Grip Work!

Like the last post, this is something I have been wanting to write for a long time. Before we get down to details, I would like to first of all, justify my authority to talk about grip strength.

In India, unlike many other countries, sections of society are required to do daily manual tasks by hand. Agricultural workers, and masons work with no equipment other than shovels and sledgehammers. As a result the worker population posses incredible grip and hand strength. And I have held my own against the best of them. Among them, strength is judged by who can lift cement bags (they are of fairly universal weight) with the greatest ease. These bags are lifted to the shoulder and are incredibly awkward to grip, as the slippery surface (and the powdered cement) are very hard to hold onto. If you are a fan of sandbag lifting, you will love cement bags. They are twice as hard to lift, and being hard as rock, if they fall on your foot, you are gonna have to amputate it.

Hardcore Lifting

The normal technique for lifting the bags is what can only be described as a continental clean. The bag (which is as stiff as a rock) is rocked on one end into a standing position. Then the worker squats down next to it and rocks the weight onto his shoulders. He then squats out of the hole and is in the standing position.

The second technique is were two guys place the weight on a third guy, who then carries it all the way.

Lifting the Bag

Placing the Bag

Real men however, lift the shit off the ground like a dead-lift and then carry it in a bear hug or a clench.

Kid is Strong

A real man

The strongest however, simply lift it all the from the ground to the shoulders in one swift power clean. They then place it on their backs to carry.

Observe how just his fingers hold on to  the bag. Wish your fingers were
that tough?

I am proud to say I have cleaned that bag to my shoulder in one swift motion, on 3 separate instances. And I made some good friends each time.

I have also performed a one arm deadlift with double my bodyweight, and can perform 3 underhand chin ups using just my index fingers on each hand.

So why have I told you that elaborate tale? Because the workers are onto something.

Don't get me wrong. Living like a manual laborer will not give you a great physique or great strength. There is simply too much strain and no progressive overload and very little recovery. But as far as grip development is concerned, it is bang on! You ever shook hands with a rural guy and got a funny feeling that he could rip your head off with just his index finger and thumb?

The point is that traditional forearm exercises like wrist curls are totally useless for development of real and raw hand strength. From the story of manual laborers we can deduce the rules of grip development-

1. You have to lift a variety of objects and perform a variety of movements with them that involve the wrist. Think of using a sledge hammer, throwing an object, picking a sandbag etc. . . The primary job of the wrist is to control big movements. 
2. You have to hold on to things that you need to squeeze to prevent them from falling i.e intense isometric contraction of the fingers. This is critical, as it must be understood that the primary job of the fingers is to hold onto stuff. 
3. The forearms need a lot of volume, frequency AND weight to respond. They are a heavy duty muscle group, capable of insane power. Also they don't have a significant endocrinic effect, so they can and should be trained frequently.

From our own training wisdom, we can deduce 2 more principles-
1. Progressive overload.
2. Train the antagonists- the finger extensors in this case.

I am going to write down the basic training program and then explain my reasoning-
1. No more straps or grip supports of any kind in ALL your exercises. You will only use a standard thumbs around grip. No hooking the thumb. If you don't already do this, do this for 3-4 months at least before embarking upon the grip development program.
2. All bars are to be thickened by wrapping a towel around the barbell. You could also get one of those fat bar things, which you can clip on to the bar to increase the thickness. If you have a home gym, you could just buy a 2 inch thick barbell. You will do this for at least 2 months or as long as it takes for you to get back to using your usual weights.

For most guys, just doing the first 2 are enough to get their forearms looking like Popeye's. For the rest of you ambitious terminators-
3. You will progressively train the towel chin up progression. (Appendix A)
4. You will progressively train the fingertip push up progression. (Appendix B)
5. You will work on the close overhand chin up or the false grip chin up, depending on which is more comfortable on your wrists, and which helps you feel your wrist extensors (muscles on the top of the forearm) more. (Appendix C)
6. You will perform the opening hand exercise whenever you can. (Appendix D)

The reasoning behind the first 2 should be obvious to everybody. The simple act of removing grip support forces your fingers to hold on to the weight and your wrists to control it. Provided your routine is balanced and you try to progressively increase weight, you have a great forearm training program already. This accomplishes the same effects as manual labor, without adding any extra exercises. Once your grip has adapted to training this way, you can make it harder for the wrist to stabilize the weights and for the fingers to hold onto them, by making the leverage harder on the wrists and finger joints i.e by thickening the bar, thereby ensuring that the fingers have to be more open and the bar's center of gravity a little higher up the palm. Also the finger and wrist flexors need to contract in a more stretched condition. Also, if your routine is balanced, with things like cleans, snatches, rows, reverse curls etc. . . you will end up working the wrist extensors hard as well.

For most guys, this itself is enough to develop their grip. If this is you, great.

For the others, towel chin ups are the ultimate wrist and finger flexor exercise and they also exercise the thumbs. This exercise is really easy to make progressive as well, and therefore is the best progressive training tool available to us. Why did I chose this and not the deadlift? Adding an entire deadlift program just to strengthen your grip is too much stress and this exercise achieves more- Thumb power, wrist flexon and the strength required to control a weight with changing leverages, which is what happens when you go through the chin up motion. Like the squat, it is the biggest bang for your buck exercise in grip training. It is the bread and butter of your program.

Fingertip push ups work the finger extensors and also the finger flexors in the extended position. They are needed to balance your development, but do not need to be trained hard.

Both close grip overhand chin ups and false grip chin ups work the wrist extensors in the most natural way possible. You must judge which variation is suitable for you, as in my experience, most people can perform only one of these without pain, but everyone can perform at least one. They must be worked hard and for reps, not too progressively, as you are trying to build strength endurance, as this is the factor that prevents injuries and strength inhibition (of the antagonists).

The opening hand exercise works the finger extensors and is a vital exercise overlooked in most training programs. Being an isometric contraction, you must try to extend the length of the contraction over time. Also try to increase the contraction. This exercise prevents strength inhibition due to over worked finger flexors and weak extensors. It is critical for injury prevention and continuous improvement.

Perform all these exercises (other than opening hand- see Appendix D) in one workout 3 times a week, as a part of your regular workouts, or in separate sessions. Perform towel chins and finger tip push ups first. Do 1 set each of an easy variation as warm up. Then do 3 sets of the main (presumably the hardest one you can handle) technique of towel chin ups, then finish off with 2 sets of the main fingertip push up technique you are working on. Then do 2 sets of close or false grip chin ups, in each set trying to reach close to grip failure.

These workouts will not push your grip endurance much or your lactic acid tolerance capacity. Some of you will scoff and say you don't need it. Well, grip endurance is an essential athletic attribute and is an important part of what makes the forearm unique. However, for those of you who scoffed and those of you who did not, this attribute will be well taken care of by your regular workouts, as you are already doing them raw with an extra thick bar. Those workouts will challenge your forearm's endurance and lactic acid tolerance in a variety of movements. The special grip workouts will train the forearm's max strength. Ultimately you will be able to provide all the variety and spectrum of training successful hand strength training demands.

Also, you won't need to cycle your grip training too much as it does not have the same endocrinal demands normal training does. So its hard to burn out. Keep your forearm training fairly linear and just avoid over training and burn outs in everything else. I have already covered this is a lot of detail in many previous posts.

Now go over the Appendixes and understand the exercises. Then come back after a couple of years with the finger strength to rip a phone book in half.

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Appendix A
The Towel Chin Progression

Performing Chin ups from a towel has a lot of benefits. The fact that the base is vertical challenges thumb, finger, wrist and palm power. A towel is slick, and needs you to press really hard to maintain your hold. Plus the vertical position makes the leverage harder for the forearm muscles. During the motion of a chin up, your wrists and fingers go through considerable movement and leverages, challenging your grip and wrist strength in ways similar to sandbag and rock lifting. The advantage of doing this is that it requires no additional equipment and does not stress the endocrine system that much, allowing you to train frequently or in separate sessions, as the recovery demands are not much.
Perform each variation in good chin up form (see my post on Pull Ups). Start working on the next technique, once you can get 12 chin ups in the current technique. Start with sets of 4 and work all the way up to 12.
Never work to failure on this movement. It is a strength movement and treat it as such. Keep the reps below 12-13 per set and the intensity high. For most other muscle groups, 1-8 is strength, for the forearms, it from about 4-12.
Movement 1-
Standard Towel Chin Up
Self Explanatory. Use a normal towel, put it over a pull up bar. Grab onto each side and keep your hands even. Start chinning. You will soon realize you can't do these too fast or you will fall. Use good chin up form.

Jim from Beastskills showing us how its done

2. Double Towel Chin-
Again self explanatory, hang two towels and start chinning. The towels are thicker (it was one towel each hand, now its one doubled over towel each hand) and a bit off center, so its a good 30-40% harder.

3. Uneven Double Towel Chin-
Hang one towel on the bar and grab both ends with one hand and then both sides about 2 inches above it with the other. The thickness of the grip is the same as the last technique, but the higher hand has to carry more weight. Make sure you chin until your collar bone touches the higher palm, not the lower one. If your chinning is weak, this will kick it up a notch.
Repeat on both sides.

She is heading for her lower hand. Don't do that. 

4. Ultra Uneven Towel Chin Ups-
You have to be a strong manic to do these. Most of the weight has to go through one arm. This movement is equal to chinning with 60-70% of your bodyweight attached. If your lats can't handle it, place two fingers of the supporting hand on the bar instead. This will allow you to complete the movement, but the working arm will have to do all the gripping. If you do this, ensure that your working hand does most of the work.

5. One arm Towel Chin Up-
If you cant perform one arm chin ups, perform assisted chin ups, but with the assisting hand holding the forearm of the working hand, about 2 inches below the wrist. This is just like uneven chin ups 1.0 described in my one arm chin up article. The grip development benefits of this movement is similar to the one arm towel chin.

The ultimate grip movement

This can be made harder by doubling over the towel. You could also add towels.

By the time you get to this stage, your forearms will be capable of doing just about anything.
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Appendix B
Fingertip Push ups

This exercise works your finger extensors in the stretched position. Also, your wrist flexor needs to stabilize the weight. Its a important variation as it trains the hands in the fingers open position.
Couple of pointers on form, the fingers must be spread wide and must be straight. Only the first "knukle" of each finger should be on the ground. Perform all reps slowly.
The progression is simple and identical to the push up progression. Simply work your way up the Push Up progression (See the post on push ups)- on your fingertips. Start with fingertip kneeling push ups, then Full push ups, then uneven, than typewriter, than lever and finally the ordinary one arm fingertip pushup. There is no real point working upto the one arm fingertip regulation push up, as in terms of finger training, the ordinary one arm push up is as productive. Don't reduce fingers, as you need to train all fingers.
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Appendix C
Close Grip Overhand Chin Up/ False Grip Chin Up

Both these chin up variations work the forearm extensors hard. Use whichever movement feels more comfortable to you. I have attached a picture of the false grip, to show what it means. Basically it is assuming a grip that requires you to keep the palms facing the ground at all times. It is also a good exercise to master for muscle ups. In false grip chin ups, don't go into a deadhang as this will irritate your wrists.  Go as low as you feel comfortable. In the close grip chin up, you will find it uncomfortable to reach the top as it hurts the elbows. Most guys, in order to prevent this kind of lean back like a sternum chin up and the base of the thumbs hits their collar bones. However this movement takes away from the exercise's value as a wrist builder. Instead, as you go up raise your legs in front of you as if performing a hanging leg raise. This will allow you to ascend in a  more or less vertical line.
Both exercises must be worked for repetitions as injuries are prevented by strength endurance of muscles. As the purpose of this exercise is to prevent problems and muscle inhibition, working for reps is a better idea.

He is leaning slightly back to get the base of his
thumbs to hit his collar. Do not do this

Basically what you are looking for. See how vertical his torso is.
You don't need to do this L sit lower-abdomen pull up either,
just raise your legs up a bit and make the back of your
palms touch your collar bones. And that is Hannibal for King.

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Appendix D
The Opening Hand Exercise

This exercise is a vital but often overlooked exercise in the realm of grip development. It works the finger extensors in the bent fingers position. Simply make a claw with your right hand. Your Fingers should be bent 90 degrees and the lower part of your fingers should be in line with the hand i.e there should only be a 90 degree bend in the middle of the fingers, no bend at the knuckles. Don't hyperextend the knuckles either, just keep it at a natural angle. The thumb should be in line with the rest of the hand, not splayed out like an ordinary claw. There should also be some bend in the knuckle in the middle of the thumb. Keep your hand relaxed.
Now take your left hand and wrap it around your right hand, without changing the position of the right hand's fingers. It should be such that the base of the left thumb and fingers is touching the back of the tips of the thumb and fingers of the right hand.
Now simply try to open the fingers of the right hand against the resistance of the left hand. You won't be able to, as the left palm can't move away. This will cause an intense isometric contraction in the finger extensors of the right hand. Maintain this contraction for atleast 30 seconds. Repeat on the other hand and do totally 3 sets per hand.
Initially shoot for time, until you reach about a min long contraction. Then try to increase the intensity. This exercise can be performed anywhere and everywhere and should be performed separately so that you can focus. You won't need any warm up more than writing with a pen.
Perform this exercise 3 times a week.