Grip Strength

[Joe Durham]

Yes...Legit....and fun to challenge others with.

[duanebenton]

man I always wanted to try the powerball, I usually use one of those grip-masters for guitarist.

[Tom Carbone]

Powerball lets you work the thumb strength and top of forearm muscles much more than hand grippers. Good to use both.

[Kurzy]

Is the powerball a gyroscopic device? Everything that comes up on an Amazon search is a gyroscopic electronic thing.

[Tom Carbone]

Is the powerball a gyroscopic device? Everything that comes up on an Amazon search is a gyroscopic electronic thing.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like a serious workout until you try it.

[Kurzy]

Do I just need one?

[singer]

There are two kinds of grip strength: pulling power and lock-off power; which could also be referred to as dynamic and static. You could also look at this as finger strength and forearm strength. For bjj you want to train static lock offs.

Grip strength trainers train dynamic movement, never fit my hands (too big) and you have to be a bit OCD to use them.

Climbing rope (the thick hemp thing) is effective but shoot-yourself-in-the-face boring.

Climbing plastic is like grappling with a dummy, but at least teaches you movement and how to use your feet a bit.

Actual climbing is your best best but you're already into jiu jitsu. Good idea if your live somewhere like SLC or Boulder where there are rocks nearby.

Climbing buildings is good because they are everywhere (esp. campuses) but aren't easy to learn on, you usually have to show up knowing how to climb.

Hang boards and rock rings are good for gyms and non-climbers but you have to log in a lot of time on another boring device.

Soooo...what do you do if you want to see people tapping from your vice grip before you even bother with a Darce? You build a crack machine and learn how to jam. I'll let you guys google that. If you can learn to camp out on hand jams at 45 degrees your gable grips will be unbreakable.

[Tom Carbone]

Do I just need one?

IMO, you should work hands and forearms at least every other day. While the battle ropes are easily the best workout for them, the rest of your body wont recover as fast. Powerball you can do every day. The thumb strength is where it really gets really valuable. When you grab someone's wrist and they break out of it, its usually because your thumb isn't strong enough, not your fingers.

[Andrew Sarasin]

Lmao!

rape choke works well for me

[Andrew Sarasin]

for a sec i thought that pic was a sex toy.. jeeze I was wrong..

I have recently started a campaign with myself where I do pull-ups first thing in the morning before really even being fully awake. I climb out of bed, walk down to the basement and do two to three sets of ten. I bought Fat Gripz and I put them on my pull-up bar.

When I first started doing them I coulnd't hang on long enough to do ten pullups. I would have to set down my feet at about 6 or 7, and re-grip before finishing the set. Now I do ten and then hang there for a ten count. I haven't had any compliments on my grip strength yet, but I plan on keeping up with this. In fact, the reason I am posting in this thread right now is because I just ordered the Orange Extremes on Amazon and I eagerly await their arrival now.

Anyways my original intention was to use the Fat Gripz for everything I did on the gym, so I bought two original blue sets (I have two gyms in two cities I work out at) so I could use them all the time. However I think my ego was the thing that stopped me from using them because can't lift nearly as much with the Fat Gripz on the dumbbells. I know that's lame but I am just being honest. Really I should buckle down and use them all the time like I originally intended but I haven't yet. I know there is a curve with these things where you have to decrease your lifting weights for a while but then you return to those weights with even more strength, supposedly.


Anyways, the orange ones are pretty much going to be exclusively for pull-ups at home, and the blue ones I will take with me to the gym from now on, etc. I am hoping it helps because my grip strength is lacking.





Edit to say that one of our really good Purple belts, Tim, and my Instructor Stew really encourage kettlebell exercises for gripstrength training as well. They also encourage people to hang a Gi over a pullup bar and do pullups with Gi grips, if you roll Gi.
I don't have kettlebells at home so I chose the Fat Gripz.