When you think about the sport of MMA, you think
about the need to build a serious level of grip strength. This
is an indisputable fact. Sometimes athletes are unprepared for
the specific demands placed on their grip during a fight or match.
High lactate levels, unorthodox wrist postures or even generally
weak hands (thumbs, ring finger and pinky are the weakest links)
all predispose the athlete to either losing the match or becoming
injured. The athletes must train specifically for the metabolic
and physiological demands to achieve the adaptations required
for the fight. If they do this, they will become successful and
have longevity in the sport.
If you lose your grip, you lose your ability to control your
opponent. If you lose your grip, you lose your ability to strike
your opponent without seriously injuring your hands or wrists
(or any other link up the kinetic chain.)
In this article I will show you innovative ways to immediately
improve your grip and ability to absorb forces - which will have
carryover to your ability to express strength during the match
(and in your training.)
Let’s get started.
Rolling Thunder Grappling This exercise is excerpted from my
What you’ll need is two IronMind
Rolling Thunders (RT) - a revolving 2” support device, 4
Jumpstretch bands and 2 carabineers.
Attach 2 bands to each other and you’ll end up with 2 long
bands. Then attach the RT to the long bands with a carabineer.
Attach each long band to a fixed object; a power cage, pole or
even have a partner hold them.
Now you are ready to begin. Grab a RT in each hand and start
by taking some big steps back - getting some tension into the
bands. Now start moving! Take a shot, grab a leg and explode up,
hit a back lunge into some back rows or turn around and start
punching!
During this entire exercise the RT’s will be simulating
your opponents wrists! They’ll be twisting and turning and
trying to rip out of your hands. The tension in the bands and
the wrist postures will begin building your grip into vises!
- Hit Reverse Movement Patterns (reverse
movement from forward striking) building some serious time under
tension (TUT) for your synergists and antagonists and creating
balance in the upper back musculature.
- Hit Random Movements simulating a match.
When you’re controlling your opponents wrists, you’ll
be pulled into bad angles that will test your thumb and wrist
postural strength (ulnar, radial, supination, pronation.) In
a match, you will not be restricted to only linear movements!
- Hit some quad-extension! Start in a deadlift
starting position and extend (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders
(actually flexion, but you know what I mean) = quad) ending
with the RT’s over your head. You’ve just explosively
(speed-strength) engaged the musculature involved in throwing
someone!.
Shot Rotations
Nothing says hand health and dexterity like shot rotations. But
like everything else – here is a twist. We aren’t
going to do rotations with the 2 little metal Chinese medicine
balls you see in the head shop. We are talking about doing shot
rotations with weighted shots used in track and field. Depending
upon the size of the shots and the size of your hands –
these weighted shot rotations can be done with 2, 3, 4, 5 or even
6 lb shots!
Make sure you hit clockwise (CW) and counter clockwise (CCW)
rotations.
Another great variation is to do golf ball rotations while hitting
a contrast bath. Get 2 – 5 gallon buckets and fill one with
hot water and one with icy cold water. Submerse your entire lower
arm into the bucket and do rotations with 2 golf balls. Great
for recovery and rehab! I discuss this in my
- Increase your hand dexterity
- Provide TUT for your hand (palm) and finger flexors
- Increase your wrist stabilization
- Improve the balance of your lower arm musculature
- Provide relief for carpal tunnel and epicondylitis (medial
and lateral)
Talk about shock training! Start smashing a sledgehammer into
a tractor tire, car tire or tree stump. You will be very thankful
in the 3rd (or 5th) rounds when you are still crushing down on
your opponent with dominating hand control. The sledgehammer is
an excellent tool for general physical preparedness (GPP) for
any athlete (a level of conditioning whose benefits include; development
of weaker muscles, improving work capacity and improving recovery.)
It is also very versatile training tool.
You can lever it for specific wrist strength (all postures, see
above) or start hitting big things. Either way, you’re going
to be breathing heavy and you won’t be able to hold onto
your toothbrush that night!
- Gain insane support grip strength and endurance
- Gain postural wrist strength and endurance
- Get the benefits of vibration training – when striking
the tire you will be absorbing small vibrations with each impact.
Controlling this will carryover to the density of your tendons
and ligaments and your own ability to absorb impact forces
- Movement into explosive movement patterns – hip flexion,
extension and rotation
- Gain high levels of conditioning pushing the lactic acid threshold
(LAT) further and further, also see GPP above
- Gain another tool to add to your circuits, complexes and other
energy system training
Kettlebell Work
Kettlebells can be substituted for all dumbbell exercises –
which makes them very versatile. Kettlebells are not the be-all,
end-all – but they are an essential tool that should be
included in your arsenal. Unlike typical dumbbells, kettlebells
have unique benefits, some of which include:
- The center of gravity (COG) of the bell stresses the wrist
and forces unique postures while pressing, pulling and throwing
- The thick handle is great for providing world class support
grip strength
- Substituting kb’s instead of dumbbells will increase the
difficulty of the exercise immediately
- They can be used to load a sled or they can become a sled by
hooking them directly to a thick rope.
There
are a ton of “standard” exercises (bench press, military
press, b/o rows, pullthroughs, etc.) that can be done with kettlebells,
but there are some other unique exercises like the Turkish get-ups,
front racking 2 kettlebells while dragging a sled or combining
kettlebells with other odd-objects – that will provide you
with other kick-ass alternatives.
There are literally hundreds of possibilities.
The Irradiation Series I developed in our Advanced
Kettlebell Training II – The Final Chapter manual,
discusses an athlete’s ability to train to absorb, generate
or create impact force. By pre-loading the athlete, it creates
a co-contraction or “bracing” of the body mechanism
that will be our foundation to generate power.
Check out of few of these exercises.
KB Clean & Press (with Sandbag load)
KB PullThroughs (with Sandbag load)
These exercise movements will allow you to:
- Create high rep muscular endurance in the posterior chain (hamstrings,
glutes, hips, erectors) and grip
- Provide your athletes with the ability to absorb or generate
force, by demanding they learn how to “brace” the
musculature of their torso (from their lower chest to their knees
– otherwise known as the all encompassing core!)
- Easily integrate into your circuits, complexes or any of your
energy system training
There you have it. Four quick and easy ways to turn your hands
(and your body) into smashing machines! By improving your grip
strength and incorporating complex exercises into your strength
programs, you will be able to control the match, generate explosive
forces (in multi-planes) incorporating “bracing” and
greatly improve your ability to strike without getting injured
(but if you do get injured, you will improve your ability to recovery
quickly!)
Integration is the key. You can either focus on specific aspects
of grip in isolation to bring up a weakness or you can integrate
more challenging (complex) exercises into your strength program
for improved performance.
Jim Smith, a member of the Elite FTS Q&A team, is a
strength coach with the Diesel Crew. He dedicates himself to studying,
developing and enhancing athletic performance through the utilization
of conventional, non-conventional and grip strength training protocols.
Helping athletes of all skills levels attain their goals and “Achieve
Beyond Potential”, Smitty is also an amateur strongman competitor,
lecturer and author whose writings regularly appear on EliteFTS.com,
TotalPerformanceSports.com, DragonDoor.com and many others.
There
are a ton of “standard” exercises (bench press, military
press, b/o rows, pullthroughs, etc.) that can be done with kettlebells,
but there are some other unique exercises like the Turkish get-ups,
front racking 2 kettlebells while dragging a sled or combining
kettlebells with other odd-objects – that will provide you
with other kick-ass alternatives.
