How to improve support hand grip strength?

[mule169]

Would like to see what you guys have done to really get that support up to speed with gripping the gun at an acceptable firm hold. I always find my support hand is not always squeezing and when it is, it’s not enough. 
 

are there workouts to increase strength in your support hand or is it something overtime I should be doing in dry fire to constantly grip harder and harder with my support. 

[Bench]

In addition to the strengthening the flexors with a good grip strength tool I'm using a dowel with a weight (1 gal. of paint) attached with a rope and doing wrist rollers. Start with the rope wrapped around the dowel (elbows bent at 90 and at your sides) and use your wrists and grip strength to lower (unroll the rope) the weight. When the rope is unwound off of the dowel keep rolling in that same direction until the weight is back up to the dowel. The drill is unwind the rope in one direction until the weight is back up to the dowel then do it again (all the way down and back up) rolling in the opposite direction.

 

A good grip is necessary but more gun control comes from not only grip strength but wrist support too.

[lgh]

Agree with Bench on the wrist rollers. Deadlifts and other free weight lifts where you lift the weight up are also good. Inverted kettlebell cleans are great. Lots of one handed weak hand dry fire will definetly improve your grip and endurance.

[NoSteel]

 

[DwightSchrute]

Try Captains of Crush Grippers.  https://ironmind.com/product-info/ironmind-grippers/captains-of-crush-grippers/.
Great activity while driving to and from work.

[ddc]

What I'm finding is that I believe I have reasonable grip strength but that I am having a hard time training myself to actually use it.

 

For example: When doing a specific training drill such as a Bill Drill or the doubles drill my gun comes back to neutral and doesn't get dislocated in my grip.

However during an actual match stage I find myself concentrating on other issues to the point where I don't think my grip is as effective as when it is the focus of a drill.

 

[CC3D]

1. Train grip strength but be careful to not overdue it. Tendonitis is something you can give yourself relatively easily if you're not careful. 

 

2. Grip strength comes mostly from the forearms, not the hands. Wont go too much into the anatomy of this but doing forearm work outs will increase your grip strength as well. Wrist flexion/ extension curls are good for this. 

 

3. Train your radial and ulnar deviation as well, an important part of recoil control is wrist locking which employs these muscles. 

 

Basically to say dont just rely on crushers to work on grip strength. The other exercises mentioned above will work out the things I mentioned but I find it helpful to know why we do certain things. Someone posted a great forearm workout for shooting a while ago using a hammer to work on radial/ ulnar deviation- thats what I do. 

[BigHand]

On 10/24/2022 at 1:25 PM, CC3D said:

1. Train grip strength but be careful to not overdue it. Tendonitis is something you can give yourself relatively easily if you're not careful. 

 

2. Grip strength comes mostly from the forearms, not the hands. Wont go too much into the anatomy of this but doing forearm work outs will increase your grip strength as well. Wrist flexion/ extension curls are good for this. 

 

3. Train your radial and ulnar deviation as well, an important part of recoil control is wrist locking which employs these muscles. 

 

Basically to say dont just rely on crushers to work on grip strength. The other exercises mentioned above will work out the things I mentioned but I find it helpful to know why we do certain things. Someone posted a great forearm workout for shooting a while ago using a hammer to work on radial/ ulnar deviation- thats what I do. 

 

This is great advice. You need to work the entire gambit of main and support muscles. A good one I didn't see mentioned is heavy farmers carries. This will help strengthen and stretch the whole chain from neck/shoulders to hands.  I do farmers carries with 50-100lbs dumbells with full grip, then some with only finger grip, then some while flexing the forearm back and forth, working the wrist and forearm flexors as well as the Brachioradialis muscles. 

 

If you already doing any resistance or weight training make sure you're dedicating a little time to arms and shoulders as well. Support the whole shooting chain. If your wrists and elbows are prone to injury/tendonitis like mine, make sure you're not doing constant contraction/extension exercises. Throw in a lot of static holds to keep the wrists/elbows from doing the same repetitive motions over and over. Much like doing planks is better for your back than crunches. 

[X5SigChris]

I started using “fat grips” at the gym for a lot of my lifts. That and switched up my deadlifts to a double overhand grip. Can’t say it’s helping yet as it’s a new thing but I hope it helps. 
 

i tried COC grip trainers but I end up never using them. I do keep one in the truck in the cup holder and use it from time to time while at stop lights. It’s more to feel like I didn’t waste the money lol  

[Pmatte1]

Piece of PVC pipe and some paracord tied with 6’ of slack. Tie a 10lb plate to bottom.
 Make a home forearm roller cheap and easy.  
Great for forearm workout and way easier to avoid getting tendonitis like with the COC grippers

[Flea]

Big fan of this ^^^^^

[Racinready300ex]

On 10/22/2022 at 5:54 PM, mule169 said:

Would like to see what you guys have done to really get that support up to speed with gripping the gun at an acceptable firm hold. I always find my support hand is not always squeezing and when it is, it’s not enough. 
 

are there workouts to increase strength in your support hand or is it something overtime I should be doing in dry fire to constantly grip harder and harder with my support. 

 

If you're not always squeezing that'll be fixed with practice. 

[delta6]

This:

Quote

2. Grip strength comes mostly from the forearms, not the hands. Wont go too much into the anatomy of this but doing forearm work outs will increase your grip strength as well. Wrist flexion/ extension curls are good for this. 

 

[endorphinrush]

https://www.sportgrips.com/product/new-sidewinder-revolution-1-coming-soon/

 

https://www.sportgrips.com/product/grip-twister/

[Npoulson]

I use one of those grip weight things

charlie perez has a great segment on grip all versions

very detailed and interesting 

he suggests getting a grip weight pull from amazon and checking your grip

that your grip pressure with strong hand should be 100lbs

may sound funny but maybe try a string instrument 

something not just pulling a handle to get strength but something that the more you get the more improvement you see

[GunBugBit]

There’s HAVING the hand strength and there’s USING it.  I’m mainly thinking of the finer aspects of it, like using the right amount of support hand pressure CONSISTENTLY while keeping the trigger finger relaxed.  One thing I keep reminding myself about is getting the support hand firm as soon as I’m on target.

 

I experienced better scores during a Steel Challenge match where I emphasized always-firm support hand over draw speed.  Not that my draw speed couldn’t stand improvement because it definitely could.

Edited July 14, 2023 by GunBugBit

[GunBugBit]

On 5/15/2023 at 7:41 PM, Npoulson said:

I use one of those grip weight things

charlie perez has a great segment on grip all versions

very detailed and interesting 

he suggests getting a grip weight pull from amazon and checking your grip

that your grip pressure with strong hand should be 100lbs…

Charlie is blessed with huge and I suspect naturally very strong hands that I believe he also works on to be even stronger.  More important, he knows how to use this raw strength to his benefit.

 

I am not overly gifted in hand strength but I do grip work and try to use what modest hand strength I have as effectively as I can.

 

Sometimes it’s more about the nuances of hand and finger pressure than pure crush force.  Though I wouldn’t mind being able to easily exert 150 lbs of pressure through a whole stage.

[Npoulson]

1 minute ago, GunBugBit said:

Charlie is blessed with huge and I suspect naturally very strong hands that I believe he also works on to be even stronger.  More important, he knows how to use this raw strength to his benefit.

 

I am not overly gifted in hand strength but I do grip work and try to use what modest hand strength I have as effectively as I can.

 

Sometimes it’s more about the nuances of hand and finger pressure than pure crush force.  Though I wouldn’t mind being able to easily exert 150 lbs of pressure through a whole stage.

Im just an average sized guy and i can do 125lbs per hand

[MikeyScuba]

I like the Ironmind Rolling Thunder.  Never liked the grippers but I have small hands 

[Murzikrv]

Will have to try this.

[maur]

You can use grip enhancers, but you can also use the gun, and its better training imo. Grip the gun with support hand harder and harder until your hand/gun shakes, then back off slightly. Thats your optimal support hand grip pressure. Hold this position as long as you can to train your grip strength.

[MoNsTeR]

Deadlifts (you should be doing these anyway!). Bottoms-up kettlebell presses. Farmer's carries. Rock climbing. Dead hang from a bar.

 

Grip strength is a deep rabbit hole you can go down, and a lot of what is thought to be useful, isn't. Captains of Crush for example aren't the best, because they train a squeezing motion based on a concentric contraction of the forearm flexors. But that's not what your hands do gripping a gun, which is an isometric contraction. Isometric training -- basically different kinds of static holds -- will produce a more direct improvement than concentric training.

[RangerTrace]

On 10/22/2022 at 4:54 PM, mule169 said:

Would like to see what you guys have done to really get that support up to speed with gripping the gun at an acceptable firm hold. I always find my support hand is not always squeezing and when it is, it’s not enough. 
 

are there workouts to increase strength in your support hand or is it something overtime I should be doing in dry fire to constantly grip harder and harder with my support. 

Unless you are just really weak, you probably have the strength to grip it properly, you just have to "think" about doing it while you are thinking about so many other things.  If you do strength training, don't use wrist straps, make your grip do the work.  If the gym isn't your thing, get a sledge hammer and pound a tire.  That will help too.

[lgh]

These last three posts (and probably others) are spot on. Just do a lot of weak hand dry fire like maur describes. And/or deadlifts, bottom up KB presses, bar hangs, etc. But like RT said, most people probably have enough strength to control the 2-3# gun. It's more likely an endurance thing so go for time in tension rather than pure strength. But to be clear, strength never hurts!

 

(I'm Pavel certified in kettlebells (albeit before the 100 snatch test!) and my wife and I train with William McNeely who owned the #1 power lifting gym in the country before settling down and raising a family. You learn a lot from those guys. It's nice to see intelligent posts RE the physical demands of gun handling.)

[Blackstone45]

I used to use those captains of crush hand strengthners. Now I just make sure when I dry fire I am gripping the gun properly all the time.