Really want to improve forearms and grip power, what are u guys fav ways to do this and how often works best for them. I moved forearm and grip work up to 4x a week and its really helping, so now Im getting hooked on forearm results want more!!!
I enjoy grip training, and have been training grip for the past eight years or so. I focus mostly on grippers, pinch grip and thick bar training.
I suggest being careful to increase volume gradually to prevent an injury, especially if you are doing high intensity work such as forced negatives with grippers.
You can find other grip training enthusiasts at http://www.gripboard.com
The grip board is a very helpful site if grip strength is a priority for you. Personally though I never noticed as much forearm growth from low rep high resistance forearm work (like COC grippers) as I did from high time under tension low(er) weight training. Stuff like wrist rollers (obviously you still need enough resistance, and holding the roller down at waist level while standing on a raised surface will prevent the shoulders from becoming the weak link), fat bar farmer’s walks/carries, single hand towel crushes/squeezes, etc…
I would also strongly advise that you do some resisted extensor work if you are going to train your flexor a that often.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
I would also strongly advise that you do some resisted extensor work if you are going to train your flexor a that often.[/quote]
Agreed. I like pronated grip in squishy cylinders and rolling the wrists up. Grip + extensor work.
I hold the dead lift at the end of dead sessions for time
And I hang from a bar for time too plus after back sessions with straps to strech the lats
Ontop of reverse and pinwheels it’s all good
Hi sesumatse,
the following three approaches worked very well for me in the past:
1.) Follow the FULL (including the intensity phase) Smolov routine but use wrist curls instead of squats.
2.) Follow a basic Westside setup and use various forearm/grip exercises as ME exercises and, very important, use banded reverse curls on speed days. Remember to rotate the different wrist/grip exercises every week to avoid stagnating.
3.) Follow the ORIGINAL 20-rep breathing squat routine but instead of squats do 20 breathing reps with the COC (I used #2). The gallon of milk per day is optional.
Good luck.
I Saw Lee Haney recommend the ‘wrist roller method’ for forearms back when he had his brief running TV show, he used a homemade one with a sawed off broomstick, durable string and Plate,
I guess they didn’t have those contraptions at Sports Authority 20 years ago.
The recommedation by “SentoGuy” for the waist high placement so your Shoulders aren’t the weak link seems like a good idea, but I don’t see quite get the logistics of that because being that the Forearms should be perpendicular to the floor, wouldn’t the ‘weak link’ now would be the Elbow Joints?
Maybe lower Chest high with your elbows tucked in maybe may work as a more stricter form and better isolation? Either way not a big deal I guess, I’ve tried this method before for awhile and it’s friggin torture! Nothing IMO, nothing isolates and burns those Forearms like a hot iron like this movement and the results were quick and satisfying.
Great stuff thanks, be tryin all of this and yup more feequency has got me injured for years and they are slowly toughening up finally. I noticed too that higher time under tension like sets of 20 and 15 seem to really help, and rotating exercises stopped the injuries.
Fat bar training has been a godsend, I love my fatgrips more than my woman haa.
Shore havnt done the banded reverse curls yet but will, bet the bands will pull tight in that spot in the top where u can normally rest, sounds good.
New ideas are very helpful, thanks alot hitn grip tomorrow
Band and chain resisted extensor work has really helped ALOT
Currently im doing this for forearms
Sun-Pronation/ supination with a rope, 3x12-15 then plate pinches for time
Mon-Ulnar flexion/Radial flexion supersets, 3x12-15 then bar holds for time with fat grips
Wed-Zottman curls with fat grips 3x10-12, thenpalms up/palmsdown wristcurls 3x10-12
Fday-Ez-bar reverse curls with fatgrips 4x8 then hammerstrength grip machine for time
Right now its an accumulation phase and not too heavy, will switch to intensity phase soon.
All input and advice greatly appreciated!
[quote]Karado wrote:
I Saw Lee Haney recommend the ‘wrist roller method’ for forearms back when he had his brief running TV show, he used a homemade one with a sawed off broomstick, durable string and Plate,
I guess they didn’t have those contraptions at Sports Authority 20 years ago.
The recommedation by “SentoGuy” for the waist high placement so your Shoulders aren’t the weak link seems like a good idea, but I don’t see quite get the logistics of that because being that the Forearms should be perpendicular to the floor, wouldn’t the ‘weak link’ now would be the Elbow Joints?
[/quote]
Why must the forearms be parallel to the floor? Sure the force curve changes slightly, but by placing the forearms perpendicular to the floor (pointing down) the weakest leverage point (when the hands are parallel to the ground) occurs in the muscles strongest point (at full contraction), thus again allowing more weight to be used.
Think about it like this,
Do a sit-up with your feet anchored, but nothing under your back (a machine GHR would work, though I loathe when I go to do GHR’s only to find teenagers using the gym’s only “abs machine”) and do some sit-ups. The fully extended position will be the hardest part of the ROM, but you’ll also notice that you have to pull the ROM short at the top or you will lose the contraction in the abs (once the torso becomes perpendicular to the ground.
Now go and strap yourself into some gravity boots (or if you’re really hardcore like Franco Columbo, hang from your insteps). Now do a sit-up motion from this inverted position. You will notice that no matter how much you sit-up (assing that you are able to) you will never reach a ROM where you lose the contraction in your abs.
Both exercises are effective ways of stimulating the abdominal muscles; they just stimulate different parts of the ROM.
[quote]dmachine wrote:
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
I would also strongly advise that you do some resisted extensor work if you are going to train your flexor a that often.[/quote]
Agreed. I like pronated grip in squishy cylinders and rolling the wrists up. Grip + extensor work.[/quote]
Hmmm, yeah that’s a good exercise but not what I meant.
Back when I was seriously working on grip strength I was doing a lot of fat bar work, grippers, pinch grip stuff, etc… After a couple months I started to get a chronic pain in the backs of my hands, wrists, and forearms. What I realized was that I was doing a ton of finger flexion (not the same thing as wrist flexion) and pretty much no resisted finger extension (not the same as wrist extension). Once I started doing that my pain disappeared.
The easiest/cheapest way to do this is to place the tips of all your fingers together (like your’re making a duck shadow puppet) and then wrap a rubber band around your fingers (on the outside). Now just try to open your fingers/hand as wide as possible. If you get one of those red industrial strength rubber bands you can double, triple, etc… It up to increase resistance. Alternatively, if you have the extra funds ironmind.com sells resistance bands (in different strengths) made specifically for that purpose.
Yeah, I done that Rubber Band Method as well, My Buddy did that one Isometrically and
had excellent strength increase with that almost as good mine, Isometrics in general is still greatly overlooked as a viable way for decent strength increase for some strange reason. I was skeptical of it for awhile because that was his main method of exercise anyway, and raised eyebrows when that skinnier when that
guy was one hell of a challenger during our occsional Arm Wrestling matches lol, it seemed to
go against conventional wisdom because we were noticably was more muscular, but smaller
Isometric dude turned out to be an unassuming badass…it almost inspired me to get a ‘Bullworker’
myself, but no thanks I’ll stick with the weights, looks can be decieving though for certain.
Sendto, im gonna work on the extensors more now, as Im certain I have a strength imbalance and they need more work. One principle I know is true is that a muscle can be stuck when the antagonistic muscle is not as strong as it is. Its a built in protective mechanism so u cant get strong enough to pull on a joint so hard on one side u tear it up.
Diggin these posts here props
[quote]sesumatse wrote:
Sendto, im gonna work on the extensors more now, as Im certain I have a strength imbalance and they need more work. One principle I know is true is that a muscle can be stuck when the antagonistic muscle is not as strong as it is. Its a built in protective mechanism so u cant get strong enough to pull on a joint so hard on one side u tear it up.
Diggin these posts here props[/quote]
That advice is echoed in the article “Old School Grip Training” by Chad Waterbury. I’ll keep a few rubber bands at my desk, and whenever I’m reading a paper I’ll put them on and perform extensions. I have also been adding direct grip training to the end of sessions using the cycles and training methods (maximal, dynamic, and repeated effort) he described.