training forearms

[Neavris]

Hello, I'd like to deadlift more. My forearm is my weak part. What's the most I should train my forearms and how?

[Talo]

How do you know it's your forearm and not your grip ?

[bigtavi8]

1) your grip strength must suck
2) If you dont care about PL and just BB get a pair of straps (i prefer the Shiek brand with a neoprene black pad for comfort). Takes forearms out of the equation all together.
3) Start strengthing grip strength, AND for forearms i rarely do em more than 20 mins a week...wrist curls with BB (go heavy), reverse wrist curls on a preacher bench. 3 sets for each exercise x 12-15 reps. If you really want to stimulate them go Superset between reg, reverse until failure + 3 forced reps.
4) get somebody to drive your demolished ass home wont be able to steer your car.

[GYMBRAT]

my grip sucks there for I use straps and get my chosen body part worked 100% rather than
wasting any concentration on my grip ;)

[tiramisu]

Training grip is mostly a matter of patience and perserverance.
It's pretty darn easy to overtrain grip and end up with achy elbows.

Double overhand grip your deadlifts and avoid straps until your grip gives out on your pulling exercises and your grip will improve over time.

[Neavris]

I train deadlift once a week currently. I used to do twice. I want to get my grip as strong as possible since it is lagging compared to legs and back strength. I thought of doing something like this:

train grip everyday except the day before a deadlift day and on deadlift day. The emphasis would be one day heavy 6-10 rep, one day higher rep - 12 to 20 rep(get to 20, increase weight, less than 12 less weight...)
I would take a day or two of rest whenever my grip is losing strength and endurance rather than gaining.

What do you think? Too determined perhaps? I will try it for 2 weeks, take notes and let you know I guess... Nobody figures out anything without trying.

[tiramisu]

What is your current program? You may or may not already be training your grip adequately. If you are deadlifting once a week and working grip to it's limit and you are working back (pulling) and working grip to it's limit then you are already hitting it twice a week which is more than enough.

[Talo]

More is sometimes less.

Don't over train your grip as Tir mentioned.

Static holds work great too.

[Danger]

I've always done pullups to work on grip, just seemed to be the best choice and Ive always favored hanging grip exercises over forearm curls and the like since I am very active outside of the gym and use my hands/forearms at work everyday + jerking off so...

[Neavris]

Well jerking off isn't much of a grip training for you.

I feel like I can train grip again the day after training. I will add some static holds after DL and back days to try to really max myself out. I wish there was a way to make grip strength go up faster. It's so ****ing annoying to wait for. Anyhow, thanks, keep you posted in a few weeks.

[Talo]

Sometimes I feel like I can squat again the day after my workout , that doesn't mean I do it and it def wouldn't help my legs get any stronger.

Pick up some grippers . I found they helped me out a bit.

[Prisoner#22]

According to Christian Thibedeau, you should use wrist straps when you deadlift, as deadlifting without them create a much higher neuro-chemical drain on your body... By using wrist wraps of whatever they are called you can greatly increase your training volume.

[Neavris]

Hum. Thank you Talo, you are probably right. I just think there should be obvious signs to tell if my grip is increasing as well as it should. Grippers sucks I thought, since it doesn't train all fingers properly equally.

I'm not sure how neuro-chemical gets depleted by having a stronger grip prisoner, which is what I'm looking for to increase my DL. I want to lift more, and without straps. :)

Thank you for your inputs. I'll stick with maxing out grip strength with weight pinching holds at the end of my workouts 2x week for now. I'll alternate with some other exercise I can't recall the name right now, you roll a cord with a weight at the end of it back up to a bar by twisting it, great for forearms and grip. I'll keep you posted on how well it worked...

[tiramisu]

According to Christian Thibedeau, you should use wrist straps when you deadlift, as deadlifting without them create a much higher neuro-chemical drain on your body... By using wrist wraps of whatever they are called you can greatly increase your training volume.

I doubt that I can decrease the CNS fatigue of deadlifts by doing higher volume and equivalent intensity with wraps.

I'm not sure what Thidedeau's source on this one is but it seems pretty iffy. Deads are pretty well known for CNS fatigue when done with high intensity (90%+). The ability to dig deeper into fatigue doesn't strike me as necessarily more productive from a strength or a bodybuilding perspective.

[andrewT]

I have just picked up some of those Heavy Grips brand grippers off a guy on ebay who does specials on them and just started using em.

I bought 150, 200 and 250lb resistance and I think the 150 was a waste of money for me. Don't use straps when you do deadlifts and watch your forearms grow a fair amount. I can do 315 max with no straps regular grip, although reverse grip is way frickin easier.

grab that bar and picture if yourself surrounded by terrorists who will kill you instantly if you drop that bar. lol may work for you!

[a_ahmed]

according to arnold s. in his book modern encyclopedia of bodybuilding he mentions to train every day abs, calves and forearms.

Simple forearm curls with a barbell.

[RagingRandy]

Reverse wrist curls are best for me.

[cog]

Try searching John Wood's site on functional hand strength.

[Mr.Meat]

Wrist curls will do absolutly nothing for your grip strength...

Just keep deadlifting without straps but with chalk and a mixed grip... No need to reverse your mix grip eighter as "torquing" your back is a myth...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJgge3sBMpM

For functional grip strength training I would suggest picking up a rolling thunder or doing plate holds... I would not train my grip too much eigher maybe try working grip after your deadlifts and no more then once per week.

[trevorbc]

Well jerking off isn't much of a grip training for you.

I feel like I can train grip again the day after training. I will add some static holds after DL and back days to try to really max myself out. I wish there was a way to make grip strength go up faster. It's so ****ing annoying to wait for. Anyhow, thanks, keep you posted in a few weeks.

Hah, well even though your first comment is healthy it wont help you out much with your lifts and grip. Even if you feel like you can train grip and forearms again the day after training you might want to rest a bit more so you can really focus your energy on the training if you want to test your limits and get stronger and cause growth from your exercises. Static holds work well along with other basic compound hold lifts and you want to do some contraction training also like reverse curls on a low pulley so you can move some weight and get a good pump, and use hand grippers, my forearms and grip used the be below par before I really started to train them. Good luck

[Neavris]

hey thanks a lot for the comments guys

As I said, I tried for a few weeks to see what works best, I think you will find my trick to be freaky, perhaps... Here it is

Get a PowerBall gyroscope
Get 2 lbs weighted gloves
Do DB forearms curls with heavy stuff
Get Liquid Grip

Went up 70 lbs without strap since I last posted.

Start easy with the gyro to get a good pump as you get warmer go harder and harder and harder. Then more till a bit of pain, then pause/breath and do the next hand. Or just figure out what works for you.

liquid grip is amazing, I get better grip with it.
as for the 2lbs gloves, just try and wear them as much as possible.

Grip is not my weak part anymore, lower back is. This is great to me since I like working it out.

[bcaamuscle]

those powerballs rock, i had one for awhile, but one of the guys dropped it, gyroscopes are very fragile

[tex]

heavy db or bb holds.....heaviest db's and work up to a minute then increase weight.....i used to have a prob with grip.....now I can hold more than i can pull.....

[Anthony]

Try some Forearm Hammer Curls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-2Y8-J5J_M heres a video

[cog]

The Ivanko gripper,you can close it with both hands and hold it closed with one...in safety.

[japh]

reverse curls flipping the wrist back at the top are one of t favorites along with dubell hamer curls.

If its your grip. Work up to a single on deadlift each week before doing backoff sets helped me. Never had a problem with grip as far as singles were concerned.

Hang from a chin-up bar with a weighted belt for 10 secs and up using more and more weight each week of course.

Hold some fat handled dumbells for 10 sec sets if you have them or just use regular handled db's. Hopefully you have a gym that goes up to at least 180 pound db's.

Do partial deadlifts for singles with as much weight as possible holding for as long as possible. Shouldn't have a problem once you're doing partials with at least 100-200 pounds over your max conventional dlift and holding for at least 10secs.

Don't do all of these of course. Just switch it up or use 2 at a time consistently being careful not to overtrain.

If you're not using chalk while doing this you're pretty much wasting your time imo.

[warlock]

Use straps and your unbalance between your grip and your deadlifts will just increase.

If your grip is not being used properly your back/chest/shoulder that are working as stabilizers for teh bar are not firing properly.

Them you increase the load on the bar.

Pretty bad combo but a great recipe to keep your orthopedic surgeon busy.

[Neavris]

I don't use chalk, here's what I use: http://www.liquidgrip.com/

I haven't needed to use straps for a while now, I'm up 10 more pounds this week, loving this.

[faller]

That might just be the solution for those gyms that don't allow chalk. Is that ad pretty accurate Neavris?

[Neavris]

I didn't look at the ad... Here's how it works: it's liquid gunk, you put some in your palm and rub your hands, it pretty much disappear (not completely) as it dries and leaves you with a sticky grip. The thing I reallly like about it is it doesn't leave everything dirty like chalk does... Once it's dry it stays where applied.

Yo, it's cheap, just buy some and try it? I got it on bb.com...

[bobbyorr]

i got some when i competed at the arnold this year and I found that it made everything slippery but maybe it was just me

[faller]

I wander if that's the same stuff they use at strong man comp.?

Personally i love chalk, i love the way the dust floats around or it clinging to the bar, all over your sweat pants and shirt. There's just nothing like it :)

[GYMBRAT]

I wander if that's the same stuff they use at strong man comp.?

Personally i love chalk, i love the way the dust floats around or it clinging to the bar, all over your sweat pants and shirt. There's just nothing like it :)

LOL same here faller, weird how we think alike! :p

GB

[faller]

Well you know what they say "great minds think alike".... We'll ignore the rest of the quote :D

[bobbyorr]

not sure what you mean, when you say the same stuff at the strongman comp... i competed at the arnold in the strongman comp this year and liquid grip was one of the main sponsors and the gave us a bunch.. it sucked and no one used it

[faller]

Up until a couple years ago the town i live in had a strong man comp. every summer, i just remember the last one i watched the MC ran out of things to say i guess between events, so he mentioned how the guys were using a "liquid grip" on their hands instead of chalk and went on to explain why and how it worked.

[bobbyorr]

are you any where near comox?

[faller]

I'm just South of Comox in Ladysmith.

[GYMBRAT]

Gods country :D

[Mr.Meat]

Up until a couple years ago the town i live in had a strong man comp. every summer, i just remember the last one i watched the MC ran out of things to say i guess between events, so he mentioned how the guys were using a "liquid grip" on their hands instead of chalk and went on to explain why and how it worked.

It was dubbed "BC Strongest Man" and was by invite only... One of the events was a car flip I believe... Too bad the promoter packed it in...

[faller]

Too bad the promoter packed it in...

Ya it was. He has so much on his plate though i could see why he had quit. I ran into a guy at a gym in Port Albernie a couple years ago when i was working there, he was from Victoria and he said that him and a couple other guys were going to start it up again. So far nothing, i was kind hoping they would, it was a big draw, lots of people go to watch... That and the loggers sports :D

[Curd Hos]

Get a hld of a two inch Thick Bar

Once a week do High reps deadlifts using this bar

Your Forearms will be messed up for 3 days

Then later in the week when you deadlift on a regular bar it will feel
a lot easier

Curd

[Curd Hos]

Get a hld of a two inch Thick Bar

Once a week do High reps deadlifts using this bar

Your Forearms will be messed up for 3 days

Then later in the week when you deadlift on a regular bar it will feel
a lot easier

Curd

[Curd Hos]

Sorry didnt mean to post twice

Curd