How to Build a Monster Grip

Athletes involved in grappling sports are a special breed. I'm talking about the wrestlers, judo players, jiu jitsu players, MMA fighters, etc. To compete at a high level these athletes need a special blend of strength, endurance, mobility, balance, and a just touch of insanity. Additionally, an impressive trait that almost all good grapplers tend to have is ridiculous grip strength. I competed in the Copa Nova Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Fall Championships over the weekend, and after my matches my forearms were on FIRE! A big part of the game is getting a good grip on your opponent while keeping their grips off of you, so it's important to have some hands that you can rely on.

However the benefits of a stronger grip isn't limited to the grapplers. Working on grip strength can improve shoulder health, increase performance in other sports, and make activities of daily living easier. And we all know big forearms are cool.

So how do you build the vice-like grip of a grappling champion?  The solution is simple, go wrestle somebody everyday.

I'm just kidding (for most of us). But here are some tips to really challenge your grip within your lifting program.

Towels

Using towels for many of your pulling exercises will make you grip harder than normal. If you relax your grip even for a moment it could slip out of your fingers. Towels can be used for pull-ups, chin-ups, cable/band rows, inverted rows, face pulls, and shrugs.

Bottoms Up KBs

I haven't tried any bottoms up kettlebell work until recently, and it was definitely more challenging than I thought. Even with what I thought was moderate weight it was difficult to control. The bottoms up position can be used for pressing variations but also for weighted carries. Try some weighted carries with a KB in a bottoms-up rack or overhead position. If you've never tried it before your forearms might be in for a surprise.

Heavy Farmer's Walks

Load up the implements and talk a stroll. With these don't worry about using a towel or finding another way to make it specifically harder for your grip. The weight alone should do the trick. Chalk up your hands if you need to, but don't use straps (duh).

Deadlifts

Picking up heavy things is one of the best ways to build up your grip. When using a barbell, try to go double overhand as long as you can when working up in weight.

Use these tips to feel better, open the tightest of pickle jars, and build a crushing handshake you can be proud of!

Lessons the Shirt Taught Me

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Things got real weird on Friday night training with Ryan. What was scheduled to be a regular heavy bench session turned into my first time putting on a bench shirt. I have helped Ryan with his powerlifting gear many times before, but I've never really experienced first-hand how it feels to be in a squat suit or a bench shirt. Lesson #1: It's Not Comfortable

I learned very quickly that it doesn't feel too awesome being in the shirt. Getting it on was a pain, but I knew that was coming. I was used to being the guy on the other side of the shirt trying to force the shirt onto another human being, so I expected some discomfort. Luckily however, it was Ryan's old single-ply shirt and his enormous gunzzz stretched out the sleeves pretty nicely, making it a relatively smooth process to put it on. By the time we got the shirt on and got the sleeves and seams exactly where we wanted them I already wanted to take it off. It's super tight and forces you into a weird mummy-like position with your arms dangling out in front of you. You can't really do much about this situation until the shirt comes off.

I found myself rushing the rest periods between sets because I was more focused on getting the final set over with so I could take the evil thing off.

Lesson #2 I Couldn't Keep My Arch

The arched back seen in bench pressing is often demonized as being a flaw in technique or disadvantageous when trying to target the pecs. Whatever. I use an arch when benching because it helps to keep me tight on the bench, allows for better leg drive and provides better leverage overall to perform the lift. When benching "raw", I feel pretty confident about my arch, and I can keep it tight during the entirety of the lift. When benching in the shirt, however, I found myself losing my arch midway through the descending portion of the lift. This leads me to lesson #3...

Lesson #3 My Upper Back Is WEAK!

The shirt exposed my deep dark secret that my upper back is not up to par. When bench pressing in gear, the bar will not come down to your chest without a fight. You literally have to PULL the bar down while forcing yourself to maintain a proper arch. This takes some serious upper and mid back strength that I just didn't have. I could feel my arch collapsing and my once tightly packed shoulders becoming... not so tightly packed. Even when benching raw I always remember the cues to "row the bar down with the lats" and "keep the upper back tight," and I felt that I understood. The shirt let me know that what I originally thought was "tight enough" was an epic fail waiting to happen.

Although the shirt made me feel like a total n00b I walked away from the session with a lot to think about and a lot learned about my bench technique. I probably got some pretty good "overload" stimulation from the heavier weights that the shirt enabled me to use as well. Until next time, I'll just keep hammering away at heavy rows and pull-ups.

For your entertainment, here are a couple videos from the Friday night bench party.

How Will You Succeed?

I stumbled across this on Facebook the other day.  Normally I just scroll through things like this; it doesn't usually make a huge impact on my day.  For some reason though this one stuck when I saw it.  I'm not entirely sure why but it just struck a chord with me, and I really liked it.  I believe it was the first line that might have done it for me, "I succeed because I am willing to do the things that you are not."  I have a lot of changes going on in my life and this line made me think about all the athletes and clients I've worked with over the past couple of years at SAPT.  The large majority of which have succeeded or will succeed in the near future.  Is this because of me or the other coaches at SAPT?  I say no.  The coaching staff at SAPT is merely a vehicle our athletes and clients have used to travel on the road to success.  It's something they posses within themselves that has gotten them to where they are.  As I said SAPT was just the vehicle, it was up to them to turn on the car and drive down the path.  The people I look back on and also the ones I currently watch train now have something their peers do not. They succeed because they are willing to do the things their peers are not.  They are willing to wake up in the early morning during their summer break to come train hard.  They are willing to come in after a long, hard day at work and get after it.  They are willing to train through and around injuries.  They are willing to hold onto hope that they will get past those injuries, even when it seems like all hope is lost they still do not ever give up.  And they are willing and able to understand that success does not happen over night but only through hard, grueling work.

When I think about the kids, teenagers and adults I've worked with I am in awe of their drive, their tenacity and most importantly their heart.  I am forever grateful to them for the inspiration and motivation they have given me and the other SAPT coaches.  They will never stop getting better, they will never give up... Ever. That is why they succeed.

How will you succeed?

Videos to Make Your Day Better

This week has been crazy busy both business and personally so I thought I would post some videos and showcase some of our clients and our student-athletes latest triumphs.  We've got a 9 year old pushing a prowler, adults smoking a 300lbs deadlift, a female walking around with 150lbs in her hands like its her job, and finally an 810lbs prowler push!  Enjoy my friends, I know I did. First here is our youngest athlete at SAPT, Sydney.  This little girl is on a mission to be anything but little.  She loves moving weight! Check our her Prowler Push.

Second is the infamous Lisa S. You may know her from her previous million pound PR's.  Well this was her last max out attempt for a while so she went all out and got 300lbs! Another 25lbs PR!

Third is our resident female badass, Nancy.  Nancy is going to be a freshman in college going in with a ROTC scholarship.  It's safe to say she will be one of the strongest people there! Here is her 150lbs farmer walk!

And last but not least is Red, perhaps one of most tenured athletes at SAPT.  Red is getting ready to head off to his freshman year at VMI to play baseball.  But before he left I allowed him to put on as much weight on the Prowler as he wanted.  He put 9 plates on EACH side, that's 810lbs!! It only took him 6 minutes to do.

As a side note I just want to say thank you to all of our athletes that are heading off to school.  You all worked so hard and showed tremendous drive and heart every time you came in.  I am truly blown away by your dedication and drive to be better than average.  You guys are the reason I love my job and I am thankful to know you all.  SAPT has become a second family to me and the appreciation you all have shown to all the coaches has been humbling.  To steal a line from Robert Griffin III... SAPT we are, and SAPT we'll always be...

A Confidence Booster

I read a great article on EliteFTS the other day which you can find here… A Case for Bullying .  I strongly advise you read it as it really struck a chord with me, although judging by the comments section some readers REALLY missed the point of the article.  Anyways, it inspired my post for this week not really because I was bullied but because of what weight training and powerlifting has done for me and what I feel it can do for younger kids and adults alike. Throughout the entire time I was in school I always had a good bit of friends, I was never the kid who felt so pushed away by other people they had to go eat their lunch in the bathroom (although I can empathize with those kids).  However, in elementary school I was a short fat kid who’s nickname amongst friends was Louie because I looked EXACTLY like the kid from the cartoon show Life with Louie.  Again at no point were people outwardly mean to me about it but I was still really self-conscious about the way I looked.

Onto middle school, once I was here I had lost the fat but gained a crazy amount of acne…. It was gross.  Again, I had a good bit of friends and no one really outwardly made fun of me about it (maybe it was my short temper who knows) but again I was really self-conscious about it.

Onto high school, now I’ve lost the fat, lost the acne, and started doing pull-ups, pushups, and bodyweight squats until it burned.  Only problem was I never really hit that growth spurt I was looking for.  I was standing at a whopping 5’7” on a good day (which I still am today).  Again, nothing that I was teased about but I was really self-conscious about being relatively shorter than a lot of the people I hung out with.

My point is not for you to feel bad for me because I don’t want you too that would be ridiculous.  My point is that all kids or adults no matter what circle of life they come from can feel bad about themselves or that they’ll never measure up to other people.  However, there has to be an outlet for these kids to make them feel better about themselves and be able to gain self-confidence and a way for them to be able to say “I honestly don’t care what you think about me”.  I feel like a lot of parents first instinct is sports which is great and works a great deal of the time.  It gives them an outlet for their aggression, makes them feel part of a team, and teaches them that some days you lose and some days you win.  What about the other kids?  The other kids who end up not making the team and ultimately feel even more isolated.  THEY NEED TO WEIGHT TRAIN!

When I got to college I read Arnold, the Education of a Bodybuilder and there it was the epiphany I was looking for my whole life.  I read that book cover to cover in two days, I wrote down what he ate and how he trained and I did it.  Somewhere along the line my confidence went through the roof, I got bigger and stronger and for the first time in my life I was able to truly not care what other people thought of me.  The only thing I cared about was how to get bigger and stronger.  I was no longer concerned with the people who didn’t matter in my life and their opinions of my clothes, hair, personality, job, etc.

Why did weight training work so well for me in that respect?  Because unlike most things, weight training gives you tangible results all the time; every month I saw myself becoming bigger and stronger and I loved it.  I played basketball my whole life and worked hard it but it was very hard for me to see gains because it was so hard to measure it against things.  But, weight training is something I could track each and every week.

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I know I’ve kind of rambled a bit but the whole point I’m driving at is more kids should weight train and by kids I’m talking about 10 year olds and up.  Please don’t gasp, if you have a problem with 10 year olds weight training; then I have a bone to pick with you at a later date.  Are you concerned with your kid’s well-being and self-esteem?  For that matter are you concerned with your own well-being and self-esteem?  If you are I STRONGLY suggest you start a resistance training program.  I promise that you will be better off for it.

Since high school I knew that I wanted to work with kids in some fashion.  I had a lot of great coaches and teachers that helped me become a better person.  For me the best way to return the favor was by becoming a strength coach and showing kids how to become stronger.  Part of my job is to help kids become stronger and better for their sport.  Honestly though that is NOT my main priority.  My main priority is to help every kid who walks in our doors to feel better about themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally and to truly not care about what someone says about them or thinks about them.

And in case anyone is wondering what i look like now...

We All Need A Little Inspiration

It’s the times that you don’t want to train that will show your true desire and will to win… How often do you wake up and just do not want to go to the weight room, batting cage, football field, volleyball court?  What do you do in those situations; do you roll over and go back to bed?  Do you make compromises because you just aren’t feeling it today?  Do you say “alright starting Monday I’ll get back after it?” We have all been in these situations but as I said these are the situations that define us.  I’ve talked a lot about being average in past posts and how I refuse to be it and this is one of the ways I “beat” the average out of myself.  I have to train no matter what and no matter how I feel because I know the average person just rolls over and goes back to bed, the average person makes compromises.  I’m not trying to be high and mighty, there have been times when I’ve succumb to the state of averageness, and I absolutely hate it.  So when I feel the average part of me trying to take over I have put things in place to make my better half overcome.  This is usually in the form of watching a video or reading an article that really makes me want to get after it.  I’m not really sure why doing these things work for me.  Maybe it’s the fact that I’m seeing someone rise above their own feelings of being average and it makes me realize I need to do the same.  For you it might be something different but it’s up to you to find something to make you conquer those bad days, to rise above your negative thoughts and feelings of inadequacy.  We all have the ability to be great but it is only you that can unlock the potential.  Am I being corny? Maybe, but corny is what we need sometimes to get through those rough days; and I’d rather be corny than average. This was a short and to the point rant, but a rant that was needed.  If you’re like me and get jacked up watching inspirational videos and reading inspirational articles then take a look below at the things I currently look to when I’m having those lazy days.

ARTICLES

The Walk On by Jim Wendler

A Letter To My Younger Self by Jim Wendler

VIDEOS

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By far my favorite video to get me jacked up to go train

Former SAPT coach Chris Romanow is one of the people who got me interested in powerlifting so seeing him smash heavy weight makes me want to do the same

SAPT client and friend Ron Reed inspires me to achieve goals, his work ethic is second to none

I have no idea who this guy is but he is dedicated