Wrist Training

[Patrik_F]

Not long ago I bought a Heavy Hammer II Leverage Bar from Ironmind. I have trained a little with it but nothing serious yet. From what I have done I have noticed that the wrist can easily be overtrained and that only 1 days rest doesnt seem like enough, at least for now. I have done levering from side to side and also sort of a hammer curl with it, those 2 movements. I always like to have a goal when I train. Things become easier then. What are good weights to shoot for?

I also have tried plate curls and I like them. I can do pretty easy reps with a 10 kg plate. I have tried a 15 kg plate too, and it felt impossible

So what I will try to do is to add weight to the 10 kg plate until I can get a rep on the 15 kg weight. Any advice on have to attach more weight to the 10 kg plate? I have heard of using tape and also running a small bar through the hole and attach weights. The bar thing seems to be better.

Any training-program or advice for a beginner to wrist-strength?

[The Gripster]

Patrick if you have plate weights you can clamp another plate weight to the edge furthest away from you. Let some of the plate overhang the edge. As you get stronger, move the weight further out over edge.

I am starting a new routine and I will now focus on wrist strength. I will probably do something like this although I might change it by Monday.

Monday: Thick handle d/b's-- one arm rows and tosses

Sofball pinch

Heavy Hammer-- up and down, side to side

leveraging

Plate Weight Curls

Tuesday: Wristroller for warm-up

Wrist curls

Grippers

Wednesday: light workout: finger extensions, rim lifts

Thursday: Thick handle d/b's-- farmers walks

Plate Weight Pinches

Sledge Hammer Leveraging

Plate Weight Curls

Friday: Heavy on the Wrist Roller

Light with Wrist Curls

Grippers

On Monday and Thursday I will probably pick 1 wrist exercise and go heavy. The other exercises I will use about 60% of max.

[Jonathan McMillan]

I second the idea of using a clamp as well! I use to jam my barbell spring clamp through the center of the plates...but using a big C-clamp you can put the additional weight on the opposite side to that of your hand. It provides a much better stimulus, also I found with a smaller plate if you added more weight to the center it will jam into your thumb :huh

Jon@han

[dyoder16]

I use a regular C-clamp that screws tight and I add 1/4 lb. per workout to the opposite side I'm gripping. I'd stick with small increments if possible. The longer the lever arm the harder it is.

[RSW]

I prefer plate wrist curls, since these train the wrist directly through a range of motion, instead of being a static hold. I think progress on plate wrist curls will translate into increased plate curl poundages. John Brookfield uses a 25lb. plate for reps, and i am sure he can easily plate curl a 45lb. plate.

Here's Brookfield's tip:

Griptip#3

Robert

Edited December 6, 2002 by RSW

[Rick Walker]

I train my wrists every day but Sunday. I alternate between thick wrist roller on day 1 and levering hammers on day 2. Day 3 is wrist roller again and so on.

These exercises work the wrist in opposite angles and I dont have any trouble recovering between them.

I believe the wrists are like the hands-they can and should be trained every day-

Rick Walker

["D"]

"I believe the wrists are like the hands-they can and should be trained every day."

I notice a lot of people have this mentality, that the grip/hands should be trained everyday. I don't understand this. I brought this up before but nobody explained the reasoning behind it. Could someone do me the honors please?

[Jonathan McMillan]

RSW is right wrist plate curls are even better!! I do plate curls on Wed, and Wrist plate curls on Friday. I've finally worked up to using a 25lb plate but I sure can't plate curl a 45 yet!

Jon@han

[Tom Black]

It's not so much about reasoning, it's about evidence. Many people have been doing nearly everyday training, and it has been effective for them. We could give you a lot of reasons, but that's for the scientists to figure out!

[Patrik_F]

I tried the wrist plate curl too and it is indeed good! I could do some reps on 10 kgs but it wasnt that easy. Nice, I had almost forgot about that exercise.

I believe in everyday training, at least in some stage of your training. Personally, I train full body very intensively too so I think that my recovery ability is lower than for people who just train grip. Sometimes everyday training for the grip works very good for me, and other times I get a little overtrained. Now I am training grip every other day and it seems to work out fine with no overtraining at all.

[Rick Walker]

"D"-

Its like Tom said-many of us do it and get awesome results from it. I really think that people are so affraid of the overtraining word that they sell themselves short-not only in grip, but other things as well. When I was a competitive powerlifter, I logged 12-20 workouts a week using WSB methods.

Patrik-

I also train my entire body intensely-sometimes squatting 3-4 times a week-and log 30 minutes to 1.5 hours a day of cardiovascular work. The key to not overtraining is EATING (atleast 1.5 grams of protein per pound bodyweight!) SLEEPING (10 hours a night an hour and a half siesta in the afternoon) and SUPPLEMENTATION ( I use creatine, HMB, custom made Protein from Protein Factory,multi-vitamins an extra 1600 IU of Vit. E, 1000 mgs of Vit C, and garlic) the only day I take off from grip training and cardio is Sunday-but I still lift. Look at the routines of some of the world class olympic lifters!

Rick Walker

[RSW]

Arnold Schwarzenneger advocated training forearms and calves everyday. I think he claimed that these muscles were adapted to being under constant stress.

I think that larger muscles need more recovery time and smaller muscles (like those in forearms and calves) need less recovery time.

Robert

[The Gripster]

Bruce Lee also preached about everyday forearm training. He thought the muscle was very dense, therefore you had to pump it everyday.

Edited December 9, 2002 by The Gripster