Why Grip Training?

A simple question of course. Why do this whole grip training thing?

I am going to tell you why I do grip and why I work so much to spread the word about it.

Grip can be divided in to three areas when we talk about who does it and why.

The first category is performance enhancement/physique enhancement.

The second category is sport.

The third is feats of strength or old time demonstration type movements.

I believe all three areas of grip are beneficial to your program and to your life.

The first area: Performance and Physique. Will stronger hands and wrist help you in your sport? I will offer an unconditional “YES” to this question. If you have to use your hands in any role for your sport you will do better with stronger, pain free hands. Bat control, better drives on the golf course, superior control on the wrestling mats, plain and simple if you use the hands you should train them to a minimal effective amount. What if you do not actively use your hands for the sport? Consider the complex nature of the hands. Look at them for a second, notice how many ranges of motion are available for you to move in. I will wager you have to use your hands in often, and if you neglect them you are setting yourself up for imbalances and possibly pain.

The physique angle is clear and straight forward. Grip drills will build the arms, wrist, and hands and the resulting hypertrophy will be give you look modern training fails to produce. Most people train with machines and some dumbbell/barbell drills. Their day to day life does not load the forearms like life did 100 years ago. I believe the average drug free lifter will be severely lacking in their forearm and arm development if they only do a few curls or wrist flexion drills as their “arm day”. Add in some pinch and crush training to maximize muscle gains.

Grip Sport. The nature of man is competition. Put two men together and give them any task and a sport can emerge. Across the globe men (and women of course) test themselves and each other in a wide variety of skills and movements. Grip Sport has emerged as a sum of several different popular lifts, many of which have a rich history in strength. It has gained more and more momentum with each year and through the efforts of those who want to spread it such as Jedd Johnson of Dieselcrew, David Horne from World of Grip, and many others to include yours truly.

One of the ways in which grip is gaining ground as a sport is by standardizing the events and forming federations. The new American league has stood up this month and will feature several blue ribbon events to help define the sport.

- Torsion Spring grippers. Closing grippers is a mainstay in grip sport. Many of you have used popular grippers such as the Ironmind captain of crush. There are a variety of models on the market and a given grip contest will have grippers which have been measured to scale from the newest beginner to the strongest crush on the planet. The objective is simple: take the gripper and close it end to end.

- Two hand pinch on the europinch apparatus. The adjustable pinch set up was pioneered by David Horne and has become a main stay in nearly every grip contest over the last decade. The objective is to pinch lift a plate loaded with weight to meet a horizontal standard of 16 inches and lower it to the ground. Most untrained men can pinch between 75 and 90 lbs, the world record is currently held by Jedd Johnson at a staggering 262 lbs.

-The double overhand axle deadlift- an “axle” is a 2″ thick barbell, typically solid welded with non-revolving sleeves. The event is simple, deadlift the bar with a hands forward grip to fully standing. I do not know who holds the current record, but I imagine it is well in to the 500′s and held by a Worlds Strongest Men competitor.  I have observed most men start between 225 and 275 with the axle. My current best is 410 and I have worked a lot to get it there. It is a challenging event.

These are the three most popular events, others include vertical bar lifting, weaver stick levering, hammer lifting, steel bending, pinch lifting of block weights and odd objects, and special handle events such as the Rolling Thunder deadlift or the hand lift event.

Why should you care about grip sport? Its fun, that is why. There are a number of events and many people will be able to participate in grip who would be excluded from other strength sports. As an example, several of the top grip athletes in the world are men who had to stop power lifting or doing strongman from severe back injury. Because grip events are limited by hand strength, these men can compete in a sport that has a very very low risk of hurting them again. The overall risk in grip sport is minimal. While some people have hurt their back or leg with some of the one hand deadlifting events, the overall chance of harming yourself is tiny compared to trying to bench press or squat at your 100%.

I think grip is an excellent break in sport season for people who do other competitive sport. Lets face it, a lot of you who powerlift get burnt out chasing your total. Maybe a 4-6 month break to build up the hands and still compete would recharge you?

A final aspect I will bring up, some what joking and some what serious: grip does not require athleticism or much coordination compared to weight lifting or anything involving a ball. So for people who are uncoordinated it gives them something to do while getting stronger and healthier. I think these features make it an obvious choice for a huge chunk of the population.

Every man and women needs something to compete in. If you haven’t a sport, this is a fine one to play.

Feats of Strength: Bending steel bars, tearing apart decks of cards, phone books, license plates. Lifting hundreds of pounds with one finger. Breaking tools with your barehands. No, these are not tricks. These are real feats, all of which I can do which are possible with hand strength. I learned to do feats of hand strength from men who teach others and I have taught people to do many of these. You could be the next one! Imagine what you could do with hands so strong that you can twist out half inch thick steel horseshoes.

It’s not all about being a showman or making people feel weak: everyone loves feats of strength. I think people like strongman acts as much as any magic show because what we do is real.

I grew up reading comic books where men did incredible things, super human things. It has been amazing in my own journey to go from dreaming about it to doing it. I have found it to be rewarding and satisfying and I want to share this same feeling with you.

So where do you start?

I have written a number of articles on this site over the years. Here are some of them.

Want to get started with grip training today? Pick up my DVD Industrial Strength Grip and learn the foundation to powerful hands and wrist.

Finally you can come train with me at my gym Movement Minneapolis in Plymouth MN. Drop in and find out how awesome grip training can be for yourself. You will enjoy it.