Grip Strength Like a Gorilla

Think of this as just a beginners guide to help you get some basic idea of what to do. If you want to build killer grip strength in your hands you need to target those muscles that control your hands. I am going to show you some of the methods that can be employed to get it done.

There are the grippers and other tools that are great and necessary for all around training but other tools are available that you can find laying around your home. I must add if you are not currently working out to take it easy at first. Also, you should not work your grip every day, three to four days a week would be best, you need to give the muscles time to recover and get stronger.

As far as the workouts are concerned, do some warm up reps then increase weight or intensity from there. You should mix up the exercises, reps and intensity to hit the forearms from all angles and keep from getting a muscle imbalance. For the sake of safety, when you are holding something in a pinch grip or farmers carry, watch out for your toes if it should drop.

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Working out with weights will surely help your grip get stronger and is needed for all over fitness and strength. But, you have to do things that are targeting those gripping muscles. One way is heavy carry. Simply pick up Dumbells in each hand that are heavier than you normaly carry and hold them at your sides for a count of 10 or 20 or until you have to drop them. You can also hold them and walk(called Farmers Walk), this will target not only your forearms but your back, hips and legs. You can find odd, heavy stuff laying around that can be used as well, such as Concrete Blocks, Large Water or Gas Containers filled with liquid make good alternatives. Lengths of pressure treated 4 x 4. Try pinching two steel barbell plates togther and hold. Just use your imagination

Another method you should use is leverage type of workouts. An example would be holding a sledgehammer in your hand with your arm hanging at your side, elbow locked. Just lift the sledgehammer up using your wrist, keeping arm straight. You can do this holding it to the front and to the back to target differant muscles. Depending on your strength level you would hold the handle at the point that would let you lift it (closer to end of handle would be more difficult). Do these exercises for res or just hold for time.

Of couse you do not have to use a sledgehammer, any long item with some weight to it will do such as a broom or piece of pipe etc., depending on your strength level. As you can see in the picture, one test of strength is to lower the hammer to the face then back out again.

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Using pinching techniques with your fingers is another method that you must do. This could simply be holding an object between your finger tips for time or until you must let it drop , or pinching two objects together like Barbell Plates and holding as mentioned earlier is great. Set a dumbell on end and grip it over the end with your finger tips. Lift it and hold or lift for reps.

As you do any of the exercises, vary the way you do them. Do lighter but many reps, fewer but heavier reps, hold stationary to failure, hold grippers closed for one rep sets or to failure. Just mix it up depending how you feel, but you must continue to increase resistance and intensity as you progress.

Try hanging from pull-up bars or hang from rafters. Hang by finger your tips instead of full grip, just squeeze hard to hold on. Do finger walks - you can place your finger tips on a wall like you are doing finger tip push-ups then walk your fingers side to side or up and down while leaning in to increase pressure, you can feel this in your forearms.

You need to exercise the muscles that are involved it opening the hand to keep the muscle development balanced. Try using a small diameter, heavy duty rubber band, place it over your finger tips. Just spread your fingers as far as you can, if its too easy use two rubber bands or more. Do reps and static hold for time. Another exercise would be pushing your finger tips into sand and trying to open them.

And don't forget the ever popular rope climb. The rope climb is an excellent arm workout.

Hand grippers are a tool you should be using to supplement your training. Do not rely solely on these, but mix them in with the other workouts. If your not sure of your strength try one of the inexpensive store bought kind. If it is too easy to use you should go ahead and buy one of the really good ones like the Captains of Crush grippers. They have a series of them that progressively get harder to squeeze.

There are different routines to use with the grippers. One would be to just do repetitions with each hand. Another would be to do negatives where you would use a gripper that you may not be able to squeeze shut, use your other hand to help assist closing the gripper then try to hold it shut with your one hand. You can also squeeze a gripper shut and just continue squeezing as hard as you can for 5 to 10 seconds. To work on the thumb, try holding a gripper between the thumb and forefinger and squeeze.

Remember to mix up these workouts and you will be able to work on all the muscles in the forearm and hand.

You can find endless stuff online to help you out. My favorite is DieselCrew.com, they show some great stuff in their videos. Just try everything, eat good and get enough rest. Also make sure you get a whole body workout to keep in balance.