Grip! The missing element!

One of the key elements that I notice that strength athletes tend to neglect from their training programmes, or not pay enough attention too is GRIP training.

Whether your goal is to increase strength or size, grip training has to be an integral part of any training programme.

From a sports specific point of view, Strongman has a huge number of events where grip is a factor such as farmers, sandbags, stones, keys, log… the list goes on! Powerlifting, CrossFit and Olympic lifting also heavy rely on grip to on the majority of the exercise movements. 
Grip is a specific skill in itself but has such an impact on the grow of muscle fibres and strength across such as wide variety of muscles particularly the biceps and triceps (through muscle irradiation).

By strengthening the forearm/grip, it allows for a greater stimulation of the biceps, with better muscle activation, and building of more fast twitch muscle fibres there is an increase of strength and an improved metabolic stress capacity. This increased strength also has a further knock on impact on the biceps and back as it allows movements such as the bent-over row, pull ups, single arm DB rows to be completed without the need for straps (which inhibit activation/stimulation/growth in muscles such as the forearms and biceps)

Increasing your grip will also help with shoulder stability, with the rotator cuff (a very common injury in strength sports) being directly linked to grip ability and decrease the risk of injury and tendinitis (training with fat grips allows for the engagement for the forearm extendors as well as the flexors in the low part of the forearm).

Some great movements to improve your grip strength would be:

Axle bar holds (Targets the flexor carpi radials ties in with the bicep at the elbow, with the wrist flexion axle and fat grips target this, and allow for improved recruitment of the entire bicep head)

Duck walk holds

Zottman curls (strengthen the brachioradialis responsible for elbow flexion and supination/pronation)

If you don’t have specialist equipment in your gym, why not try using Fat grips, these can be used in a wide range of movements. 

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