Gripstrength and Griptraining

[Hak.1963]

Hi!

As a new member it's nice to see you have a department for sports as well.
I'm in to Gripsport and I have competed in gripsport since 2013, started a little late at 50 years of age.

I am always the oldest contestant when I compete here in Sweden and was also the oldest in the European Championship in 2017 in Norway.
But I'm doing quite well with two world records and one Scandinavian record in different events.

I love Rolling Handles (but not so much IronMinds Rolling Thunder) and Apollon deadlifts.
Grippers are not my best event and I am only able to close a (heavy) Captains of Crush #3, the #3,5 is way too heavy for me.

Pinchgrip with pinchblocks and Europinch discs are quite nice too.

Is there anyone else in here who like Gripstrength?
Please let me know.

 

[Ramius]

Closing a C o C #3 is pretty impressive. You are about my age so I envy your dedication.

I don’t compete in grip events, but I train with kettle bells and deadlift as well so grip strength is important. I can close a 1 but not a 2!

 

[Hak.1963]

Thank you Ramius.

I have never trained with kettlebells but I have friends who just loves them.
And it shure looks like they can give you a good workout.
I have heard that kettlebelltraining is good for your deadlifts the way kettlebellswings work your hips and lower back.
Unfortunatly my gym does'nt have any kettlebells, just a good old fashioned powerlifting gym filled with free weights.
Maybe I will buy a set of kettlebells for my garagegym?

 

[Doc4]

What exercises to you recommend for those of us who want to try to improve our grip strength?

Maybe I will buy a set of kettlebells for my garagegym?

Kettlebells are great, and a great addition to a home gym for sure.

 

[Hak.1963]

What exercises to you recommend for those of us who want to try to improve our grip strength?

There are lots of different things you can do in your gym, or at home, depending on what equiptment is available.
If you don't want to buy special tools like pinchblocks, rolling handles and loading pins you can start with your deadlifts.
Always do your deadlifts with double overhand grip, never use any straps or mixed grip.
Start doing onehand deadlifts, great excercise for your grip, and the Sumo stans will also do wonder for your hipstrength and put a little more stress on your glutes and hamstrings.
If you have heavy bumperplates in your gym, 15-25 kg, use them as pincblocks, hold one in each hand for as long as you can.
If you have a small budget and want to buy something for your griptraining, buy a pair of Fatgripz and use them in your deadlift routine, but also when you train biceps and triceps with barbells and dumbells.
Grippers are great, and you don't have to buy IronMind or Baraban even if they are among the best, they are also expensive. The America made Heavy Grips are quite good and they are half the price.
There are tons of things you can do to improve your gripstrength but if you want to be really really strong you will need some special equiptment targeting your grip, forearms and wrists.
I train grip two times a week, no more because your muscles in your forearms are very small and you can not compare them to bigger muscles in your body like your quads or your back etc.

 

[Ramius]

Good advice above.

One arm KB swings help the grip a lot.

A wrist roller can be made with a wooden dowel or piece of PVC pipe and some rope along with a weight attached to the rope for great forearm work.

And grip training stresses the ligaments, which respond slower than muscles so take it slow in the beginning. Your elbows will thank you.

 

[Scarry Knight]

IronPower or DynaFlex Gyro exercise balls to improve upon grip strength safely. These will help avoid, and protect against the strain injury Ramius speaks of. They will give you a safe workout free of rui, by building support through the full range of motion of your wrists. This will help avoid things like carple tunnel from excess strength in some muscles and underdevelopement in others. They are great therapy for use with joint instability, carpel tunnel, trigger finger, tennis elbow, and rotator cuff rehab. Grip strength will be improved markedly as the joints are stabilized by building all the supporting muscles equally through the full range of motion.

 

[WarrenB]

Great post, closing the No3 is impressive!
I got the Captains of Crush grippers last year, never done any weights before let along grip training, so didn't know where to start, so I started almost at the bottom and got the Sport, Trainer and No1. Could do the No1 easily first go so was pretty happy!
So I got the No2 and can close that now after a bit of training, and working on the 2.5 at the moment.

 

[Scarry Knight]

/\ those trainers are exactly what can cause RUIs. If using them, you’ll want to include other exercises that work the wrist through it’s full range of motion.

 

[WarrenB]

/\ those trainers are exactly what can cause RUIs. If using them, you’ll want to include other exercises that work the wrist through it’s full range of motion.

Thanks for the tip, I did read up on using them and use them as part of a routine with other exercises to try and avoid injury!

 

[ackvil]

A trainer in the gym I go to works with athletes, particularly football and basketball players. He has a few exercises he uses to improve grip strength. The first two exercises he has these folks do are wrist raises and reverse wrist raises. The individual sits on a bench and takes dumbells in each hand. The first exercise is with the arms on the knees with the hands upright. The individual brings his hands upwards. Then the individual reverses the position of the hands and brings the hands up. The exercises can be done with dumbells or barbells.

The next exercise is to grip a weight plate with the fingers of each hand and hold them for as long as possible.
The last exercise is one he does with bands. It is done on individual fingers. The individual sits on a bench while holding the bands under a foot. The band is put on the index finger which is raised to exhaustion. He then does it with the middle and then ring finger.

He also has individuals do hammer curls, reverse barbell curls, and deadlifts.

 

[Hak.1963]

Thank you for your feedback, guys, really appreciate it

Lets see if I can write this in English and make it understandable lol

A trainer in the gym I go to works with athletes, particularly football and basketball players. He has a few exercises he uses to improve grip strength. The first two exercises he has these folks do are wrist raises and reverse wrist raises. The individual sits on a bench and takes dumbells in each hand. The first exercise is with the arms on the knees with the hands upright. The individual brings his hands upwards. Then the individual reverses the position of the hands and brings the hands up. The exercises can be done with dumbells or barbells.

This is for me only half an excercise (the flexion part) because you will not use your fingers at all.
You will just flex your forearms. I would do a standing variation of this excercise, with the barbell behind my back palms facing away from me, then I would roll the barbell as far down I could (almost to my fingertips) and slowly roll the barbell up to a full flex of my forearms.
For my extensionmuscles in my forearms I do lots of rubberband training with IronMinds flexbands and also pinch-holds with 76mm and 80mm pinchblocks and reverse curls using one of my full metal 60 mm rolling handles connected to a low-pulley machine.

IronPower or DynaFlex Gyro exercise balls to improve upon grip strength safely. These will help avoid, and protect against the strain injury Ramius speaks of. They will give you a safe workout free of rui, by building support through the full range of motion of your wrists. This will help avoid things like carple tunnel from excess strength in some muscles and underdevelopement in others. They are great therapy for use with joint instability, carpel tunnel, trigger finger, tennis elbow, and rotator cuff rehab. Grip strength will be improved markedly as the joints are stabilized by building all the supporting muscles equally through the full range of motion.

I have never tried one of these. I do my warm-ups with my Bao-ding balls instead. They are great if you want to avoid injuries in your forearms and you can really build up a pump with just these balls by rolling them in your hand.

Also, there is a difference in "open hand strength" and "crushing strength".
I'm more of an open hand strength guy, meaning I'm best with pinchblocks, rolling handles, thickbar and fatbar.
Grippers (crushing strength) are not my cup of thea.
Not many gripmonsters are both "open hand" and "crushing strength" guys, but there are a few of them.

If you are interested you are welcome to see my instagram @hak.1963 and you will see som of my equiptment and some of the excercises plus some competitions.

 

[Hak.1963]

Great post, closing the No3 is impressive!
I got the Captains of Crush grippers last year, never done any weights before let along grip training, so didn't know where to start, so I started almost at the bottom and got the Sport, Trainer and No1. Could do the No1 easily first go so was pretty happy!
So I got the No2 and can close that now after a bit of training, and working on the 2.5 at the moment.

Very nice!!!
I know a lot of strong guys at the gym who can not close the #2.

 

[Ramius]

One other thing to help avoid injury- Iron Mind sells some graduat d rubber bands. These can be used to open the hand and fingers against resistance to help balance all the closing of the hand. Fairly inexpensive and good insurance.

 

[Hak.1963]

View attachment 961296

One other thing to help avoid injury- Iron Mind sells some graduat d rubber bands. These can be used to open the hand and fingers against resistance to help balance all the closing of the hand. Fairly inexpensive and good insurance.

Yes!
This is one of the things I use for my extensionmuscles.
Quite cheap and very good indeed

 

[WarrenB]

Very nice!!!
I know a lot of strong guys at the gym who can not close the #2.

Thanks!
I thought my grip was ok, so decided to see what level I was at, really pleased to close the No1 first go as I've seen some strong looking guys struggle, and I'm only 5'7 and don't do any training at all!
I have always had hands on jobs, like construction, carpentry, labouring, carrying boards, bags of sand etc, so guess that really gave my grip a boost!