YAWT: good grip

[KokomoGST]

I'm starting to hit a plateau on a lot of my bread and butter exercises and it seems that my grip and forearm muscles used for stabilization aren't up to snuff with the weight I want to push to.

What kind of exercises do you guys recommend? I'm already kinda cheating by using training gloves with wrist support and I'm thinking about getting straps but that seems to be more of a cheat...

 

[mrCide]

grab a curling bar with heavy weights and sit it somewhere and twist/roll the bar..

also try hanging on like a wet towel..

or do wrist exercises with the straight bar.. etc

 

[beer]

don't use gloves, at all. Use wrist wraps only on very heavy bench pressing or squatting or on most close-grip bench lifts. I use it on the bench/squat only when I am going to 90% or more of my max, because my wrists tend to be bent far back. On close grip bench there is more strain than a normal bench so I always wear them.

Your hands will caulous up soon enough. The gloves make your grip weaker by making it a smoother surface, and thus less friction, between your hand and the bar.

Use straps only when you really are overloading your grip. It is better to work out with more weight than your hands can handle if it means that you are working the target group more efficiently.

 

[xyion]

My friend and I had discussions about this the other day actually. He uses straps, while I do not. If you have hit a plateau, then I would go ahead and start using straps to aide you so that you dot stagnate for too long. But I would work on the forearm muscles to try and bring them up to par with the rest of your body. I had the same problems with my triceps, and after working them hard for a while, everything is OK again.