Grip Strength Training – Gorilla Arms & Hand
The Forgotten Art of Grip Strength Training
In continuing on my strength training article series, I’ll show you how to build a hand grip as strong as a gorilla. Well Gorilla do have strong arms,wrist and incredible grip. No doubt about it.
Old timers (wrestlers, bodybuilders) used to work specially on their grips, they understand the simple saying “The strongest chain is as strong as its weakest link”.
These days you’ll find bodybuilders spending much of their time on chest or biceps.
Many people believe if you work your arms (specially forearms) they don’t need to work on their grips. Well it does help you if you are working your forearms. But Building a might hand strength needs work.
I started working on my grip specially when I got interested in wrestling/MMA. Martial arts that involve striking (ie karate) doesn’t talk much about it. In wrestling/Judo, you need really strong grip to work your way through rounds… Its painful… trust me on this…
So here are few of my ideas on building mighty grip.
Exercises To Increase Grip Strength
Towell Pull ups.
Rope Climbing without leg’s assistance.
Using Thick bar bells (as much as 2 -1/2 inch in diameter).
Lifting heavy weights using thick bar bells.
Kettlebells swings, snatch etc etc …
Lifting Sandbag training
Shoving hands into Rice bucket (ala Shaolin Hand training)
Lifting anything awkward.
These are just a sample of exercises you can use to build powerful grip. If you notice all of them are really taxing on grip, wrists, forearms. The heavier you lift, better your grip will become. With powerful grip, you’ll be able to lift more heavy objects.
In less than 30 days you’ll see the changes, infact your opponents on mat (if you do MMA) will feel the change in you. You’ll indeed build a steel grip that we all admire.
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Thanks for the info. Lots of notes to review from your informative post.
Hello there,
I have a question regarding grip strength. I was playing basketball about two years ago and somehow I injured my hand, and now I don’t seem to have full grip in my hand. My fore arm is getting affected because I am not able to give it enough exercise because of grip loss. I have no pain when I had the injury and even now and have normal function of a hand, but I am not able to grip strongly, and not being to lift any weights for too long.
Could you suggest me any exercise or any procedure which could help me?
Thank you.
Yuvraj,
First thing you have to get it checked with sports injury specialist.
Second thing you should start using isometric exercises for forearms. Just check on google for “Isometric exercises for forearm”. You’ll find many results.
Jan 22nd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
[...] More on Grip Training. Varun Pratap publishes a Daily Blog on How to lose weight [...]
Feb 15th, 2008 at 6:16 am
[...] to have a weaker hand as dominant hand is stronger. You can easily correct it by practice. Read my grip strength training articles on this blog. Additionally use exercises like pull ups, chin ups, sandbag training and [...]