Building Great Grip Strength

 

Our hands can be either deadly weapons, smooth & peaceful or they can be used to build & destroy. Training the hands creates powerful entities that can determine where our strengths and weaknesses lie. The building blocks of developing a powerful grip showcase what we are capable of in certain aspects of life whether it be sports, law enforcement, carpentry or blacksmithing. 

My aspirations for developing grip strength was what I struggled for years developing the nerves in my right hand from the meningitis. After learning a few things from the old-time strongmen later on in my life in my 20's, it was apparent that I keep up the various methods of these men of strength. For years I did various feats from bending steel to ripping phonebooks to levering hammers and other cool stuff and I'm proud that I was able to do those things; now in my 30's, some things changed, I can still do some feats but my attention is more on keeping my hands healthy and strong for the long haul. 

Keeping the hands supple and flexible is a must as we age because as we get older, we run a higher risk of developing arthritis and bone spurs in the fingers and wrists. We may not need an extreme amount of strength as we age but have enough to still do things without pain and nerve damage. Finger Gymnastics is one of the very best courses that helps you prevent problems in the hands such as Carpal Tunnel and the other two points I made here, simple exercises that are very effective in developing the strength, agility and suppleness not just in the muscles or nerves but also the tendons and ligaments. Weak tendons and ligaments won't get you very far.

To really understand certain aspects of strength, training with a thick bar can show you some realities of how strong your grip is. You won't be able to lift as much weight as you normally would with a regular bar but that doesn't mean you can't get strong in that area. One of my favorite things to do in my training is taking the Fat Gripz and attaching them to the handles of the TNT Cable System and really tackle exercises that not only hit the muscles I'm working but also challenge my grip in the process. It's tough work and you don't need to do much to feel it. Just attach them to a pullup bar or a kettlebell and notice a huge difference in your strength, balance and the need to squeeze hard with a vengeance just to work an exercise. 

When it comes to weights per se, I like to really test my grip with heavy hammers such as my Epic Sledgehammer or Thor Hammers. These bad boys will make you humble as hell when it comes to grip strength. The handle on the Thor Hammers are thick enough to where even exercising them like clubs takes a good amount of balance and your hands will be tested. In the video above, I demonstrate doing the bottoms up press with the 30 lb Thor Hammer. You've heard of the Bottoms Up Press with a kettlebell, that's quite a movement or hold as it is but this is a different style of gripping and balancing, you have to almost pinch the ball at the bottom of the handle and shift your body differently than usual. It can be dangerous and is a unique skill to do. 

There are a great many ways to train the hands but the reality is, if you don't train them properly or take good care of them, they can lead to problems in your future and if you're in a job where you're required to use the hands for specific tasks, you don't want to be useless. It's also one thing to get them calloused and toughening them up, many laborers, farmers and those who work in manual labor have some tough hands but very few know how to also take care of them and many have huge problems later in life just picking up a pencil or a mug. 

Condition the hands to develop strength that lasts and creating awesome suppleness and flexible in the fingers and wrists where they can be nearly injury proof. The Indestructible Body is another great course that teaches this. Be safe, get strong and kick ass.