Grip strength

[Gregor]

Hi! Now it's my turn for questions :oops:

Simply, does anybody how some good exercises for grip strength?

I have a problem on a rings with this strength...of course it will came better with better endurance (now I'm in preparation for nationals as gymnast as well as coach) but still I think if I increase my grip strength It will be easier to make more repetitions and then even better endurance...

I have already some ideas, but still I want to here your opinions, maybe I'll find something interesting...

[griffdrc]

things i do for grip...

heavy lockouts... the top part of a deadlift w/ a double over grip

softball deadlifts/rows/pullups... attatched a rope loop through two soft balls and attach to a bar and perform lifts

one arm deadlifts... google rolling thunder deadlift

thick bar lifts... i use a 4" diameter piece of pvc pipe over the bar and lift and hold... it helps if you tape the pipe... if your hands are small try ~3"

grippers... google captains of crush

run stairs holding dumb bells (kinda like a farmers walk)

wrist rolls

there are lots more... iron mind has some good products

the exercises you pick really depend on the way you need to strengthen your wrist... i pick my exercises to help my grip for wrestling...

[kbryk]

Congratulations on nationals!

Have you heard of a hang board/campus rungs , if you haven't that's fine, basically a hang board is for rock climbers to strengthen their fingers joints. From a personal experience stand point I know gymnast have great grip, but I think they may have less "strength" in their finger joints.

With this simple find something to hang on rings, parallel bars, but hang on your fingers instead of palms or false grip, try not to swing there will be to much force on your joints in the beginning.

This should work great, if you have ever seen what climbers must grip onto you will understand why they have great finger strength.

http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/holds_boards_rungs.htm

Check them out, I'm pretty sure you can improvise and find stuff around the gym.

[Scott Malin]

Towels are also a very simple and effective way to work it. All good suggestions. Grip strength increases pretty quickly as long as you're consistent at working it

[rambo5501]

Very slow Rope climbs with straddle L. Their names are Cirques right?

[StevenL]

hang from bars with one hand. when that gets easy, hang from bars with one hand with weight in your other hand.

[Coach Sommer]

Best Grip Strength Exercise

In my opinion the best grip strength exercise by far is rope climbing. However, be careful of increasing weekly volume too rapidly; rope climbing is potent medicine.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Guest Ido Portal]

Funny thing, my friend and gymnastics instructor Yuri Raviz from Belarussia originaly, told me that in Minsk in their training center they would be punished with rope climbs.

The punishment system of his coach (Yuri is one year younger than Scherbo and other greats and training at the same center) was that for every minute of being late for practice you had to perform one 6 meter rope ascent, no legs.

The punishment was also timed, and you had to complete it in time, or else, again, more ascents would be added.

Yuri was late 30 minutes into practice one day, and completed 30 ascents. The workout that day was a scary and difficult one and Yuri was a strong guy (rings specialist) so he took his time with the punishment and failed to meet the time alloted for it, so the coach added another 20 ascents. He completed 50 ascents that day. He could not touch his shoulder with his finger for a week, and was in great soreness.

Interesting, Yuri's nickname in school was 'Ruki'. It means 'arms'...

[Gregor]

hmmm interesting....

Another thing is that I have had broken my left wrist 15 years ago (hope, I wrote correctly....) and it's almost 50% less stronger grip then in my right hand (It's still painfull, if I squeeze harder), much worst flexibility in all rotations...

[JoeSimo]

I have really good grip strength, especially given that I am 6'1 and 185 lbs. Im able to do single finger pulls ups ( as in one finger on each hand) and pull ups by just pinching wooden rafters aka rafter pull ups. I think my strength comes 90% from the copious amounts of rock climbing I do and the conditioning that comes with it.

A leverage bar works pretty well too. Simply find a long stick and hold one end of it. The focus being to keep the stick level for as long as possible. If its too easy add a little bit of weight to the end. The longer the stick the more torque there will be and the more difficult.

[Chris]

For strengthtening my grip i did sessions of 1 arm dead hangs, you do a couple of seconds one one and and the switch, and ye do a couple of switches before you jump off the bar. It wears you off pretty quickly, but on the other hand shouldn't put too much stress on the elbow joint, ye can always add some weight. Apart from that, and what others said, a hang board may not be, such a bad idea, but it's rather meant to build up specific finger strength, and like kbryk said joint endurance. Are you sure that you need grip strength and not endurance?

[George Launchbury]

Breaking it down as Strength vs Endurance training is not quite as straightforward as it seems.

If one can support their bodyweight with 85% of max strength for 60s ...simply improving your grip strength so that you support your weight with only 50% of max strength (as you have gotten stronger) will automatically increase the time you can hang on for. Increasing endurance will not make you stronger, whereas getting stronger will have the effect of increasing endurance against the same load. Which is best? Which will get results quicker? I would say it depends on individual genetics and requirements.

NB: I have also noticed that Gymnasts such as Jordan Jovtchev have seemed to really struggle with the "finger strength" sections on Ninja Warrior, so I would guess that it is not necessarily that important to a Gymnast??

Just my thoughts.

Cheers,

George.

[JoeSimo]

I think I would say grip strength and finger strength are slightly different too. Finger strength as its required in climbing or on the cliffhanger in NW does not seem overly relevant in gymnastics. However, grip strength does.

[Coach Sommer]

On most gymnastics events, grip strength is certainly more relevant than finger strength. The exception is high bar where the athlete should endeavor to "slip" around the bar with a very light grip that is essentially secured by the finger tips and the dowels of the hand-grips rather than gripping the bar firmly with the palm of the hand.

Many athletes will of course have a difficult time initially understanding this; basically there is a standard reaction of "You want me to what? :shock:" There is something inherently uncomfortable in spinning around a bar eight feet in the air, upside down, at 60 mph hanging by the tips of your fingers. For advanced athletes, it is however the only way to execute the high level skills necessary in today's highly competitive environment.

is a perfect example of something that could never be accomplished with other than the very lightest of fingertip grips.

To help the athlete to adjust to this fingertip grip, several times a week I will assign sets of a hanging leg lift (HLL) variation performed while hanging by just the very tips of the fingers.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Rob]

x2 for the climbing suggestion, although I prefer bouldering (usually more taxing on the grip as well). It's probably more beneficial for "finger strength" than general grip strength. Bouldering for a few weeks really boosted my grip and I can hit a one arm hang for 30+ seconds without training it specifically, so I think you should have no trouble working weighted one arm hangs. Heavy deadlifts couldn't hurt and there's no reason not to do them anyway, but I'm nowhere near as advanced as you so take my advice with a pinch of salt . I have to add that my false grip strength is poor so expect no carryover to that :cry: