Wide Grip And Forearms

[ruffhans]

i bought a peice if pvc pipe today. i needed to pick up some 2 inch for a wrist roller i am making, and i saw a piece of 3 and 1/3 inch pvc wich was about 3 feet long, so i bought it. when i got home i was planning on sawing a section of it off to use as a extra thick db handle. well i picked it up and decided to play around with it. so i held it by one end and did a bunch of levering and stuff. it didnt provide a very heavy wieght, but enough to feel a burn after a few mins. now let me say agian it is 3 and 1/2 inches wide and 3 feet long. well something i noticed is a nice forearm pump. i would have to explain it as something like a widegrip pinch/lever. almost like Brookfield had in grip masters manual. so i added a rope and some wieght,...not much to use it as a wrist roller for a few mins. and it realy pumped my forearms up. i noticed that it was " more" of a forearm pump than anything with a 2 inch width.

so im led to ask,.......does the wider the handle your holding mean more of a forearm workout? and if so would it be safe to say i should convert anything i have, ( thick handle, wrist roller, levering tool), with a 2 inch handle, to a 3 and 1/2? now i do know that for the sake of grip 2 inch is the way to go, but i wonder, if forearm burn is what you want, would it be good advice to pass along to a newbie looking to pump his or her forearms.

i know hand sise may get talked about , asfar as having the sise to grasp 3 and 12/ inches. my hands are, from wrist where it ataches to hand to middle finger tip,...8 inches, and 4 and 1/2 wide, 5 if your going from the thimb knuckle. so maybee for me it is good but someone with smaller hands not so good.

so this leaves me with another question. if it is true that the wider the handle , the more of a forearm pump. should some who is looking for a good pump use what ever thickness that would have him or just hanging on?, or in what would be called a wide grip pinch postion?

Edited December 7, 2005 by ruffhans

[Clay Edgin]

I've got a 3 1/2" barbell that weighs 95lbs empty and is killer to do double overhand deadlifts on. Every time I do holds to failure on it, it feels like my forearms and wrists are going to pop.

[foggymountainmuscle]

3 and a half is pretty wide, I'd be worried about straining your thumb with gripping something as wide as that all the time. Then again, with your hand size this might not be a problem, I think you might have mentioned a discomfort if you felt it from using the 3.5". In my experience a good pump doesn't always lead to big gains in strength or size, so I don't think that is indicative that an exercise is necessarily "better". But I do like wider wrist rollers than thinner ones, so if it doesn't over extend your thumbs, I'd say go for it. I wouldn't go out and convert everything into 3.5" grip width, I think that could over work your thumb and think you'd get a better rounded grip by working with multiple widths.

Normally what is considered a wide grip is when the object being gripped is when only the last joints of your fingers are over the edge of the object. I can get just as much of a pump holding onto 2 25s than holding my 35 blob. The greater pump you are feeling probably comes from all the muscles of the fingers, thumb, and wrist working harder than normal to exert pressure onto the bar while turning it.

[Sybersnott]

I've got a 3 1/2" barbell that weighs 95lbs empty

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OMG, Clay... where did you get that monster?!?