Grip Training · 11 min read

9 Best Grip Strength Tools For BJJ And Judo In 2026, Ranked By What A Gi Grip Actually Needs

In a gi round, the forearms usually give out before the lungs do. We scored 9 grip tools, from an old gi you already own to a $99 hangboard, on what a collar and sleeve grip actually asks of your hands. A $24 pair of clip-on thick grips won, and a free one finished closer than most people would guess.

By Tyler Brandt

Senior writer · Oct 2, 2026 · 11 min read

Why Your Grip Quits Before Your Lungs Do

Every grappler knows the moment. Two minutes into a round your fingers stop closing on the collar, and the guy you had pinned walks out of it. That is not in your head. When researchers tested 35 jiu-jitsu competitors at a regional tournament, right-hand grip fell from 45.9 to 40.1 kilograms of force after one match, and the left hand fell further.

Here is the part most grip advice gets wrong. A harder squeeze is not what sets good grapplers apart. A 2017 review of the jiu-jitsu research called elite players' handgrip numbers "not high." What does set them apart is how long they can hold cloth. In one study, elite players hung from a gi for 56 seconds against 38 for non-elite players, and did 15 gi chin-ups against 8.

That changes what a grip tool has to do. A gi grip holds a thick fold of fabric with the hand partly open, again and again, for a whole round. A tool that trains your hand to close all the way, like a spring gripper, trains the wrong end of the motion. A tool that keeps your hand open on something thick, for real sets, trains the right end.

9 tools ranked · 26 looked at · 6 criteria, 100 points · every price read at the seller on 2 October 2026

Half the points go to the first two questions, because a grappler already trains four or five days a week and has no room for a new grip session. Prices, sizes and stock come from each seller's own store. Free tools are scored like everything else. Where two tools do the same job and tie, S goes to the one that costs less at every size. Below S, tiers are cut at the three biggest gaps in the totals, not at round numbers.

The Board

S

$75Popeyes Bundle $24Popeyes 50 mm

A

$29.99Fat Gripz Pro

B

FreeGi Pull-Ups

$35Scramble Grips

$29EZ-ROPE

C

$34.95CoC Gripper

$99Flash Board

D

$11.57Rice Bucket

Tap any tile for its scorecard.

Each tile shows what one tool costs at the seller. The two Popeyes options are scored as separate entries, the single 50 mm pair and the box of all three sizes. Gi pull-ups assume an old gi you already own.

See the Popeyes 50MMSee the Popeyes BUNDLE

What The Board Settled

1. A Thick Grip Trains The Open Hand. It Does Not Train The Pinch.

A handle about 2 inches across keeps your fingers from closing all the way, which is why it feels so much harder. In one lab test, a 2 inch bar cut what lifters could deadlift by about 28%. Another found that thick grips cut the number of pull-ups people could do and made the forearm muscles work harder on deadlifts, rows and pull-ups. That is the open-hand, hold-on-for-dear-life work a gi grip asks for.

Here is what a thick grip does not do. It does not train the finger pinch of a lapel grip, and it does not teach your hand the feel of cloth. In one test, grapplers pulled about 18% less through a gi handle than through a bar, so cloth is its own skill. And the honest state of the science: one small trial found that eight weeks of lifting with thick grips raised grip strength, in golfers. Nobody has run that study on grapplers yet.

2. Fat Gripz And Popeyes Tie. Price Breaks It.

The two thick grips tied on 85. Fat Gripz Pro is a little thicker than the 50 mm Popeyes, so it took two more points for open-hand work. Popeyes come in a 50 mm the maker suggests for pull-ups, with two thicker sizes above it, so they took one more for progression. Price settled it. At the seller on 2 October, size for size:

Popeyes are the thicker grip at the thin end, the same size at the thick end, and cheaper at every step. Fat Gripz do win one thing outright: a two-size Progression Bundle, Pro plus Extreme, for $59.99, which no one else sells.

3. The Best Free Tool Is The Old Gi In Your Closet

Throw an old gi over a pull-up bar, grab a sleeve in each fist and pull. It is the exact test researchers use to sort good grapplers from the rest, and it scored 77 with no money spent. It did not reach S because it only rides on pull-ups and hangs, and you cannot make it lighter on a bad day. Do it anyway. The rest of this page is about what to put on the bar for everything else.

4. A Stronger Squeeze Is The Wrong Target

Spring grippers are good tools. They train the hand to crush all the way shut, a few hard reps at a time. Grapplers in one 2024 study had the same maximum squeeze as men who did not train at all. They lasted about 56% longer on a hard, repeated squeeze test. That is endurance, not crush, and it is why the grippers landed in C.

The Winner: Popeyes 50mm And The Three-Size Bundle

S Tier · 88 and 85

Popeyes, 50 mm Pair and the Three-Size Bundle

$24 a pair for the 50 mm · $75 for all three sizes
4.58 out of 5 from 153 reviews on kensui.com

• Two halves click around any bar, dumbbell, band or pull-up bar you own
• Turns pull-ups, rows and deadlifts into open-hand grip work, no extra session
• Less than Fat Gripz at every size, and 0.49 lb a pair in your gi bag

Popeyes are a pair of hard sleeves, a fiberglass and nylon shell with a rubber lining, knurled on the outside. Each one is two halves that click shut around a bar. Put them on a pull-up bar, a barbell, a dumbbell or a band handle and that lift is now a grip lift. That is why both Popeyes options took full marks for riding on your lifting, and why they won.

Start with the 50 mm. It is the size Kensui suggests for pull-ups and bench press, and it is thick enough that your hand cannot close around it. Use it for pull-ups and rows, the pulls that look most like dragging someone in by the collar. If you know you will move up, the bundle adds the 60 and the 70 for $75 in all. That is $5 less than buying the three pairs one at a time, and $14.99 less than Fat Gripz' three sizes.

Three things to know before you buy. Hard shells can smell of rubber when they come out of the box, so leave them out for a day or two. The fit depends on your bar, so click them on firmly and check them before a heavy set, because a loose pair can slide. And on a wide bench press grip, a thick sleeve pushes your thumb outward, so keep it for pulls. None of that is a reason to skip them. It is the reason the pulls get them first.

Get the Popeyes

The Rest Of The Board

A Tier: Fat Gripz Pro

Fat Gripz are the thick grip most people know, and the Pro at $29.99 is a rubber-like wrap-on sleeve 2.25 inches across. It tied the 50 mm Popeyes on 85. It is thicker, so it works the open hand a little harder, and it wraps onto the same bars. Fat Gripz back it with a 60-day money back guarantee. It missed S on one rule: two tools doing the same job, and Popeyes cost less at every size. If you already own a pair, keep using them. If you are buying, the Popeyes are the cheaper way in.

B Tier: Gi Pull-Ups, Scramble Grip Trainers And The EZ-ROPE

Gi pull-ups top this tier for free, for the reasons above. Scramble's Grip Trainers are $35 for a pair of handles cut from 550gsm pearl-weave gi fabric, lapel and all. Hang them from a pull-up bar or loop them through a kettlebell and you get cloth in your hands without draping a whole gi over the bar. They scored 72. Kodo's V2 Gi Grip, built for cable machines, is $46 for a single handle, and Jukado's $22.49 pair was on back order on 2 October, so neither is ranked.

Kensui's own EZ-ROPE, a 20 inch climbing rope that hangs from your pull-up bar, is $29 in black, 38 mm thick. One owner who does jiu-jitsu with their son wrote that it is great for strengthening their grips for the gi. It is closer to a sleeve grip than any thick handle, and it is thinner, so it works the open hand less. That is why it sits in B and not at the top. See the EZ-ROPE

C Tier: Captains of Crush And A Hangboard

IronMind's Captains of Crush grippers are $34.95 each, in levels from the Guide up past the No. 1, with knurled aluminum handles. They are the best grippers made, and they scored 43 because a full crush is the part of the motion a gi grip never reaches. Tension's Flash Board, $99, is a wooden cylinder with fingertip edges that hangs from a pull-up bar. It does train open-hand finger endurance, which is why climbers live on boards like it. But its edges run 8 to 20 mm, a fingertip hold no gi grip uses, it needs its own session and it is the dearest tool here. It scored 42.

D Tier: The Rice Bucket

A rice bucket costs $11.57 for a 20 lb bag at Walmart, in any bucket you already have. Pushing your hands through it opens and closes the fingers against light resistance, and it feels good on sore hands. There is no load to add, nothing rides on your lifting and we found no study on it. Keep it as a warm-up, not your grip program. Wrist rollers ($47.99 and up) and axle bars ($79.99 and up) were looked at and left off: a roller trains the wrist more than the fingers, and an axle does what a thick grip does on one bar for more money.

The Full Scores

Columns: Open-hand endurance (25), Rides on your lifting (25), Gi carryover (15), Progression (15), Fits a gi bag (10), Price (10). Scroll sideways for all six. Prices at the seller on 2 October 2026.

Which One To Actually Buy

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Size Should A Grappler Start With?

The 50 mm. Kensui suggests it for pull-ups for every hand size, and pull-ups and rows are where a gi grip is built. Move to the 60 or 70 for rows and deadlifts once the 50 feels easy.

Will Thick Grips Replace Gi Pull-Ups?

No. Do both. The gi trains the feel of cloth and the finger pinch. The thick grip loads the open hand on every other pull you do.

Will They Fit My Pull-Up Bar?

They are made to fit barbells, dumbbells, pull-up bars and band handles. Click them on firmly and give them a tug before a heavy set, because fit varies from bar to bar.

Are Fat Gripz Better?

The Pro is a little thicker than the 50 mm Popeyes and tied it on score. Size for size, Popeyes cost less.

How Were The Tiers Set?

S needs full marks for riding on your lifting and a lower price at every size than the other thick grip on the board. Below that, tiers are cut at the three biggest gaps in the totals: 85 to 77, 66 to 43 and 42 to 29. No score was moved to fit a band.

Can A Rice Bucket Hurt?

It is about as gentle as grip work gets. If a finger or wrist is injured, ask a doctor or physical therapist first, with any of these tools.

Sources: kensui.com, fatgripz.com, scramblestuff.us, kodogigrips.com, jukado.com, ironmind-store.com, tensionclimbing.com, metoliusclimbing.com, beastmaker.co.uk, bellsofsteel.us, titan.fitness, repfitness.com and walmart.com, all read on 2 October 2026. Research: Andreato and colleagues, Asian Journal of Sports Medicine, 2013 (grip after one match). Andreato and colleagues, Sports Medicine Open, 2017 (review). da Silva and colleagues, Archives of Budo, 2012 (gi hang and chin-ups). Junior and colleagues, Sports, 2024 (repeated squeeze). Ratamess and colleagues, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2007 (thick bar deadlift). Krings and colleagues, same journal, 2021 (thick grips and pull-ups). Cummings and colleagues, same journal, 2018 (eight-week golfer trial). Escobar-Molina and colleagues, Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 2023 (pulling through a gi handle). Product names and product photos belong to their makers.

Put Your Grip On Every Pull

A gi grip is open-hand endurance, and you build it on the pulls you already do. The pair that won costs $24, clicks onto the bar you own, and comes with a 100-day risk-free trial.

Get the Popeyes