This week’s article is very dear to me as I will focus on one of my favorite body parts to train; So sharpen your pencils, sit up straight, and get your notepad ready. I’m going to shed some light on the black sheep of arm training: your grip.
The stronger your grip, the stronger you will be!
If grip training hasn’t been a priority in your training regimen, I’m sorry to tell you, but you haven’t even begun to tap into your strength potential. It doesn’t matter what upper body exercise you do; the force your body generates will be transferred through your grip. To exert the greatest force on the weights, you will need to grip the bar as tightly as humanly possible. Before we start exploring all the different exercises that will make Donkey Kong proud of your grip (if you don’t know who Donkey Kong is, I have a lot of sympathy for your underprivileged childhood), we must first discuss the different variations of grip training. Grip development begins with embracing the Holy Trinity of Grip Training: The Support, The Crush and The Pinch Grip. These are the three fundamental movements that will take your training to the next level.
The support grip:
The support grip is the most commonly used type of grip; it is used so frequently every day of your life that it has become second nature to you. Pub night on a Thursday? Why not train your grip while you’re at it? Pick up that beer and hold it by your side; your mind can now focus its attention on all the smooth lines you are going to say to that lady across the bar; while on the other side she’s drinking her martini from her hoping he’s not looking at her. The support grip does exactly that, it supports whatever you’re holding. If holding a dumbbell while curling is giving you trouble, then a weak support grip is the main culprit. Okay, so you’ve never seen anyone have trouble holding a dumbbell while curling. What about this one? How many times have you seen someone deadlift using straps? Lifting straps are a great tool to use in your training; they allow you to move weight that your grip can’t hold. Too often, though, lifters start using straps prematurely and neglect their grip. In the grand scheme of things:
You can’t lift what you can’t hold!
Right there should be a reason to start working on your support grip. Do you want to know what the best part of the support grip training is? You don’t need to focus on training, more or less. Do the exercises you normally do: deadlifts, walking lunges, farmer’s walks, shrugs: dumbbells and barbells, and chin-ups (many, many chin-ups). Revolutionary, right? What I do require of you is that you try to use the weaker hand positions first and move on to more difficult positions when you lose your grip. I’ll outline the hierarchy of holds below: Start with #1 for the heaviest weight possible, and move up to the strongest positions when the weight gets too heavy.
1. Double ruffle
2. Hook grip*
3. Mixed grip
4. Bend over head with lifting straps
*The hook grip can be very painful on the thumbs, so you can skip it and move on to the mixed grip.
To make all of these grips more effective, you’ll need to invest in lifting chalk – for a couple of bucks you’ll be amazed at how strong your grip becomes. Most fitness supply stores should carry weightlifting chalks, unfortunately they are too expensive: visit a camping or outdoor equipment store and check out the rock climbing section; climbing chalk is the same as lifting chalk but at a fraction of the cost. Sweaty hands are a thing of the past. Chalk lift or the technical name, magnesium carbonate absorbs moisture from our palms and allows for a nice firm grip.
Want even more of a challenge? Try doing your pulling exercises on a thick bar – this will give you a supportive grip you never knew existed.
The crushing grip:
We all remember the tough guy in all the high school movies of the 1980s: to show his dominance, he crushes an empty soda can with his bare hands, very intimidating. Crushing is the movement of closing the fingers in the palm creating a fist. Go ahead and squeeze as if your life depended on it, the harder you squeeze, the more force you are transferring to the grip, in our case, the barbell or dumbbell. Do you think that the crushing grip does not have much relevance in the press and squat? The next time you attempt a bench press max lift, show no mercy, grab onto that bar and show him who’s boss; imagine squeezing so hard the bar breaks into dust particles, and guess what will happen, that weight will fly. Same with squats; obviously your grip will have a minimal contribution to your lift, but that minimal contribution could mean the difference between a 495lb squat and a 500lb squat, which number looks better?
In order to have a strong crushing grip, you will have to train for a strong crushing grip and the best way to do this is to get a set of manual pliers. I’m not talking about those tweezers you get at Wal-Mart; I mean the material used by the strongest man in the world, grippers that will make you cry: Ironmind’s Captains of Crush Grippers. Before you begin to think of this article as a sales pitch, I would like to state that I am not sponsored by any company and that any recommendations made for any product are based on my experiences using said products. There are plenty of other big name companies that offer heavy duty pliers, but Captains of Crush are the Rolls Royce of manual pliers, and we work with class. The following graph shows the resistances offered by Crush Captains*:
Guide: 60 pounds
Sport: 80 pounds
Hang out: 100 pounds
CoC #0.5: 120 pounds
CoC #1: 140 pounds
CoC #1.5: 67.5 pounds
CoC #2: 195 pounds
CoC #2.5: 237.5 pounds
CoC #3: 280 pounds
CoC #3.5: 322.5 pounds
CoC #4: 365 pounds
*Source: http://ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Main/captainsofcrush.html
For the big guys, Ironmind has a strength certification for any man who can close number 3, 3.5 and 4 and any woman who can close number 2 based on their specific guidelines. You think you have what it takes? Only 5 people have officially closed number 4 – EVER. Certification is no joke: there is an application process and a referee will oversee you to close the caliper. I would like to reiterate that there are other companies that make heavy pliers, but Ironmind has built the best reputation.
Crush Trainer Captains to 4
Training your smash grip is just like training any other muscle; Would you try squatting to your personal best without warming up? I don’t think so, and manual tweezers are no different. Do a few warm-up sets and then move on to your work sets. Give your forearms the same respect you give your chest: allow plenty of time to rest, vary rep ranges, and most importantly, be proud when you hit a new personal best.
The pinch grip:
The Pinch Grip is the least developed variation on grip training; why? Pinch Grip is ugly duck; it is overlooked, ignored and forgotten. But not us, we believe in equality, we know that having a strong Pinch Grip will translate to stronger Support and Crush Grip. The pincer grip can be trained in two ways: by pinching the fingers together and spreading them apart. There are special tools and devices you can buy and make specific to the pinch grip, but I don’t think they’re necessary. You can find everything you need in any gym and even in your kitchen drawer. Depending on the type of weight plates your gym has, there are two ways to work the finger look together.
Method 1: Take two weight plates (I hope this goes without saying, take weights of the same size) and place them face to face to create a weight sandwich. Using the tips of your fingers and thumb, hold the weight; Start by using both hands to bring the plates together, then work your way up to supporting the weight with one hand. You have a world-class pincer grip when you can hold four 45-pound plates per time (two plates per hand).
Method 2: This can only be done if your gym has thicker style weight plates. Place the plate on the ground and wrap your fingertips around the center edge. While holding on tight, try to lift the weight off the ground. This exercise is MUCH harder than it sounds: the 25lb plate is an achievable level of strength, lifting a 45lb plate is elite.
The opposite of fingers together is to separate the fingers, obviously. The easiest way to strengthen your fingers is to perform fingertip planks or fingertip push-ups. By supporting your weight on the tips of your fingers, you will strengthen your finger extensor. Be careful if you are new to this, it will hurt your fingers until you get stronger. Start by holding the position for a couple of seconds and build up from there. Eventually you can build up enough strength to start using fewer fingers.
I can understand if some of you are hesitant to try fingertip supports as it is painful; However, all is not lost. This method requires nothing more than a rubber band. Wrap the band around your fingernails and open your hand as wide as possible; the elastic band will provide resistance. If a band doesn’t provide adequate resistance, double or even triple it.
Arm training should cover the entire arm; don’t get caught up in his show muscles and neglect your grip. Most of the exercises I’ve outlined above can be done at home or even at work, so there’s no excuse for you to have a mediocre grip. I recommend that you train each of the three variations on different days of the week and add a couple of exercises to the end of your workout.
Until next time,
nas