Often overlooked-grip exercises
For the first time in my 5 years of weight training I've started focusing on grip strength just like I do chest, back, or legs. As you go up in weights, your grip [I don't use wraps] begins to limit your progress whether you know it or not.
I do 4-5 exercises, most of which are pretty difficult to describe. Previously, I just did the one where you hold the bar and arm's length similar to shoulder shrugs and then work your forearms by raising the bar etc.
Now I do almost entire day just on grip exercises. I work out the top and bottom of the forearm in an isolated fashion for starts [dumb bells or cables].
After that, I have progressed to gripping two 35 lbs plates together [hands on top using my fingers to hold them] with my back against the wall and raising it towards my shoulders/back to arm's length for 10-12 steady reps x 3 sets. I warm up doing 1 handed versions with 2 10's but I can do so many reps I really need two 20's to properly work out my hands individually.
Then I do several isometric holds to strengthen forearm/wrist/biceps which involve a preacher curl type position and holding it with a 50lbs dumbbell for 1-1.5 mins per arm several time.
After that, I do one of my favorite exercises because it takes everything you've got. I do the farmer's walk with 100's for 40 meters which includes doing two very slow 'u-turns' three times or for three sets, however you look at it. After that your grip is pretty much gone but I use 'ivanko's gripper' or something along those lines set between 125-150 after I get home.
These have improved almost all my lifts. Specifically, my dead lifts and my shoulder shrugs have improved 15-20% beyond what they were 'on schedule to do' after doing this work out for about 4 weeks, about 1.5 times per week [every 4-5 days].
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Dhammapada v. 174
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