How to avoid becoming a"weak-wristed fuck"

Your grip matters more than you probably realize. Whether you’re trying to give an impressive handshake or pull off a Herculean feat, you’re relying on grip strength.

Unfortunately, grip training isn’t sexy or fun—people rarely mention how impressive a person’s forearms are. As a result, this area ends up being neglected by many athletes.

As a student, I worked for the University of Illinois football team for a semester. One thing that surprised me in the team’s weightlifting sessions was how many athletes had trouble maintaining straight wrists while bench-pressing. It was a common enough issue that I made a comment to one of the strength coaches about it. “Yeah, they are weak-wristed fucks,” he told me. His scorn was enough, I guess, because not much else was done to rectify the problem.

The team’s weight room had some of those old-fashioned grip handles with springs; they hung from the wall and were basically never touched. The only other grip training I can recall involved playing around at the end of practice by holding a sledgehammer with a straight arm and trying to kiss the mallet without it falling on your face.

Ignoring the inherent danger and stupidity of that feat of strength, what really grinds my gears is that you don’t need to do isolated forearm work to strengthen your grip. It can easily be incorporated into workouts you are probably already doing!

Here are three exercise variations to amp up your grip strength and train major muscle groups simultaneously.

Farmers marches

An exercise that is great for balance, core stabilization and lat activation.

Hanging leg lifts

This is simply one of the best ways to exercise your lower abs. Too many people take the grip element out by using the captain’s chair or elbow straps.

Fingertip push-ups

Most grip training focuses on your forearms, while fingertip push-ups allow you all the benefits of a push-up as well as isolating your finger strength. 

For this exercise I recommend starting with this regression, a standard fingertip push-up can be a lot of stress on your fingers if you are not conditioned for it. 

Try this forearm blasting circuit (3x) for the end of your workout:

·      Farmers marches

o   1.5 minutes with 50% of your body weight

·      Fingertip push-ups

o   10 reps

·      Hanging leg raises

o   10 straight leg raise

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