Why Is Grip Training Different?

[matonski]

With the rest of the body, the philosophy is to focus on poundage progession on the basic lifts (squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, etc). For example, it is discouraged to worry about working your biceps from every angle by doing concentration curls, preacher curls, incline curls, etc. So why is it with grip training, it seems to be the opposite. There's all this talk of crushing, wide pinch, regular pinch, supporting, wrist strength, etc. In Brookfield's "Mastery of Hand Strenth," there must be a hundred exercises listed. Are there no "squats" and "deadlifts" in the gripworld?

[SqeezeMasterFlash]

Short answer, yes, there are. You could say pinching is one of the staples. But just as there are front squats, back squats, wide stance, narrow stance, bands, chains, high bar, low bar, rock bottom, and parallel squats, so are there many varieties of pinch. Almost all grip strength boils down to crushing, pinching, thick bar, supporting and wrist strength. Lots of ways to train those different aspects of grip. Some feats of strength combine many of the different aspects of grip, such as bending.

So someone who is looking to generally increase they're grip might pick a few exercises that work major areas. But those of us that are intersted in all around grip strength will work a variety of exercises.

It's like if you wanted to make your legs stronger you wouldn't just squat. You'd throw in some assistance exercises. They'll all carry over to stronger legs. If you want strong hands do your basic movements and some assistance work. It'll all add up to stronger hands and bigger forearms.

[EricMilfeld]

To name just a couple, I think thick bar and leveraging could qualify as "squats". I personally try not to overlap much of my training. But yes, there seems to be an almost unlimited number of ways in which to train grip. It's great!

[jimcg]

For example, it is discouraged to worry about working your biceps from every angle by doing concentration curls, preacher curls, incline curls, etc.  So why is it with grip training, it seems to be the opposite.

Isn't it just because there are so many more muscles involved? To train the biceps you can do curls in various ways, with different kinds of grip, but it's still curls and that's the way to train biceps. The muscles involved can only move the forearm up towards the upper arm.

Looking at the muscles involved in grip, there are 19 muscles in the forearm and 13 muscles in the hand (if I remember Arne correctly), and they can make the hand, fingers and wrist move in numerous ways. Therefore, if you want to activate as many of the muscles in the hand and forearm as possible, then you need several excercises.

//Jim

[The Mac]

Compared to much of the rest of the body (muscle-wise), the hand is an incredibly complicated area, which it needs to be to do the things it can do. As Jim intimated, the arms and legs basically just bend, the torso more or less just bends at the middle (waist), so they are not terribly complicated. The shoulders are a little more complicated, since you can go from a dip motion to a bench press to an overhead press to a pulldown to a row, all working different torso muscles.

Of course, that was a gross over-simplification, but those movements are really not complicated compared to what the hands and wrists have evolved to do. It therefore makes sense to me that there are many more training options and variations to develop the hands.

A further consideration is that (for many at least) the hands seem to be able to soak up the punishment very well, so it makes sense to give it a fair amount of work. The reason that you might mainly want to focus on the basic exercises (squats, deads etc) and it is discouraged doing too much direct bicep work is the impact it has on your recovery ability.

[mobsterone]

Plus we like it. Also I don't do, and nor do others, the full range of the 100 or so lifts. Over a week I do 5. For the rest of my body I do 7.

[jimcg]

Plus we like it.

So true!

So much that having to quit each workout sucks. I wish time needed for recovery was A LOT shorter!

//Jim

[dannyboy]

I wish time needed for recovery was A LOT shorter!

i hear you man

Edited October 13, 2004 by dannyboy

[Jedd Johnson]

I think it has to do with a couple things, which i'll suggest:

1. For all round hand strength, it is good to have a variety. Working the muscles at many angles. Just as if someone were a bicep aficionado, they would train the bi's in all angles, so do we with hand strength.

2. For success in a Grip contest, you must finish well in all the events. Also, there IS technique involved in Grip contest events, so time must be spent on all events in order to be successful.

In regards to the "squats" of Grip world - there none that I know of. The squat starts out with an eccentric phase, meaning the major muscles of the lift lengthen against tension, then there is a concentric phase where the muscles shorten against resistence. In Grip, there are only concentric movements, so essentially there are no "squats" or "bench presses" in Grip contests - all the lifts are "deadlifts."

-Jedd-

[The Mac]

In regards to the "squats" of Grip world - there none that I know of. The squat starts out with an eccentric phase, meaning the major muscles of the lift lengthen against tension, then there is a concentric phase where the muscles shorten against resistence. In Grip, there are only concentric movements, so essentially there are no "squats" or "bench presses" in Grip contests - all the lifts are "deadlifts."

That is a good analogy.

[5xfive]

In Grip, there are only concentric movements, so essentially there are no "squats" or "bench presses" in Grip contests - all the lifts are "deadlifts."

That is a great analogy.

But wouldn't negitives after a full close constitute shortening against resistance? That is how I have been training all of my total 3 days. LOL

I wish I had seen this thread a little earlier. Great thoughts all around.

n8

Edited October 16, 2004 by 5xfive

[Davekline]

In Grip, there are only concentric movements, so essentially there are no "squats" or "bench presses" in Grip contests - all the lifts are "deadlifts."

-Jedd-

←

I think you meant to say that in gripland all of the movements start with the concentric phase and the negative is done afterwards. Negatives are done in gripland.