IW,

The other thing you need to realize is that there is a weird feedback mechanism in your body that will actually limit your pulls based on grip strength. Ever wonder why most people pull more with straps? The moment your hands start to give out that "I'm losing it" signal hits your nervous system and will cause the rest of your body to do a bail. I'm not exactly sure what the evolutionary reason for this is other than maybe it was a bad idea for cavemen to pick up a big rock that they may drop and maim themselves with So by training your grip up, you may actually increase your DL. Sounds backwards perhaps, but you can see this same mechanism in the squat and other places. I know Comrade Pavel talks about the power of making a fist (and clenching your butt cheeks as well, but I won't touch on that). The difference between a squat where you are just trying to hold the bar in place on your back and the squat where you are trying to squeeze the knurling on the bar flat... probably equals out to a good 20-30lbs of weight for most. It's that nervous system response to the pronounced need for nervous system input, in this case it is provided by the tension in a crushing fist. In a DL it works the opposite. As your grip fails out, your whole body gets that "failing out" message and kinda poops out well shy of what you CAN do.

There are probably some mental measures that one can take against this reaction, but I would be so brave as to claim that MAYBE 5% of the population or less can simply think their nervous system into action. Bruce Lee would have been a great example of this. I would say that some truly great athletes in all arenas also show this quality (which is part of what makes them great, and the rest of us a mere mortal )