A question for all of you: what do you do for grip strength?
How did you build your grip strength and how do you maintain it? What do you use it for?.. powerlifting, strongman training, what?? What is the best piece of grip equipment that you use and what do you think is the worst?
BTW, I’m new to this forum - but NOT a newbie to grip strength/grip training.
This is a topic that fascinates me…mostly because I believe a man ought to have strong hands, and because I powerlift. My hands are pretty small, so grip has been the limiting factor in the deadlift. In the past six months my grip strength has increased dramatically…here’s what I do:
I use one of the following exercises at the end of each of my two squat/dl days, so grip is trained specifically twice per week:
wrist roller
pinch gripping
farmer’s walk
hammer curls
hanging for time
wrist curls/reverse wrist curls
That said, by far the two most effective drills for me have been the wrist roller and pinch gripping plates for time. I’ve come to believe one needs to balance wrist flexion and extension; most athletes likely have a strength imbalance in favor of wrist flexion, as I did, and strengthening the extensors will dramatically strengthen the grip. This has been done primarily with the wrist roller, and to a much lesser degree, with reverse wrist curls.
Hand/Forearm/Gripping strength is valuable to any athlete who uses his hands, (that’s most of us,) and it is too often overlooked.
The Problem: Extremely small hands, pulling a deadlift that is, currently, the World Record in the 75Kg Old Farts class. Glove size 6.5: if you have a little sister, she has bigger hands than mine. Also, I’ve found it necessary to do most of my DL assistance work with straps, to do my best olympic-style pulls and to use a “double-overhand” grip, to avoid bicep tears, in sets of 3+ DL, rack pulls, and DL off a 4" block. (So far, I’ve had no bicep tears while doing ME singles or doubles, but there’s a first time for everything…)
The Solution: Train the grip separately, twice/week, on a homemade, plate-loaded grip “machine.” I’ve seen these in only a very few gyms. They seem to do the job better than the spring “nutcracker” grippers and a LOT better than wrist rollers or wrist curls. I do only a few sets, at the end of my lower-body workout: one or two warmup sets and two or three painfully HARD, high-intensity work sets of 4-8 reps. The last set ends with an isometric for as long as I can hold it closed, usually less than 15 sec. The second-best option is a few sets of “just standing there, holding the bar,” using a double-overhand grip and a barbell with well-worn knurling. If you can do that with just 300# for 15 sec, you probably can hang on to a 600# DL, using a well-knurled bar and an “alternating” (over/under) grip.
Strength & courage,
“Coach Joe”
I just bought a 2 1/2" thick barbell from NY Barbell. I’ve heard that using a thick barbell (or towels wrapped around a regular one)in your training will dramatically increase grip strength over time. Any of you dedicated powerlifters know the validity of this theory?
Kyle
I’ve heard the same thing about wrapping towels or rags around the bar to improve grip strength as well. i can’t scientifically say why, but I guess it could be because of bar thickness, the chance of the bar moving around or moving the rages while using them, and the give the material has when gripping it. When I first tried it, it felt uncomfortable because I had to squeeze more than usual to keep bar from moving.
I have done plate pinching, farmer’s walks, db holds, and pull up bar dead hangs. don’t have resources for wrist roller (trying to make one) or rope climbing.
I have a question relating to wrist rollers- what’s a good thickness for a roller? I have seen broomstick rollers, but seemed a bit too small. I have been looking at PVC pipe for the roller. So that’s why I am asking.
Basically the forearm and arm muscles are more involved since they have to make a bigger effort in not letting the bar or dumbbell roll out of your hand.
The bar thickness also involves more muscle fibers to grip the bar and to stabilize it. It trains your grip to act as a more effective support for your lifts, example deadlits. Personally I love thick bar pull ups or chin ups.
number 1 in my book pinch grips of diffrent thickness really put the power in the thumb. and on the last rep- last set , dead lift hold on as long as you can. one hand deadlift with a roller handle will make your forarm scream.
Heavy deadlifting
Thick handled bars
Captains of Crush grippers
I suggest the book Mastery of Hand Strength by John Brookfield.
[quote]chubs108 wrote:
I have a question relating to wrist rollers- what’s a good thickness for a roller? I have seen broomstick rollers, but seemed a bit too small. I have been looking at PVC pipe for the roller. So that’s why I am asking.[/quote]
If you’re interesting in building real wrist strength by using a wrist roller, I suggest you get the NYB Power Wrist Roller. I got one and haven’t regretted it yet - it’s a supported wrist roller which means you can pile on the weight and go as heavy as you want. I’ve got 200 pounds on mine so far.
[quote]ckg21 wrote:
Heavy deadlifting
Thick handled bars
Captains of Crush grippers
I suggest the book Mastery of Hand Strength by John Brookfield. [/quote]
Captains of Crush??? do yourselves a favor guys and don’t waste your cash. unless you are training specifically for closing these, they are of little use. I equate this as doing pec dec to make your bench go up.
I would have to disagree with the COC’s are a waste. My hands were my weak link and I trained mostly the COC’s and now I am close to closing the #3. Which is more of a feat then anything. But now I don’t need straps for anything. The #3 and #4 need to be trained to close the #3 and #4. The trainer #1 and #2 are great tools to help bring up the grip. The harder you can squeeze the bar the better. I would not recommend solely using the grippers but, they are a great asset to a grip routine. It is like anything, if you want to improve a movement you have to work on that movement but, it is good to do some extra work to help strengthen your weakness.
PGH
I have a question for everyone who wrote that they use pinch gripping, bar holds, or any other exercises where time is a factor: Most of us have a set/rep scheme we’re fairly comfortable with and when we can do a weight easily within those set/rep parameters, we up the weight. I have no idea how long I should be holding onto a bar or pinchign two plates together for. WHat I’m asking is, how long is long enough? If I can hold a weight (or pinch two plates together) for 10 seconds, should I increase the time or the weight? If i can hold it for 20 sec? Again, how long is long enough? Also, anyone ever dropped down in weight to hold 3 plates?
Also, I’d really be interested in having everyone weigh in on the Captains of Crush Gripper controversy, as I have that in my shopping cart for the next time I buy from Elite.
[quote]KBCThird wrote:
Also, I’d really be interested in having everyone weigh in on the Captains of Crush Gripper controversy, as I have that in my shopping cart for the next time I buy from Elite.[/quote]
I should of prefaced this thread by stating that I am a certified Captain Of Crush.
I’ve had my original grippers since '97 and they are still as useful to me as the day I bought them. I now own about two dozen grippers and I know the history of each and every one. They are the best type of grip equipment IMHO because they are small, you can take them anywhere AND challenge other people.
Get the Elite. Are you getting yours from Tetting directly or through the Beefbuilder site? Anyhow, you’ll enjoy it - I do mine!
I just bought the COC #1 about 3 weeks ago and I really like it. It was definately a lot harder than I thought it would be, but it just showed me how weak my grip really was. The nicest thing about them is that you can take them basically anyway and use them anytime. I got mine for only about $25 so not a huge investment, but I think it was worth it. Just my .02
“…AND challenge other people.”
haha I love doing that. People see them and say, “how hard can it be, eh?”
The look on their face is generally priceless.
As for whether they are a waste or not, they helped my grip and now I can hold onto the bar longer doing heavy deadlifts.
Syber! It’s Tancred from the strongmanforums-- glad to see you kicking around here, buddy. The name Tancred was already taken here so I had to go with something else. Haven’t been around the forums lately since my torn TFCC in my wrist has me really depressed-- eight months later and still not really healed.
Which brings me to a question-- have any of you all experienced this injury?
I train grip for mma/bjj.
I like towel chins
thick bar work
thick dumbell walks and holds
rafter chins
opening my hand with a fat rubberband around the fingers
plate pinches
kettlebells
My grip is a real weakness for me but this is the stuff I’ve been doing to work on it.
i never worked my wrists directly, and still really don’t put that much effort into them. they are usually blasted after a combination of deadlifts, shrugs, and towel pullups that doing anything direct would over work them for me. i feel their tightness during the sets, but i have not yet been off set by them. just for a reference - i dl 300lbs for 5 reps (1-2 sec hold at top), shrug tut = 30-45 sec with 100+lbs dumbells, and i weigh about 240 (only 5 pullups with the towels but i’m working on it!)
if there’s anything that has improved my grip strength, its indoor (and outdoor) rock climbing. even though any climber will tell you to climb with your feet, the difficult climbs will have you relying on your hands to maintain stability on the wall. if you’re going up a climb that takes you about 10 minutes, you’ll feel an intense burn that will translate to greater strength in the gym.
[quote]KBCThird wrote:
I have a question for everyone who wrote that they use pinch gripping, bar holds, or any other exercises where time is a factor: Most of us have a set/rep scheme we’re fairly comfortable with and when we can do a weight easily within those set/rep parameters, we up the weight. I have no idea how long I should be holding onto a bar or pinchign two plates together for. WHat I’m asking is, how long is long enough? If I can hold a weight (or pinch two plates together) for 10 seconds, should I increase the time or the weight? If i can hold it for 20 sec? Again, how long is long enough? Also, anyone ever dropped down in weight to hold 3 plates?
Also, I’d really be interested in having everyone weigh in on the Captains of Crush Gripper controversy, as I have that in my shopping cart for the next time I buy from Elite.[/quote]
If you can hold it for 10 seconds i would recommend that you increase the weight. It will have more of a carryover for strength. (unless you have a specific reason for holding).
3 plates are harder to keep together (in my experience); i would recommend them
[quote]Scrappy wrote:
I train grip for mma/bjj.
I like towel chins
thick bar work
thick dumbell walks and holds
rafter chins
opening my hand with a fat rubberband around the fingers
plate pinches
kettlebells
My grip is a real weakness for me but this is the stuff I’ve been doing to work on it.[/quote]
Can anyone describe plate pinches?