If you take a look in the footer or at the right sidebar you’ll see click-able ads for Strongergrip.com, an online store featuring what I believe to be some of the best specialty strength-training equipment available on the market today. The site is run by Ryan Pitts, who makes all his own equipment, and both Ryan and his site are favorites in the strongman community.
I have set up an affiliate program with Strongergrip.com. So if you wish to purchase any of Ryan’s items — and help me out in the process — simply click through to the Strongergip.com site through the link ads on my site, and a small portion of your purchase price gets back to me. In return, I’ll post some videos from time to time demonstrating the equipment and making suggestions on how best to incorporate it into your strength-training routine. Also, if you have any questions about the equipment, don’t hesitate to email me and ask, or drop a question in the comments.
I own a variety of Ryan’s items (none of which were given to me for promotional consideration or anything of the kind; I own them because they’re very effective and of unmatched, made-to-order quality). I use in my own training the following pieces from the Strongergrip catalog: lightweight shot-loadable Indian clubs (3#); thick-handle shot-loadable Indian clubs (6# — one loaded to 10# and one loaded to 20#); gut wrench with trailer hitch; thumbbell; red rafter pinch block; 6″ loadable mace/core club (loaded to about 25#); gripball dumbbell; sandbell and steelbell; plateau buster heavy handle (on order). Ryan also offers shot-loadable blobs and sledges, which had I known about earlier might have saved me a good deal of jack.
I know a lot of you who read here either dabble in strength training or martial arts, and I’m here to tell you that the equipment I’ve been using from Ryan (and others, including David Horne) has really dramatically increased my strength. Strengthening the fingers, thumb, thumbpad, wrist, and the tendons in your hand, wrists, forearms, and elbows allow you to increase all your other lifts, and to more effectively perform any number of other exercises. Hand and wrist training leads to an incredible increase in punching power and grappling strength, as well — along with obvious benefits for racket sports, golf, baseball, etc.
Plus, if you want to bend steel or tear phone books, this equipment — along with Fat Gripz and some heavy-duty grippers — is where you want to start.
Cool, glad you were able to get this set up.
I’ll be ordering the shot loadable clubs in the near future.
If after using the aforementioned strengthening products, one will be guaranteed to squeeze the adams apple out of a worthless statist prog’s mouth, with minimal effort, I’m in.
ZOMG, death threat!1!1!!1
Yeah, I just got my fatgripz earlier this week. Which, incidentally, I heard about them from you, and bought them as a direct result of that. They definitely give a different feel to the workout, and I’m looking forward to seeing some results. So good advertising there, even though you didn’t get paid for it.
If you were starting out with just one item from strongergrip’s inventory, which would it be?
The FatGripz really killed my shrugs (I also had to drop the weight in all other exercises, but not as much). I simply cannot hold the weight I used to long enough to complete 10 reps. I’m only on week 2, though, and the dumbbells I use have handles that are already larger than 1 inch in diameter. Anyway, I knew that going in, and I figure all it will do is work the grip that much harder.
the dumbbells I use have handles that are already larger than 1 inch in diameter.
Me too. Consequently, the FatGripz don’t close all the way, which is fine, but the effective grip diameter resembles that of two 12-ounce cans. More bang for the buck, I figure.
I’ve been using the CoC grippers and they’ve really improved my grip strength. In fact, I’m close to moving up to the #2 C0C.
I went after grip and arm strength to improve my shooting.
It worked.
I’ve added juggling to my exercise repertoire. I ordered some of these http://tinyurl.com/3ftevnj to work with.
I went after grip and arm strength to improve my shooting.
Shooting what? Basketball? Archery? Has the grip work helped?
Pistol.
1911 to be exact.
The grip and arm work made a noticeable difference.
Showy —
Depends on what your strength goal is. Where are you looking to improve? What activities do you enjoy that might benefit from increased strength. I can answer you better with a little more info.
Jeff, I would say that my “goal” with respect to this is to improve the strength in my hands and wrists as much as possible while simultaneously having a synergistic effect with muscles and tendons further up the arms and into the shoulders. Really, my goal is just general fitness, and because I’m a natural ectomorph, that means an emphasis on strength training. I’m not looking to tear a phone book in half, and my martial arts participation consists of one free tae kwon do lesson when I was eleven (my parents wouldn’t let me take any more, as they didn’t want to encourage fighting). I’m 36, reasonably fit, play some hoops and some golf, run and lift, and would like to improve my overall strength to benefit all of those activities, as well as to benefit daily living. I’m not sure if that gives you much to go on, but that’s as accurate a description as I can give.
By the way, credit where credit is due, I followed some of Jeff’s suggestions for improvement.
Correct, I’m 37. I’ve apparently gotten to the point in life where I don’t know how old I am off the top of my head.
I meant “Correction”, not “Correct”.
That’s interesting, Blake, because I wouldn’t have necessarily thought of pistol markmanship as a sport that would benefit substantially from hand/arm strength, but it makes sense. Which sort of goes to Jeff’s question about the individual’s purpose in pursuing improved hand strength. Even if you don’t have a specific athletic goal, strong hands just seems like something that would benefit virtually every physical activity.
Showy —
Given what you’re looking for, I’d go for the loadable thick-handled Indian clubs and some lead shot. At first blush, I wasn’t sold on clubs. But these are incredibly versatile, and I use them for a number of different exercises that target a number of different body parts. I have a pair, one of which I keep loaded to about 10# and the other loaded to 20# or thereabouts. These clubs have a 3″ ball at the base that you hold on to when you do your swinging, taxing the fingers and the wrist. Gripping the ball differently (say, with two fingers and a thumb, or flipping your wrist as you swing) targets different areas of the arm and grip.
But it isn’t just swinging that makes these useful: I do cleans and presses; tricep extensions; wrist curls; reverse wrist curls; off-set bicep curls and wrist curls (these are particularly effective; until I got the clubs I did these with sledge hammers, but the thick handle of the clubs intensifies the exercises); snatches; lateral raises; levers; and so on. And all of these exercises are done either holding the thick handle of the shaft or else the 3″ ball.
So for general overall fitness and strength increases in the grip, arms, forearms, and shoulders, I’d say go with these if you only pick one piece of equipment. But do get the pair: some exercises you’ll want to use with a heavy club and some you’ll want to use with a lighter club.
I want that Gut Wrench! I had been doing the corner press for shoulder rehab, and eventually fooled around with it enough to where I was doing goblet squat variations and a move I called “pick it up on one side, turn and put it down on the other” which was killer for my core. Eventually my bar beat the crap out of the corner baseboard and my office got too full of crap, and then I went into a dumbell only-phase, which didn’t work, and I got fat. When I started back up in January, I started doing complexes and that thing would be an awesome tool.
Thanks, Jeff. One other question. If you were walking down the street today, and through some distortion in the space-time continuum encountered 25-year-old-Jeff, and he sassed you (which I’m guessing he would), how badly could you kick his ass?
Also, how do you put a picture on your WordPress profile?
LMC —
It is. I reviewed it (and the thick handled clubs) at the Strongergrip site. I can go maybe 15 minutes at a time with it and it wastes me.
Showy —
I’d kick my 25-year-old ass. Badly. For picture, sign up and use gravatar.com and it will appear here magically.
Showy, where grip strength really shows up is follow up shots. Better arm and grip strength allows you to get back on target quicker. Grip strength also helps your ability to line up on multiple targets faster.
Id like to see a nice discussion on training books as well. I’ve been living by Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength but need something else to broaden my routines.
Steve Justa’s book Rock Iron Steel has been pretty influential. But much of my training comes from building off P90X and Tony C’s catch stuff and then devising specialty programs off of that, which I’ve put together by listening to pro strongmen.
This is a pretty basic strength training book as well, but I think the illustrations in Strength Training Anatomy, by Frederic Delavier, with a da Vinci-esque focus on the internal musculature being worked in each exercise, makes it a little more effective than it would be with just verbal descriptions. It’s probably not going to broaden your routines, though.
Oh, and Jeff. I was interested in the weighted-vest power-walking/light-jogging routine you talked about a few weeks back. Do you feel that benefits you mostly in core strength, leg strength, cardiovascular endurance? All of the above?
All of the above, showy. With core and tendon strength the most noticeable. In fact, just got back from doing a coupla miles.
Does Strongergrip have a children’s line?
I’m, uhh, asking for a friend.
carpal tunnel pain is excruciating. Felt most in the elbows and shoulders. Just sayin’.
Jeff,
Why would I want a strong grip when my dick is bigger than your right arm?
you might want to have that looked at. Seems it might be harboring some pus. Or an enormous, muscular tumor.
You da man, Jeff.
I would venture to say that you are one of a kind.
Kudos, my friend. I get the feeling that you are quite like myself, with just a little less anger. Say hi to your son, you lucky man.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Sorry to take up your bandwidth, but I wanted all to know the story of my life.
Cheers!!!!!!!
The strongman community.
I certainly hope this doesn’t presage a push for strongman marriage nor the addition of an S to the historically and culturally significant rune GLBTQQI.
Strongman community? My dick is still bigger than BOTH of your right arms. And there is no pus to be found…
Bummer, huh?
I can “walk” a twelve pound sledge to L.A. with my dick, without breakingf a sweat…
As they say at Ace’s ‘pics or it didn’t happen.’
Jeff – No shit. PW is my saviour. Thank you for doing this.
Sometimes, I think that I can be funny.. (rarely)