mihou
Rang: Administrateur
Nombre de messages : 8092
Localisation : Washington D.C.
Date d'inscription : 28/05/2005
 | | Pray for Strong Forearms | |
Pray
for Strong Forearms
by Chad Waterbury
About 90% of the trainees I encounter have extremely
tight wrist flexors and/or extremely weak wrist extensors. Either
of these two problems will dramatically decrease your gripping strength.
Tight
wrist flexors won't
be able to develop maximum tension due to excess overlapping of
cross-bridges within the muscle. The fact that trainees possess
such tight wrist flexors is no surprise. Exercises such as deadlifts,
pull-ups, rows, curls and skull crushers are all challenging the
gripping muscles in the same fashion.
Weak wrist extensors probably limit the amount of
strength you can develop in your wrist flexors in order to protect
the joint from injury (i.e. the body limits flexor strength since
the extensors are weak).
The
solution to the first problem is simple
— stretch the wrist flexors! But how do you know if your wrist
flexors are too tight? Simple, imagine a little girl praying at the
dining room table before Thanksgiving dinner. Her palms are touching
each other and her fingers are extended and pointing toward the ceiling.
Now, if you can achieve that hand position with your hands behind
your back, then you're fine. But I bet you can't!
Try it, but remember, the fingers must be
pointing straight up and the palms must be completely touching each
other.
 |
This
young athlete is able to do it correctly. |  | This
lifter can't do it and needs to work on his tight wrist flexors. |
Here's the solution if you can't
achieve that stretched position:
1)
Place your hands behind your back while trying to mimic the ideal "praying" position
as closely as possible.
2) Push your fingertips against each other with maximum
tension for 6 seconds.
3) Rest and attempt to touch your palms together
again.
4) Repeat step 2 six more times with a 30 second
rest between each tension phase. After each 6-second period of tension
development, you should be able to press your palms more closely
together.
5) Perform this exercise three or four times each
day until you can touch your palms together.
The solution to weak wrist extensors involves
resistance-training. There are numerous exercises you can perform,
but I really like standing barbell wrist extensions. Here's
the description:
1) While standing, hold an unloaded barbell or EZ-curl
bar with your arms extended in front of you at shoulder height.
2) Extend your wrists back as far as possible (pull
knuckles up toward ceiling).
3) Flex your wrist down as far as possible to stretch
the extensors.
4) Lift and repeat for 5 sets of 10 reps with 90
second rest periods
Follow these guidelines and you should be well on
your way to improved gripping strength and bigger forearms! | |
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