What you may not realize is that your fingers have more
strength and power in them than you can imagine. What most people do in
training is they grip weight in a tight fist or lay down on a bench and lift
with the hand slightly opened or they do most bodyweight exercises with an open
hand or tight hand squeeze such as push-ups and pull-ups. When you train the
fingers however, you're not just building your body, you're hitting a specific
place at the same time.
Our fingers
are mostly in tuned with nerves, tendons and bone and the muscle is within the
lower arm and the hands. When our brains construct the nerves to move our
hands, it sends signals to billions of areas so we can use the hands to build
things, lift, carry, throw and many other things. The strongest finger as far
as I know is the thumb because it carries more padding and strength in the hand
than any of the other fingers.
When we
build strength in our fingers, it helps carry over to other things we didn't
think of before. Some don’t know this but I had spinal meningitis as a baby and
because of this, my brain went haywire and had some damage somewhere and now I
have trouble in some of the nerves in my body especially in my hands. I’m
mostly left handed and have great dexterity in that hand plus have more
strength on my left side but on my right side, I have trouble moving my right
fingers individually. When I was little I used practically nothing but the left
side of my body and my brain damage has caused me to think in ways I can't
explain but that’s another story.
Training
your fingers in a totally different format can put a whole new perspective in
the way you train. The next time you lift a barbell or dumbbell, try lifting
with your fingers, it’s very different and very awkward but there’s a point to
it. Instead of doing regular push-ups using your palms, do them on your
fingers, it’s harder and requires more stability, balance and strength. I like
to do animal type movements on my fingertips such as bear crawls and gorilla
walks/jumps. I want to work my tendons more and be creative with it so I can do
some of the strength feats I do. When you move or train the fingers more in
your lifts or exercise you're building powerful grip strength, finger power and
turn your fingers into eagle’s claws.
When you
become crazy strong working the fingers in certain lifts, you can lift most
likely more weight using your fingers than the rest who use two hands. One of
the strongest men that ever lived was Hermann Gorner who not only did great
feats but accomplished some using only his fingers including his still world
record of a one-finger deadlift of 727 lbs. Most men can't lift that much with
two hands so you see, the fingers have more power in them than we give credit for.
A favorite
exercise of mine is doing fingertip push-ups, if you get good at using 10
fingers, you'll want to reduce more of them to add resistance. My best is using
4 fingers (2 of each hand) doing a few reps. I felt compelled to take it to
another level. I've tried doing explosive push-ups where you come down and jump
with enough power to have the hands leave the floor. What if I tried doing the
same thing but on my fingertips? I did it and it was awesome, hurt a little but
I kept at it and here’s a video to prove it.
One of the
upcoming strongmen today has some of the strongest fingers I've ever witnessed
on film. His name is Matti Marzel of Ferocious Strength who’s done many feats
using the fingers such as handstands, push-ups, pull-ups, v-sits, gymnastic
bridge and plenty of others. These things have helped him make certain strength
feats like a cakewalk such as tearing decks of cards, bending steel, ripping phonebooks, levering hammers and juggling kettlebells. If there ever was a man
in the 21st century who can teach you about finger training it’s
this dude here. Build your fingers to create strength that most men can’t
imagine and see where it carries to other things in your life. Shatter your
personal records and build super strength using the power of your fingers.
