I’ve added this to my training the past few weeks once a week
I did get a book about training called “master of hand strength” by John Brookfield that had a lot of interesting ideas for grip training - pinch grip and curling weight plates were new to me- seems like you hit a plateau or point of diminishing returns with more conventional barbell movements
kind of interested to see how other folks train. Been regaining muscle in shoulders and upper arms but forearms still look like toothpicks lol
Seems like you can progress longer in terms of longevity than in classic powerlifting also. I remember going to the Arnold classic one year and they had a grip strength focused competition and many of the competitors were older athletes that had previously competed in strongman events.
Do you do anything specific for grip (exercises, sets, reps times a week)
A local place was selling strengtheners at various weights: 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 lbs. I keep one in the car for if I’m stuck in traffic. That is the only thing I do specifically.
Apart from that, loaded carries and rack pulls work well. Heavy one-arm rows and deadlifts too, all without straps. They only plateau if you can’t increase weight, reps, time or volume.
I used to do all kinds of crazy grip stuff like Brookfield talks about. It worked in my younger days.
Lately I’ve been getting back into grippers. A routine like Stompani recommends looks pretty good. A couple tough sets of 5-8 and a couple back-off sets is pretty much the routine I’ve come up with myself. Opening the grippers slowly is really effective, I would definitely try that. Pinch grip holds working up to a minute sounds OK too.
If you really want hand strength and the ability to hold big weights, you gotta work this in somewhere. Warm up for deadlifting using as few fingers as possible each set. Take it easy at first!
For forearm meat, you gotta try this shit from Charles Poliquin I did last month. I swear my forearms grew from the first workout.
Anyway, it’s a Tri Set for your brachialus forearm muscles.
Reverse Curl, 6-8 reps with a 5 count eccentric
Rest 10 seconds
Zottman Curl, 6-8 reps with 4 count eccentric
Rest 10 seconds
Reverse Curl, 4-6 reps with 5 count eccentric
Do 3 of those Tri Sets resting 2 minutes after each one.
When you say grip, do you mean hand strength? Because gripping and hand strength are not necessarily the same thing. If you think of a sport like Judo, gripping is an essential part of it, but gripping in Judo is about technique and not simply strength. If we’re talking about the kind of grip strength a wrestler, Judoka or BJJ player would need, then one of the best things you can do is rope climbing. Heavy KB swings can also help.
I dont do grip work per se. But i dont hook til working sets on deadlift. I strap on maxes. But i can comfortably double overhand 385 (warmup) with a mild knurling. With my new texas power bar, i will try 405 (warmup) with double overhand.
The thing i did was just forcing myself to grip the bar and lots of rows. If you give in to letting the bar roll out of your hand, you could be one of those people that goes one handed supinated at 245…
I just wanted to include a thought of mine, this is not advice, as I know for fact guys who constantly close big grippers all the time do have big forearms, but they do lots of other stuff too, but here is something no one really mentions-
I have a theory that before fat grips ever became popular, bodybuilders got huge forearms due to not only all the gripping volume of all the exercises but they also wore those silly looking gloves, well though gloves actually make your forearms work hard as frick!
