Grip training

Training

Grip training

johniwanski 11-18-2005, 3:01 PM
Does anyone have any tips on grip training? I am trying to really build my hand strength and have been training on my heavy grips for a while now, but I am looking to add some occasional variety. Anybody have any novel ideas on hand training?

Re: Grip training

Teddy 11-18-2005, 4:51 PM
Call me old-fashioned, but I think that the best back workouts are also the best forearm workouts. Heavy deadlifts, heavy shrugs, and heavy cleans WITHOUT STRAPS are a GREAT workout!!!! The way to perform the deadlifts is to grip the barbell wiith one hand with your palm facing away from you and the other hand with the palm toward you.

Re: Grip training

EIYC.com 11-18-2005, 10:21 PM

You might also check out our page on Hand Exercises, which you can find at:

http://www.eiyc.com/fingers.htm

Hope this helps!

www.eiyc.com

Re: Grip training

DougyDoug 11-19-2005, 11:07 AM

If you sit down on the end of a bench with a dumbbell in your hand and your forearm on your thigh, you can do forearm dumbbell curls. They are even better if you let the dumbbell really go down a long way so that your grip loosens on the dumbbell a little bit and your fingers extend a little bit.

You might also try thick handle training, whether it is a barbell or dumbbell. When you lift a dumbbell with a thick handle, your fingers have to work REALLY hard just to hold the weight. I love training like this.

Re: Grip training

sergey 11-20-2005, 5:46 PM
This is not so much grip as just forearm, but I mention it because DougyDoug wrote about wrist curls. Here is a nice variation on the regular wrist curl: Take a barbell plate, probably either a 25 or a 35 pounder, and hold it with both hands in a similar fashion to what was listed above. In ohter words, you are seated and both forearms are resting on your thighs. Now just do forearm curls. It is definitely a different feel as far as exercises go. You might think that you can do a ton of weight like with normal wrist curls and that a 35 pound plate won't be enough. But because the center of the mass is not in your hands but rather out away from your hands, it makes it a lot harder. It's all about leverage. Try it and you will see.

Re: Grip training

johniwanski 11-20-2005, 11:11 PM
I tried that weight plate curl. It feels good, but it kills my thumbs. The lip on the barbell plate puts way too much pressure on my thumbs and I don't want to tear anything. Do you use a special plate or something?

Re: Grip training

sergey 11-23-2005, 11:17 PM
If it hurts your thumb then one of two things is probably going on. Either you are using a plate that has a large "lip" on it - and this is not good - or you are trying to pinch the plate too much instead of just doing curls. I recommend that you start using either a 25 or a 35 with little or no lip on it. This will relieve a lot of pressure on your thumbs I think.

Re: Grip training

Donald Kleghorn 12-03-2005, 10:15 AM
I agree that deadlifts (very heavy) are great for the fingers and whole body. There is no way you can go wrong with them but don't round over your back so that you hurt yourself.

Re: Grip training

jajajunior 12-08-2005, 11:31 PM

Here is an easy idea for you that sounds really stupid but works really well. It is harder than you think.

Go to a pullup bar or an I-beam in your basement with a "lip" on it. Grab on and put your feet in the air so you are hanging. Now just hang there for as long as you can. Start with trying for 3 minutes. Good luck with even that especially on an I-beam. If your forearms look like POP-EYE you can do it for 5. Feel the burn!!!!!

Re: Grip training

dennisb 12-10-2005, 9:27 PM
There are a million things you can do to strengthen your grip. For instance when doing your lifts e.g. Use a thickbar not a conventional olympic bar. Thick bars are typically over 2" in diameter. Use block weights, That is a hex head dumbell without the handle and you hold the hex head part of the dumbell. Grip machines. A Rolling Thunder used for deadlifts. Pinch block holds or curls. That is usually a piece of 4x4 block of wood with an eye screw in the middle and you hang some weight on a rope from it. One of the best things you can do is go to this website which is devoted to grip strength applications. http://www.grippermania.com and you can go to http://www.ironmind.com for grip products. Hope this helped.