Strengthening the grip

What exercises can strengthen grip without putting too much pressure/stress/pull on the fingers ?

PEnister

Squeeze a squash ball ….. can work wonders - I used to use it to strengthen my grip for wrestling.

lil1

lil12big1,

Too much stress on the fingers…

PEnister

I exersice using free weights and I’m a little cheap too. I was going to purchase some wielder hand exercisers but at 10 bucks Canadian I felt it was too much. A few days later I was in a Building supply store and I looked at the new wood clamps that has hand grips that you squeeze to open and then clamp onto the 2 wood pieces you are wanting to glue together or what ever. Well the pressure to open them is quite strong so for under 2.50 each I now have an exercise tool and wood clamps at the same time. They also come in 3 - 4 different sizes so you can also work you way up if needed.

Canuck

If you want to develope a grip that is vice like, you have to strengthen fingers as well as wrist and forarms.

If all the individual muscles in the hand were developed to their total potential, the overall power would be literally unconprehensible.

If you don’t like flexing the fingers too many times, inorder to avoid artharitis later in life, then strengthen the fingers, by gripping a very heavy barbell in the top of the deadlift position and hold with clenched fists, until you can feel that your about to drop the weight any second. Then put the weight down and repeat another 2 times after a minute rest between each set.

If you already weight train, then do this grip work at the end of your workout no more than twice a week.

Another good exercise that focuses on the forarms, is reverse curls.

Grip a barbell as you would if you were trying to do a biscep curl. Only, instead of your palms facing up, they need to facing down.

Curl the bar up to the top position and back down, until you cannot even lift the bar. Aim to lift a weight you cannot do more than 10 reps with. Repeat for 3 sets altogether.

Bend the wrists back slightly, to put the strain on the forarms.

Now sit down with the barbell in your hands with palms facing up. Rest yor forarms along your legs with your body leaning forward, so your wrists are the only part of the arm that are not supported by the legs. Let the wrists drape down with the bar in your hands. The fingers should now be the only thing holding the weight. Bend the wrists upward, lifting the weight whilst at the same time rolling the wrists toward you. At the end of the lift, the bar will be gripped by the palms with the fingers wrapped around the top. You should be squeezing the bar as hard as possible. Now return the bar to the starting position, so the wrists are draped with only the fingers holding the weight. Repeat for 10 reps.

All last repetitions should be very hard to complete.

These exercises should never be used more than twice a week. Once should be enough to bring your grip strength storming along.

Lift explosively. Don’t waste your time with slow, smooth motion with lighter weight. That won’t give you a devastating grip. Just lift it in good form and handle as much weight as possible.

Your grip will come a long way in a very short amount of time.

Something I use to strengthen forearms and wrists especially (but helps with fingers too) there are two exercises and a variatoin on each;

the first is, get a bar with a moderate weight on it (I use 10-20Kg) and hold it in your hands with palms up… kneel to the side of a bench press or simmilar piece of equipment or furnature. rest your forearms on it, so that the wrist/hand hang over the other side, now, all you gotta do it lift the weigt moving only at the wrist joint… Think bicep curls but on a joint furthur down ;)

The altered exercise is simply having your palms facing the ground and pulling “up”… sorta like a reverse curl on the wrist.
This exercise targets mainly your forearms (on underside and top respectively) but stresses your fingers and wrist a little too…

The second exercise is something I picked up from a friend, he learned it while sword training (Kendo type stuff)
You hold some object in your hand (dumbell is best I think) with your arms by your sides standing still. now you gotta rotate the dumbell in such a way that the ends of the bar make circles in the air… difficult to explain, but all the work is done with your wrist. a variation on this exercise is to hold the bar with your fingertips only and do the same motion, this is tough if you’re using anything but lightweights as the bar might slip a bit when you get tired/sweaty :)

This second exercise targets the wrist/fingers and isn’t so tough on forearms..

I do both exercises maybe 3 times a week each at the end of a workout (Not before - dont want sore hands going INTO upper body work! dangerous!)

PEnister:

Like all have mentioned you need to focus on excercies which work the forearm (wrist curls, reverse grip bicep and wrist curls, etc) Doing dead lifts without using lifting straps works well also because it requires you tightly grip the bar, which helps strengthen forearms and grip strength. I know after doing a bunch of wrist curls using a straight bar my forearms are pumped and on fire, my fingers are so tired I can barely move them for awhile and all the hands where doing was griping the bar so I didn’t drop it (not any finger moving action going on).

There’s a device which you squeeze and work each finger individually, I think you can find them at sporting good stores which sell gear for rock climbing. This may not work for you since you are concerned about putting too much pressure and strain on your fingers. You got arthritis or something???

I think if you start out light and easy doing forearm workouts the grip strength will eventually come without over stressing your fingers, then you can work into squeezing excercises like the squash ball or that device I mentioned for rock climbers.

Here’s a couple of simple things to strengthen your grip. Hold your arms straight out to the side parallel to the floor. Open and close your hands making a fist when you close. Start off slow and then proceed faster until you feel a burn. They are fast to do. You can start off with small sets and work to longer ones until you feel you can’t do much more. I do this in martial arts for throws, but I think it will help you. You can also do pushups on your fingertips. Try em out!