Wrist strengthening?

Black Swan

Any suggestions for the strengthening of your wrists? My upper and lower arms meet my needs for strength, as does my hand grip, but my wrists are my weak point in physical development.

I squeeze tennis balls, which have improved my grip, but does not do much for wrists. I also do a few fist push-ups daily, several of them held fully extended for several minutes, but if not careful, my wrists will fold.

Suggested techniques for improving wrist strength?

Red Hand

I'm not a fitness expert, B!ue (as you well know) but fist push-ups sound like a way of developing arthritis in your fingers.

How about a lightish dumbell that you hold out straight in front of you, gripped in your paw....hand, and extend at the wrist up and down slowly and smoothly, with knuckles pointing up? Might strengthen the tendons and muscles there?

itsyourround

captains of crush your only man!

http://www.londonkettlebells.com/captains-of-crush.html

challengemaster

Jeremiah 16:1 wrote: »

I'm not a fitness expert, B!ue (as you well know) but fist push-ups sound like a way of developing arthritis in your fingers.

Wolfe's law - By causing minor damage to your body, it heals and conditions itself so it wont happen again. I don't mean going and breaking your ankle or soemthing, but light trauma. In TKD it's advised to do knuckle push-ups and also punch walls for conditioning knuckles - it helps when it comes to board breaking. Mr. O'Donnell of Galway school of TKD can break boards with his fingertips... so with proper conditioning, and proper care, it doens't cause arthritis.

Also it's only really been proven to cause arthritis if you break bone or some such.

BrianD3

Some people base their entire training "career" on strengthening grip/hands/wrists, bending nails and ripping phonebooks apart etc. So there are loads of things you could do. Check out John Brookfield's grip tips on Ironmind
http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/ironmind/GripTips/GripTip14.html
Also check out this page on sledgehammer levering. If you push yourself anyway hard with these levers you will fry your wrists
http://www.geocities.com/ltgodfrey/lever.html

Pride Fighter

itsyourround wrote: »

captains of crush your only man!

http://www.londonkettlebells.com/captains-of-crush.html

I have one, it was got for me birthday. Mickk who is on here sells them.

Brian?

Try doing reverse barbell curls.

The Shane

What?

To what end are you strengthening your wrists? I mean if your grip is as strong as you currently want it and the arms don't seem to be a problem.... how much stronger can your wrists get independently of your forearms?

Lately I've been wristlocking people but surely that hasn't caused widespread panic this soon.

Shane, The

Roper

I heard some stories about a Sunday morning wristlocker... pick it up from him?

Re: the knuckle push ups. Some forms of "conditioning" in TKD and trad martial arts are just plain dumb, but push ups on the knuckles is not one of them. As long as there's no impact involved you're safe enough. The real Jackass idiocy comes from whacking your knuckles off walls floorboards etc. That causes micro fractures and can lead to arthur ritus coming to visit in later life.

By the by, it took me long time to forget the ridiculous coaching and training methods I learned in TKD so I'll thank you not to force them back into my brain.

gabgab

I have a captains of crush trainer, its great I must admit,

Black Swan

The Shane wrote: »

To what end are you strengthening your wrists?

When I full contact punch, sometimes my wrists will fold. Yes, I wrist wrap as a preventative, and yes, I am working to improve my technique, but a little added strength in the wrists would help, too. There's another application that pertains to double sword, but I don't want to get into that here.

Hanley

itsyourround wrote: »

captains of crush your only man!

http://www.londonkettlebells.com/captains-of-crush.html

the CoC's will do sweet FA to strengthen your wrists. Your grip might get stronger, but there's far more efficient ways of strengthening your wrists.

Reverse Curls and Thor's Hammer variations would be much more suitable.

Hanley

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

When I full contact punch, sometimes my wrists will fold. Yes, I wrist wrap as a preventative, and yes, I am working to improve my technique, but a little added strength in the wrists would help, too. There's another application that pertains to double sword, but I don't want to get into that here.

Ok well think about it this way.... why would a stronger grip help you keep your wrist in a static position? You need to work your wrists to be able to maintain this position as strongly as possible (ie reverse curls and thors hammer!)

Al_Fernz

Roper wrote: »

I heard some stories about a Sunday morning wristlocker... pick it up from him?

Re: the knuckle push ups. Some forms of "conditioning" in TKD and trad martial arts are just plain dumb, but push ups on the knuckles is not one of them. As long as there's no impact involved you're safe enough. The real Jackass idiocy comes from whacking your knuckles off walls floorboards etc. That causes micro fractures and can lead to arthur ritus coming to visit in later life.

By the by, it took me long time to forget the ridiculous coaching and training methods I learned in TKD so I'll thank you not to force them back into my brain.

Spot on Mr. Roper.

Martial arts training seems to be obsessed with the concept of "no pain, no gain." Most of that conditioning rhetoric is complete BS. For every person breaking boards with his little finger there's 5 that have joint problems.

Black Swan

Good information lads. Thanks!

Roper

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

When I full contact punch, sometimes my wrists will fold. Yes, I wrist wrap as a preventative, and yes, I am working to improve my technique, but a little added strength in the wrists would help, too. There's another application that pertains to double sword, but I don't want to get into that here.

Hmmm, I've never found wrist strength to be a major factor in folding at the wrist. I'd check your wrapping style and maybe have a look at the technique again.

Red Hand

challengemaster wrote: »

Wolfe's law - By causing minor damage to your body, it heals and conditions itself so it wont happen again. I don't mean going and breaking your ankle or soemthing, but light trauma. In TKD it's advised to do knuckle push-ups and also punch walls for conditioning knuckles - it helps when it comes to board breaking. Mr. O'Donnell of Galway school of TKD can break boards with his fingertips... so with proper conditioning, and proper care, it doens't cause arthritis.

Also it's only really been proven to cause arthritis if you break bone or some such.

Well, I'm not convinced. How old is Mr O Donnell?

I could citie Pat Spillane's Law...but this is the wrong forum for that.:)

gsxr1

Roper wrote: »

Hmmm, I've never found wrist strength to be a major factor in folding at the wrist. I'd check your wrapping style and maybe have a look at the technique again.

I use this course for bag training.

The hand wrapping in the link.

http://www.expertvillage.com/video/102060_boxing-first-day-hand-wrapping.htm