What Is Weight Lifting Chalk And What Is It Made Of? - Strength Bible

Liquid gym chalk is a kit bag essential for me.

It’s cheap, versatile and very effective. A no brainer when it comes to lifting accessories.

Most of us have been there when lifting weights. You’re feeling good, pulling a heavy weight and then your fingers start to slip and your grip loosens.

You haven’t failed the rep because your target muscle has been fatigued, it’s just that our grip has given up. This is usually to do with excess moisture on your hands.

Gym chalk, sometimes known as weightlifting chalk, is the savour to remove the moisture from sweaty palms and help create a grip of steel.

Let’s take a look at exactly what lifting chalk is, what it’s made of and when chalk should be used in the gym.

Quick look at contents

1. What is gym chalk & how does it help your grip?
2. Is lifting chalk scientifically shown to help your grip?
3. What is gym chalk used for?
4. Should I use gym chalk all the time?
5. When gym chalk isn’t necessary in the gym
6. What is gym chalk made of?

What is gym chalk & how does it help your grip?

Gym chalk can go by various different names, such as lifting chalk, weightlifting chalk or liquid chalk. All these terms are one and the same thing.

Lifting chalk is used in the gym by weight lifters to improve grip strength by removing moisture on the palms of your hands and fingers.

Less moisture results in a more secure grip and the ability to lift more weight or perform more reps.  

The chalk that lifters use in the gym is the same stuff used by climbers and gymnasts looking for a better grip.

There are two main forms of gym chalk:

1. Solid dry chalk (usually in a block)
2. Liquid chalk

I’ve used both types of chalk. Generally for my weight training, I prefer liquid chalk.

Liquid chalk is much easier to spread out evenly across your hands, causes less mess, seems to last longer and will dry your whole hands out in around 10 seconds.

If you’ve ever seen people blowing on their hands in the gym or wafting them around, they’ll probably be drying out their liquid chalk.

And yes, you can still get that little puff of dust when you rub your hands together after the talk is dry – get that proper weightlifting feel – now we’re in business!

Is lifting chalk scientifically shown to help your grip?

The main function of gym chalk is to help you maximise your lifts by giving you more friction when gripping a weight.

Sometimes you have a muscular failure of your grip. This is where the primary griping muscles of the hands and forearms (extensor digitorum, extensor pollicis longus and brevis, flexor digitorum superficialis and profundus) can’t grip any further.

With muscular failure, lifting chalk isn’t going to help. This is all about the biochemical happenings and energy pathways within your muscles.

The other case is where your lift fails because you’ve got sweaty hands. This is where gym chalk works its magic.

A study by Bacon et al in 2018 found that 100% magnesium carbonate helped improve weight-assisted pull up performance in 9 individuals by about 16% compared to no chalk.

What is gym chalk used for?

Gym chalk is used when you’re weight training, strength training or Olympic weightlifting.

It’s primarily used when lifting heavy weights (relative to your own strength limits of course) when grip strength can become a limiting factor or when your hands are too sweaty to maintain a firm grip of the weight.

If you weight train in the morning, chalk can often come in handy if your grip is not quite up to speed due to neuromuscular activity.

As weightlifting chalk is synonymous with grip, and grip strength is equally linked to pulling exercises, gym chalk is more often than not utilised with big pull exercises, such as:

• Barbell row
• Deadlifts
• Pull ups or chin ups
• Lat pulldown
• Seated row
• Shrugs

With these exercises, you don’t want a loss of grip to be the cause of failure as you won’t be training the target muscles to their maximum capacity. This is the reason why weight lifters aid their grip strength through the use of lifting chalk.

However, exceptions are common when you want to push your limits with a little help first to get your muscles and the neural pathways used to a certain weight or time under tension.

This is exactly the same type of sentiment as getting a spotter to help you with an extra rep or two when your muscles are close to failure or leaning back when you’re trying to get that last barbell curl up Arnold style. These ‘techniques’ and strategies should of course be used sparingly in order to be maximally effective.

Lifting chalk is also used by lifters performing Olympic weightlifting moves. During the complex movements of the snatch and clean and jerk, any sort of loose grip can cause a rep failure at best or potential for an injury at worst.

Chalk, mostly solid dry chalk by weightlifters on stage, aids in the same way during the pulling part of the lift when getting the barbell up off the ground and above the hips. I’ve trained with these weightlifting moves and it always helps to have a little bucket of chalk handy.

Should I use gym chalk all the time?

The answer is no.

For some exercises, you may be targeting your grip specifically to make improvements.

Exercises such as farmer’s walks and dead hangs are used to actively train grip strength. The natural route with no chalk will test your true grip strength. Although with dead hangs, you may want to hang longer to improve shoulder health. In this instance, lifting chalk will be helpful.

If you’re working up to heavy deadlifts, I wouldn’t use chalk for all of my warm up sets. I’d only apply liquid chalk when things start to get a bit moist. The same applies for using a weightlifting belt for heavy squats for example.

The same goes for other pull exercises. If I’m going through the gears up to my working set on bent over row, I’ll only use chalk when I have to.

I generally wouldn’t use chalk for single arm work and other accessory exercises. Save the chalk for the big lifts!

When gym chalk isn’t necessary in the gym

Lifting chalk isn’t really necessary for push movements like bench press, military press, incline dumbbells and shoulder work.

This is because your grip often isn’t a limiting factor.

It also goes without saying that you don’t need to use chalk for exercises such as the back squat, leg extensions, calf raises and abs!

I’d like to add an exemption though when I use lifting chalk when my grip strength isn’t being tested.

For example, I’ll sometimes chalk up on the bench press when my palms are sweaty or I have moisture on them. I still want a good grip on my push exercises!

Even on exercises like a dumbbell bench press, sweaty palms are not wanted as they cause unnecessary grip and stability issues, especially when you’ve got two fairly heavy weights above your head!

If this is the case and I’ve got sweaty palms, I put a dot of liquid chalk on my palms, rub in, let it dry and I’m good to go. This gym chalk helps to soak up this moisture to give you a much firmer grip and prevent the barbell, dumbbell or whatever weight you are lifting, from shifting in your hand.

What is gym chalk made of?

Here’s a bit of extra knowledge for you to impress your lifting buddies.

Liquid chalk is primarily a mixture of:

• Magnesium carbonate
• Alcohol – such as isopropyl (the same type of alcohol used in antibacterial hand gels)

Lifting chalk works to improve your grip by removing the moisture from your hands. Once the liquid chalk is applied to and spread across your hands, the alcohol firstly helps disrupt the water molecule bonds before both can evaporate off due to the warmth of your hands. How ingenious!

When the alcohol and moisture has evaporated, white chalk is left behind. Unlike teacher’s chalk, pure magnesium carbonate is insoluble in water meaning it won’t disappear or become mushy at the slightest sign of moisture. This makes it ideal for an iron-clad grip.

The very clever formula of liquid chalks mean that it will completely wash out at the end of your workout when you wash your hands.

Before you go…

If you’re interested in improving your grip or want to push on with exercises such as the deadlift, you might want to read up on my best deadlift equipment blog.

Here I list out 7 pieces of kit and accessories that are really useful for helping you to improve. Whilst you here, check out this deadlift standards post to see what weights you should be aiming for,

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Ben is passionate about getting strong both physically and mentally. He’s been obsessed with all things health and muscle building for over 17 years. In between strength and conditioning training five times a week, Ben is a professional fitness writer. Ben has a first class Biology degree, is a fully qualified teacher and is completing his L3 Personal Trainer qualification.