Haven’t posted in a while, but I have been reading/lurking. Anyways, figured I’d stop being a recluse and ask a question or two.
I recently purchased a pair of Fatgripz. Does anyone have some good advice on how to use them? I don’t do many isolation exercises in my routine – and I’m loathe to simply add the Fatgripz to my compound lifts, because I know it will drastically decrease the amount of weight I can lift (at least for a few weeks).
Should I add some isolation movements with the Fatgripz into my routine? Or is it beneficial for me to just bite the bullet and add Fatgripz to my compound lifts? I’m looking for some additional forearm strength and hypertrophy – along with the other purported benefits of thick bar training.
This is unrelated, but I didn’t want to start a whole separate thread. About 2.5 weeks ago, I injured my right elbow (based on the site of pain, swelling and cause, I’m 90% sure that I injured my triceps tendon) with some skullcrushers – probably fatigue or poor form, not really sure, skullcrushers have always worried my joints. Hah, that’s what I get for trying to insert an isolation movement…
Anyways, I (stupidly) decided to train through the pain with a chest session two days later. The result was swelling at the base of my tricep (where it connects to the elbow), and increased pain throughout the day. I learnt my lesson, so I took 2 weeks off from pressing (upped volume on all other body parts, trained shoulders with all of the ‘raise’ variations for the interim). Now, my elbow finally feels fine again, and I managed 4 sets of push-ups yesterday without pain (the push-ups were done with the sole purpose of testing the elbow). Is it safe for me to try a chest session tomorrow? Or should I give it another week to be safe?
I like Fat Gripz for arm stuff. I’ve used them for pressing and it didn’t magically cure my shoulder issues the way they promised. I think arm iso stuff is the only thing I’d ever use them for now.
Try the chest session, just don’t be an idiot and try and train through pain. You might actually find the fat gripz alleviate some of the elbow pain.
Try using fat grips before your main sets for the bench or DL. It always helps me to grip the work sets harder.
If it doesn’t feel comfortable on the bench with a barbell, just use some dumbbells beforehand and then toss them aside once you’ve finished.
For forearms, find the lightest barbell around. Put them on and reverse curl it with no added weight. Do as many reps as you can. If it’s light enough, do it to the end of a song or something.
-Barbell curls. Thick bar curls are different than regular. Instead of a bicep lift, your whole arm, finger tips to shoulders, gets worked. These are really good.
-Dumbbell Tricep Extensions. Again, instead of isolating and killing your tricep tendon, your whole arm has to work on these.
If you want to add the Fat Gripz to your compound lifts, just use them on your first or lightest warm up set. Then toss them aside. After a couple weeks, use them on your lightest set plus another set. It could be a heavier warm up, or “feeder” set, or at the end end on the “rep out” set. A few weeks later, use the Fat Gripz a little more.
The idea is that you’ll use the Fat Gripz a little at a time, on the lightest sets, where it won’t mess with your poundages. Your forearms might feel a little pumped, but don’t strain your grip at any time. Over the course of a month or two you’ll be lifting heavier and more weights with the thick handles, just kinda gradually. Before you know it you’ll have some bear traps at the end of your wrists.
Regarding the chest session tomorrow-
You’ve got to go at it John Meadows style. Warm up your tricep with some high rep, low weight pushdowns first. Don’t lock out at the bottom, and don’t let all the weight off at the top. Pump up that tricep body builder style to get it warmed up before you lift the heavy stuff.
I have a ‘Thick Bar’ to do chins with, and I can do them pain free, even at times when my elbows hurt during regular chins. I also have gargantuan hands, so fat bat Pressing always felt better to me as well.
So depending on how you’re built, I think they could help work around elbow issues, but that’s just an n=1 observation.
Something to factor in when you slap fat grips on a barbell for pressing is that you’ve now created a slightly cambered barbell. The ROM has increased about an inch or so. This can be a neat training effect if you intend for it, but if you’re unaware, it may jack your shoulders up a touch.
On that topic, I like fat grips on pressing movements, and they’re not bad for pull ups. Only type of row I like them on is a v-handle row.
For curls, I recently put them on a d-ring and have been doing chain curls like that. Feels pretty awesome.
Woah, I’m blown away by the responses to these seemingly mundane questions – thanks a ton, everyone – really appreciate the input. I must say, it seems as if the atmosphere in these forums has changed a bit over the past year or so.
I think using the Fatgripz for the warm-up sets of my compound lifts (and then progressively increasing the weight handled with Fatgripz over time) seems like a good plan for me. I will probably add in one or two of the suggested isolation movements with the Fatgripz too. Also, I used to do 12 pull-ups every morning (no real reason – just ‘because’). Perhaps I’ll do 12 Fatgripz pull-ups every morning? Heh… Probably won’t change much.
As for the chest session – I’ve decided to use the advice given by Yogi and FlatsFarmer. I’ll warm up the tricep a ton, and then give the chest session a try. If it hurts, I’ll stop.
Oh, fyi, T3hPwnisher, I’d never thought about the cambered bar effect before – thanks for pointing that out!
Great info on the cambered bar effect Big Pun! Are you an engineer, or an accountant or something?
I can’t wait to try those chain curls.
I used the Fat Gripz on the D-handle to make a cheap Rolling Thunder deadlift handle. You can do side-bends and farmers walks with the same fat handle set up.
I started with the blue grips and now use the red ones on everything push. Sometimes when my shoulders need a break I’ll even use them on pulling to keep things challenging. I like grip4orce too because you have to really friggin squeeze those to keep them closed. However; that action can also aggravate tennis elbow in some people.
Awesome, thanks for that, RampantBadger. I’ll pick up a good set of resistance bands when I get a chance.
Is training with resistance bands good for hypertrophy? I’ve always known resistance bands to be primarily prehab and rehab tools – not that that’s a bad thing.
[quote]Fyzjin2 wrote:
Awesome, thanks for that, RampantBadger. I’ll pick up a good set of resistance bands when I get a chance.
Is training with resistance bands good for hypertrophy? I’ve always known resistance bands to be primarily prehab and rehab tools – not that that’s a bad thing. [/quote]
They’re great for pushdowns and pull aparts. And of course, slapping them on a barbell and making life suck.
I have both FatGripz and a 2" bar and they work great to alleviate my elbow pain. But what has worked the best for me is I got a pair of Mark Bell’s compression cuffs. I have been using them for three weeks now and my elbow pain has decreased significantly and the weights have been going up.
