[Revamped 1/1/2006]

Motivation

Grip training is an area of strength training to which I had not given much thought before my "renaissance" in weight training interest. Sure, I would occasionally squeeze those hand-gripper things you can get at a sporting goods store, but I discovered that there is a whole world of training devoted exclusively to various aspects of the grip. Grip training focuses not only on the "crushing" motion of squeezing a hand gripper, but also on pinching motions which require a strong thumb, a supporting grip which is more about grip endurance, fingertip grip which is essential for rock climbers and martial artists, and other aspects of hand strength.

If you think about it, you use your hands for just about everything, continuously, every day. Having strong and capable hands should provide a pretty good "return on investment" in terms of the time spent training.

I have decided to add some grip training to my fitness routine, focusing primarily on the "crushing" strength used to close hand grippers. I may also be interested in training the "pinching" grip for thumb strength as well as developing some wrist/forearm strength. I also figure that strengthening my fingers and thumbs will benefit my guitar playing. To this end, I have acquired/made some training tools. Note: Use of gym chalk is essential for grip training!

For more information on grip training, search online for articles written by John Brookfield, the acknowledged expert on grip training. He has also written one of the only books specifically devoted to grip training: Mastery Of Hand Strength.

Training the Crushing Grip

The most obvious way to train the crushing grip is to use hand gripper devices. For anyone serious about building hand strength, the sporting goods store grippers are not sufficiently difficult. You will not build much crushing strength by squeezing one of those for 50 reps! Enter IronMind.

IronMind is a company/web site that sells eclectic lifting devices, and is particularly focused on grip training. Their "Captains of Crush" grip trainers are significantly harder than your standard sporting goods store grippers, and get progressively harder from #1 through #4 (they now carry a few newer grippers that are easier than the #1, including the "trainer"). If you can close a #3 or #4 gripper under verified conditions, they post your name on their web site and in their catalog. Very few people have been able to close the #4; one person who has is World's Strongest Man champion Magnus Samuelsson. Closing the #1 demonstrates a commitment to training the grip, or perhaps a physical laborer with a strong grip. Closing the #2 is evidence of a crushing grip way beyond ordinary. The #3 and #4 are reserved for serious, elite grip trainers. IronMind also sells a book that gives some history as well as training advice regarding grip training, called Captains of Crush Grippers: What They Are and How to Close Them.

Here are the poundage ratings for the #1-#4 Captains of Crush grippers. This is the amount of weight you would need to hang from one handle to pull it down to the point of touching the other handle:

• #1 Gripper: 140 pounds
• #2 Gripper: 195 pounds
• #3 Gripper: 280 pounds
• #4 Gripper: 365 pounds

You may have noticed that the intervals between the grippers are quite large! It can be difficult to work up from one gripper to the next. To solve this problem, look into a truly excellent tool called the Ivanko SuperGripper. The supergripper uses 2 springs which can be set in various positions to provide a HUGE range of grip tensions to fight against, from quite easy to ridiculously hard (345 pounds!), with many small increments in between. This really is the ultimate grip training tool.

You can buy the supergripper from Piedmont Design Associates. I received excellent service from both IronMind and PDA, so order with confidence. Prices are also quite reasonable considering the quality of the devices.

Advanced Training Ideas: Crushing Grip

Here are a few advanced techniques you can use to help push your crushing grip strength forward after you leave the beginner phase of training. Some of these I use, some I've never tried. I'll use this space just to collect ideas for current or future use.

• Assisted Reps: Use your non-working hand to help your working hand with a close you can't perform. Can be used on the last reps of a set or for all reps at a higher tension than you can close. The Ivanko SuperGripper's large handle is very convenient for this.
• Holds: Close the gripper, with or without off-hand assistance, and hold it shut for as long as possible. For extreme intensity, use off-hand assistance to keep the hold going after the working hand can no longer keep it going alone.
• Partial Reps: Work the harder part of the motion, the second half of the close, by doing one normal rep and then only opening the handles halfway before closing again.
• Partial Reps with Choker: With the SuperGripper, insert one of the choker bits to set the start position to a partially-closed state, then do reps in the tougher part of the motion.
• Increased Range of Motion: One tip I've read is that some gripsters file down the inner parts of their grippers' handles so that you need to squeeze them even further to make the handles touch. Typically you would do this on a gripper you can already close while working up to the next one.
• Set a Total Rep Target: The idea here is to set a total workout volume that must be achieved. You can rest as long as you want, but you aren't done until X reps are done. This could be tiered, as in 20 reps at one level, 10 at the next, and 5 at the highest. Each workout you can bump up the tensions slightly and try to achieve the same total volume.

Training the Pinch Grip

Pinch grip training is usually performed as an isometric endurance-style training exercise. Generally you pinch some heavy object with smooth sides between the thumb and other fingers and hold it until it slips from the grasp.

If you own hex dumbbells, you can train both a wide pinch and narrow pinch. You can simply grab a dumbbell by the hex end with one hand in a (wide) pinch grip and hold for as long as possible. The width here varies based on the size of dumbbell you hold. To train the pinch grip for a narrower object, you can just pinch the handle of the dumbbell, being sure that you are actually "pinching" and not wrapping your fingers around the handle at all. Hex dumbbells would be expensive to buy just for grip training, but it is easy to imagine improvising with any blocky object to which you can attach some weight.

Another idea is to take two plates and hold them together with the smooth, flat sides facing outward. Pinch this and hold until the plates slip from you hands.

Wrist/Forearm Training

Building the forearm generally involves training wrist motions. Strong wrists are an important complement to strong hands and arms.

The most obvious exercises to build wrist strength are wrist curls and reverse wrist curls. To perform these, you typically hold a barbell in both hands (palms up for regular curls, down for reverse) and lay your forearms along your thighs while seated. Your hands should hang off the ends of your knees. Now let the weight down by relaxing the wrists, then curl it back up. This will really work the forearm muscles. It can also be done with dumbbells.

Another exercise that will really burn the forearms is wrist rolling. You can easily and cheaply build your own wrist roller device. Take a broomstick or other cylindrical object and tie a strong string/rope to it in the center. I actually bought a 1.5" thick wooden dowel from Home Depot and drilled a hole through the center for the rope to go through and "catch" after wrapping a few times around. Tie the other end of the string around a weight, say 25 pounds or whatever you can handle. The exercise is to hold the stick in both hands and roll it in one direction, winding the string around the stick and lifting the weight. Then roll it back to lower the weight. You should alternate which way you roll the stick, going both towards you and away from you. This aids in building grip strength as well as wrist strength.

A variation on the above exercise is to rotate the stick/cylinder while holding it by the ends, palms in (this assumes a relatively short cylinder with a wide diameter). This would seem to focus a bit more on pinching/thumb strength and the twisting motion of the hand; all jar tops will tremble at your approach.