forearms

Gazz

I suppose it depends on what your gripping! Don't go there

Ever since i started block and beaming my forearms are alot bigger and more shredded and grip is alot stronger so that most def does both.

Plate pinching is great for grip strength.(That's a 20kg weight not antique blue willow)

crazycal1

i get these daily newsletters from a site...
A few days ago, Dan Archambault, a rock climber wrote in
with a great question. Lets take a look:

John,
Just wondering if you could give me some advice on
techniques for specifically strengthening the tendons
of the hands and fingers. I am a competitive climber
and want to stay healthy when my climbing progresses
to higher levels.

Thank you for your time.
Dan

Dan, a very interesting topic. Youll find material on
building bone, tendon and ligament strength going back
a very long way and its something a lot of people are
wondering about.

The first thing that must be clearly understood is that
like muscle growth, tendons, ligaments etc do not grow
by accident. -- they can only grow stronger through a
specific kind of training.

What we are really discussing here is the physiological
reactions of the human body to a specific type of stress
(ie training.)

It is only through an adaptation to stress where growth
can occur (and that goes for plenty of other aspects of
your life as well - think about it.)

Anyhow, in our case, the "stress" which sets the growth
processesin action comes from resistance training,
otherwise, there is no reason for these structures
to change and grow.

It also must be understood that different body tissues
react to stress in different timeframes.

I have a great book called "One Move Too Many" written specifically
about rock climbing injuries. Some of the
pictures are pretty ghastly; they would give Freddy Krueger
the shivers.

Regardless, one interesting aspect which is discussed in
this book which I find pretty interesting is material
on the time frame for physiological reactions of bone
and soft tissue to stress.

Heres how it looks:

============================================
Muscle - after 3 weeks of training
Heart Muscle - after 4 weeks of training
Bone - after 1 year of training
Tendon - after 1-2 years of training
Ligaments - after more than 2 years of training
Cartilage - after 3-5 years of training
============================================

So really "growth" of these tissues is just a matter of
hard work, recovery consistency and progression over a sustained period
of time.

Thats right, its not going to happen after just one
workout. Its going to take several weeks, months or
years of productive resistance training before you
start seeing the kind of growth you want.

So, given this fact, many exercises will "work" in
this regard, provided they are improved upon workout
after workout after workout.

For one, thick bars are a great choice.

Mike Brown, who wrote the "Iron Claws" Grip Course (which is
available here:
http://www.functionalhandstrength.com/o ... brary.html )
had this to say:

"... [John Y] Smith's hands looked like iron claws. Years
of one handed deadlifting with thick handled barbells had
so thickened Smith's finger tendons in the palm of his hand
that those same tendons stood out like the webbing on a
duck's feet... "

And, of course, the great George Jowett wrote the following
in one of his training guides:

"...You may wonder how your wrist will become improved by
any forearm practice , so before we go any further, let me enlighten
you upon the fact that the muscles all taper off
into ligaments.

The weaker the muscles, the more stringy and thin are these
cables. The stronger and bulkier they build up, the thicker
the ligaments become.

As these ropes of connection taper off at the wrist, it is
only a natural condition that the wrist size should be
increased. When I commenced heavy exercise, I had only
a seven inch wrist, just an average size as I have said, but
to-day my wrist measures every bit of eight an a half
inches... The sinews that have massed upon the wrist
are very heavy..."

These are just the tip of the iceberg, the bottom line,
however, is that if you want to have development that
most people only dream about, youll need to start
stringing together great workouts.

Have at it.

einsteins mind was the key to all things...to understand more than to know.

www.extremenutrition.co.uk

BigAndyJ

What's that?

I hang from a bar for as long as I can with as tight a grip as I can. It's definitely adding size and strength.

scottswald

a top class powerlifter will never have as big muscles as a top class bodybuilder does IMO.

Gazz

Concrete flooring.Set out beams,fill in with blocks.Deadlifting for a living!

http://www.bulbrook.connectfree.co.u.../floorbeam.jpg

crazycal1

thats true,but there arent many small powerlifters are there?
similarly a body builder will never have the strength of a powerlifter.
a few years back all the mr.olympia finalists were given a captain of crush gripper to close..
1 managed it!

einsteins mind was the key to all things...to understand more than to know.

www.extremenutrition.co.uk

scottswald

i've only seen rtey brewer try to do it and he couldn't.

who did do it then?

scottswald

new question, what sort of time is considered decent for this?

crazycal1

lol no i dont and whilst googling i discovered it may have been the arnold classic.

einsteins mind was the key to all things...to understand more than to know.

www.extremenutrition.co.uk

Gazz

I tend to hold until my hand's literally give way and i drop them.I've not timed it but i would say about 3 minute's or so.I only do it once a week,usually on Friday,the very last thing i do.My thumb's are like chicken drumstick's.