Let's face it, grip
strength is strength. It's all nice having a big bench press and you may
well be able to leg press a whole stack of iron, but if your grip is wussy you'll
have problems doing real-life strength tests like lifting heavy boxes, barrels...ever
tried moving a piano up some stairs?...or seeing as this is a martial arts site,
picking an opponent up and chucking him/her about. You get the idea.
Once
upon a time, grip training courses were common. In "Physical Culture"
days, having a great grip was more important than nice pecs and a six-pack. These
days books on hand strength are rare, in fact I can only think of Brookfield's.
I'm
not going to go into everything the book covers, you can read that for yourselves,
but basically hand strength can be split into different types, eg.
Crushing
grip - You know, like when your girlfriends dad tries to pulverise you on your
first handshake.
Brookfield also covers thumb strength - very important ,
in fact he gives it half a chapter.
Pinch
Grip - great for you Gi players out there.
Wrist
strength - Brookfield cites pro Rodeo riders
Supporting
strength - what you require to hang onto a heavy deadlift
Individual
finger strength - like rockclimbers strive to develop...etc
Brookfield
tackles each area giving you a bunch of exercises for each specific type of hand
strength. He litters the book with examples of amazing feats (can you tear a pack
of cards in half? You probably couldn't do it with pliers. Brookfield wraps the
pack in gaffer tape and then rips its in half!).
Some
of the exercises require specific equipment, with the Ironmind products getting
an understandable and deserved plug. However many are improvised or home made
making it easy for anyone to get into it.
Towards
the end of the book there's loads of training programs tailored for your particular
sport and strength level - very cool. And when you think you've doing good, there's
a chapter on testing your hand strength. For example - the first one is crushing
a raw potato into a pulp with one hand. Simple and dastardly difficult.
What
else is there? Chapters on kettlebell
training (as made trendy by Pavel Tsatsouline)
and thick handled dumbell training - even instructions on how to make them. Again,
all good solid stuff. It's a great little book, well worth the money. Yeah, grab
a copy.
