Grip Strength?

[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
Answer the question of what kind of grip strength i want…

I want to be able to tear a phone book in half.

And roll a frying pan up.

So whatever that is… I want that.

Thanks for the info guys I’ll do some ‘googling’
[/quote]

The Gripboard is where you want to be to learn about hand strength.

As far as the feats you mentioned- work wrist strength(hammer levering), fingertip strength, and block lifting. Go to the Dollar Tree and pick up pans to roll, the pans are thin and the challange is to roll em without folding them. Hand strength takes time because you really need to build your connective tissues to become strong.

And it’s fun, the looks you get when you roll a pan, rip a deck of cards/phonebook, bend a big nail, etc are priceless! One more thing that will help with your quest is heavy shot rotations(both directions). I hope this helps!

You’re all bastards

Now im thinking of taking up rock climbing.

DAMMIT I NEED MORE HOURS IN THE DAY!!

rock climbing is fun :slight_smile:

[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
You’re all bastards

Now im thinking of taking up rock climbing.

DAMMIT I NEED MORE HOURS IN THE DAY!![/quote]

Xen is not allowed to engage in any new physical activities until he reaches 190lbs. That is all.

dammit jared im 180 :frowning:

I uesd to use straps on a lot of things (pulldowns, deadlifts, and shrugs), but ever since I got some nice liquid chalk (www.dryhands.com), I haven’t used them in a long time. I’m not advertising for them, but that is the best liquid chalk I have used. I have used Xtreme Formulations Liquid Chalk and that stuff was crap. Dry Hands works and I don’t think I’ll ever have to use wrist wraps again.

Here’s a killer exercise. Set up a bar like for a deadlift, but try just 95 pounds at first. Fold a towell in half the long way, and again in half the same way. Pick up the bar by gripping the towell.

I’m only 19, but I have almost 5 years of forearm/grip training experience. I started working only on my forearms because of an injury to my wrist from hitting the heavy bag without wraps, while pissed off. Stupid, I know.

While you said that you did not want to get certified on grippers, I would still get a No1 and No2 CoC. Some people will tell you that they are useless and only help you close grippers; I have to wonder if they ever used them. Grippers won’t directly help much on thick bars, or with open hand strength, but I can close my No2; I can also crush almost anyones hand in a handshake.

To tear phonebooks you need mostly wrist and thumb strength. Wrist curls and extensions are a good start, but leverage work with a hammer will give you the most bang for your buck. Ironminds Heavy Hammer II is nice but expensive, I made one from some tubing and an Olympic weight sleeve adapter.

For thumb strength, pinch grip is good, taking plates and holding them for time. Also plate curls and plate wrist curls. The thick grip leverage will also fry your thumb.

Rolling frying pans, to be honest, I don’t know much about. But I imagine a thick grip roller would work well. Buy a length of 2 or 2 1/2 inch pipe and attach a strap in the center. Straps roll more evenly than rope.

Most grip exercises that are suggested always seem to be static movements, but most feats of strength are dynamic.

The coolest grip toy I made is a softball with a loading pin. I did not come up with this, but I can’t remember where I read it. Take a softball and pound a nail into it to make a pilot hole. Don’t go all the way through! Apply some epoxy to a small eye bolt and screw it in the hole (please make your own joke). Get a carabiner and a loading pin and you have just about the most versatile tool out there. If you grasp wide, it works your thumb and pinky hard. If you keep your finger together, it is like a pinch block, except as your grip tires and you squeeze harder, the shape of the ball makes it want to shoot out of your hand. You can even try to rotate the ball with side to side movements of your fingers.

If you are really bored and know how to splice three strand rope, you can back splice a 3/4" or 1" rope into a thick rope. I took a 3/4" manilla rope about 12’ long and back spliced each end about 2 feet. It is about 2 inches or slightly smaller, and it can be used for tug of war, rope chins, rope deadlifts etc. Flea markets are good places for old dirty cheap rope. In addition, splicing an old, stiff rope is a great finger strengthener by itself.

Have fun with grip training, it is addictive.

Surprisingly i’ve never heard a thing about training the extensors of your hands. This is like leaving out your quads!!! Anybody know why?? Peace

[quote]thabigdon24 wrote:
Surprisingly i’ve never heard a thing about training the extensors of your hands. This is like leaving out your quads!!! Anybody know why?? Peace[/quote]

The extensors often get overlooked, they’re just not a lot of fun to train. You can use heavy duty rubber bands to target them. My favorite is a large plastic container with an opening of 5"-8", put your hand inside then lift using only the fingers. Use sand or bricks for weight. Heavy shot rotation(a pair of 6lb shots) is one of the best things you can do for overall hand health.

hey we will get xen to 210 before the yr is up also xen remember the cell phone??? just think ANGER and you got it haha inside joke between me and xen pm if ya wanna know whats up anyway i like diesels site love the vids there too

[quote]Hog Ear wrote:
thabigdon24 wrote:
Surprisingly i’ve never heard a thing about training the extensors of your hands. This is like leaving out your quads!!! Anybody know why?? Peace

The extensors often get overlooked, they’re just not a lot of fun to train. You can use heavy duty rubber bands to target them. My favorite is a large plastic container with an opening of 5"-8", put your hand inside then lift using only the fingers. Use sand or bricks for weight. Heavy shot rotation(a pair of 6lb shots) is one of the best things you can do for overall hand health. [/quote]

Here I thought I had covered everything. Thanks Hog Ear for the idea of lifting a container from the inside, I have never tried that. I usually just lay my hands on the bench and place light fractional plates on the ends of my fingertips, I then try to quickly flip them off. Really helps my speed when I give somebody “the” finger;) If your extensors are really weak, paper football will work good. When you get strong enough to bean someone in the forehead from 10 feet away with a balled up paper, you will have fun training the extensors.
Later.

[quote]Here I thought I had covered everything. Thanks Hog Ear for the idea of lifting a container from the inside, I have never tried that. I usually just lay my hands on the bench and place light fractional plates on the ends of my fingertips, I then try to quickly flip them off. Really helps my speed when I give somebody “the” finger;) If your extensors are really weak, paper football will work good. When you get strong enough to bean someone in the forehead from 10 feet away with a balled up paper, you will have fun training the extensors.
Later.
[/quote]

This kind of container lifting is Rick Walker’s favorite extensor exercise- he wrote the book on lifting the “blob” and can deadlift 600+lbs using his fingers(small finger loops attached to the barbell).

I’m finding Jumpstretch bands can also be used very well for forearm/grip training, and eliminate the cost of a lot of grip tools.

You can do leverage exercises that duplicate sledgehammer work with them, reverse curls, wrist curls, “Formulator” type pure wrist movements, and individual thumb and finger curls.

As well as pretty much anything you can think of. By doubling the bands or changing their length(stretching them or leaving them slack before pulling), you can increase or decrease their effective strength to microload an exercise. And their ability to be used from all angles means you can make sure every part of a muscle is worked instead of just overworking part of a range and underworking another part, as is typical with weights. I’m really getting quite a kick out of mine. They’re a good supplement to my grip training.

As for sites, I’d also recommend Cyberpump . Very good community full of guys who seen and done it all grip-wise, and a pretty universally cool and friendly attitude.

[quote]Iron John wrote:
Here it is.

www.functionalhandstrength.com

John Wood’s site is by far the best and most comprehensive. He also has equipment and ideas that few others do.

Get on his newsletter. You won’t regret it.

Check out, also, his articles. They are all worth reading.[/quote]\

This website and the diesel website didnt work for me, are they typed correctly? I copied and pasted them into the box?

Ok, I’ve got to throw these two ideas in the mix:

Rock climbing

Plate grip deadlifts

Now, as far as finger strength goes, you can’t get a better bang for your athletic buck than climbing. There’s nothing quite like hanging on a wall/cliff by the tips of your fingers in a tiny crimper (pinch hold). I do think that hammer work, gripper work, and all the rest have a great place in hand grip training. However, for myself, I get a much better result from simply climbing a lot. Besides, it’s great gpp.

And it trains a certain kind of agility as well, oddly enough. Besides, it’s the best fun outside of the gym and the dojo, and the chicks are amazing :). So, Xen, you should definitely pick up another sport/athletic event RIGHT NOW. It just can’t be beat. Find an indoor gym for simple workouts and the like to start. You’ll never regret it.

  1. Plate grip deads. Take an olympic bar, load it with plates, and then grip the edges of the plates with your hands. You can wrap your fingers around the edge if that works for you. Then lift. Lower, repeat. Go light at first, because you’ll really overestimate what you can do (well, I did). Killer, and works the upper back ok, due to the wide hand placement.

You can also look up John Brookfield’s books, which are sold pretty widely.