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Today, we have weaker grip strength than our parents and their parents of the past. This makes sense, because some of us typically don't work physical labor jobs anymore.
This has some unintended consequences as a result.
While we can talk about the correlation to many posture and health issues, handgrip strength is one good indicator of determining disabilities and mortality in older adults.
As if that isn't enough, poor grip strength also has some correlation to greater risk of depression.
One of the things I primarily have my friends (old clients) who work desk jobs or play games for hours at a time is a mix of various strength exercises - from powerlifting to strongman.
These exercises typically help with core strength, upper body strength, and grip strength - parts of our body that need to be improved due to our prolonged hours of sitting.
This is why I am a huge advocate of grip strength, and ultimately why I am a fan of Farmer's walks.
Farmer's Walks and high-rep overhand deadlifts have built crazy grip strength for myself.
In this post, we are going to dive into grip strength, and ultimately why I believe Farmer's Walks are a excellent for functional strength development.
Grip strength is strengthened from the following areas:
Ultimately, your forearms and hands consist of over 30+ small and intricate muscles.
As some would say: you're only as strong as your grip. This is pretty much true to almost every exercise or lifestyle activity that we will encounter.
Our grip leads hundreds of exercises, and many of the most powerful ones require a strong grip strength.
In fact, we can pretty much use our grip to determine our overall health. According to one study, grip strength can be potentially used as a biomarker for overall health in adults: from bone mineral density to cognitive or brain health.
In addition to that, the benefits that will come from building your grip are the following:
While some of these are only correlations, one thing is important: physical exercise is of utmost importance. In addition, training your grip will not only help your exercises, but will enhance or augment your lifestyle.
So let's talk about grip training.
There are three types of grip training exercises that you should utilize to improve your strength.
While we are really biased in favor of prioritizing the support grip the most, let's dive into the best exercises for each.
Hand Grip strengtheners are probably the best exercise you can do to build crush grip strength. This is quite simply because they are made to be squeezed, and they are probably the best way to strengthening your grip strength in this way.
Plate carries focus on building pinch grip strength by carrying the plate with your fingers and thumbs (without using your palms).
This is incredibly hard to do with heavy plates in the beginning, so you might want to start small. For added challenge, try adding an additional plate to extend the length of your grip.
The Farmer's Walk is quite notably one of the most powerful grip strengthening exercises out there. It's one of those exercises that not only will help your big lifts (Squat, Bench, and Deadlift), but it will allow you to handle various everyday tasks.
The Farmer's Walk builds the following muscles:
Lastly, you should utilize farmer's walks at 1-2 days per week at most. Heavy short runs and light long runs should be mixed, with three working sets maximum.
Ultimately one of the best benefits from building grip strength is not the carryover to your other lifts... it's the ability to open a pickle jar in confidence.
We all know that one buff dude that's a glass cannon.
We're not just about looking good, we want to feeling good and strong.
Reforged Legion! I wanted to take the time to thank you for reading this post! Any questions, comments, recommendations, or insights? Throw them in the comments below, or email me at tony@reforgedperformance.com.
Until next time, Reforged Warriors.
Go out there and seize your destiny!
Exercise can feel like a chore, and even if you know it’s good for your health, the motivation to get moving sometimes just isn’t there.
But it doesn’t have to be a burden - by making exercise meaningful to you, it can become something fun and rewarding!
Here are five ways to make exercise more meaningful!
Men, I know what it is like to be overweight and depressed.
Not having the energy to do anything but relax and sleep.
While relaxation and sleep are incredibly important, they can make us feel like we are not making progress in our lives.
And when depression hits, it’s very difficult to push through with exercise and weight loss.
But did you know that even though it takes time and some effort, you don’t need to get obsessively crazy over it?
In fact, with just a few small adjustments, you can lose weight, fight back against depression, and take your life back.
If you're serious about shedding pounds and pushing away those depression demons, here are five tips that can help get you started.
A few weeks ago, my buddy Grant and I talked about nutrition.
We talked about how he's lost over 120 pounds so far with the weight loss progress he's been making.
This is all because he has been making healthier decisions over time.
One of the newest challenges he's facing right now is he's got a new job. He's working 10 to 12 hour days with physical demanding labor.
And what's been happening for him is that he's been super exhausted, he's not motivated to meal prep, he's having trouble trying to sit down and cook foods doesn't have the energy doesn't have the time.
So what I propose is five tips that you can use to live a more on the go fast food healthy eating lifestyle.