T Nation

Building Forearms/Grip

Strongman
#1

I want/need to bring up my forearm/grip strength and size. Im not looking to do any form of wrist flexion or extension though. I want everything that I do to be specific to grip strength…

I’ll be training with a template similar to westside, so 2x upper, 2x lower. My lower days will likely be when I FOCUS on forearms. The workouts will likely start with deadlifts either for a ME exercise or for reps.

And I was thinking farmer’s walks might be a good exercise to do once in a while as a ME type exercise.

Also, I have fat grips that I can use and a COC gripper (trainer)

My questions are, what would you do to build up your forearm strength/size with what I mentioned above. And how would you use the fat grips, and COC gripper, if at all?

Thank you.

#2

From what I’ve read (I’m a baby in the world of grip training) most forms of grip/forearm strength don’t transfer to each other well, so it’s important to train what you’re after specifically (ex gripper/crushing strength, use finger curls or grippers, supporting strength, use heavy fat bar supports for time etc). I’m sure someone here must have some actual experience in building an impressive grip though.

#3

[quote]The other Rob wrote:
From what I’ve read (I’m a baby in the world of grip training) most forms of grip/forearm strength don’t transfer to each other well, so it’s important to train what you’re after specifically (ex gripper/crushing strength, use finger curls or grippers, supporting strength, use heavy fat bar supports for time etc). I’m sure someone here must have some actual experience in building an impressive grip though.[/quote]

Very true. Thats why Im not interested in any wrist flexion or extension. Ive done the wrist roller in the past, with little success, because it didn’t transfer to anything else I was doing.

My primary “need” for grip strength is for deadlifting, pullups, rows, and bench/press.

#4

Do a search for “grip” in T-Nation articles.

#5

BUY FAT GRIPZ + ur hands have very little potential when it come to training them directly just do normal exercises with a diff grip(fat gripz, thumbless, towels, etc.)

#6

Heavy plate pinches a couple times a week has worked pretty well for me. Add in gripper training here and there, but if you are doing a lot of strapless lifting I would go easy on the volume(grippers kill your hands pretty quick). This has been working well for bringing up my strength for holding a barbell, but for the love of god that last 1/4 inch of my coc #3 just does not want to close(been stuck on this since january so on second thought maybe you shouldnt listen to me ;). Also you will learn quickly how important it is to pay attention to recovery if you train your grip a lot. Contrast bath and self massage are the name of the game here. Good luck and have fun with it.

#7

Ok, so I did a search here and elsewhere and came up with a few options.

-Farmer’s walks (either ME or for longer distance)
-Plate pinches
-Towel pullups
-COC or clamps
-DB snatches (maybe)

I think this gives me a lot of options. Also, I have the fat grips to use, but am not really sure how to factor them into everything.

I’ll give farmer’s walks another try today since its my lower body day. Im not sure on the distance to use though. I might just grab the heaviest db’s (125’s) and do it as a ME and try to break that distance each week.

Thx for the help guys, if you have any other advice, or advice on the fat grips please share.

#8

The things that have helped me the most in terms of forearm size and grip strength are:

Farmer’s Walks
Fat DB Rows
Fat DB Pinwheels
Barbell Shrugs (w/straps - just for acclimating your hands to huge weights)

#9

[quote]thephantom wrote:
The things that have helped me the most in terms of forearm size and grip strength are:

Farmer’s Walks
Fat DB Rows
Fat DB Pinwheels
Barbell Shrugs (w/straps - just for acclimating your hands to huge weights)

[/quote]

I did farmer’s walks today. Just did 100’s for 4 trips of about 60 feet. I’ll try to build up to the max weight (125’s) and then start building up the distance.