How should I train my grip? I think it's quite pathetic right now. I tried doing 3 sets of farmers walk around my gym with 35kg DBs and on the 3rd set my left grip gave...and this was with a hook grip. It would've given up with a normal grip probably a lot earlier...
I want to eventually enter a strongman competition and that means hauling 85kg logs...hopefully without straps. Should I just do farmers walk every single workout(3x/week) to failure? Or wave load it throughout the week? Or just once a week?
Here are some suggestions from Smitty at EliteFTS for grip. His focus is on the deadlift, but some of it might work for your strongman goals too. Some of the guys who do strongman might have some other ideas.
Thick bar work, Rack deadlifts (or any deadlift), pullup holds for time.
Once you work with those for a while, I would progress to just using your fingers for pullups/rows/etc once in a while. This seems to really help the grip.
Thanks...deadlift focus would be great too, coz my grip is the limiting factor for my heavy deads...I wanna be able to do them double overhand
Yeah, me too. For some reason I find doubble overhand (I usually do hook grip) better, I can't hold as much weight but I feel it's easier to hold the bar inn towards the body.
One thing I do when the weight gets really heavy is alternate hook grip. I just started doing them because it felt more right after having used the regular hook grip for so long. I can hold more weight than with regular hook grip or regular alternate grip.
Pardon my ignorance, but what is a hook grip? I generally just use a standard grip on the deadlift, fingers on one side, thumb on the other. I've used a mixed grip before, but decided that I would gain more grip strength by not using it.
as for grip training i have always found high volume works well. You can work your grip every other day just mix up the exercises.
towel pullups, using a thick bar for any exercise, you can do suitcase deadlifts you can invest in a pair of hand grippers, plate pinch, wrist rollers, hammer levering, rack pulls, timmed barbell holds, and off course farmer walks.
Do a wide verity of exercises mix it up and have fun. Your grip will catch up in no time
A hook grip is when you put your thumb underneath your fingers. Your fingers lock your thumb to the bar so that it won't slip. It hurts if you're not used to it and it's not recommended for more than about 3 reps at a time. Olympic lifters use the hook grip and sometimes powerlifters use the hook grip for their competition deadlift.
Here's another great article on grip training from John Sullivan, Grip Training for Strength & Power Sports. (FYI, Sully's pretty awesome.) It came to mind because he recommends using the reverse hook grip, where you lock your thumb over your fingers. That's how I always grip the bar. Chalk helps with grip too. Be sure to chalk the areas where your thumb and fingers touch. It really helps your grip not to slip.
Ive seen so many people try so hard to use the hook grip for deads, and nobody evers suceeds. It hurts like hell! I think alot of the time when people train 'grip' they are training forearms when it is their actual fingers that are weak. Pullups on your fingertips.. once you can get 10-15 at BW I bet youll have no grip problems.
Zach Even Esh has a new e book out on grip training here if your interested.
Personally - (I think Frank mentioned it) but fat bar pullup holds for time have worked for me and heavy RDL's for 5+ reps made the biggest difference to my grip
just keep working on things like farmers walks, but vary the conditions. Either walk with heavier ones for shorter distance, or lighter for a longer distance. If you want to get good at doing a certain thing, like farmers walks, you should be doing those. Specialize.
Things like thick bar work work well. Using things like towels, or eagle loops work well.
Also, one arm dumbbell rows are an underrated grip exercise.
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How should I train my grip? I think it's quite pathetic right now. I tried doing 3 sets of farmers walk around my gym with 35kg DBs and on the 3rd set my left grip gave...and this was with a hook grip. It would've given up with a normal grip probably a lot earlier...
I want to eventually enter a strongman competition and that means hauling 85kg logs...hopefully without straps. Should I just do farmers walk every single workout(3x/week) to failure? Or wave load it throughout the week? Or just once a week?
Wow. That's a damn weak grip. Why are you even doin' hook grips? How long did you hold the dumbbells?You need to stop using hook grips, and you should devote a day to your grip and forearms.
On that day, do 6 sets of Dumbbell Farmers Walk with 4.5kg dumbbells. Walking from point A to point B makes one set. Make sure you have your hands completely gripping the dumbbells (no hook grip), and your walk should last no more than 25-30 seconds when your grip gives out. If it exceeds that, increase the weight.
The next exercise should be towel Farmers Walks. Wrap a towel through an Olympic Plate, and then hold the two ends with your grip. Then follow the same directions as the Dumbbell Farmers Walk.
The third exercises focuses on your whole forearm, as well as your grip. Do 4 sets of 6-8 heavy Barbell Wrist Curls. This exercise works your whole forearm greatly. Basically, just stand with the barbell behind you, up against your butt, and do wrist curls with heavy weight. A picture is found here: http://www.muscleandstrength.com/exe...rist-curl.html
The fourth exercise to do is Hex Head Dumbbell Holds. All you do is grab a dumbbell, put your fingers on the fat end (the head of the dumbbell), and hold it for a specific time. More info and a picture is found here: http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=488461
That's it. For other normal days, try using a fat bar. Don't use straps when deadlifting, or straps at all for that matter. Pull-up on a fatter bar, if you do pull-ups.
Alcoholiday, I'm actually doing DB rows as well, the heaviest I did for 5 reps was about 60kg(2 dumbbells chained together), and my grip was definitely giving up.
Fulmen, the dumbbells are held for less than a minute each. I just walked from 1 end of the gym to the other end, and then back. 35kg is the heaviest DB that the gym has(I know, it sucks). I'll try the towel walk. I can't do barbell wrist curls due to an injury on my left wrist, and the gym doesn't have any hex dumbbells either, nor a fat bar. I never ever use straps for anything. In fact, I do all my lifts raw, with chalk at most.
Anyway, will try incorporating more farmers walks, static barbell holds, towel holds at the end of every workout, thanks again!
Alcoholiday, I'm actually doing DB rows as well, the heaviest I did for 5 reps was about 60kg(2 dumbbells chained together), and my grip was definitely giving up.
Fulmen, the dumbbells are held for less than a minute each. I just walked from 1 end of the gym to the other end, and then back. 35kg is the heaviest DB that the gym has(I know, it sucks). I'll try the towel walk. I can't do barbell wrist curls due to an injury on my left wrist, and the gym doesn't have any hex dumbbells either, nor a fat bar. I never ever use straps for anything. In fact, I do all my lifts raw, with chalk at most.
Anyway, will try incorporating more farmers walks, static barbell holds, towel holds at the end of every workout, thanks again!
try doing dumbbell rows for high reps.
Matt K does these over at elite, and has been making them pretty famous. He's been doing 20 rep dumbbell rows, and tons of people are praising them for the grip strength they bring, as well as hypertrophy of the traps, lats, etc.
watch this video. around 1:20 he starts talking about them. He's pulled over 7, so he knows what he's talking about.
Here's him doing them. 175lb dumbbells for 33 reps:
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Towel chins and rope climbs are more excellent movements for grip.
If you have access to kettlebells use those for farmers carry as the thicker handles work well, and if there are stairs at your gym farmers carries up and down those will get you some good lower body work in there.
I've been doing those with 32kg KBs and my lungs usually give before my grip.
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Working "hard," or the perception of working hard, doesn't really mean anything. Sweating, vomiting, and breathing hard could be a good workout or a tropical disease kicking in.-Dan John
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