Get Crushing Grip Strength with This Workout

There are many athletes who could benefit from increased grip strength. Many sports require a strong grip to be successful such as wrestling, football, baseball, weightlifting, and judo. Although many athletes value the importance of grip strength, many are confused about the proper training techniques to increase grip strength and prevent injury. Many times I have heard "Can I train grip like other muscles?" The answer is yes. You must train with high intensity and proper recovery time to prevent over training, just as you would any other muscle group. Here we will go over the proper exercises and training regimen to increase grip strength for improved athletic performance and injury prevention.

As you may know, there is much more to grip strength than your ability to crush something in your hand. There is also pinch strength, spreading strength, twisting and bending strength of the forearm and individual finger strength. To have a well rounded grip training program you must incorporate all of these types of training into your workout.

Pinch Strength

Pinch strength is your ability to pinch weight between your fingers and thumb. The level of strength is often measured by how much weight can be pinched or how wide the fingers can be from the thumb while still holding the weight. In this type of strength, being able to pinch five 5lb plates is far better than being able to pinch one 25lb plate. You can increase this grip strength by doing timed holds. This means finding a plate, or putting two plates together and holding the pinch for a set amount of time. Start with a lighter weight for 20-30 seconds and work your way up from there with more weight, more plates and more time.

Crush Strength

The most popular of the grip strengths, crushing devices can be found everywhere and people who have crushing grips are said to be the strongest. Only training crush strength, however, can have many bad side effects. Only training crush strength will eventually lead to an imbalance in flexors over extensors and cause hand injuries. Keeping that in mind, you can train crush strength many ways. The most common way is by using a crush gripper. The highest regarded grippers are made by Captains of Crush and range from the Trainer up to the #4. Very few people in the world can close the #4. Do sets and reps of crush strength as you would any other muscle group. You should not carry around a gripper and train every day.

Spreading Strength

Spreading strength uses the extensors and is the most often overlooked aspect of grip training because of the apparent difficulty in training this type of grip strength. Spreading strength is crucial in keeping a balance with pinching and crushing strength and can be trained two ways. One way is to buy a ball that has bands that go around each of the fingers. You simply spread out your fingers and stretch the bands. An easy way to do this at home is to wrap some rubber bands around your fingers and spread out your hand. This should be done in sets and reps as you would any other muscle group. The other way to increase spreading grip strength is to get a bucket or bowl of rice or sand and sink your hand into it, then proceed to close and open your hand inside the rice or sand. It is much more difficult than it sounds.

Forearm Strength

Forearm strength is well known for bending, like the Captains of Crush nails. Forearm strength is also important for weight lifting and supporting all other lifts. You can work on your forearm strength using a set and rep routine with dumbbells or a barbell. Make sure you hit on all of the facets of the forearm when you work to increase this grip strength such as wrist curls, wrist extensions and rotations.

Individual Finger Strength

You can increase this type of grip strength simply by emphasizing individual fingers during the previously mentioned exercises. Hold pinches with just your thumb and forefinger, then switch fingers and see how long you can do the hold. This is the same for crushing strength. You will be surprised by which fingers are doing most of the work when you use your whole hand. Find the weaker fingers and work them more to have better balance among all four.

Use these techniques and create your own training to increase grip strength. Remember that the muscles of the hand are like any other muscle and you must give them at least 48 hours of rest before working them again. Be safe, stay balanced and have a great lift.