Grip Training

[William Reed]

What does everyone do for Grip Training?

I've been doing Farmers walk w/ hand towels holding Kettlebells after my workouts theses last couple of days (Sunday and Tues). Today I did two sets of Towel FW w/ 60lbs for about 80-100m in 1- 1:30 mins and a fast set with 100lb kettlebells.

Sunday was bodyweight towel workout for me a ton of Rows and Tricep Ext with varying angles/feet elevated.

I tried out doing Deadlifts with the bar hanging from two towels. I walked around pinching plates together. Pretty tough. I haven't tried out weighted hangs yet.

My chin up/pull up PRs are over 100lbs.

I'd like to have some crushing grip strength. A couple of weeks ago I purchased the Captains of Crush #1 Gripper. The description said most men how workout w/ weights can not close it (sounds sad). It's rated at 140lbs of pressure. I found it pretty easy so I ordered the #2 (197lbs). It's on the way now.

I would appreciate any help.

[AlexX]

Eh I would really recommend getting the 1.5 one. I was able to close the number 1 over 10 times and still struggled to get a single rep with the number two. Usually I like grippers but lately I've been doing fat bar work, at the moment working on hanging on to a fat bar. The goal is to do a OAC on it.

[William Reed]

Thanks, maybe I could borrow a buddies Fat Gripz and put them on our pull up bars here.

How close were you getting with the #2. Too late to switch the order it's already on it's way. Maybe I'll have to do Negatives for a bit.

[AlexX]

Like I said I could close it, it was just a max effort thing not something I could train with which is why I wanted the 1.5. Negatives and holds worked ok for me but I was never a big fan of them, progress felt devastatingly slow. I heard others had much better luck with them though.

[Cole Dano]

I recall Coach Sommer saying that gymnasts develop extraordinary grip strength through bar swing elements.

I have some COC's i have a large right left imbalance, so am mostly working to even that. There is allot of great grip strength info out there. One guy i find interesting is David Horne. He also produces a few interesting products such as the Vulcan hand-gripper which is a spring loaded style allowing for a much smaller increments in building up.

[dnj23]

I never cared for the COCs. They gave me joint and knuckle problems; they didn't feel natural to me.

This is going to sound rather simplistic, but, when I started using chalk for gripping heavy bar loads, I never got grip issues again.

[Joshua Naterman]

Everyone who knows grip strength and has a fantastic grip, including John Brookfield (the #1 grip guy worldwide), will tell you that thick bar work is the foundation of grip strength. Rope climbing absolutely falls into that category as well. It's also incredibly sport specific for combat athletes and martial artists, because you're going to be grabbing peoples' arms!!! Holding onto a 1" thick barbell isn't going to help you very much unless you're grabbing a finger.

I do not own a Vulcan gripper yet but I really, really want one. Brilliant design in my opinion.

All the bars in gymnastics are a good bit thicker than an Olympic barbell, especially when you see how much the grips increase the diameter of what the hand must hang on to. Add the immense gravitational forces at the bottom of the swing and I would not at all be surprised to find out that higher level gymnasts have pretty beastly grips. They probably aren't world class in terms of holding strength, but in terms of ability to handle momentary force they should be extremely well developed, right up there with the best. I don't know that for sure, but it would make sense.

[Michael Traynor]

I was showing Dillon arm wrestling techniques after dinner on one of the evenings at the Mallorca seminar in November and I can attest that he has a pretty beastly grip and he wasn't even trying to grip hard.

[Patrick McDonnell]

I like rope climbing and rope pull ups. I have a 2" rope that is great. I hang it from the same hook I hang my rings from and ordered an 8 foot rope for a 9 foot ceiling. I should have ordered 12 feet so slack at bottom keeps it steady but the short rope works but it does swing a bit. I also have coc grippers t,1, and 2. As noted, the jump from 1 to 2 is considerable and 2 are basically max efforts. I also have a wrist roller with a rope through the center and roll plates up. It crushes the forearms.

If I could only do 1 grip exercise, i would say 2" rope climbs and rope pull ups. I have a 1.5 which is a great climbing diameter, but the 2" rope is just a different animal as far as grip training. I even do mixed grip pull ups with combinations of rings and different ropes. Left rope is 2" and right is 1.5. If you can hang your rings, you can hang ropes.

[Jonas Jonzen]

As a grip nut I join in. Im mostly into grippers and horsebending.

There is basically three types of grip strength; crushing, pinching and open handstrength(thick bar work). If you want to excel in grip you should train all three of these. As Slizzardman said, thick bar training is considered to be the best. In a way you work both your pinch and crushing strength lifting thick bars. I have a 3 inch dumbell weighing ~44 kg and it works my hands, fingers and wrist to the max. 44 kg sounds little, but the added thickness makes the difference.

As you say you would like a crushing grip you will improve best with the grippers. Closing the #1 is a good start! When I started training grip I was some mm's away from closing #1 and yesterday I did close a #3. Just to give some inspiration that you can work your way up the ladder.

Some extra tips:

*Get one of John Brookfields books.

*Check some articles of Adam T Glass. He has written very good articles of grip strength and he is one of the best allround grip guys. http://www.adamtglass.com/grip/

* David Horne also have some good info and products. http://www.davidhorne-gripmaster.com/

[AlexX]

As a grip nut I join in. Im mostly into grippers and horsebending.

There is basically three types of grip strength; crushing, pinching and open handstrength(thick bar work).

Don't forget wrist strength. While it is not directly one of the grip strengths I've never met a person with a beastly grip who didn't have an insane wrist strength to go with it.