip technique and incorporated it in all of my trainings. Try incorporating the False Grip in your training regime and watch your performance improve!