Forearms/grip

[jorvik]

When I used to regularly train weights I was always told to exercise the forearms everyday because they took ages to develop.lately I've been using a Bruce Lee thingy Were you lift a weight on a string by turning your hands.....sure hurts enough to make me think it's working. also interested in doing more wrist grippers or whatever you call them......so can I? are there any better exercises?.......a lot of this comes from the talk about gripping weights such as jars etc.which I've always fancied doing.and the bad stuff about rockclimbers.............advice please

[Bill Glasheen]

Hey, Ray!

Finger, wrist, and forearm stuff is no different than any other set of muscles. You work them, and then you need at least a day rest for your body to respond to what you've done. Do resistance training every day and you're not going to get stronger.

For the wrist/forearm, there are 3 degrees of freedom of motion to work.

• Flexion and extension
• Supination and pronation
• Ulnar deviation and radial deviation.

Rolling a rope up on a pole (a.k.a. wrist rollers) is a simple, old school way to work the flexion/extension.



These are the big muscles on the back (extension) and underside (flexion) of your forearms.

Personally I prefer doing wrist curls in the flexion and extension directions.

Wrist curls for flexion. If possible, let the weight roll all the way out to the tip of your fingers, then close hand and flex wrist. That's easier done with barbell and two wrists than dumbbell and a single wrist at a time.



Reverse wrist curls for extension.



I'll post more later.

- Bill

[Bill Glasheen]

I used to have a wonderful machine at my old gym that did supination and pronation. But when they built the new gym, they got rid of it. If I'd have known that, I would have bought the machine.

Here's a simple way to do supination



and pronation



Sometimes you'll see Uechi and Goju people doing slow sanchins with poles in their hands that have weights on the end. (Chisi) Among other things, it works on these muscles.



This isn't my favorite way to work the forearm supination/pronation, but it's a nice variation. This is actually a pretty complicated exercise that also works on deltoids, rotator cuff muscles, postural muscles, etc.

- Bill

[Bill Glasheen]

Here is the ulnar deviation of wrist...



... and radial deviation of wrist.



Again, it's best done with a machine. But if no machine, this works.

- Bill

[Bill Glasheen]

The classic tiger grip for Uechi Ryu development comes from the jar training.



The most important thing to consider with Uechi Ryu is that you need to have the thumb in the Sanchin boshiken position. A beginner needs to be shown the grip.

I grab 12-packs of sodas with this grip. It's just something to do in-between classes. You grab in a way such that top of can is with fingers and bottom with boshiken thumb, or vice versa. In other words, you grab from above in the middle of this long box.



Various jars also work. You can fill them with water, concrete, sand, etc.



- Bill

[Bill Glasheen]

The one final thing I do that is specialized for Uechi Ryu is a "tripod" pushup I do with the middle knuckles of the thumb, index finger, and middle finger. If you do it right, you make marks on your digits which correspond to the contact points of a boshiken, shoken, and hiraken respectively. Again... this is something that you need to have someone show you.

I learned it from David Lamb, who learned it from an Okinawan pangainoon instructor.

One day I may do a few photos of this so I can show people what it looks like.

- Bill

[jorvik]

Thanks Bill................great stuff ........I know I'm being cheeky here , but any advice on tayloring a workout to this. You know 3X10 sets of wrist curls, 3 X 10 reverse wrist curls.that sort of thing..and what about varying your methods every 3 months?.....say three months heavy, three months light etc..and how long before I get to look like popeye

[Van Canna]

Personally I prefer doing wrist curls in the flexion and extension directions.

Wrist curls for flexion. If possible, let the weight roll all the way out to the tip of your fingers, then close hand and flex wrist. That's easier done with barbell and two wrists than dumbbell and a single wrist at a time.

Right on, Bill...have been doing those for years...and they do lead to a very powerful grip and forearm 'club-bell' weapon that complements my 'bone conditioning' every day.

[Bill Glasheen]

Thanks Bill................great stuff ........I know I'm being cheeky here , but any advice on tayloring a workout to this. You know 3X10 sets of wrist curls, 3 X 10 reverse wrist curls.that sort of thing..and what about varying your methods every 3 months?.....say three months heavy, three months light etc..and how long before I get to look like popeye

Well...

Personally I do this as "clean up" work to a routine that starts with multiple muscle group exercises. Ideally you complete the whole workout in an hour, so this means you have to book through work like this. In these core exercises, never use wrist wraps. If your grip is the weak link on an exercise like a seated row, well so be it. Stimulating the body many muscles at a time wakes these muscles up in a way that lots of single muscle exercises never can.

For the flexion/extension, supination/pronation, and ulnar/radial deviations, you can make a workout of that. (Flexion/extension at a minimum) I like to do 2 to 3 sets of each about 15x. If you work in 12 week cycles, you might want to try with higher reps (15 to 20 reps per set) and work your way down (8 to 10 reps per set).

I save the jar and tripod pushup stuff for workout days, since this really does different muscles. You can get away with that. Mix it up with some kotekitae (forearm conditioning) and Sanchin. Sometimes I'll mix it up with the hojoundo so I am not thrusting or grabbing with lifeless hands. I will similarly work on my toes in-between working on kicks and some ashikitae.

You can do as few as once per week, and probably as often as 3 times per week for the 3 pairs of exercises. If you are going to have workout days where you're doing the jar and finger stuff, you'll have to throw in some rest days somewhere in the week.

It's also worth mentioning that you should do something like PNF stretches of all these motions in-between the exercises. You'll especially appreciate that if you do aikido and folks are doing wristy twisty motions on your forearms.

You should notice a difference after one 12-week cycle. But settle down with all this and do it over a period of years. I don't look like Popeye or Nakahodo (don't have the genes), but over time I've shocked myself at how much the body eventually will respond. All this begins to kick in as your thrusting power and speed go down, making all these Uechi weapons suddenly seem like a great idea.

- Bill