- All right.
Grip strength, Bob.
It's one of those things that everyone can benefit from
whether you're in an activity, a sport,
or just at home trying to open up a jar of pickles.
- Absolutely.
- So how can you get stronger wrists, grip strength,
without buying a bunch of fancy stuff?
- Do you know?
- Yeah.
We're gonna show these people.
So hold on just one second and a little bit more.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists on the internet. ♪
- Okay.
So for the first device
you just grab some things,
I think most people will have these around the house.
Or you build...
- A whiskey jug?
- A whiskey jug.
Yeah.
Oh, actually, when we're in Wisconsin
you take a milk jug, empty one,
anything that you can add some liquid in.
You're gonna take a rope of some sort,
something that can hold some weight.
- Right.
- And then you can use a piece
of dowelling or PVC pipe, which I have here.
And we're gonna make a real functional
grip-strengthening device.
So in this case, I'm gonna tie the rope
to the handle, like we have here.
I'm gonna add water.
And actually I like to put a line there
so you know where you started.
- Sure.
- So that's how much water I'll want in there
so that when I do the exercise, I get fatigued.
All right?
Now, the next thing is
if you got some dowelling
or piece of PVC pipe, like I have here, there's two options.
You can just tape, wrap it around,
and tape on the rope tightly.
And then you start to wind it up and...
- Duct tape.
- Actually I'm using painter's tape
but you can use duct tape.
Yep.
And what you do is you get it wound up enough
or really, if the tape's not holding it,
it's the resistance of the string.
- Right.
- The other idea is if you gotta drill handy,
you can drill a hole in there and put this...
- Tie a knot.
- And tie knot on there.
Either way, do what you'd like to do, but get it fastened.
And it should be about an inch, inch and a half,
in diameter.
Don't get too small, it will not be good.
- Or too big.
- Yep.
So that's a good size.
Usually if you go like this with your fingers
that's the diameter that you want right there.
Close to it.
There's no exact science needed.
So you're gonna start like this
and oh, yep,
comes jug, the milk jug.
And you work it, work it, work it.
- Shoulders up?
- Yep.
And you don't have to,
we're not strengthening the shoulders.
If you wanna bring it down like this.
- Sure.
- If you wanted to, you could do it like this.
Functionally, you're probably going to be turning something
with your arms out anyways.
So bring it, in good posture,
and you go up and down, you know, 5 repetitions
up to 10 repetitions.
If you're getting up and down 10,
it's time to add more water.
Add more water.
Again, draw the line.
And my wrists are starting to get fatigued already.
You feel 'em burning in here.
It's good.
- And your arm?
- Yep.
Forearm, wrist.
And you get some grip strength.
We're gonna talk about that in a little bit.
Now the next thing we wanna work about
so you're working this motion,
we need to work this motion
as really critical, and this way.
So I'll show you how to do that in a second.
All right.
Phase two of strengthening those wrists is we need
to get some pronation and supination.
Palm up is supination.
Pronation down.
That motion is used all the time.
We need to get it stronger.
Simple way to do it is if you happen to have a hammer
at home,
- Right.
- or a stick.
- Or a stick.
- Right.
And it can be a broom stick, it can be a mop,
it can be a buoy stick.
I'm gonna start out with a hammer.
And the size of the hammer varies depending
on how strong your wrist is to start with.
But the beauty of using the hammer is,
we're just gonna go like this.
Now, if I move the head of the hammer here, it's quite easy.
- Easier.
As you get stronger, oh, 10 times.
I like 10 for this.
We're gonna go up a little higher.
Go to here.
Take your time.
We're not flipping this around.
It's over here, over here.
Notice my forearm is on a table.
I'm not allowing this kind of motion.
It's strictly rotation.
Put your hand here and keep it steady.
Eh.
Starting to feel good there, but eh,
let's see, that hammer's not good enough.
You may wanna go to a bigger hammer.
This is actually has lead it.
It's a dead blow.
And we work it like that.
- What's this?
- Yeah.
There's lots of lead up in that space.
And work that and I can definitely feel the-
I wouldn't do more than this.
However, for those real strong people you can use,
there you go.
And work that.
Now Bob's doing it with the arm up in the air
which is a fine way to do it.
He's getting some shoulder strength.
If you wanna do it the way I'm doing it
to isolate the wrist, that's fine too.
Again, in the middle it's very simple.
And then if you work your way up,
ooh, yeah.
That's a little more than I would want.
- So there we go.
- There you go.
We don't wanna forget radial deviation.
Forearm down on your leg, if you will, or a table.
And simply this motion,
really important little motion but don't forget it.
It helps.
Now the next thing I do want talk about is if you do want
to spend a little money,
this is a device I personally use.
Bob, you've been using this?
It's actually invented
by a rock climber, mountain climber,
to work his grip strength.
It's got resistant bands here, which is really nice.
There's four of 'em.
You put 'em under your feet like this,
and then you put it on your forearms
on your thighs, just like we're doing with the hammer.
- Should start with less.
- Yep.
And we go like this.
And I usually do it with my shoes on.
It works a little bit better
but you can go barefoot
and work it like that.
If it's too strong, then you simply take off a couple loops.
So I'll do mine with all the resistance this way.
And then when I do the extension, the wrist extension,
I have to go just down to two.
If you wanted, you can go to one
and put it around your feet like this.
So there's a lot of variation.
And then, for the radial deviation,
thumbs up and work it like that.
Yeah, it's the only thing like it it.
It's a unique device if you're interested
in something like that.
- That's great.
Works Well.
- The other thing that you really want to focus on
to get maximum strength with your grip is your finger grip
and strength.
What works really well, and these,
I couldn't really come up with anything
without buying something that works as well as this.
And this is a really cost effective unit.
- Right.
- Is one of these, gripper strength.
You may have one already.
- And you can set the tension.
- Yep.
This one, you vary the resistance with this thumb screw.
And actually this has got a nice little
digital counter, which is really nice.
So you don't have to count.
You gotta squeeze all the way until it makes contact.
So it forces you to do a proper and full grip.
There's some other devices that come with this
and this is only like 20 some bucks I think.
Yeah, individual
like if you're rehabbing and one of your fingers
or two of your fingers are weak
you can work individual strength
which is a big advantage particularly for rehab, or,
- Play the trumpet.
- Yeah, if you're playing the trumpet.
And then this is a nice little device.
You can use clay, but this works nice.
There's resistance this way.
If you turn it 90 degrees
there's actually more resistance.
- Right.
- You can work individual fingers on that.
And then there's the little egg
and that's just nice for rolling.
Again, you can find balls
that are soft and squishy that will work as well.
- You wanna mention that?
- This is a device that is nice.
You can use a rubber band to put around your fingers.
This happens to work a lot nicer.
You put it in your fingers like so.
And simply open up your fingers
'cause opening up your grip is equally as important,
particularly with this motion.
So few things, again, most of the things you don't have,
you already have for the big strengthening
for some details or some specifics.
There's a couple items we have to offer.
Bob, what have you to say?
- I have nothing to say.
- Say no more, Bob.
That's when it all comes together.
It all works out.
So strengthen your wrist, be happy, and be careful.