How to strengthen grip?

I think in martial arts it's important to have a strong grip. But I have no idea what kind of exercises can strengthen my grip.

Guitarists often use these things to strengthen their fingers. Would they work? Maybe if I buy a high-tension one?? Someone also mentioned doing dumbbell curls at the wrist while resting your arm horizontally (on your lap or table/bench). Any other ideas?

 

Nigiri game FTW.



Use two old empty protein jars.

 

Gi grappling. If you not into bjj, try climbing, climbing wall, monkey bars, rope climbing, etc. Horse riding, off road biking, aikido also improves grip strength to some degree.

 

The above ideas are all good.

Also, if you don't mind spending a little cash, this book is pretty comprehensive:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Mastery-Hand-Strength-John-Brookfield/dp/092688803X"]Amazon.com: Mastery of Hand Strength (9780926888036): John Brookfield: Books[/ame]


I used to own it, and it's full of tons of different types of exercises and plenty of useful information.

 

Funny you mention gi grappling and climbing...cos after 3 hours of gi grappling on Saturday, my fingers felt the same way they did after the first time I went rock climbing (which I suck at, by the way).

Thanks guys, all the articles were helpful

 

Pavel Tsatsuline (sp) recomends wringing out a wet gi or other similarly heavy cloth. He claims this is what old russian sambo practictioners did to strengthen their grips.

 

fingertip pushups and towel pullups

 

Squeeze a tennis ball. Also to work the reverse you can put a rubber band around you fingers and opening them up. You should also grab a light weight and lift it up and down with the thumb facing up, the palm facing down and then the palm facing up to do the reverse.

 

farmers walk.

 

I started doing farmers walks with heavy dumbells and bar holds loaded with about 100kg to strengthen my grip, mostly for doing deads but it worked great for my grip on the pull up bar too. could be worth a try.

 

Please don't buy that gadget or any stress balls. They're an insult to the powerful muscles in your forearms.

As was mentioned, hoist your body around on just your grip strength and some chalk, then lift heavy things with just your grip strength and some chalk. Anything else will pale in comparison.

 

That > everything else. IMHO.

Otherwise climbing is good as well. Maybe see if theses a leisure centre near you that has a climbing wall, they're more common these days.

 

Best answer ever. If you want to get a stronger grip, grip things that require you to grow stronger, lol. One of the GREATEST and simplest tools EVER is to get a THICK book, like a harry potter book, lol, tie some string around it and at the other end, around the handle of an empty milk jug. Fill it about an inch deep with water and then practice holding the book with just the finger tips for periods of time like 30 seconds at first and so on. As you get the times more easily, increase the level of water by another inch and start your times all over again.

By the time that milk jug is full your grip strength will be amazingly increased. Then empty the jug and start all over again with dirt, sand or gravel....

 

Coming from years and years of climbing where grip strength is a key component... I can honestly say.. wash your own clothes... by hand.

Not only will you appreciate the creature comforts of life... like a washing machine... but you will get a good grip workout. Ringing out clothes repeatedly while washing them is a great way to work the grip. If your grapple washing your gi by hand will have you dripping with sweat. Seriously. Massive forearm strength endurance workout.

Washing your own clothes IS manual labor.... and manual labor IS NOT the president of Venezuela!

Any type of rope hauling is a great workout as well... play around with different diameters. Manila or Nylon works.. each has their own feel. At the moment I work a ton of different drills using both into my PT's for clients. You don't need a super high ceiling... just a rope hung from a proper bolt that can bear bodyweight (or a joist etc.) and start on your back and start going hand over hand with a rigid body until you are in an upright position... then reverse until you are back flat on your back. Your lats and middle back will get a killer workout.

TRX if you have one or access to one is a fun bit of kit that you can work grip strength on. You can make their standard handles harder to grip by wrapping it with a hand towel. The same goes for any bar. Increase the diameter... increases the difficulty to grip.

Uneven chins using a stand chin up grip on one side and a hand towel looped over the bar for a vertical grip on the other side is a great grip workout. If your lats aren't up to full chins you can still get a the work for the grip by doing them with a bit of leg assist.

Power putty is great for working grip... not only for gripping for the opposite motion of the extension of the hand. Often overlooked in grip training. Do so at your own risk.... as with anything imbalances in strength often lead to injuries... so avoid it by doing some extension work as well.

It's key you start slowly. If you go full tilt you tendons and ligaments in the hand wont have had time to work themselves up to strength yet... you are looking at a debilitating injury... so take it slow. Rome wasn't built in a day... neither was the grip strength of a farmer.

 

I'm not sure how I missed this thread! Grip training has been a hobby of mine for years now, when I get home in a few hours I'll write up a more comprehensive response since I really don't want to attempt it on an iPhone!

 

Right, now I've got a bit more time, a keyboard and a stable internet connection so I'll see what I can do.

First things first, grip strength =/= grip strength. There's three main types of grip strength and surprisingly little carryover between them:

Crush grip : This one is my personal favourite and the one used for a firm handshake. With this grip the majority of the strength comes from the fore arm pulling your fingers against the base of your thumb. This is more of a strength movement than endurance.

It's easily trained with some heavy duty grippers such as the Captain of Crush ones sold by Ironmind. Other companies do some nice grippers too, Robert Baraban does some very nicely machined ones but the problem with different brands is that you lose out on a linear progression of force as there is no standard for resistance. The best way to train these is through high reps throughout the day. I like to leave a pair I can close for between 2 and 10 reps and constantly close it during the day, every other day. Like any other kind of strength work you need rest or your strength will rapidly decrease. Lots of people have different strategies for this but consistency seems to be key more than anything else. At the lighter end a tennis ball or rubber ball can be used but it doesn't have a good gauge for how strong your grip is.

One strategy I have seen but don't recommend is long static holds. This works well for the other grip types but doesn't suit the movement needed for grip strength as you need to develop force across a range of motion.

Pinch grip: This is exactly what it sounds like, the gripping force used when lifting an object using only your digits, often just a finger and thumb. With this grip the work is split between the fingers and the thumb, as the thumb opposes the fingers the thumb will usually have to match the force generated by the fingers, or half the total work. It's kind of the middle ground grip between a crushing grip and a supporting grip and uses both strength and endurance.

Pinch grips on weight plates are the best exercise for this, make sure both sides being gripped are flat so there are no grooves to hook under. most plates have at least one flat side, if necessary use two plates back to back. Simply pinch the weights, lift and hold for as long as you can. Once you can comfortably do this for 10 seconds move on to heavier weights. If you can pinch grip 3x25kg plates for 10 seconds then further progression probably isn't needed!

Support grip: This grip is the one you use when carrying heavy bags of shopping or moving a sofa. It is more focused on endurance rather than closing strength and is the ability to keep your muscles contracted for long periods of time when holding a heavy weight. If you're looking to improve strength for chinups or deadlifts this is the grip type you need to focus on, gaining a powerful crushing strength is great for intimidating your wife's ex-boyfriend but it won't help you hold onto your deadlift much.

The classic exercise for this is the farmers walk. You can buy custom made handles or just use a pair of dumbells. Load up a decent weight on them and try to keep a stable hold on them. If you're doing this indoors I would suggest putting some cushioning down! Other exercises could be to fill a couple of buckets with water and walk around the garden, the added instability from the moving water and motion from walking make this harder and will help build supporting muscles. Another really easy exercise is dead hangs. Find a chinning bar/branch/ledge that you can hang from without too much of a drop, then see how long you can hold this. If you find it easy a dipping belt or weight vest will help. Failing that a thick towel thrown over the bar can be gripped as it hangs down.

Other types of grip strength are the extensors, or opening the hand against a force which can be trained with rubber bands and wrist strength, which while not an obvious 'grip' type is important to prevent injury.

This feels very brief and I know I've missed plenty but if you have any questions I'll try to answer them.

 

I use captain crush grippers. Still can only just close number 1 which is embarassing.

 

For pinch grip, I like range of motion training such as you get from the Titan's Telegraph Key. I also like training with blobs of various sizes. I am not strong enough to lift even a 40 lb blob yet though. I don't like pinching plates cause all you can safely do is deadlift it. Swagerstrength makes a good replacement for pinching plates that is safer and hence more versitile. This can become an expensive habit if you are not careful though.

For supporting grip my favorite exercise is the Rolling Thunder. That thing is just plain wicked.