# Grip and Hand Strength



## Aevolve (Nov 16, 2011)

Near the end of my workouts, I tend to have to stop reps, not from me being inable to lift the weight, but because my hands are too tired to hold on to it anymore. Does anyone have any tips on making exercise grip easier and better on my hands? Or is it simply a matter of building up more strength in my hands?


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## muaddib09 (Nov 16, 2011)

For sure just work up your grip. Do pull ups and dead lifts. If you are looking for something you can buy grippers called "captain of crush" these things are awesome. Dyna-flex are great as well. They make you put a lot of pump into your forearms forcing you to hold onto the object while it is trying to get free from your grip. 
You could take the easy way and use straps.


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## Harry (Nov 16, 2011)

Work on that grip strength.
Here's my personal top three that have a very direct carryover to real world gym lifting :

Static Barbell holds for time.
just holding the barbell at the locked out position of a deadlift, letting go of the bar just before reaching failure.

Pullup bar hangs. Hold yourself at the top of a pullup, again almost to failure but not quite.

Farmer's walk. With a dumbbell in each hand, just start walking.
In addition to grip strength and forearm strength, you'll hit the traps well and also the core will be working a fair bit to stabilize the body.

These are all good, but the only issue being is that they stress the back in the process, sometimes more than you'd want.
And this is where doing stuff with a towel or much, better, these, come into play :





Fat Gripz may seem initially expensive ("WHY AM I PAYING 39 BUCKS FOR SOME RUBBERY LOOKING THINGS?"), but it's much cheaper than shelling out literally tens of thousands of dollars on thick bar barbells and a full set of thick handle dumbbells.
These things are no joke. They work your grip and forearms HARD.
Using these will allow you to drop the weight on static barbell holds and farmer's walks because you simply wont be able to use as much weight.
This will of course, save your back that extra stress in the process.
They'll last a lifetime and I definitely have seen good gains in both size and strength in my forearms from using these.
Thick bar training just kicks ass, not just for grip/forearm strength, but also for pressing exercises too.


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## Aevolve (Nov 16, 2011)

Appreciate the replies guys
Random bout of paranoid concern:
Will this negatively affect my guitar playing in any way?


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## Harry (Nov 16, 2011)

PeachesMcKenzie said:


> Appreciate the replies guys
> Random bout of paranoid concern:
> Will this negatively affect my guitar playing in any way?



If you trained for like 5 hours straight just doing grip and forearm exercises, sure, but that would hardly just lead to troubles with playing guitar.
There's no reason why just training normally and efficiently would interfere with your guitar playing.
After all, there are heaps of really jacked dudes that play guitar and bass perfectly fine (Heard of a guy called John Petrucci ? )


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## Aevolve (Nov 16, 2011)

Harry said:


> If you trained for like 5 hours straight just doing grip and forearm exercises, sure, but that would hardly just lead to troubles with playing guitar.
> There's no reason why just training normally and efficiently would interfere with your guitar playing.
> After all, there are heaps of really jacked dudes that play guitar and bass perfectly fine (Heard of a guy called John Petrucci ? )



Petrucci is a pretty big dude. lol.
George Lynch in his bodybuilding days as well. I suppose that was a stupid question.


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## ivancic1al (Nov 16, 2011)

In before the first inappropriate "jerk off more" joke...


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## TRENCHLORD (Nov 16, 2011)

ivancic1al said:


> In before the first inappropriate "jerk off more" joke...


 
OR conversely, jerk off less. (reduce wear and tear)


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## Aevolve (Nov 16, 2011)

ivancic1al said:


> In before the first inappropriate "jerk off more" joke...



Dude I'm 17, I don't know if there is a "more."




...


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## ivancic1al (Nov 16, 2011)

^


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## Harry (Nov 16, 2011)

PeachesMcKenzie said:


> Dude I'm 17, I don't know if there is a "more."
> 
> 
> 
> ...





ivancic1al said:


> ^



Ohh lawd

Anyway OP, if you have more questions regarding anything I said, feel free to ask


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## Malkav (Nov 17, 2011)

I second the Dynaflex thing, they are awesome  Look into getting a Planetwaves Varigrip as well, they're really cool for building finger strength and stamina as well and the roughed out section on the back is great for maintaining callousses.


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## jymellis (Nov 17, 2011)

i roll dumbells in and out of my grip. while standing hold a dumbell in both hands at your sides in a frim grip. slowly open your grip so the dumbell rolls down to the last knuckle on your finger and your just holding the weight with your fingertips. then close your grip so the dumbell goes back into your palm "grip"


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## Aevolve (Nov 18, 2011)

jymellis said:


> i roll dumbells in and out of my grip. while standing hold a dumbell in both hands at your sides in a frim grip. slowly open your grip so the dumbell rolls down to the last knuckle on your finger and your just holding the weight with your fingertips. then close your grip so the dumbell goes back into your palm "grip"


 This is actually a cool idea. Similar to doing curls but for your fingers and hands.


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## LamaSabachthani (Nov 20, 2011)

PeachesMcKenzie said:


> Petrucci is a pretty big dude. lol.
> George Lynch in his bodybuilding days as well. I suppose that was a stupid question.



Although I remember Lynch saying in an interview that he noticed that as he trained really hard (or was 'cutting' or whatever, taking it up to the next level cyclically) he said he found he was unable to play normally.


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## SirMyghin (Nov 21, 2011)

^^ Cutting is not 'training really hard', cutting is training while eating very little to maintain, and straite you muscle and drop all your fat. Hence guys in competition looking 'cut up'. You are kind of starving yourself a touch during cutting, while tricking your body into not giving up any muscle.

As long as you are not losing range of motion, you probably aren't going to negatively affect your playing. Occasionally after something like clean and press my hands might be done for the day, but never noticed any other problems. I am not that big, but I am significantly bigger than I was.


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## USMarine75 (Nov 21, 2011)

FYI A good measure of your grip strength is to take a bathroom scale and squeeze the fuck out of it with both hands while keeping it parallel to your body in front of you (where you can read the #). Usually best to do it three times so you can average it out... and hold for 1 sec to take measurement.

TESTOSTERONE NATION | Squeeze a Scale - Page 1

Record this and it will give you a good measurement of your grip strength and will allow you to track your strength with respect to whatever workout you choose.

I agree with above (jymellis?) that the finger rolls/curls work great. I usually end my back/bi day with forearms and do the following:


hammer curls as part of bi workout
behind the back forearm curls with barbell and back of hands across my butt - I let it roll all the way until it almost falls off my open fingers, then I curl back up as far as I can towards wrists
^ you can alternate the above with seated DB wrist curls and then immediately after I stand up and superset with letting the DBs almost roll out of my hands (same as above)
I have the weight plate on a rope thing and I curl it up and then back down both palms up and palms down
To avoid tendonitis you should arrange it so you're not shredding on biceps/forearm days or the day after....


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## Uncreative123 (Nov 21, 2011)

USMarine75 said:


> FYI A good measure of your grip strength is to take a bathroom scale and squeeze the fuck out of it with both hands while keeping it parallel to your body in front of you (where you can read the #). Usually best to do it three times so you can average it out... and hold for 1 sec to take measurement.
> 
> TESTOSTERONE NATION | Squeeze a Scale - Page 1
> 
> ...





Those are forearm exercises (that I won't comment on) and won't necessarily improve grip strength. The best forearm & grip exercise: deadlifts. Plain and simple.


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## gunshow86de (Nov 22, 2011)

Uncreative123 said:


> Those are forearm exercises (that I won't comment on) and won't necessarily improve grip strength. The best forearm & grip exercise: *deadlifts*. Plain and simple.



This and pullups. I saw your other thread asking for tips on deadlifts, and people were talking about using straps. If you want to build grip strength, _do_ _not_ use straps. I used them on almost every set of pulling exercises from the time I started (age 11) until I was about 20. Consequently, my grip strength was terrible (also had puny, non-vascular forearms ).

Pullups have really been the key for me to build grip strength. When I started my pullup routine earlier this year, I could barely do 3 or 4 before I started slipping. Now I knock out sets of 15-20 pretty easily. If you want crazy grip strength, find an extra thick bar or wrap your towel around the pullup bar; the more your hand is open, the harder it is to grip whatever you're holding.

I get the idea you are a relative beginner in lifting. Straps have their place, but you most likely won't need them until a few years down the road.


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## jymellis (Nov 22, 2011)

i do alot of wrist and forearm exercises. be CAREFUL with the hammer workout. the wrist is made up of alot of soft tissue and seperate bone fragments. working your wrists to hard can EASILY damage them especially with the hammer hold. if you do the hammer hold, only use enough weight to make it difficult. do NOT hammer hold any amount of weight you really have to strain with 

and YES forearm workouts help with grip power \m/


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## USMarine75 (Nov 22, 2011)

​ 
Incorrect... Actually, there is a very strong correlation between wrist extension strength (WES) and grip strength (GS):

There are 35 muscles involved in movement of the forearm and hand, with many of these involved in gripping activities. During gripping activities, the muscles of the flexor mechanism in the hand and forearm create grip strength. 

There are four major joints of the hand with 9 extrinsic muscles that cross the wrist and 10 intrinsic muscles with both of their attachments distal to the wrist. These muscles include the pronator radii teres, flexor carpi radialis, flexor carpi ulanris, flexor sublimis digitorum, and Palmaris longus on the extrinsic layer and the *flexor profundus digitorum (FDP)*, flexor policus longus, pronator quadratus, flexor pollicus brevis, and abductor pollicus brevis on the intrinsic layer. *Each of these muscles is active during gripping activities*.

The *flexor digitorum profundus* (FDP) function is to flex the fingers.

Lastly, WES and GS excercises increase your risk of lateral/medial epicondylitis (tennis/golfer's elbow), Repetitive Stress Injury, CTS especially due to FDP overuage), etc... 



Wrist extension strength required for power grip: a study using a radial nerve block model​


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## gunshow86de (Nov 22, 2011)

Some less conventional methods;

Grip Strength Exercises: How to Develop a Strong Grip | The Art of Manliness


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