Magnesium Carbonate: The Most Important Supplement
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magnesium carbonate . . . it does a lifter good.
Chalk is important to your training. We’re talking about lifting chalk here, i.e., magnesium carbonate, not calcium carbonate. Your kid’s sidewalk chalk won’t really cut it at the gym.
Why is it important? I’m glad you asked. Chalk increases the friction between your hands and the bar by absorbing the natural oils and moisture (e.g., sweat) on your hands, and as an added benefit, this also means you don’t go around leaving your oil and sweat on the bar.
Increased friction between your hands and the bar makes for a more secure grip, and a secure grip is vital for your training. A secure grip is also vital in sports such as climbing and gymnastics, and we use chalk in the weight room for the same reason that climbers and gymnasts use it.
The advantage provided by chalk is most evident in lifts such as the deadlift, the clean, the snatch, and any other lift that involves tension in the arms such as a pull-up or a row, but a secure grip is important in all of your other lifts as well. When the grip starts to fail, many things go out the window - backs start to flex, weights feels heavier than they should, bars starts to slip, and the list goes on.
Some people are of the opinion that they don’t need chalk, but popular phrases notwithstanding, people are not always entitled to their own opinions. There are also those who simply don’t like the feel of chalk on their hands, but then again, we are not particularly interested in what we would like to do to get stronger; rather, we are interested in what we need to do to get stronger. If we are going to subject ourselves to a heavy set of soul-sucking deadlifts, we might as well make that process a bit more manageable and therefore productive.
In light of this, anti-chalkers need to ignore their opinions and their preferences and simply trust those who are both far more experienced and are willing to actually think logically about this. When the weight becomes heavy enough, you will need chalk, and if you are in the camp that avoids chalk and you’ve trained longer than a month or so, your lack of chalk use has already limited the amount of weight on your bar. Stop this silliness. Stop it right now.
With all of this in mind, here’s an easy plan for using chalk. Before warming up your squats (or whatever other lift you might be doing first that day), get some chalk on your hands. Rub the block onto both hands and then rub your hands together lightly to make sure that you have a nice distribution of chalk covering your hands. For most people, that initial “chalking” will probably last them until they get to their deadlifts. Once you start deadlifting, treat chalk like you do your belt. Chalk up for your last warm-up (earlier if needed), and then chalk up for your work set (or each work set if you have more than one).
Chalk early and chalk often. It’s the most important supplement out there. Just don’t ingest it, ok?
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