Started by Bipocni, January 22, 2014 · 36 Replies · 13,542 Views
Anyone know any good methods of training pinch grip strength?
I know the standard 'hold a couple plates' method of training, but are their any good bodyweight progressions or such? At this point all I can really do is rows on a door, and I don't know how to bridge the gap to proper rows...
Hang from a pullup bar in a dead hang, if you like this you can actually look into Convict Conditioning 2 where they look at this sort of strength (or pm me 
), or squeeze a soft ball for a couple of hundred reps. The best thing for me was actually doing wrist curls but that doesn't rely on bodyweight so i guess it doesn't help.
Check out the following website: www.ironmind.com
Click on the link for articles, then hit up "John Brookfield's Grip Tips". There is some phenomenal stuff in there.
Rafter/ beam pullups are good
But carrying plates in a pinch grip is probably the simplest and very effective.
Brad Johnson had a few good ones in his book. Pinch grip pushups(which you can find videos for on youtube) and 2x4 climbing (Which seems a bit more self explanatory)
Robmob said:Hang from a pullup bar in a dead hang, if you like this you can actually look into Convict Conditioning 2 where they look at this sort of strength (or pm me
Pinch grip. I already do loads of rows, pullups, scap shrugs ect so my dead hang grip gets loads of work. I'm also incorporating towel hangs into my workouts, but my thumbs need more work, so pinch grip.
Jon Douglas said:Rafter/ beam pullups are good
I would if I was that strong, but I can't even do pinch grip rows.
I know you're asking for bodyweight alternatives but... a friend of mine did deadlifts using a short piece of 2x4 hooked to a loading pin and gradually increased the weight up to bodyweight, and now he does rafters for reps. Simple and effective.
I tried to do pinch grip training by getting a few bits of wood of varying shape and thickness and putting string through them to hang weights off. It wasn't a particularly effective method and made no difference whatever to my pinch strength. I think the problem was that the wood was smooth and parallel sided where I was pinching it, and my fingers were straight against the side so I couldn't get much leverage and never added beyond 10kg. I also find pinching big things fairly easy, but pinching small pretty hard, and the only place you will get to try out and train on different sizes and angles of pinch with different weights (or leverage from your feet) is on a climbing wall.
Pick up an increasing-in-size ball with a spreaded hand e.g. rugby ball, football, basketball, ....medicine ball.... 
Google Adam T. Glass, he's a grip strength athlete, and has all sorts of ideas, including pinching pullups.
Get a job in upholstery, you'll get a pinch grip from hell. Some of the women at where I work have been doing it for 20 years; I sincerely fear for the safety of their children's ears 
.
Several good methods used in this video. Climbers imo have the best pinching strength, and the guys in this video do a couple of things to train it:
Pullups on these balls of varying sizes that hang from the ceiling
Pullups on fingerboards - heres an example
http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/images/simulator-layout.jpg
Gregor uses a fingerboard for his training, mb give him a shoutout
I like these too, though Ive never used them
http://www.msd-europe.com/user_images/producten/foto/182512001348841991_foto.jpg
An easy one I saw on rosstraining.com is to pinch grip an open door and lean back. More leaning = increased difficulty.
2004, where Coach Sommer published his his initial dragondoor article, there also appeared the classic, http://www.dragondoor.com/articles/the-rafter-pull-up/
haven't seen any climber pinching that strong!
Bipocni said:Pinch grip. I already do loads of rows, pullups, scap shrugs ect so my dead hang grip gets loads of work. I'm also incorporating towel hangs into my workouts, but my thumbs need more work, so pinch grip.
Normally the thumb gets a hell of a workout in the exercises i do and in towel hangs too, but sorry for misunderstanding
The Hansenator said:An easy one I saw on rosstraining.com is to pinch grip an open door and lean back. More leaning = increased difficulty.
Yeah this is pretty much where I am right now.
Robmob said:Normally the thumb gets a hell of a workout in the exercises i do and in towel hangs too, but sorry for misunderstanding
No worries. There's 3 different types of grip strength:
Hook grip: This is your standard pullup or deadlift grip. Note that I perform this with the bar in the crook of my fingers, not resting on the pads of my hands. This prevents callouses, but it also makes it harder. I often find during pullups and rows that my thumb has actually disengaged completely from the rings.
Crush grip: This is what you use during towel hangs, rope climbs ect. It's the same grip you use in a handshake, so it's good to get it strong! In my experience it works the opposite side of your forearm.
Pinch grip: This one doesn't tend to come up much in life. The only thing I can really think of is if you're trying to unbolt something with your bare hands, but even then you're using a different hand placement than when people train their pinch grip. However, it's very thumb intensive, in a way that the other two grip styles aren't.
I mostly want to train it to balance everything out. I think you can't really have strong and healthy hands unless you train all 3 grip types...
Robmob said:Hang from a pullup bar in a dead hang, if you like this you can actually look into Convict Conditioning 2 where they look at this sort of strength (or pm me
Is pinch grip basically the same as grip strength? If it is, then the convict conditioning 2 does have some nice progressions for it
Hmms said:Is pinch grip basically the same as grip strength? If it is, then the convict conditioning 2 does have some nice progressions for it
I don't really rate the CC2 progressions. While it has a nice explanation of all the different grip types at the start, the concept that fingertip pushups work the extensor muscles doesn't make any sense.
I much prefer the wrist work in H1 for that.
Question: Is your goal really pinch grip, or just having strong thumbs to balance out your grip strength? If it's the latter I think one arm toweI(or rope) hangs would suffice. I agree that the fingertip pushups as extensor work doesn't make sense, but it's not like you actually have to do them alongside the towel hangs.
Bipocni said:I don't really rate the CC2 progressions. While it has a nice explanation of all the different grip types at the start, the concept that fingertip pushups work the extensor muscles doesn't make any sense.
I much prefer the wrist work in H1 for that.
I was referring to the hanging progressions rather than the fingertip progressions
Hmms said:I was referring to the hanging progressions rather than the fingertip progressions
Yeah I gathered. I'm basically doing them right now, but like I said, I want to include pinch grip progressions as well.
I feel like this needs repeating: I ALREADY TRAIN TOWEL HANGS.
What does pinch grip mean
Hmms said:What does pinch grip mean
Well you know what a pinch is right?....
To quote wikipedia: In a pinch grip, the fingers are on one side of an object, and the thumb is on the other. Typically, an object lifted in a pinch grip does not touch the palm. This is generally considered a weaker grip position. The pinch grip is used when grabbing something like a weight plate or lifting a sheet of plywood by the top edge. Care must be taken to avoid cramping the muscles in the hand.
Think things like rafter pullups.
