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Here are some of the best grip strength training exercises and grip strength equipment:
Power holds: Take a bar and just hold it, like at the top of a deadlift. The key is to load it up with a heavy poundage so that you cannot hold it for more than 20-30 seconds at a time (you can experiment with the duration). To make the exercise more effective, get some super thick foam rubber, like the kind used to insulate pipes (Home Depot has ton of this stuff, matter of fact, Home Depot is awesome for making workout equipment). Grab the bar with the heavy insulation, and hang on with all you got.
Farmer's Walk: Take to heavy dumbells, grab them and hold them at your sides. Now, walk as far as you can. You can use the fat grips here too, but the plain grip is tough as well. This exercise, when used with heavier weights, is just brutal for the whole body (great finishing move).
Gripper Work: Get a good set of athletic grippers. Ironmind makes some heavy grippers, and there is an adjustable one called the Super Gripper or something. However, most grippers are too weak, so if you can't find the above grippers you can improvise with a power rack. If you have a power rack, try this next exercise.
Power Rack Grabs: Take the pin of your power rack, and set it to just below your hip. Now, get a heavy duty bucket, and make the handle nice and thick, but make sure it still rotates. Place the heel of your palm on the pin, and dangle the bucket from your fingers with some plates in it. You will be able to develop some demented hand strength with this exercise.
Hangs: Grab a chin up bar....and hang. : )
Pinch grips: Take two plates, put them together so the smooth side is out, now grab it so your thumb is on one side, and your four fingers are on the other. When you get up to two 25's, your getting strong. When you get up to two 45's (long way off for most of us), you'll have vices instead of hands.
Miscellaneous: Find things like cinder blocks, big rocks, and hold and carry them in difficult ways. Take a iron rake, and walk it up and down with your fingers (hands together, moving the rake vertically).
Use one of these exercises after a workout, 2-3 workouts a week for a couple sets. Use good form and go heavy. Hand strength will benefit ALL of your upper body exercises, and a lot of lower body exercises. Hand strength is very functional in everyday life and is one of the most basic indications of a man or woman's strength. After about two months of doing these exercises, shake someone's hand and see if they don't wince in pain. ;)
New Additions
Since most people correlate large forearms with grip strength, even though there is no strong correlation, I thought I would add some good forearm exercises as well. Strong forearms will add to your grip strength, as the wrist is involved in stabilizing and moving the hands.
Wrist Curls/Reverse Wrist Curls: These can be done seated, while resting the forearms on the edge of a bench or on your thighs. Another good way to do wrist curls is while standing, and holding a barbell behind your back. You also can do the same for reverse wrist curls, holding the barbell in front of the torso. The standing version will hit the forearms in their position of peak contraction. Go as heavy as is comfortable to your wrist joint.
Wrist Rollers: Take a wooden handle, hang rope from the middle, and put a weight on the other end. Roll the weight up and down, rolling in each direction. Try making the handles thicker if you want to challenge your grip at different angles. Grade your effort by both the number of times you completely roll and unroll the weight, and the speed at which you can roll the weight. Many strongman competitions do a wrist roller race.
Lever lifts: Take an object like an axe, and hold it either in front of you, or sticking behind you. Now, lever it up and down. The further a way the weight is from your hand, the harder the lift will be. For the front lever lift, just try a baseball bat at first. For the rear lift, try an axe holding it halfway. When you get used to the movement, go heavier. Your wrists are in a little bit of a delicate position with lever lifts, be careful.
Plate Curls: This is one I never heard of until I read _Mastery of Hand Strength_, by John Brookfield. Take some Olympic plates, grab them with a pinch grip (one in each hand), and curl them, it's that simple, in explanation at least. Wait till you try this exercise, you'll be shocked at how hard this it is.
SAMPLE GRIP ROUTINE Sunday or Monday- grip specialization day. - pinch gripping- 3 set of holds for 30 seconds - gripper- 3 sets of 20,10,5 reps - plate curls - 3 sets of 10,6,4
Tuesday or Wednesday- heavier grip day. - 1 deadlift lockout in rack then hold till failure - 3 sets of 30,20,10 seconds - plier holding - 3 set of holds for 30 seconds - farmers walk - 3 times as far as possible
Friday or Saturday- normal hardgainer workout - trap bar deadlifts - overhead presses or bench presses - chins - shrugs - normal or reverse barbell curls - breating squats + light pullovers to stretch cage
*NOTES* -The grip exercises are all just examples, there are lots to chose from. To get ideas for these email us and sign up for our free newsletter. Each grip day has an exercise for each of the 3 types of grip strength, crushing, supporting and pinching.
plate curls explained: According to grip expert John Brookfield this is the absolute best exercise for the wrists. What you do is pinch grip one plate and just curl it up*remember to keep your wrists tight, dont let them sag back* If you can curl a 25lb plate in this fashion you have pretty strong wrists.
plier holding explained: This is a great exercise for your crushing strength. What you do is get a regular pair of pliers. Get a normal bucket with a handle accross the top and grip it with the pliers and hold it as long as possible. You of course put the weight or sand or bricks into the bucket for weight.
As far as the regular lifting day goes. For all exercises try to use a thick bar if available, this will only add to your grip and forearms, besides, what's better than massive forearms? Nothing. For chins I use a the back of my power rack for a thick bar. I have found that alternating a pressing movement every week works great for strength increases. You can do both of course. For shrugs, deads and squats try using a higher rep range, high reps on squats and deads are such killers, it is also safer. As far as set/rep schemes go. There are many great choices that will keep you gaining pretty steady. Right now i am doing just one set to failure. But you can also do 5x5, progressively heavier singles, 2x8, lots of choices. If I was to do 5x5 or singles I would cut some of the exercises out though.
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