Issue 029

September 2007

Still only using barbells and dumbbells for your strength and conditioning work? Then you’re missing out on some great tools to improve your grip and increase your performance! 

If you’ve ever had a good wrestler or jiu-jitsu fighter latch on to you with a vice-like grip that is impossible to prise off, you will understand the need for a strong grip in MMA. Here are some of my favourite ways to work the grip in the gym.

Thick bar training

A thick bar is a great tool that is very easy and cheap to get hold of and can be used for a multitude of exercises. You can do pretty much anything with a thick bar that you can with a normal bar, but pulling exercises are best. Deadlifts, bent over rows and even cleans are great to do on a thick bar and really tax the grip. Expect your forearms to hurt for a while after a good session on the thick bar!

Grippers

To train crushing grip, grippers are effective, simple to use, are easy to carry around and can be trained anywhere. Just set it in your palm and touch the handles together. Sounds easy? You’re probably thinking of those cheap plastic grippers that are about as tough to close as the spring collar on your Olympic bar! I’m talking about real grippers, such as the Captains of Crush or Heavy Grip brands. These grippers typically start at 100 IP, which means you will need to apply 100 pounds per square inch of pressure to touch the handles together, and go to above 300 IP!

Kettlebells

Kettlebells have many benefits, but one of the biggest differences between a dumbbell and a kettlebell is the challenge to the grip. Put simply, kettlebells swing around and try and escape, where dumbbells are nice and balanced. A basic kettlebell move that greatly taxes the grip is the snatch, where the kettlebell is lifted from the floor to over the head in one movement. As the weight gets to the top, the bell will need to turn over to rest on the forearm, and at this point you need to grip very tightly to avoid an impact. This will improve your grip as well as your timing. Another much harder kettlebell exercise to train the grip is the bottom-up press, where the kettlebell is held upside down while being pressed overhead. These are just two examples of many options you can explore with kettlebell training.

Sandbags

Sandbags are very different to most types of weight because they are totally unpredictable. There is no obvious handle to pick them up by, and when you do pick them up they move all over the place! This is obviously of great benefit to fighters as it enables you to develop the strength needed to hold on to and control a moving object. All the usual exercises will work well with sandbags. For taxing the grip my favourite two are the sandbag power clean and the sandbag bent-over row. 

Towels

If you only use a towel to dry yourself when you get out of the shower, you are missing out! The ordinary towel becomes a brilliant training tool when rolled up. To make some ordinary exercises interesting, throw a towel over a bar and knock out a few sets of pull-ups, or loop it through the handles of a low row machine. You can even give yourself a good excuse to do some curls: loop a towel through the handle of a kettlebell or the middle of a weight plate, grab the handle and do curls – now if anyone asks, you can say you’re working your grip rather than ‘polishing the guns’!

Thick Ropes

Thick ropes are brilliant, if you are lucky enough to be able to get hold of one. Use them to climb, attach them to a sled and do arm-over-arm pulls, or even get outside with a friend and have a tug of war competition! Forearms of steel will be yours before you know it.

These are just some of the many ideas you can use to train to get a stronger grip. If you are not currently using any of these methods, try and get hold of one or two or the tools mentioned above and you will soon see the difference in your grip.

Alex Gold is a strength and conditioning coach and sports therapist specializing in working with sportsmen to increase performance. He can be contacted on 07943 604 024 or via his website, www.hardcoresportstraining.co.uk where you can also sign up for a free newsletter with training tips and more!