Buzz
In our month-long quest to develop stronger hands and forearms, we’ve honed our crush grip, support grip, and pinch grip. It’s now time to embrace a fresh challenge: the open hand grip, which enables you to grip large and often oddly shaped objects.
Thick bars
Open hand grip is the key to holding onto an axle bar, which typically has a 2-inch thickness. These bars are commonly used in strongman competitions and can sometimes be found in other gyms, like powerlifting facilities, where they serve as a fun challenge.
Pressing with an axle feels similar to using a standard barbell, but the challenge increases significantly if you need to do more than just hold the bar from the bottom. Cleaning the bar (lifting it from the ground to get it into position) is much harder. Thick bar deadlifts, too, provide an intense grip challenge.
This happens because you can't fully grip the bar with your fingers underneath it. The support grip that’s useful in regular deadlifts is mostly ineffective here. Instead, you have to squeeze the bar with your hands to keep it from slipping, requiring very strong hands, especially at heavy weights. Here's a Jefferson deadlift I performed with a two-inch bar:
If your gym has a thick bar, give it a try. In addition to deadlifts, you can use it for accessory exercises like curls and rows to work on strengthening your forearms and grip while targeting other muscle groups.
If you don’t have a thick bar, use a pair of Fat Gripz on a regular barbell. They feel a bit different (for example, chalk makes them more slippery), but they’ll still challenge your grip as you lift a barbell or dumbbell.
Other interesting things to lift
Dumbbells can also feature thick handles, so why not add a Fat Grip to one and see how it feels to lift? In the past, strongman competitions often had a ‘challenge’ dumbbell, which only the strongest could lift. While some of these featured tricks, the real key was often the bar's width, making it nearly impossible for the average person to grip, unless they trained specifically for it. The Thomas Inch dumbbell is one of the most renowned examples, and replicas are still used today to demonstrate impressive grip strength:
If you want to understand how challenging this can be, simply add a Fat Grip to a dumbbell. I once managed to lift a 75 lb dumbbell this way, which is only 43% of the weight of an Inch.
For more inventive open hand grip exercises, pick up anything heavy that demands an open hand to grip it. Blobs, or chopped-up dumbbells, are one classic method. (Alternatively, you could stand a dumbbell on its end and lift it from the round or hexagonal top without needing to modify it.)
r/GripTraining suggests saving an empty protein powder container (often large with big lids) and filling it with heavy objects like rocks, sand, or spare weight plates and small dumbbells. Grab the jug by the lid and see if you can lift it.
Feel free to get creative with ways to train your grip. I’ve heard of people hanging strange objects like tennis balls from a pull-up bar to challenge their grip. Or, find a uniquely shaped item in your house or yard to lift. How will you train your open hand grip this week?
