Cross Fitters: Gripify your W.O.D.!

I’m on a global mission, to get everyone of you enjoying the motor miracle of grip training. I have taught thousands of people how to successful implement hand and wrist training to get them more muscle, more strength, and better athletic performance in their sport.

These get stronger- everything else is stronger too...

Now I turn my eye to the Cross Fit world.

One of the distinctive characteristics of using the Workout Of the Day (often called a WOD for short) is the high variety used to train a wide range of movements. If we compare the average Cross Fitter to the average person attending a commercial gym facility, we will observe the WODs bring in almost double the amount of movements per month. Is training more movements a good thing? It certainly appears to be!

Just as with Cross Fit, one of the distinctive characteristics of the Grip training world is the huge range of movements used to train the hands, both in sport and in general strength training. There are 6 primary pillars of grip training- Crush, Pinch, Support, Levering, Bending, and Tearing. Within each of these a multitude of movements that not only train the hands, they address the entire body.

Plain and simple- adding some grip training to your WODs will give you more variety, make you a more well rounded athlete, and improve your performance in your favorite movements such as pull ups, muscle ups, and your ability to rip weights off the floor.

So how am I going to do this?

The L Seat Pinch Pull Up, one of my favorite movements and feats of strength. You need a powerful thumb to do it, but you can get there.

We are going to Gripify The WOD!

“Gripify” – to insert a grip drill in to a program, dramatically increasing its awesome by a factor of 17,000%  and guaranteeing the possibility of motor miracles on any given day.

I will give you four easy to use drills which will be high pay off to you. Simply drop one of these in to your WOD. Even a modest amount of direct grip training per month will drive a noticeable improvement to your performance.

- Repetition Two Hand Pinch deadlift. This is a very simple drill, but it pays off in spades. You will need two weight plates. Metal plates are preferred for this to challenge the grip by reducing surface friction. Place the plates upright on the floor, smooth side facing outward. Grip the plates over the top with your fingers on the front, thumb on the back. Now deadlift the plates off the floor in your preferred stance. Stand all the way, then set them down and lift them again. This can be a very fast movement allowing you many reps while smoking the fingers and thumb.

*Note, you can also do a two hand pinch high pull, but use caution on the amount of resistance as it loads the thumb to a very high degree.

- Fat handle one arm dumbbell snatch. You already know how to do a one arm dumbbell snatch, but have you ever tried it with a fat handle? I will three solutions for a fat handle. The premium option is a Strongergrip.com Gripbell, which features a ball for a handle instead of a straight bar. The second option is using the extremely popular “FatGripz” which are rubber slip on handles. These can be used on nearly all brand dumbbell handles. You can read my review on the FatGripz HERE. The third option is using a medium sized towel and wrapping up the dumbbell handle. Please note if you do this to use caution and keep the towel tightly wrapped up. You do not want a towel slipping off the handle while your ripping it overhead.

*Note, you can use FatGripz to add a support challenge to many of your favorite drills. It is a simple modification which can be very productive to your training.

- Towel Pull Ups. There are a few ways to do this, so experiment with both methods to see which works best for your body. The first method will require two thick towels. What I did was go to a dollar store and bought two towels, then I rolled them up and taped the ends to keep them mostly rolled up. Toss them over the bar and try out a pull up. The thick rope requires you to pull from an open hand position, and as a bonus allows you to take your pick of pronated, neutral, or supinated grip. These fat handled pull ups can be extremely challenging, but they are the easier of the two methods.

The second option is brutal. I want you to take a stronger thinner towel. I use a beach towel, as they are usually stronger, but also lighter material. roll the towel up tightly to make a thin rope. Now do your pull ups with this towel.

Pulling from a thin towel is a much more challenging movement compared to the thick one. Your hands will be almost fully closed, and your individual fingers will be doing a lot more work then required from standard bars and dumbbells. This drill is also extremely useful for people who are involved in ju jitsu/judo/sambo where the opponent is wearing a heavy jacket. As with the thick towel pull ups you will be able to experiment with an overhand, neutral, and underhand pulling grip.

- Two hands pinch farmers walk. A new favorite drill of global leader in combatives Tony Blauer, who added “400 meter carry with two 35 lbs plates (10 squat penalty when plates slip) Fun” which is a perfect example of how to Gripify the WOD. To do this, pick out your distance, grab up your plates, and get your tail moving. Keep in mind the various positions you can carry the plates- arms in close, arms out wide, plates carried to one side- your imagination is the only limiting factor.

Everyone one of us has had to carry something for distance while pinching, makes sense to train it in the gym.

Putting it all together

First try out these drills, see what happens when you do. If you enjoy them, check out my other articles on Grip and Hand strength training and see what else you can plug in. Looking to hit the mother load? Check out my DVD Industrial Strength Grip which was designed to introduce people to grip training using the equipment you already have available as well as the most popular grip tools on the market.

Build up a strong grip and soon you even be able to do things such as this- tearing brand new phone books with ease