Hand strength and bands

[Pilgrim]

Hi
When it comes to working my hands /forearms the old standby is arm grabs but I,ve been doing a couple of other exercises. I'm concentrating on finger joint strength, grip strenth, and forearm strength.
1) Pinch grip 2 10s or one 25 ( the 2 10's are harder ) , go to a preacher bench or stand straight and keep elbows by sides , and do hammer curls. Really helps the pinch grip, finger joints.
2) Used a gripper that's easy to close. Have a thin rope, tie it around weight, and close the gripper on the rope. Do curls. Really works the crusn grip.

Make sure to shake my wrists after the exercises.

I'm thinking about getting some Iron Woody exercise bands to work on speed strength /power ala West Side barbell. Has anyone here used bands ?

[FooFighter]

Pilgrim,

I use several tools to develop my hands and forearms. www.clubbell.tv I specifically do most of my strength conditioning using only clubbells as my tool.

1. I use clubbells which develop my hands and forearms.

2. A thick wrist roller using oly. plates

3. Grippers by Iron Mind's "Captain of Crush" and Ivanko's "Super Gripper"

4. Beach Towel roll them up and down (Good Foundation and warm up)

5. Gravity Grip Ball 1lb

6. "Finger Fitness: Art of Finger Control" by Lorraine C and Gregory G. Irwin www.functionalhandstrength.com

7. Finger specific rubber bands for finger extension www.ironmind.com sell them.

As the westside bands, I have used them in the past but it is cheaper if you use a heavy set of iron chains (10lbs each) attached to the end of your bar. If your goals are to be better a powerlifter than Westside bands, may be a good place to start.

[Pilgrim]

Hey Bao
Thanks for the reply.
Clubbells are cool but are oh so spendy. I have a pair and I think they are good for ballastic fullrange/wider range of mevements then are avaiable by DBs or BBs.

AS far as the hand forearm strength they develope, I quess, it's basically a static hold/ crush grip as you swing them around. I figure that would be slightly similar to the static holds one could do with an Iron Mind trainer or number 1 as you you pinch grip and hold onto a string/thin rope that is attatched to a 5,10,15 20 ,etc pound plate. I need to use a gripper less then the trainer if I do reps of 10 - 15.As you pinch grip shut the grippers with the weight attatched via string you can do curls, flys,, lat raises of all kindsponds. Have you tried anything like that? For most of the above exercises, 25pounds is my limit.

The plate curls really get my finger joints. A 25lb is really hard for me. Brookfield does MUCH more.

The towell thing is cool, like wadding up sheets of newspaper.

I was thinking of bands after seeing how they can be used for stretching routines and for weighting lifting.

Hope your business is good. Do you have to certified to be a trainer in NYC/New York. An off topic question, do you know the diffferences between AFAA, ACSM,ACE NSCA,ISSA, or where I could find a review of those organizations.\\

[FooFighter]

Pilgrim

It is pleasure speaking with someone who is fan of functional hand and grip strength. If you want a progressive low cost gripper than Ivanko's supergripper would be your best bet. http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/kn...o_gripper.html
Holding the clubbell statically is not the same as holding COC because holding a clubbell is a dynamic. Hence, it is recommended holding no more 5 sec in CST.

I have Brookfield new Grip/hand DVD from Iron Mind. A great resource and an awesome blueprint for grip strength. I learned tons of useful information and exercises to help me with my grip strength goals. Instead using the a rope attached with weight to hold inbetween my COCs, I use a plate inbetween as recommended by the master himself Brookfield. I currently using COC1 and COC2 and even the COC trainer for hyperthrophy. Brookfield stated COCs are a test or a reference of our grip strength and not to focus on it as the primary exercise. In the future, I am planning to crush a 3 or 4 God willing, bro. I wish the best of luck in using the bands and please keep me updated if you decided to play with them.

Yes, business is good and thank GOD. Yes, you have to be certified to work at a upper scale health clubs. If you want to work a local gym for blue collars folks than the standard isnt so high. To be frank, you want clients who can afford your services. I would like to mention that you better have good sales, communication, and people skills along with excellent teaching skills. Most rookies I have seen with no sales skills, communication ability, and real world people skills FAIL as personal trainers. These people blame their failures on others but never invest their money on getting a real education of how to get clients. Please do not be these failures if you decide to do this full time. I would recommend NASM (the best cert for your money now), AFAA (good if you want to do group fitness), ACSM (great cert if you want to specialize in medical population), ACE (alright, but outdated), NSCA (great cert), ISSA (for meatheads).

Good luck, bro.

[Pilgrim]

Thanks for the info on certifications. My Sifu talks about lineage being important but the real deal is not who your teachers are but what you can do. I'm looking for certification just so I can get a foot in the door and to help my private practice in TCM. Why is ISSA for meatheads?

Doing reps with a COC #2, that's very good. I've done 6 with my left and only 4 with my right, which is weird since I'm right handed. I really like doing curls or lat raises with close the gap straps. The importance of extension is a biggie- I save rubberbands from banana bunches to help with extension. That's also the importance of armgrabs- dynamic tension grabbing the air.

Most of my hand strength exercises comes from king fu basics and the idea that I heard while in Ying Jow Pai that there are 3 parts to hand strength:1) finger strength a la grip, 2) finger joint strength, and 3) wrist strength. I guess conditioning the hands/forearms would be a forth.

Thanks
Pilgrim

[Akronviper]

Bent over rows using a thick towel instead of the bar improved my grip greatly. Then I started using the towel for any excercise I could think of. My grip sucked due to years of using straps but the towel seemed to work great.

The chains worked good. I used them because i'm two cheap to buy the bands and I felt I had more controll over the weight I was using. It seemed you would get the old soloflex syndrome where the bands would become less elastic after a while, where gravity and steel would be the same

[FooFighter]

Why is ISSA for meatheads?

During my years in the business, I noticed meat head trainers are ISSA certified.

[Pilgrim]

As a young man, judging by your picture in CST , I think you'd benefit from from your mentor, Coach Sonnon. From what I can read, which isn't everything he's written, Coach Sonnon has not made disparaging remarks towards anyone. He does seem to rationally and clearly state the beliefs/actions he lives by, even if he questions or does not agree with other trainers opinions.
Anyway, opinions are like life, everyone has one, hope it's enjoyed.
Pilgrim

[FooFighter]

Pilgrim,

I am turning 29 next month. I am a young man and even consider myself a peter pan type. Coach Sonnon has been truly a sincere and humble mentor. Thanks for your words of encouragement. That picture of mine on the website is something I dislike, but my girlfriend likes it. I will have a new picture in a few months. I am retesting my status in March. Be well, my friend.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

buy this book

best 15 bucks i have spent in a long long time. it takes a day to read and unless you want to become a professional strong man or something you'll never have to research hand strength again.

once again ... awesome awesome book on hand strength. almost every exercise is done with household equipment too. lifting 5 gallon buckets with pliers, cutting wire, curling/cleaning/whatever plates with a pinch grip, leverage exercises with sledge hammers and such ....