FOREARM AND GRIP WORK – STRENGTH, POWER, AND ENDURANCE – THE UNDERRATED ASPECT OF THE OVERALL PROGRAM

Maximizing various aspects of strength in the forearms, wrists, hands, and fingers is one of the most underrated aspects of many Sports Performance programs.  Even though these muscles involved are smaller muscles (and in many cases, stabilizing muscles), he various aspects of strength of the traditional bigger/stronger muscle groups of the body is similar.  Absolute strength, high-speed eccentric loading, isometric strength, reversal strength, speed strength, and various forms of strength/power endurance are usually the primary categories that need to be considered with any forms of resistance training.  Implementation of absolute strength and isometric strength are a standard in most programs.  However, the other strength components definitely need to be planned for – especially combat style sports like wrestling, football, hockey, grappling, and many aspects of martial arts.  It’s also extremely important with any sports that involve grip on an external surface – baseball bat, tennis racket, lacrosse stick, hockey stick, etc.

Absolute Strength

It is fairly simple to construct an exercise database from an absolute strength standpoint, as many of these are fairly standard in the industry:

  • Elbow Flexors
    • DB Hammer Curl
    • DB Incline Curl
    • DB Concentration Curl
    • Preacher Curl
  • Wrist (bar, plate, DB, Bat)
    • Wrist Flexion
    • Wrist Extension
    • Wrist Pronation/Supination
    • Wrist Lateral Deviation

One overlooked aspect of absolute strengthening is the hands/fingers:

  • Finger to Wrist Flexion – letting the bar roll out onto the fingers, initiating finger flexion to finish into a wrist flexion
  • Bat Finger Lateral Deviation – simply grasping a light object (such as a baseball bat) between the right and left index fingers and moving the bat up/down slowly to gain lateral deviation
  • Hand Gripper
  • Finger Gripper

Isometric Strength

Plate holds and Farmer Walks are the simplest way to gain isometric grip strength.  However, implementation of these unorthodox isometric exercises can be great variations to really overload this concept:

  • Towel Holds
  • Fat Bar / Fat Handle DB Curls
  • Landmine Bar Holds (outside)
  • Landmine Bar Holds (across)
  • Sorinex Mighty Mitt Rack Ball Holds
  • Sorinex Might Mitt Rack Ball Pullups

High Speed Eccentric Loading / Reversal Strength

As seen in the BPS “Exercise of the Week” from July of 2015 (and the subsequent loading onto the Exercise Database), the Landmine can be a powerful tool for Grip Strength, especially from this unique strength category:

  • Dynamic Eccentric Load
    • Bar Toss Pause (high)
    • Bar Toss Pause (low)
    • Bar Drop Pause (outside)
    • Bar Drop Pause (across)
    • Variations of Toss/Drop with KB
  • Reversal Strength
    • Bar Toss Reflex (high)
    • Bar Toss Reflex (low)
    • Bar Drop Reflex (outside)
    • Bar Drop Reflex (across)
    • Variations of Toss/Drop with KB

Kettlebells can also provide an effective alternative:

  • KB Hammer Curl Toss/Catch (pause)
  • KB Hammer Curl Toss/Catch (reflex)

When moving into the concept of strength endurance and power endurance, grip work can definitely be programmed for, and have a huge transfer to many sports.  This can be a huge advantage when training for combat style sports.  For example, it’s obviously important for a wrestler to have a “strong grip”, but it’s equally important to be able to maintain a level of grip strength over a period of time (since a level of grip strength must be maintained for an extended length of time; like a period within the match.  Taking a simple exercise like strengthening wrist flexion/extension for sets/reps; and converting it into a strength endurance exercise like Wrist Rollups for a period of time.

Strength Endurance:

  • Timed Wrist Rollups/Rolldowns
  • Timed Band Wrist Flexion/Extension
  • Keiser Cable Curls (looking at maintaining percentage of peak power output over a length of time)

Power Endurance (Dynamic Eccentrics and Reversal are sub-components).  Lighten the load, and go for time instead of maximal strength with sets/reps:

  • Timed Landmine Bar or KB Drops
  • Timed Landmine Bar KB Toss
  • Timed Band Switches

An overall periodization model for “combat sports” for supplemental grip work to add in addition to the traditional resistance training program could be as follows:

Weeks 1-2

Day 1 – Absolute Strength focus (note the eccentric focus):

  • DB Hammer Curl (311 tempo) 3×10
  • Wrist Flexion/Extension (211) 2x10e

Day 2 – Isometric focus:

  • Towel Holds (elbow 90deg) 3x30s
  • Farmer Walks (bumper plates) 2x20yd

Day 3 – Combo

  • Mighty Mitt Ball Pullups (311) 4×10
  • Bat Finger Lat. Deviation (111) 2×10 each finger

Weeks 3-4

Day 1 – Absolute Strength

  • KB Hammer Curl Toss (X1X) 4x10e
  • Bat Wrist Pro/Sup (111) 3x10ee

Day 2 – Dynamic Eccentric to Isometric

  • LM Bar Toss Pause (X1X) 3x15e
  • LM Bar Drop Pause (X1X) 3x15e

Day 3 – Combo

  • Hand/Finger Gripper (232) 3x10e
  • LM Bar Holds 3x30s

Weeks 5-6

Day 1 – Absolute Strength

  • Bat Wrist Lateral Deviation (131) 2x10ee
  • Fat Bar Curl (101) 4×8

Day 2 – Reversal Strength Endurance

  • LM Bar Toss – Reflex (XXX) 3x30s
  • KB Drops – Reflex (XXX) 3x30s
  • Timed Band Switches (XXX) 3x30s

Day 3 – Combo/Endurance

  • Mighty Mitt Holds (elbow 90deg) 3x30s
  • Band Wrist Flex/Extend 3x30s e
  • Wrist Rollup 3x30s