Carryover To Gripper Strength

[EJ Livesey]

Ej. I just watched some of your bending videos. Pretty incredible. Very explosive. Do you do any wrist work at all to supplement that?

Thanks for checking them out. No I do nothing extra. I do things to condition my skin and certian lifts in the gym geared specifically toward my kink and crush. But other than just bending and lifting, I do nothing extra. I do eat pretty well. And take vitamins and oil for my bones, skin and tendons.

At one time I tryed to balance things out. Sledge work, finger work, etc etc. But I don't have time for all that stuff and it's boring. All my injuries were from pushing too hard not from unbalanced muscles.

[wulfgeat]

Steel bending.

All my grip strength is from steel bending. Hell these past 5 months is the most I've ever touched grippers, and it's been all of about 8 times in the past 5 months. Seriously, no lie or exaggeration.

Maybe spinning wrenches for the past 16 years as a hobby has helped too. But I still say steel bending.

Chops: you're new to this bud. Take it slow, don't rush anything. If you rush you will hurt yourself catastrophicly. You could find a light 144-146 CoC3. But then the mm1 is still a 12-15lb jump (or so I've heard) and that's huge. Take it slow, let your tendons and wrists adapt. There is nothing worse then losing mobility it your hands, ask me how I know. When it's a chore to wash yourself or change gears in your car, you'll know what I mean.

Ahhhh... Thanks, This is very good advice. I tend to try and push things before i am ready. I will keep this in mind, try to avoid setbacks, and train smart.

Sometimes breaking bad training habits is the hardest part for me.

I am very new, i need to remember that....

@chops: I am glad that you see the value in this advice, but I don't think it can be overstated. I would say the most beneficial kinds of auxiliary exercises are ones that target the thumbs, wrist Extensors, radial/ulnar deviators, wrist flexors, and the pronators and supinators of the lower arms. The trick will be to see where you are weak and bring that up. The thumb-pad has to be thick and powerful to set and hold the gripper; the wrist flexors allow for extra crushing power; the wrist extensors augment this extra power afforded by the wrist flexors by off-setting it (meaning if they pull in tandem they create a more stable base to crush from); radial deviator strength positively influences the strength of the thumb, index and middle fingers; ulnar deviator strength positively influences ring and pinkie finger strength; And the pronators and supinators stabilize the bones of the arm throughout this process (once again, a more stable base means more power transfer).

In addition, the biceps is your most powerful lower arm supinator, and your anconeus preforms two functions: extends the arm with the triceps, and abducts the ulna during pronation. So if you don't find some way to train your arm flexors and extensors (specifically the anconeus) you could experience some major problems with elbow pain.

I think it goes without saying that figuring out how to address all of this has to be your own personal journey. Everyone here has lots of expertise in many different areas, but what works for them may not work for you. You have to get in the trenches and figure this crap out based on your goals, your personality, and training approach. All of the above is how everyone else has addressed these issues for themselves or seen others use to address these issues. Go therefore and experiment, find what holds you back, and make it a strength.

The only practical thing I would add is that I have greatly increased my wrists' and lower arms' ability to resist compressive forces by doing a rack press lockout exercise. So now when I pick up grippers, my lower arms and wrists don't feel like they are going to bust from the pressure of the grippers.

That's a lot of information. ICould you list a few excersizes that could hit these key areas.

I apologize for being a flake and not responding sooner. I have spent the last several days trying to figure out some personal things, and somehow didn't make it to responding.

I would say the easiest to find exercises for are the wrist flexors and extensors. Look up stuff with barbells and dumbbells and find something you like (I have a thread on a little experiment I did with isometric wrist extensions involving dumbbells). I got to 90 lbs and have left it alone and don't know if or when I will come back to it.

For the deviators and the forearm rotators, you will have to use on dumbbell loaded only on one side, or sledge hammers, or some other off loaded implement. DO NOT HURT YOURSELF DOING PRONATION!!!! It will happen if you don't pay attention to what is going on on the ulnar side of the back of the wrist. The best way to prevent that is to not let yourself stretch the ulnar deviator tendons by moving into the end range of radial deviation (and build the strength of your ulnar deviator tendons).

These are my favorite exercises for ulnar deviation, radial deviation, and forearm rotation respectively:

You can do variations of these with dumbbells loaded on one side (that's what I do).

[Chops]

Great info. I am going full grip geek while trying to MM0 by the end of the year!