Finger extensions

[Patrik_F]

Hello!

I was wondering if many of you consider finger extension exercises to be important for maximum hand-strength?

In "Mastery of Hand strength" John Brookfield said that they would increase your finger-strength. What do you think?

I myself has just started to do them.

[Guest firstmark]

Finger extensions as in not curling fingers toward you like you grip things but extending the fingers like how a

"professional scribe" might do an exercize?

[Patrik_F]

Yepp! (shortest reply ever)

[underdawg]

i believe they help.  not only do my fingers feel stronger, but they also seem to have more dexterity now.  i do mine with a large rubber band like what is placed on your arm when you give blood.  i also like to keep the rep range fairly high (25-30), when this becomes easy i just increase the resistance a little.

[The Mac]

A good few years ago (when I was about 14-15) I invested some considerable time and effort in doing Finger Extensions and "Finger Curls" against resistance in order to build up my grip and finger power (I also did many finger-tip pushups etc). At the time I got excellent results, and was happy with my progress.

From doing that training though I developed "lumps" on the tendons between both my small and ring fingers, and my ring and middle fingers (on both hands), which have ever since been somewhat tender to touch (it is now nearly a decade later as I write this). Although I train my grip regularly I believe that I have yet to approach the grip power I had then (so I was either pretty strong then or am pretty weak now   ) - the injuries have been that much of a roadblock to my grip progress.

At the time I didn't think I was doing anything extreme, but I now believe I seriously overtrained (or at least did far too much of the wrong type of exercise) these delicate tendons. As I said, I got results, but I would be incredibly cautious when working the fingers. I don't know how you plan to do them, but I would advise working the fingers of the hand together, rather than seperately, and being very careful in general.

I do feel that the hands can be an extreme case - they are incredibly strong and tough but can also (at least in my experience) be very fragile when abused.