Reverse Bending - Benefits for overall and Grip Strength

[smaikelzas]

Hi, guys,

I'm just going to get straight into it, I want to hear from the benders out here,

• What muscles are mostly worked during reverse bending?
• What are the benefits of reverse bending for grip? (Vertical Bar, Pinch, Crush, Thick Bar or maybe any other indirect benefits related to grip?)
• Would you see it as an assistance tool for grip strength or as a hindrance, in other words, would you say that it would slow down or accelerate your overall arm/grip strength?
• What are some key technique tips you can give for the best results with reverse bending?
• Bonus question to any WD2 (Wrist Developer) owners, how many reps approximately does it take to move up a level in your experience?

[matek]

Hello, this is my personal opinion/experience:

49 minutes ago, smaikelzas said:

What muscles are mostly worked during reverse bending?

It's hard to answer for the forearm because you kinda feel it everywhere in the front hand, but I think mainly: brachioradialis, flexor carpi radialis. Besides the forearm, brachialis, biceps, and shoulder. And it's good to have good back strength to keep everything tight. 

49 minutes ago, smaikelzas said:

What are the benefits of reverse bending for grip? (Vertical Bar, Pinch, Crush, Thick Bar or maybe any other indirect benefits related to grip?)

If it's about efficiency with those lifts, I think there are more negatives than positives. But in the long run, it definitely strengthens the wrist tendons. And that's good for everything. But it's not a good assistance exercise for the things you mentioned - or at least there are much better ones. 

49 minutes ago, smaikelzas said:

Would you see it as an assistance tool for grip strength or as a hindrance, in other words, would you say that it would slow down or accelerate your overall arm/grip strength?

Related to my previous answer; no, I don't think it's a good assistance tool for grip strength because there are much better ones (besides. I think practicing the actual implement you want to get better on is just better). If you do it fairly regularly, as I've been doing in the past months, it will slow down your front-hand progress because it's tough on the thumb webbing and MCP joint. 

49 minutes ago, smaikelzas said:

What are some key technique tips you can give for the best results with reverse bending?

I will just refer to David Horne's video "Bending Tips with Beyond the Bend Reverse bending details with David Horne": here . One additional thing is to record yourself from time to time and be critical, take notes.

49 minutes ago, smaikelzas said:

Bonus question to any WD2 (Wrist Developer) owners, how many reps approximately does it take to move up a level in your experience?

It's hard to answer this, but if I'm getting close to my max with the CROM spring, maybe about 3 reps for me? 

Edited October 2, 2023 by matek

[smaikelzas]

6 minutes ago, matek said:

Hello, this is my personal opinion/experience:

It's hard to answer for the forearm because you kinda feel it everywhere in the front hand, but I think mainly: brachioradialis, flexor carpi radialis. Besides the forearm, brachialis, biceps, and shoulder. And it's good to have good back strength to keep everything tight. 

If it's about efficiency with those lifts, I think there are more negatives than positives. But in the long run, it definitely strengthens the wrist tendons. And that's good for everything. But it's not a good assistance exercise for the things you mentioned - or at least there are much better ones. 

Related to my previous answer; no, I don't think it's a good assistance tool for grip strength because there are much better ones. If you do it fairly regularly, as I've been doing in the past months, it will slow down your front-hand progress because it's tough on the thumb webbing and MCP joint. 

I will just refer to David Horne's video "Bending Tips with Beyond the Bend Reverse bending details with David Horne": here . One additional thing is to record yourself from time to time and be critical, take notes.

It's hard to answer this, but if I'm getting close to my max with the CROM spring, maybe about 3 reps for me? 

Awesome, thanks for the answers , well, kinda sad to hear that it might not be very useful for bumping up my lifts, but I think I'm gonna stick to it for as you mentioned, the tendon strengthening (and cause I love it so much ), maybe some other people are gonna share their thoughts too.

[Fist of Fury]

2 hours ago, smaikelzas said:

Hi, guys,

I'm just going to get straight into it, I want to hear from the benders out here,

• What muscles are mostly worked during reverse bending?
• What are the benefits of reverse bending for grip? (Vertical Bar, Pinch, Crush, Thick Bar or maybe any other indirect benefits related to grip?)
• Would you see it as an assistance tool for grip strength or as a hindrance, in other words, would you say that it would slow down or accelerate your overall arm/grip strength?
• What are some key technique tips you can give for the best results with reverse bending?
• Bonus question to any WD2 (Wrist Developer) owners, how many reps approximately does it take to move up a level in your experience?

1. All the muscles in the hands, forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders and side pecs.

2. No benefits whatsoever in my opinion.

3. Hinderance, it will slow you down in other areas. Short steel bending is extremely taxing and very harsh on your body. And you can't do it 99%, you either do it 100% or you don't do it. In my opinion.

4. Find what works best for you, I would say reverse bending is the easiest of all styles, it's really not that hard to learn. Switch hands up and see which side you prefer and stick to that. There's a technique called "thumb grab" which you can use to finish the last part of a bend, this can be useful if the bar is very short and/or you have large hands.

5. Good question, I have used the WD2 quite a lot but I actually don't know a good estimate for that.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Fist of Fury

[smaikelzas]

20 hours ago, Fist of Fury said:

1. All the muscles in the hands, forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders and side pecs.

2. No benefits whatsoever in my opinion.

3. Hinderance, it will slow you down in other areas. Short steel bending is extremely taxing and very harsh on your body. And you can't do it 99%, you either do it 100% or you don't do it. In my opinion.

4. Find what works best for you, I would say reverse bending is the easiest of all styles, it's really not that hard to learn. Switch hands up and see which side you prefer and stick to that. There's a technique called "thumb grab" which you can use to finish the last part of a bend, this can be useful if the bar is very short and/or you have large hands.

5. Good question, I have used the WD2 quite a lot but I actually don't know a good estimate for that.

Thanks brotha, very similar to what @matek says, actually thought about doing an experiment by removing bending from my training sessions for a week or 2, see how the progress changes in grip and how my hands feel.

[Fist of Fury]

4 minutes ago, smaikelzas said:

Thanks brotha, very similar to what @matek says, actually thought about doing an experiment by removing bending from my training sessions for a week or 2, see how the progress changes in grip and how my hands feel.

I do think the opposite is working really well for reverse bending tho. Thick bar training and such will probably not give you anything but wrist and crush training I think is very useful to do to get stronger for reverse bending. Strong elbows (i.e tricep training) will also help of course.

I have stopped training reverse bending completely and in fact I was actually stronger the last time I tried it, it has been months since I trained it, almost a year. But I have done a lot of it so I have the neurological part down. Maybe that's why I don't have to train it much.