starting to train grip

[Krump]

Hello grip people!

I am doing SS (6 months in) and want to start to incorporate extra grip work on top of SS. My philosophy of strength is expanding to recognize just how involved the fingers, hands, wrists, and forearms are in most elements of everyday tasks; strength tasks or otherwise. So, I want to focus more on this prominent element of strength and everyday activities. I also want my grip training to contribute to my barbell training.

I have checked out gripboard.com forum but I didn't see a lot of specific info for newbies. I did find what appeared to be a basic grip training routine that included pinch holds, thumbless wrist curls, and reverse curls.

Are there other good sources on the net for newbie routines for grip like SS is for over-all strength?

Are there "go-to" grip exercise like there are in SS (squat, dl, bench, press)?

Right now I have a 1.5 inch PVC pipe that I made into a wrist roller. I can use it for wrist curls too. I also made two hockey puck pinch blocks, one standard and one fashioned to be held on the sides like a jar lid.

For a routine I was thinking of doing thumbless wrist curls, reverse wrist curls, and one-handed hockey puck pinch block holds (both variations). 3 sets of 10 for the wrist curls and 10 second holds for the pinch blocks. Is this a good start? Again, are there any "go-to" exercises I am missing out on? Would levering a sledge be good? Do you want to make scalable increases on the grip exercise in the same way you do with barbell training?

I would greatly appreciate any of you experienced grippers giving me some input or point me in a good direction. I feel like I "know" barbell training but grip is Greek to me.

Thanks

[Squatson]

I would say a pair of pliers and a 5 gal bucket is a good place to start. Take a piece of leather (old belt) and put it around the handle of the bucket, grip the leather with pliers. You can fill the bucket with sand, weights, whatever. The more weight in the bucket, the more grip pressure required to keep ahold of the leather.

Levering the sledge is good, you can also do a technique called "finger walking". You hold the sledge vertically at the bottom with just the tips of your fingers and slowly move toward the top until you get to the hammer.

[rift]

Hey Krump,

I'm in Minneapolis, where it's slightly warmer than Duluth. gripboard is pretty good, you have to search a bit. Gripfaq.com is a great overall place for hand strength information. I recommend an adjustable gripper like an Ivanko Super Gripper, or the thing that animal (member here) uses. It's very tempting to overdo it at first, but go super easy and allow yourself plenty of rest. Good luck.

[Krump]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, gripfaq is great, thanks for the recommendation. I like the layout and organization. gripboard does seem like it has a lot of info but it is kind of all over the place since it is a forum.

Still, I have yet to find a basic, parsimonious grip training program that parallels Starting Strength. I am looking into getting a gripper to work on crushing but for the moment I'm sticking to wrist curls and pinch holds until I absorb more info about grip training.

[rift]

For The ISG I use the following program:
http://www.hammarsports.com/training.html#four (http://www.hammarsports.com/training.html#four)
KTA is purportedly one of the better intermediate to difficult level programs. But it’s good to have a base before you start it.
1. As you saw on gripfaq, there are a ton of different things to do, try some out, warm up and progress on them. Write a similar program to SS. It’s easy to overdo it though, so make sure you go lightly at first and adhere to active recovery techniques such as baoding balls and active baths. Good luck!

[Dastardly]

Training your pull ups with a thumbs around grip is a good way to maximise grip training within SS. Any other bigger modifcations like towel pull ups may interfere with the number of pull ups you are able to do. But thumbs around, just makes the grip challenging to the right degree.

The same goes for deadlifts, try to double overhand/hook grip working set. It also prevents shoulder & bicep problems.