To strengthen the grip, you need to train the muscles of the forearm. The forearm consists of two bones, the ulna and the radius.

Along them are the muscles that create the movement of our hands and fingers.

Our grip works when we bend our fingers and then bend the hand. The figure shows that all flexors of the fingers and hands are located at the bottom of the forearm. So for the grip we need to train precisely the flexors of the hand. Although for general development, you can also train the extensor muscles.

It turns out that the more trained our forearm muscles, the stronger our grip.

What is grip.

The grip is the force with which the hand grips something. It could be a handshake. There are guys who shake hands very strongly, and you feel awkward in front of you that you cannot shake his hand with the same force.

Climbers who have to hang for a long time should have a firm grip. At the turnstiles, at the tracer (a person involved in parkour), and it's just nice to have a strong grip for any guy.

When exercising in the gym, it is not necessary to train the grip from the very first days. Together with the implementation training exercises your grip will be strengthened. You can train the grip separately after 2 years of training. Then you will already have strong hands and you can additionally strengthen them.

How to train your grip muscles.

1. On the horizontal bar.
2. Barbell.
3. Dumbbells.
4. On simulators.
5. Rubber bands for brushes.

It is best to train your grip at the end of your workout.

Grip strength on the horizontal bar.

On the horizontal bar, we train the grip with a hang. That is, you grab the crossbar and hang for as long as you have enough strength.

If it turns out to hang for more than 2 minutes, then the horizontal bar should be wrapped in a towel. More than 2 minutes - this is endurance work, and we need strength. If you are hanging for more than 2 minutes and with a towel, then you have a good grip. And you need to attach a weight to yourself.

For example, a pancake or a kettlebell.

In order to complicate the hang, you can hang on one hand. Take turns.

With good physical preparation, you can strengthen the grip like this:

Be careful when exercising on a horizontal bar with a towel. There is a danger of slipping hands and falling.

And so you do one approach, on the next workout there are two approaches and on the next you can add a third.

Since you do many other exercises in addition to the forearm exercises during the workout, which involve the muscles of the forearms, you do not need to force the exercises for the forearms.

And the muscles of the forearms themselves are not large and weak compared to other muscles of the body.

Barbell grip strength.

The barbell can be done by bending the hands while sitting from below and extending the hands. To strengthen the grip in the flexion exercise, you can open your fingers and roll the barbell to the very tips of your fingers. And then, bending your fingers, roll the bar back into your palm.

Extension of the brushes.

Grip strength with dumbbells.

We perform exercises with dumbbells in the same way as with a barbell.

There are still very good exercise with dumbbells to strengthen the grip. You choose the heaviest dumbbells in the gym or pancakes. Take them in your hands and walk with them around the hall. We walk until the hands and forearms are tired, or until there is a slight burning sensation in the muscles of the forearm.

Grip strength on simulators.

Exists special simulators for winding the load up and down. The weight of the load must be selected such that it can be lifted in eight movements and lowered in eight movements.
The simulator is like that. You can cheat both on yourself and on yourself. Pick up a weight with which you make eight movements with each hand up and ten down.

Rubber bands for brushes.

Oddly enough, but rubber wheels strengthen the grip very weakly. We can first do them 10 times, then 20 times, 30 times, and so on. The elasticity in such an expander does not increase and we simply work not for strength, but for endurance. Grip strength does not increase.

To train the grip of the hands, it is imperative that there is an opportunity to increase the load. For the first 2 months, do not try to take heavy weights for you. Muscles and especially ligaments are gradually strengthened. It takes time to adapt so as not to pull the muscles or ligaments. If pain occurs, you must immediately stop the exercise. Pain in the ligaments may not appear immediately, but the next day. Therefore, you need to start carefully.

Forearm muscles are best trained:
Once a week, performing from
3 to 5 of one exercise,
in each from 10 to 15
per workout.

You don't need to change the exercise. Here you have chosen one exercise, for example, a workout with a barbell, and do it all 6 or more months. And this: today lifting pancakes on the simulator, next time hanging on the horizontal bar should not be. With one exercise, muscles get stronger and stronger. And if you do another exercise, the muscles will begin to develop others. And those who have become stronger will weaken.

This applies to any exercise. If you want to improve the result in the bench press, this is how you need to do the bench press, and not come up with exercises from which the bench press will "grow by itself", for example, raising dumbbells while lying down and push-ups on the uneven bars.

Good afternoon, fun hour, we are glad to see you with us! We open the first Friday of September with a cycle of interrogative and questioning notes. This means that for a whole month we will be analyzing "as-topics". And the first one according to the plan is as-drunk :) we have the next one - how to increase the grip strength.

The conversation will be detailed and detailed, so prick up your ears on the top of your head and listen carefully.

So, if everything is assembled, then let's start broadcasting.

Grip strength: everything you need to know

How often do you work on your grip when you come to the gym? Once, twice a month, or maybe never at all? I am more inclined to believe that the latter option will be close to many. Just as young people very rarely train their legs (especially calves), so practically nothing falls into the classes to strengthen the grip. But here's the bad luck: if you are a girl, then you probably want to have elastic and voluminous, well, or at least not flat buttocks. And to achieve this goal, you come to the gym and do not "fitness" - training with weight own body, and power work with weights. Surely, both are used, and all kinds of traction (for example,).

So, at some point you reach the "handle" - the point at which your arms / hands are simply not able to withstand the required weight on the apparatus. In other words, your buttocks have just begun to receive the load, and your hands, or rather the grip, do not allow you to complete the workout at a high ideological level. You are unable to complete one more rep, let alone the remaining sets. The bottleneck in our example is the grip strength. It was she who became the factor holding back the volumetric growth of your buttocks.

If we shift this situation to numbers, then 90% young ladies from the audience walk with underdeveloped / underdeveloped gluteal muscles precisely because of the grip. How do you like this information? Sad, isn't it? Surely you also fall into your booty :) under these statistics. To break this vicious circle and give our wives (not a name) carte blanche for growth, we started this article. And further in the text we will analyze how to increase grip strength and force muscles (not just the buttocks) grow in volume.

Note:
All further narration on the topic of how to increase grip strength will be divided into subchapters.

Why develop grip strength?

If you still do not understand why to develop grip strength, then the following arguments will set you on the right path. Here they are:

1. strong grip = capture larger weights... In fitness / BB there are a lot of "pulling" exercises, for example, Romanian deadlift, one-handed dumbbell row. In all of them, the grip plays an important role. You will be able to complete the first sets of exercises, but you need a developed grip to complete them all. The latter will allow you to progress in working weights;
2. strong grip = better endurance. Doing more reps is another benefit of a strong grip;
3. strong grip = better resistance to injury. Strong muscles and connective tissue are more resistant to injury. Even if the latter do occur, the muscles recover faster and the athlete returns to training faster;
4. strong grip = more muscle mass. This is another effect that a developed grip can have on an athlete's condition / performance.

Note:

In addition to the rigidity of holding the projectile, a strong grip affects the proximal muscles and learning nervous system... There are many mechanoceptors in the hands (disproportionately more than other areas of the body), and when the grip is strengthened, they learn, transmitting more and more nerve impulses to the brain. The connection, the brain-muscle channel thickens, resulting in (recruiting more fibers) the athlete is able to take large weights.

Who has the stronger grip, men or women?

Of course, in men, many of you are sure, but this is not entirely true. For example, take the average man, usually an office worker, and his wife (usually a “working” woman)... On her life, a child, dragging bags from the store. And if you send them to gym fulfill (with the rate of burden corresponding to the body weight of each) grip exercises, the young ladies will demonstrate better results.

The whole point is that the constant dragging of bags from the store, carrying a bucket of water when cleaning floors in an apartment and other household things - all this has a direct effect on the muscles of the forearms and the strength of the hands. Therefore, working women (for your build) have sufficient (very often exceeding male) grip strength.

Now let's get down to ...

Forearm muscles anatomy

In our previous notes, in particular this one, we have already considered the issues of the arrangement of the forearms, but in the vein of the entire muscle group - the arms. Now we will consider only the segment called forearm, and only the muscle layer.

The forearm is the second largest segment of the upper limb. It extends between the elbow and wrist and is subdivided by layers of fascia, bones, and ligaments into the anterior (flexors, flexors) and back (extensors) areas. They are separated by a lateral intermuscular septum, an interosseous membrane, and have a deep fascia attachment along the posterior border of the ulna. The muscles of the anterior region are the flexors, in three layers.

The surface layer is represented by the following “elements”:

• flexor of the wrist;
• long palmar muscle;
• radial flexor of the wrist;
• round pronator.

The intermediate layer is represented by the superficial flexor of the fingers:

• deep flexor of the fingers;
• long flexor of the thumb;
• square pronator (lies in a deep layer).

All of these anterior muscles are responsible for wrist / finger flexion and arm pronation. They are innervated by the median nerve, with the exception of the ulnar flexor of the wrist and the medial half of the deep flexor of the fingers, both of which are innervated by the ulnar nerve.

The muscles of the posterior region are present in two layers: superficial and deep.

The surface layer consists of:

• brachioradialis;
• long radial extensor wrists;
• short radial extensor of the wrist;
• the extensor of the fingers;
• little finger extensor;
• ulnar extensor of the wrist;
• ulnar muscle.

The deep layer includes:

• instep support;
• longus muscle thumb brushes;
• short extensor of the thumb of the hand;
• long extensor of the thumb;
• extensor of the index finger.

The muscles in the posterior region are responsible for lengthening the wrist / fingers and supination of the hand. They are all innervated by the radial nerve.

In the assembled form, the picture version of the anatomy of the muscles of the forearms is as follows.

Actually, in theory, that's all. And since you won't be full of it, then Special attention we will devote to practice.

How to increase grip strength? The practical side of the issue

In this part of the post we will talk about the importance of forearm training, its technology and, of course, we will consider the whole range of exercises for creating a steel grip. (and in two schemes - male and female)... So let's go in order.

Weak forearms as a muscle growth limiter

Let's figure out if this is so, and if so, why.

Did you know that the hands have the largest projection area on the cerebral cortex? The brain is the mover of all our muscles, it commands our body. The brain has a large surface, divided into parts, each of which is responsible for a particular muscle unit. A sufficiently large “piece” corresponds to the hands on this surface. (more than chest or back muscles)... According to the principle of feedback, nerve impulses run back from the muscles of the hand to the brain, which means that the more often you train your hands, the higher the overall energy tone of the brain. Hand training energizes the brain, increasing its overall activity.

Moreover, the last Scientific research show that, thanks to the hand-brain connection, a powerful grip increases the output of strength in a single repetition by 6-8 (up to 10 ) %. Conversely, weak hands / forearms depress the psyche and prevent the athlete from doing his best in strength training.

Output: the athlete's overall strength may be limited by weak forearms. How stronger than the brush hands, the higher the return on any (especially on hands) exercise. Therefore, if your arms have stopped growing, pay attention to strengthening the grip.

Forearm training technology

To understand how to properly train the muscles of the forearms, you need to find out which " the category "includes their fibers and what their percentage is a given muscle group.

Physiological researchers believe that the muscles of the forearms have the same (or approximately the same) the ratio of fast and slow muscle fibers, 50 on 50 ... We know from theory that white m.v. (fast) have higher growth potential. Thus, two approaches are applicable to forearm training:

1. the same (meaning time parameters) work with both types of fibers. For example, 2 work on red and 2 weeks over white mv;
2. work biased towards the development of fast m.v. (predominance of some over others)... For example, 3 weeks of fast fiber training and 1 week on slow m.v.

How to train this or that type of m.v. we talked in detail here. If the approach is closer to you №2 , then work out the muscles of the forearms with high intensity, limiting weights and for a small number of repetitions ( 3-7 ). A isometric exercises(to hold the weight) spend no more than 15-20 seconds.

Types of grips. What to train with?

It would seem, what other types of grips? Is there some kind of classification? Yes there is. Let's go over the terminology and exercises for each.

So, there are grips:

• squeezing. Each of us encounters this grip every day and represents a handshake - squeezing something held in the palm of your hand. How long you can hold a heavy dumbbell / barbell throughout the entire set / sets depends on pumping this grip. Training: wrist expander or squeezing the wrists that hold the bar thick 5 cm;
• finger grip. The most striking example is holding an object with your fingers. How strong your thumb will be depends on pumping this grip. Workout: Static / Isometric Exercises (e.g. finger-holding pancakes) holding water bottle with fingers;
• power. It is taking something heavy in your hands and carrying it over a certain distance. Pumping this grip determines how heavy the dumbbells are and how long you can carry them. Workout: exercise, walk with a flap bar.

Well, so we got to the picture part of the article, and then we will find out ...

How to increase grip strength? What exercises will help me with this? Option for men

Yes, you heard right, we decided to break our exercises into "m" and "g". And, I think, in the process of familiarizing yourself with them, you will understand the reason for this division.

The following information will be presented exclusively in the format of a photo sequence, i.e. we will indicate only the name of the exercise and give its visual. So, if your grip is poor, then include some of the following exercises in your hand PT.

# 1. Barbell Exercises

1. bending the wrists with a barbell with a bottom / top grip;
2. lifting and holding the barbell, grip with one hand in the middle;
3. deadlift with scars;
4. walk with a barbell;
5. rolling up / down the bar;
6. lifting the bar to the biceps, grip at the edge.

No. 2. Dumbbell Exercises

1. farmer's walk with dumbbells;
2. hold + shrugs with dumbbells while sitting on a bench;
3. holding a dumbbell with a grip on top;
4. flexion of the wrists with a dumbbell grip from above / below, located at the edge of the bench;
5. pronation and supination, rotation of the hand with a dumbbell lying on the bench sideways.

No. 3. Exercises on the horizontal bar / uneven bars

1. push-ups from above from the "thick horizontal bar";
2. hanging for a while on a “thick horizontal bar”, grip with one / two hands;
3. hanging / holding the position of oneself on the hands at the top point on the horizontal bar;
4. hanging / holding the position of oneself on the hands at the top point on the straps / towels on the horizontal bar;
5. retention (with periodic change of position to vertical) yourself on your hands on the lower bars in a downward-forward tilt position.

No. 4. Home exercise (using handy inventory)

1. push-ups on the fingers;
2. compression of a metal expander (rubber round for girls);
3. retention 2 pancakes with your fingers;
4. busting your fingers back and forth over the book;
5. busting fingers back and forth on two combined boards;
6. raising a row of bricks;
7. lifting a chair by one leg with weight;
8. holding the pancake with different fingers.

Now let's move to another camp and find out ...

How to increase grip strength? What exercises will help me with this? Option for women

Of course, women do not need large forearms, and therefore the nature of the exercises for them should be different from that of men.

Ladies better turn their attention to following exercises:

• vertical thrust rope stick to the lower chest area while standing at the block;
• reverse lifts to the biceps of the bodybar;
• lifting the weight up by the handle;
• squeezing a tennis ball;
• spreading fingers with elastic bands worn on them;
• spinning in a circle (clockwise and counterclockwise) the hand in which there is (taken by the bottom and in a horizontal position) a bottle of water.

Well, in conclusion, let's clarify ...

Got exercises, what's next?

• give your forearms a full day of training per week with the lower muscle group or work them out at the end of each workout (1-3 exercises);
• do not start upper training with the forearms, as you will reduce its overall effectiveness;
• use either a combined approach by training 50 on 50 red and white muscle fibers the same number of times a week or shift the emphasis to fast m.v., spending many times more workouts on them;
• girls who want to significantly increase the volume of the buttocks should strengthen their grip in order to raise / increase working weights (and the projectile was held in hand for a long time) in such exercises: Romanian deadlift with a barbell and lunges with dumbbells;
• use for a workout in the gym no more 3 conditionally basic (with shells) exercises and no more 5 at home;
• forearms for a relatively long time (like calves) “fill” with strength / volumetric increase, so do not expect a quick result. Your waiting period will be on average 3-5 months.

Actually, we also finished with practice, it remains to summarize all this muddle :)

Afterword

The first big post-release note from which we learned how to increase grip strength. Oddly enough, nothing unusual was revealed to us. There are no secret secrets that will make your grip iron on click. Those of you who are patient will be rewarded a hundredfold. And who is very patient, maybe Valeriitsa and Tamaritsa will catch up with those :).

That's all for this. Thank you for spending this time in our company. Until next time!

PS: but what about your grip?

PPS: did the project help? Then leave a link to it in the status of your social network - plus 100 points to karma guaranteed :)

With respect and gratitude, Dmitry Protasov.

How to break three decks of cards at the same time? Muscle training to increase grip strength. Sometimes the capabilities of the human body are amazing. You can also somehow understand the security forces, because they, performing various exercises, try to use as much muscle mass as possible for maximum results. But how can, say, break 3 decks of cards at once?

In this case, you have to use mainly the muscles of the forearms, and they are usually small and weak. Okay - 2 decks. Well, at least one ... Okay, let's do something simpler: bend the horseshoe with one hand. And people bend!

Charles Van Sittart several decades ago I did these tricks and a bunch of others, and some records have not been broken until now. For example, the same ripping of three decks of cards at the same time or ripping a tennis ball (!).

Russian hero Ivan Zaikin at the beginning of the twentieth century, anyone could easily tie a tie made of thick striped steel.

Alexander Zass (Samson) trained constantly with chains and was able to tear them as if they were molded from wax. (Zass Tendon Exercises)

Moreover, all these power numbers become even more amazing if you understand the structure of the hands and forearms. All the muscles in them are small, with very long tendons, which in itself does not at all increase their strength, but, on the contrary, decreases it. There are only three main functions: flexion at the wrist, extension, squeezing the fingers (also their unclenching, but this does not count). But the possibilities that these three functions give us are very diverse.

Let's look at everything in order, but first let's digress a little and try to understand how to train muscles for various types of load.

The vast majority of recommended pumping exercises muscle mass are based precisely on dynamic loads. That is, during the exercise, the working muscles either contract or stretch, resisting the weight of the burden or the force of gravity. Thus, it is precisely the function of lifting the weight, or its controlled lowering, that is trained.

With this type of load, the muscle strains immediately with maximum (as a rule) strength, maintaining a constant length throughout the entire set. This develops the ability to hold the weight in one position and perform actions with the weight that do not require movement (for example, holding in front of you a huge box of donuts and Coca-Cola J ...).

But now we return to the original topic and, finally, we will try to understand how we can develop immensely strong and functional hands.

The grip is static.

If we pull heavy weight(for example, we are doing deadlift, deadlift on the block, etc.) or hanging on the bar, then we use the brushes as hooks. The severity has to be held with only four fingers, and the thumb is "out of work." In this grip, the muscles of the forearm work only statically.

Exercises. The most powerful exercise for developing a static grip is the so-called "farmer's walk." You take a heavy dumbbell in each hand and walk a certain distance with them. From 5 meters onwards. You can hold them while standing still, but this is more tiring for the psyche.

The grip is dynamic.

The whole spectrum of actions, from shaking hands to squeezing a shirt soaked in sweat during training, can be categorized as a dynamic grip. Usually, the effort is taken by four fingers, and the big one insures against slipping or falling out of the object from the hands.

Exercises. In this regard, there can be nothing better than the good old hand expander. One of the best versions of it is called “Captain of Crush”. It just looks like two handles connected by a steel spring. The highest efficiency of such a simple design has been tested by time. There are also simulators with adjustable load, which use both hands at once. Example: Hammer Gripper. And, of course, do not forget about a simple rubber "ring" or ball for big tennis... Although they do not have such loud and beautiful names, they can easily give odds to eminent simulators ...

Finger grip.

Holding a glass of water or any other object of a sufficiently large diameter or size with your hand is a finger grip. In most cases, it is only static. We use this grip when the shape of the object does not allow us to press it with four fingers to the palm, so the thumb has to take the lion's share of the load.

Exercises. The most famous and probably the most effective exercise is holding the pancake off the bar with your fingers. Choose heavy pancake, place it on its edge, grip the top edge firmly and lift it not high above the floor. Hold for about 30-60 seconds. When you can hold it for a longer time, then it's time to take a bigger and heavier pancake ...

There are other methods for developing a finger grip, but they, as a rule, require additional equipment (homemade), and in terms of effectiveness they do not at all surpass the above-mentioned method of holding a pancake.

Wrist strength. Dynamics.

Our wrists are very fragile joints. And this is an additional reason for their conscious strengthening. At the same time, the development of the dynamic functions of the forearm will lead to its growth, but with big muscles it is much easier to become strong than with small ones ... Moreover, along with the growth of muscles, tendons, ligaments are strengthened and even the strength of bones is increased. Not a bad prospect for a weak joint, right?

Exercises. It is easy to guess that the most effective movements for the development of the flexor-extensor muscles of the wrist are the same flexion and extension with the weight in the hands. Moreover, if in bending (lifting the bar with hands, palms towards you) only 4 fingers work, and even then not very much, with extensions (lifting the bar with hands, palms away from you) the situation is fundamentally different. The thumb is maximally involved in the exercise, and the other 4 insure the bar from falling out. This feature allows you to very successfully develop both the extensors of the wrist and the strength of the finger grip!

Usually starting position in these exercises is the position of the forearms lying on the bench so that only the hands hang over the edge. But there may be options, for example, bending the wrists behind the back or extending in front of you with the arms upright. No one will be able to tell you whether this or that type of exercise will act on you. You yourself have to try, think, "try on" the movement and make your choice.

Wrist strength. Isometry.

But this is vital for bodybuilders, and indeed for everyone who develops their body. The level of development of this function in many cases depends on the "purity" of performing exercises for other parts of the body. When we raise the bar to the biceps, we need that the line "forearm-hand" is not refracted until the end of the set, so that the wrist remains in the position in which it was in the first second of the approach. This is isometry.

Exercises. Take a position as with flexion or extension of the wrists (with the forearms resting on the bench), keep your hands horizontally. Let your partner help grab the barbell, which you must hold in one position for 15 to 45 seconds.

You can also hold a long, heavy stick by one end, trying to keep it parallel to the ground, or come up with some of your own exercises to develop static wrist strength.

We combine it into a complex.

Well, here we come to the most coveted part - practice. But we can't just put everything together and do it several times a week, because each new exercise will significantly reduce the results in subsequent movements. This means that you will have to decompose the training of the hands into parts and add them at the end of each workout as part of your split. Here are a few simple rules, which will help you to create a training system correctly:

You can train: isometry and dynamics of the wrists at the end of arm workout or after pressing;

static grip after heavy traction for the back, deadlift, or pull-ups;

dynamic and finger grips after any pulling workout.

Not desirable: do something for the hands if the next day you have a pulling session or deadlift.

Let's assume that the workouts are carried out according to a simple "press-pull-legs" pattern. This means that a specific complex for training the hands should look something like this:
Day 1.
Main muscles: chest, deltoids, triceps

Additionally: we do nothing, because the next day we will need workable forearms.

Day 2.

Main muscles: wide back, biceps
Additionally:

Exercise function repetitions or time sets note finger grip
keeping the pancakes from the bar
30-40 sec
3
the weight must be chosen so that by the end of the repetition it has already fallen out of hand
isometry of the wrists
holding the hands horizontally with the barbell in the support with the forearms on the bench
for 15-25 seconds

2 straight grip and 2 reverse
also
dynamic grip
squeezing the wrist expander
20-50 times
2
depending on the elasticity of the expander *

* A wrist expander must be selected such that you can squeeze no more than 20-25 times, otherwise the training will be mainly not strength, but muscle endurance. Day 3. Main muscles: vadriceps, hamstrings, calves Additionally:

Exercise function repetitions or time sets note grip static
Farmer's walk
from 10 sec
3
be sure to keep your back straight, shoulders unfolded
wrist dynamics
flexion-extension at the wrists
8-12 times
2 palms up and 2 palms down
since these are purely rocking movements, the number of sets can be safely doubled if you deem it necessary

Wrist strap myths.

Wrist straps are simple devices that allow you to perform heavy pulling movements without fear of dropping weight from your hands. Around them, modern minds have invented so many legends and myths that sometimes ordinary sports fans are completely lost in guessing what is true and what is fiction. Let's figure it out ...

Opinion: Belts allow you to better concentrate on lifting weights and increase maximum deadlift results.

This is the purest truth! Most of the pulling movements are performed with the participation latissimus and the common extensor of the back, which is assisted by the posterior (largest) bundles of deltas and biceps. Naturally, the joint work of such significant muscles is capable of moving huge weights that may be beyond the strength of small forearms. This is where the belts will save us. We put it on, attach the weight to our hands, give out 100% of the power in the pulls and rejoice at our own achievements. Otherwise, the bar may leave us a little earlier than we would like it to be ... This time. And two: according to the leading institutes of body development, a person's confidence that the weight will obey him increases the maximum result by 4-6 percent. Add to this the same amount due to the purely physical ability to still hold this weight (if, of course, you train the strength of the hands ...) and you will get more than 10% increase in deadlifts!

Opinion: Constant use of straps contributes to the atrophy of the muscles responsible for grip strength.

This can be considered true ONLY if the person does nothing AT ALL to develop the brushes. The proponents of this theory are constantly reminding us that avoiding the harness leads to a significant increase in the load on the forearms. They say that, they say, additional load gives additional muscle growth. And why, then, an excess load on other muscle groups (biceps, deltas, etc.) can lead to overtraining and stunted growth, but the forearms need to be trained with each approach to weight? Who came up with these rules?

If to be logical, then purely practical attention should be paid to wrist straps. That is, if you can give your best in any particular set 100% without belts, then just walk up to the projectile and do the planned number of repetitions. Well, if for the full pumping of large muscle groups If you need help maintaining your weight, do not hesitate to use the wrist straps and do not worry about the strength and volume of your forearms. In any case, you can train them separately and get consistent results.

Results.

It is important for bodybuilders and powerlifters to firmly hold the weight they are about to lift. Climbers need tenacious fingers. Wrestlers need grip strength and powerful wrist flexor-extensors ... Everyone chooses what he needs. Maybe someone decides to develop only a finger grip and completely abandon everything else. Or maybe someone is already crushing bricks with their fingers and generally does not consider their development necessary ... The choice is yours.

A strong grip is:

high degree of compression. The person immediately feels the strong grip that the person they are shaking hands with, because with a strong grip, it feels like your hand is being squeezed in a vice.

the ability to hold a certain load for a long time. For example, a person with a strong grip can calmly hold a kettlebell or a dumbbell in static position quite a long time.

brush strength. If an athlete has a well-developed hand, he can lift objects and hold them in an upright position for a long time, even if, in its modification, the object is such that one part of it significantly outweighs the other. An example would be a chair. A person with a strong grip calmly lifts it and holds it only by the front legs in an upright position.

What to strive for? For example, a person with sufficient grip strength may rip a telephone book in half or rip a deck of cards in two. By the way, if you manage to break it not into two, but into four parts, then you can rightfully consider yourself a hero. And, of course, nail bending and horseshoe extension. From time immemorial, strong men have delighted people with such tricks, and you can also surprise your friends and acquaintances by doing something similar. First, crush a potato in your hands.

By the way, maybe someone does not know that there are no muscles in the fingers, the muscles of the moving fingers are in the forearms. Their peculiarity is that they perform several functions at once: flexion of the fingers, flexion of the hand, adduction of the hand. Grip development without forearm development is impossible!

Compressive grip: The most common grip exercise is to squeeze something in the palm of your hand. In any sports store you can buy a wrist expander - the simplest and most time-tested device for enhancing the "squeezing" grip or the Captains of Crush expander.

Training with the Captains of Crush IronMind wrist bands. We recommend that you begin to train your grip with such a Captains of Crush expander, which you can fully squeeze (so that the expander handles touch) 5-10 times. The words "completely squeeze" are very important. There are good reasons - both physiological and psychological - why most Captains of Crush exercises should be performed at the full range of movement of the expander. Physiologically, full-range exercise develops grip strength more evenly. The grip with such training becomes more versatile and much more applicable in life. Psychologically, full-range training builds confidence and more enjoyment from the exercise: it’s always more enjoyable to do the exercise correctly and to the end, whether it’s bench press, pull-ups or work with an expander. One full compression of the expander is more useful and effective than several "half" ones. That is why, when choosing an expander, you should not exaggerate your strengths and start with one that you can completely squeeze to the end. In our experience, most men are best started with the Captains of Crush Trainer.

Professional athletes say that it is thanks to the presses and barbell lifts thick neck, they achieved superior results and significantly improved grip strength. After training with heavy barbells, athletes can easily squeeze the grippers to their maximum the first time.

You can use a baseball or softball to train your grip. It is pierced with an eye bolt, and a weight is attached to the ear. For the first time, wrestler John Otarski guessed to build such a simulator. It was this that the athlete decided that such a simple device would be suitable for improving grip strength. And he was right. If you can hold this projectile in your hands for a long time, then your grip strength will improve significantly. With such a simulator, you can always work out at home.

Finger grip (Pinch force): Holding an object (for example, a glass of water) in your fingers is a finger grip. The finger grip differs from the rest in the degree of thumb involvement. In the "squeezing" grip, he practically does not participate. Slender thumbs weaken the grip and prevent the forearms from developing to full scale. The finger grip is also unique in that it can be trained statically (isometrically). Exercises: The easiest and effective method development of a finger grip - take (of course, with your fingers) two 5-10-kilogram pancakes, tear them off the floor and hold them a little. The most simple exercise for the development of plucking power, is to raise and hold in the fingers of each hand a disk from the barbell. It may seem to some that this is a very simple exercise. But, in fact, you just have to try, and you will realize that you are deeply mistaken. Even having strong hands, at first, it is difficult for a person to hold the load in his fingers for a long time. Therefore, it is worth starting with 5kg discs, gradually increasing their weight and holding time. As you can imagine, there are absolutely no limits for such an exercise. You can do it year after year, getting one hundred percent effect. But make sure that you lift the disc from the hole with only one of your fingers. The discs you use for this workout should not have a rim. With discs, you can do a heavy single or just pinpoint maximum time that you can hold the load in your fingers.

Power grip... A power grip is a type of grip that shows how much weight you can lift or hold. Classic exercise, which is even included in the program of power competitions, is called "the farmer's walk". Take the two heaviest dumbbells and walk with them. The power grip can also be trained at home. Everything is very simple: take a bucket, pour half of the sand (pebbles or nails) into it. Then wrap the handle of the bucket with a rag, and clamp the two ends of this rag with pliers. Take the pliers (with one hand, of course) and lift the bucket off the ground. Set the barbell in racks at about knee-high, then grab the middle of the bar with one hand, lift it up and hold it as much as you can.

Wrist strength... Another function of our wrists is not entirely related to the grip; it is flexion and extension of the wrists. Often you can feel how, when curling for biceps, at the end of the approach, the brush does not hold, it just falls off. This can be observed with the bench press or standing, when lifting the bar, the hand walks straight ahead, not allowing you to concentrate on the exercise. This means that such problems do not need to train flexors, extensors of the hand. Bodybuilders use exercises called flexion or extension of the hand. The most common form of execution is when the forearms are resting on something like a bench or on the thigh. Although it is believed that one of the most effective exercise it is winding a rope with a weight on a stick. Flexion at the wrists straight and reverse grip- of course, great exercise... The traditional way of doing them involves obligatory flexion of the elbows - after which the forearms "fit" either on the hips or on the bench. Meanwhile, it is much more effective to do flexion in the wrists with straight arms - in this position, the flexors and extensors of the forearms are activated. For example, you can also use heavy barbells and dumbbells to develop hand strength. Thanks to the thick bar, any exercise is much more difficult to perform. That is, if you work with a regular barbell, then your hands receive much less load, respectively, there is no need to strain the muscles too much. But after six to eight approaches with a thick bar, the athlete will definitely feel an unprecedented load and tension in the muscles.

Workout program

Do it twice a week.

Hang on the horizontal bar on two hands. Bring up to 3 minutes.

After that, hang on one hand. Bring up to 1 minute for each hand.

Dumbbells. Endless. We change hands alternately. We start with an exercise with the left hand. Raise the upper grip 50 times with dumbbells. Have changed your hand. Change to lower grip 50 times. And the grip in the form of a hammer (dumbbells perpendicular to the ground) -50 times.

Hand balancing. With arm balance, the arms and hands are much more involved than when lifting weights and, more importantly, the muscles in the arms and grip work in a very non-standard way, as they cannot be used with normal weight lifting. If you haven't done a handstand before, you will quickly feel a lot of pressure on your wrists, but your hands will become stronger over time. If you are able, then you can still do push-ups from the floor in this position.

Rope to strengthen the grip. Rope is one of best exercise to develop grip. It is desirable that it was not a school 3cm in diameter, but a professional one - 6cm in diameter. You need to climb the rope without legs. The highest class is rope climbing on one hand, but for this, of course, first you need to learn how to pull up on one hand.

Tennis balls to strengthen the hands. With tennis balls, you can train your hands, grip and fingers. The following exercises can be distinguished: 1) Static with all fingers. This exercise is especially useful for armwrestlers. 2) Pressing in with four fingers. 3) indentation thumb... We pump the thumb for a pinch grip. 4) Squeezing the ball with the palms of both hands. If when performing of this exercise the ball will break, then you have enough strength.

Pinching - keeping your weight. This is truly powerful exercise for the development of a pinched grip. You need to find a place to hang onto 4-6 cm thick boards using only your plucked grip. In order to assess the difficulty of performing this exercise, divide your body weight by 2 and get the result that you must lift with one hand.

As a rule, most people, especially beginners involved in power sports, focus on the development of certain muscle groups, for example: biceps, chest, back. What they think is important looks beautiful and grabs the attention of others. At the same time, spending much less time on the development of other equally important muscle groups. This article will focus on the forearm muscles and grip strength.

Why is grip so important?

Grip strength is a critical factor when it comes to exercises such as pull-ups, deadlifts, lunges, and other exercises that use the muscles of the forearm. Especially when these exercises are performed with a fairly serious load. If your forearms are underdeveloped, then they will "fail" before you work the main muscle group. For example, pulling up with extra weight and having weak muscles forearms, you will not have time to properly load the muscles of the back and arms. Performing lunges with dumbbells in your hands, with insufficient grip strength, you will finish the exercise before the muscles in your legs get enough load. Accessory equipment such as hooks, belts, webbing, etc. can of course be used. The question arises. Why then go in for sports? It is necessary to develop and strengthen all muscle groups, because our body is a single system.

Types of grips used in strength training

There are several types of grip when performing different exercises.

Here are the most basic ones:

- Closed grip... When you squeeze a dumbbell bar in your hand.

When you hold an object with your fingertips.

- Open grip... For example, with a thick neck or bar.

— Grip (support) with fingers... For example, when carrying dumbbells, the bar is held on the fingers.

Exercises to strengthen the grip

Press of the wrist expander

One of the best exercises for developing a firm grip. There are many different types expander with different rigidity. You need to choose it based on your physical fitness... Start with 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps at a medium pace. As you master, complicate the task by increasing sets and reps or changing the expander to a harder one.

If you are in sports hall, then a regular barbell can be used to strengthen the grip. Take the bar with a straight grip shoulder-width apart, straighten (lifting technique as when performing deadlift). The purpose of this exercise is to hold the barbell for a certain amount of time. For beginners, you can start by holding for 5 to 10 seconds in 3 to 5 sets.

Usually performed with 2 dumbbells or weights. The meaning of the exercise is to pass, holding additional weight, a certain distance or for a certain period of time. In this case, not only your forearms will be loaded, but also the muscles of the shoulders and legs. Try starting with a 20 minute walk and work your way up to 40 minutes with heavier weights, for example.

Hanging on ropes or towels

If you can, do this exercise with ropes. If your gym or workout area does not have a rope, towels can be used instead. Pick up a couple of regular towels, throw over the bar and hang. In this case, you can not only hang, but also perform pull-ups. At first this exercise will seem difficult, but your grip will become stronger by leaps and bounds.

Pinch grip hold

To perform this exercise, you must use flat plates, for example, from dumbbells. Start by holding 2 0.5kg pancakes for 30 seconds. When it gets too easy, use heavier pancakes.

Using grips

Grips are one of the best pieces of equipment that can be used with any standard barbell, dumbbell, or bar. Using the grips prevents your fingers from wrapping around the bar or bar, making the exercise harder and strengthening your grip. Use them when doing deadlifts or pull-ups once or twice a month.

Hold Hex Dumbbells

If you have hex dumbbells in your gym or home, this is another way to put your forearm muscles to the test. To get started, hold down in 2 sets of 30 seconds.

It is performed with an elastic band, by unclenching it with the help of the force of the fingers. Another way to do the exercise is to use a sand bucket. Insert your closed fingers into the sand, and then simply squeeze the sand with your fingers.

Be sure to include exercises to strengthen your grip and forearm muscles in your training program. Remember that you are only as strong as your weakest link. If this is a grip, then why not fix it!