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Anyone Do Any John Brookfield Exercises In Their Routine?


Jones1874

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Anyone include any of John Brookfields exercises in their routine?

I havent really heard anyone mention much about john brookfield and his hundreds of unconventional exercises for training the hands so i was just wondering if anyone is doing any of them?

i bought the mastery of hand strength a month or so ago and its full of variation and top notch grip tips to improve all types of grip strength, definately going to include one or exercises from his book. i just ordered some heavy duty pliers of ebay so i could do one of the exercises i like the sound of. basically, it involves wrapping a towel around some weights, and clasping the two ends of the towel together using the pliers. you could holds for time, do farmers walks or max attempts. i had to buy some pliers, this sounds like a good one.

what is your favourite Brookfield exercise?

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alex i have done that very exercise :) i also have the mastery of hand strength and the gripmasters manual, both very good with lots of good info i used that pliers method for hammer curls in my strength routien and i found it good, and very hard on the hands, i got up to doing 3 or 4 sets of 10 reps wile holding 20k of weight in either hand in that method wile training for the wsh 2011,

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I like his ideas, here is one I modified to make better. Brent calls it the ”Parris pinch”.

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I like doing the pull ups with a towel. Very hard to get high reps.

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alex i have done that very exercise :) i also have the mastery of hand strength and the gripmasters manual, both very good with lots of good info i used that pliers method for hammer curls in my strength routien and i found it good, and very hard on the hands, i got up to doing 3 or 4 sets of 10 reps wile holding 20k of weight in either hand in that method wile training for the wsh 2011,

i cant wait to give it a go, seems like a great exercise. Brookfield mentions in his book that its tough on the hands, he said the exercise is worthwhile just because it hits areas which traditional exercises misses. If this exercise is as good as it looks on paper then this will probably be a keeper in my routine for awhile.

I like his ideas, here is one I modified to make better. Brent calls it the ”Parris pinch”.

I commented on that video a few months ago asking you about that homemade 2HP, i made one awhile ago and it seems to work well for higher reps. works well as a finisher. my hands get super swole when i use that little device.

Edited by alexjones234
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I like doing the pull ups with a towel. Very hard to get high reps.

havent done those for ages! definately going to be adding in more towel and thick bar work.

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I have the Grip MAster's Manual and it does have a lot of great ideas. I do the chest hold with the loaded bucket with the 4x4 posts and it hits those crush down muscles very well. I also do th ebucket holds with the soft balls with the hook screw. Also hitting the brick lifting and the cinder rows and curls. I think all of these add overall wrist, arm, hand, and upper body strength.

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I like sand blasting... pumps a lot of blood into the hands and is pretty easy on them as there is no eccentric

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Anyone include any of John Brookfields exercises in their routine?

what is your favourite Brookfield exercise?

Yes!

Bar Twirling! If it can be called a "Brookfield exercise" (he wasn't the first to do it), but I read about in one of his books anyways.

I also read about Roll Ups with towel and bucket from Brookfield. I like that one too.

Edited by Six Barrel Shotgun
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I have done bar twirling and finger walking a sledgehammer during different phases of my workouts. The bar twirling feels good on the thumbs, and the sledge really works the lower arms. Rotating steel balls in your hands is another Brookfield favorite that I do when I think of it. I've done others, though those are the ones off the top of my head.

Good topic choice!

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  • 10 months later...

just bumping to see if anyone is still doing any brookfield exercises?

ive been doing a modified version of plate curls, its one of the brookfield exercises ive stuck to for the longest (still not too long). except im using a homemade version of the ironmind stacker. GREAT wrist builder, and one of my favourite exercises right now.

i found this on youtube:

has anyone tried this? it looks like a good one, but just takes too long.

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just bumping to see if anyone is still doing any brookfield exercises?

I put up a Bar Twirling video a few months after I made my post in this thread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w-9to1ld4Y&list=UUhh4GL5qtQ8Va__ISsEzbfw&index=10

--

After that it's not been much "specific Brookfield" stuff. But I aim to get back to Bar Twirling, with the goal to twirl a standard 20 kg 220 cm barbell.

I also gotten lots of bricks I want to start training with.. Haven't gotten round to it yet.

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I dont atm but I thought that if I get another prison sentence I'd use some of the movements in jail since you're not allowed to bring objects wtih you,

I really liked that movement where you squeeze and twist a wet towel until its dry.

Looked effective.

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Have you been to prison ?

I dont atm but I thought that if I get another prison sentence I'd use some of the movements in jail since you're not allowed to bring objects wtih you,

I really liked that movement where you squeeze and twist a wet towel until its dry.

Looked effective.

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On occasion (been a few months), I'll use a softball and baseball clipped into a loading pin for lifts. I don't use the nail as John Brookfield suggests. After drilling a hole through the middle of the ball, I threaded some climbing accessory cord through. A little figure 8 loop on one end to clip into the loading pin with and a stopper knot on the other (a washer may be needed as well) to prevent it from pullng through.

Come to think of it ... I tend to use the softball more.

That's the only Brookfield stuff I really use.

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I used to do the block weight toss. That kicked my ass. Haha.

I think there are a lot of guys doing "Brookfield" stuff in their training right now. He seems to have pioneered a lot of concepts in grip which are considered basic now. Strap holds or silver bullet holds, for example.

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great thread...

Brookfield's literature is required reading any aspiring gripster. It may not be the fast track toward specific gripper glory - but it will effectively help anyone build a strong foundation in the hands and wrist; upon which the benchmark gripsport lifts can be accomplished. I, myself, have read the JB books and have done many of John's Grip Tips which are on Ironmind's web page.... to great effect, I might add. Those grip tips cover hand and forearm strength from virtually every angle and have helped me improve tremendously (have only been training grip seriously for less than 2 years)

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On occasion (been a few months), I'll use a softball and baseball clipped into a loading pin for lifts. I don't use the nail as John Brookfield suggests. After drilling a hole through the middle of the ball, I threaded some climbing accessory cord through. A little figure 8 loop on one end to clip into the loading pin with and a stopper knot on the other (a washer may be needed as well) to prevent it from pullng through.

Come to think of it ... I tend to use the softball more.

That's the only Brookfield stuff I really use.

i made the same thing. with both a softball and a baseball, but i dont feel like im getting anything out of it. the baseball is too big for me personally, but its as if i cant get a good enough grip on either to really feel it going to work. i perfer to use towels (not the same grip involved) but ive seen steady progress when i have put them into my routine.

I used to do the block weight toss. That kicked my ass. Haha.

I think there are a lot of guys doing "Brookfield" stuff in their training right now. He seems to have pioneered a lot of concepts in grip which are considered basic now. Strap holds or silver bullet holds, for example.

i dont own any block weights, but i was only thinking yesterday that i might buy a leverage block from strongergip.com so i can do that exercise. looks like it hits the thumbs well?

great thread...

Brookfield's literature is required reading any aspiring gripster. It may not be the fast track toward specific gripper glory - but it will effectively help anyone build a strong foundation in the hands and wrist; upon which the benchmark gripsport lifts can be accomplished. I, myself, have read the JB books and have done many of John's Grip Tips which are on Ironmind's web page.... to great effect, I might add. Those grip tips cover hand and forearm strength from virtually every angle and have helped me improve tremendously (have only been training grip seriously for less than 2 years)

Brookfield is a beast.. no one would ever believe you could reach his standard of grip strength with his exercse selection, until you give them a go you dont realise how much potential they've got. i only own 'the mastery of hand strength', but what a great book. ive seen those tips on ironminds website, and you could get far with those alone.

are you still using any of the exercises he mentions?

im going to try this one soon.

it looks time consuming, but ill have to try it atleast once just to see what its all about. the objective is to wring all the water out of the towel back into the bucket unil the towel is bone dry or more or less bone dry.

i am going to start doing towel hammer curls, and towel or sandbag holds for time. feels good and i think it will give you good supporting grip in the long run.

Edited by alexjones234
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I use bricks across the back of my fingered to work extensors at the end of my grip routine. I have a brick broken into 4 pieces for incremental increases, and found 3 sets of 30 seconds works best (alternating left and right, no rest between sets).

Also have a towel cut in two to use as towel chins (although I haven't used this in a while).

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