Grip Strength – Secrets and Exercises to Success

A common problem among many newcomers to exercise is their wrist strength, and I see many more women with this problem than men. If you’ve not performed structured exercise before then don’t be surprised if the muscles in your lower arm become weak and you can’t hold heavy weights for very long. This can hinder exercises such as the dead lift, which often need much more weight than your grip can hold initially. I’ve worked with many who simply can’t hold light dumbbells when performing simple pressing movements, the hands twisting and turning out of control, leaving the exercise unsafe, especially when working individually. So what’s the solution when starting out as it can be very frustrating…

First of all you can build up gradually – be sure so hold onto weights as long as you can to develop the muscles and condition them over a period of time. Holding and squeezing a tennis ball regularly is a good option, but many people don’t force themselves to perform this regularly.

Another alternative are wrist curls, please see the animated exercise below which you can perform on a bench with a barbell.

Another more modern version is to grab yourself a Powerball – these smart futuristic looking tools really get to work on developing the wrist and forcing it to work under pressure, with the weight distribution and intensity being continuously moved around.

So, here are your exercise animations for wrist curls and reverse wrist curls, taken from Training Buddy, the exercise animation software.