Grip Work for More Mass, Strength, and Power

      I apologize for the delay in posts this month.  I just returned from a vacation to my home state of Texas and simply wasn't able to get the writing done out there that I had PLANNED on doing.  Anyway, I hope to post more frequently for the remainder of the month.  Also, be on the lookout for a new book (hopefully this week🤞) on heavy-light-medium training!  With that out of the way...

Grip Work for More Mass, Strength, and Power

If You Want to Get REALLY Big and Strong, Throw Away the Straps and Embrace HARD Grip Work

 

     “When I made the decision to forego the use of straps and persevere until I could handle heavy weights without them, I surpassed previous bests.  In fact, the entire exercise (deadlifts) became much more intense and my overall gains in strength and muscular size were quite unexpected.  Perhaps my level of concentration was higher because I was so intent on maintaining my grip on the barbell.  As neuroanatomists know, the area of the brain that exerts control over the hand muscles has a much higher representation relative to actual muscle size than other muscle groups.  Although it is strictly conjecture, perhaps intense forearm/hand work heightens neural stimulation for all muscles worked during a particular movement.  My experience has shown that taking the time and energy to directly stimulate the forearm musculature leads to increased ability to handle heavy weights in many exercises.” ~Ken Leistner

     Conjecture though it may be, I believe the late Dr. Leistner—if you’re not familiar with Leistner, then think of him as the lifter’s answer to Mike Mentzer, just without being a crazed loon—was correct in his assessment.  There is just something about doing heavy grip work that leads to not just a stronger grip but more overall mass and power.

     When you really ponder this, it makes sense.  Think of all the things that you do with your hands: drive a car, play the piano, write poetry, or cook dinner to name just a handful (pun intended).  And then there are, of course, the more mundane things such as opening a jar of jam (or pickles or, well, you know, jarred anything), petting your dog, eating a plate of food, drinking a cold beer, scrolling through social media on your phone, or opening the door for little old ladies.  We use our hands all the time without really thinking about it.  And all of these varied acts and undertakings are done each and every day throughout our lives.  The significance of our hands—and, therefore, our grip—can’t really be understated.  But it’s such an integral part of our daily life that we tend to forget about it or just not think about it in the first place.  It would also make sense, then, that it should be trained differently from other muscles.

     In perhaps an explanation of Leistner’s words above, Brooks D. Kubik (author of Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength and Development) wrote this: “When you train your hands, you are training the bodypart that is best connected to the brain.  I cannot prove this, but when you train your hands you increase the link between the mind and the grip muscles, and I also believe that this ‘carries over’ in some unknown way to heighten the link between the brain and other bodyparts and muscle groups.  In other words, by training your grip you get stronger and better conditioned throughout the entire body because you automatically increase the link between the brain and the entire body.”

        The primary issue when it comes to hand/grip/forearm training is that most trainees go about doing it wrong.  There are lifters who do know how to train the grip appropriately—books such as the above-mentioned Dinosaur Training, for example, have contributed to this renewed knowledge of grip training over the past 30 years or so—but they are still few and far between.

     When I started training in the late ‘80s, and would read bodybuilding magazines voraciously, the training recommended at that time included, primarily, little other than a few sets of really high reps.  In this way, grip and forearm training were performed similarly to how one trained calves or abs—as almost an afterthought.  But your hands, your grip, and your forearms are best trained with heavy weights, low reps, and plenty of sets (whether those sets are done at one session or over the course of multiple workouts); pretty much the exact opposite as all the articles from my formative years advocated.

     As we don’t want to repeat the errors of those ‘80s and ‘90s muscle rags, let’s look at the training that really works for developing massive forearms that are also incredibly strong.  It’s also the kind of training that will make your entire physique bigger and stronger, not just the muscles used to develop a powerful grip.  We will look at both the what and the how of grip training.

     I believe that the best grip movements, in no particular order, are: thick bar deadlifts of various sorts, thick bar curls (and reverse curls), hammer curls with a thick dumbbell, thick bar farmer walks, and assorted sandbag lifts.  Before we go any further in our discussion, let me add that one of the best investments you can make for thick bar training is a pair of “Fat Gripz,” which can be purchased on Amazon or even at your local Walmart.  I purchased mine over 20 years ago, have used them extensively, and have never needed to buy an additional pair, although having multiple pairs might be good for the simple sake of not having to swap them out on different bars.

      The great strength writer—not to mention polymath—David P. Willoughby wrote that, in his opinion, the best grip exercise of them all is the thick bar deadlift.  I’m not sure if it’s a better movement than the others I’ve listed above, but if Willoughby said it then I wouldn’t doubt the accuracy of the statement.  Train thick bar deadlifts the same way as you would train any other form of deadlifts—utilizing low reps.  A set of 5 reps is a high rep set in the world of deadlifting. 5 to 8 sets of 2 to 3 reps is fairly ideal, or at least a good starting point.  If you train frequently, then 3 sets of 5, 3, and 2 reps is a good system.  And if you like to train infrequently, then try 10 sets of 3 reps, 15 sets of 2 reps, or even 20 sets of singles.

     Thick bar curls have long been a favorite of strength athletes.  Alan Calvert, in his book Super Strength, which was published in 1924(!), wrote this: “One of the greatest builders of strength is to train using a thick bar with an over-grip.  Once I bought a round steel bar, about 2 ¾ inches thick, which weighed 65 pounds.  A lot of lifters who could do a back-hand curl easily with a 100 pound barbell utterly failed to do the same thing with this 65-pound bar.  In order to curl the bar successfully, it was necessary to have tremendous gripping power in the hands and great strength in the muscles of the forearm.”

     In order to see impressive results with the thick barbell curls, work up to sets with 135 pounds at the minimum.  As with the deadlifts, and pretty much all thick bar movements, multiple sets of low reps should be the primary method of training.

     Another good curling movement is the thick bar hammer curl.  It’s one of my personal favorites.  It works the forearm, hand, and grip in a way unlike curls with a barbell.  As with a lot of these thick bar movements, you have to do it to truly understand how different it is.  For these, once again, use lower reps and more sets.  10 sets of 3 reps (each arm) is always a great thick bar hammer curl workout!  Also, even though you are “only” doing 3 reps for each arm, your time under tension is longer than most other low rep exercises due to the fact that you are holding each dumbbell for a longer period.

     Farmer walks are great all-around mass builders even without the use of thick bars.  Add thick bars to the mix, however, and they become the kind of movement that can quite easily completely transform one’s physical condition, strength, and appearance.  Whereas you might be able to handily go for a 100-yard stroll using “regular” 100-pound dumbbells, attempting that same feat with thick dumbbells is another matter entirely.

     Finally, I want to mention an implement that all lifters should have in their grip arsenal that is not a thick-bar: the sandbag.  Even though it’s called a “sandbag,” mine is actually filled with rocks—so I suppose we could just call it a “heavy bag.” Either way, with rocks or sand, the tool is mighty hard to pick up for a medley of movements, be they deadlifts, curls, overhead presses, cleans, or carries.

     Even if you are “only” after overall mass-building and not after a grip to make King Kong envious, you would be surprised what a couple of months of thick bar and sandbag work would do for your aesthetics alone.  Spend a couple of months doing workouts filled with thick bar deads and curls of all types, thick bar farmer walks—both one-arm and two-arm—and an amalgam of different sandbag lifts and you will, most likely, be shocked by the results.