Thick Bars for Grip Strength

[Leozinho]

According to Amazon, people that bought Beyond Fundamentals also bought Captain of Crush Grippers. So clearly some of us are on the grip strength bandwagon.

I thought I pass along another tool to increase grip strength: Thick Bars and Thick Bar Adapters.

I'm talking about barbells with a 2 to 3 inch diameter, which are much more difficult to grip than a standard barbell. This gives your forearms and grip a great workout. One would be a useful addition to a home gym.

If you train at a commercial gym or on the road, try a fat grip adapter that can be added to a standard barbell. Fatz Grip is one of the originals, but there's also Grip4orce and Tyler Grips. The cheapest adapter I could find was a pair of Manus grips on Ebay for $25. I'm using them for warmup sets on deads and pullups, and some work sets on pressing and rowing movements. They slip on over a standard barbell or dumbbell. I haven't had them long but I think it's making a difference.

[Mechanistic]

Definitely a good idea.

Otherwise try hanging from a pullup bar for at least 30 seconds while making sure to have your shoulder blades retracted and down. Works the forearms like nothing else as well as the shoulder complex.

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

LINK Will has a lot of useful info

[nick romero]

try squeezing a tennis ball 3 sets of 30. great forearms and grip workout, if too difficult at first puncture a needle through ball to aid in compression.

[Mechanistic]

try squeezing a tennis ball 3 sets of 30. great forearms and grip workout, if too difficult at first puncture a needle through ball to aid in compression.

Oh. Like that. Good one. Or grippers. Any workout involving kettle bells improves forearm and hand grip strength like crazy.

[John Thompson]

Fatgrpz are swesome and the biggest benefit of them in the extra large version is the increased surface are really takes some pressure off you elbows and shoulders.

[Cheshire_Cat]

I have done double overhand deadlifts with a thick barbell and they definitely hit the forearms hard.

[calvary45]

I bought a pair of fatgripz about a year ago and love them for dumbells and pullups, also +1 Mechanistic on kettlebells for workouts. I also have a pair of CoC grippers.

[XRe]

Snatch grip deadlift. Grab a couple 45 (plates, not 1911s) in your finger tips and farmer carry them. Lots of stuff to play with.

Fat bars suck... LOL...

[MattYvip]

try squeezing a tennis ball 3 sets of 30. great forearms and grip workout, if too difficult at first puncture a needle through ball to aid in compression.

Oh. Like that. Good one. Or grippers. Any workout involving kettle bells improves forearm and hand grip strength like crazy.

+1 on the Kettle Bells. Been using them for about 8 years in conjunction with normal workouts and crossfit. Kettle bells are awesome for strengthening everything.

[kylehb]

I do a lot of olympic lifting (cleans, snatches, etc.) and we use bars with enlarged diameters pretty often to work on grip strength. I have tried a lot of things for this purpose over the years but I think the large diameter bar has been perhaps the most effective tool for developing grip strength whether it is for lifting, action pistol, or any other activity. Forearm strength also plays a key role though as the two often go hand in hand, any grip strengthening program should include a substantial amount of forearm exercise as well.