How to Build Strong & Healthy Hands?
- Functional strength – Stronger extensors not only contribute to counter-movements but also improves overall grip
- Muscle balance – Do you want your forearms to be in constant pain OR healthy? Counter-movements are essential
- Healthier hands – Prevent muscle overuse that is very common, causes inflammation & has a higher chance for injury
- Flexibility – Build your wrists stronger in all directions – Including to flexor movements like crushing, focus on extensors
What’s the top way to build hand muscle balance? It’s simple, working the extensor muscles in your hands.
But why is taking care of your extensor muscles incredibly important?
You’re probably wondering what difference does it make in the long run to work your extensors?
Why not just keep crushing hand grippers..
..or keep pinching pinch blocks?
The answer is simple – You want your hands to be healthy, to become stronger! To get stronger, you need muscle balance. Without one, other can’t become great – For example, think about your big pressing muscles – You’ll have a big bench press IF your back is strong enough to support your chest. If you don’t, you simply won’t, plain & simple..
Exactly same thing happens with your overall grip strength – Extensor muscles will balance your flexor muscles to improve overall grip power output, its muscle structure & versatility.
Ironically, it’s yet again one of those overlooked aspects of impressive physiques..
..but who doesn’t want to have stronger & healthier hands?
It’s a whole another story, yet not less important topic – Injuries & rehab – If you have had problems with carpal tunnel syndrome OR so called tennis elbow, then you know firsthand that you don’t want to miss out on muscle balance.
Fatigued, sore hands – Once you’ve gone through that pain & trouble, you know exactly that you want to avoid it at all costs.
The repetitive motions we do in our every day lives tend to fatigue muscles in forearms & the unbalanced muscles can get injured easily.
Luckily, there are couple of simple yet effective tools that help you to relieve those symptoms & kiss goodbye to these problems. The key is in regular exercising & consitent effort but at the same time it doesn’t take too much of your time. I’ll show you how.
The Four Major Hand Movements
- Crushing grip – The most basic hand movement – Grabbing & squeezing an object with your fingers meanwhile you’ll be moving your fingers towards your palm
- Pinching grip – Involve your thumb to pinch an object – The idea of this hand movement is to always use your thumb in combination of any of your other 4 fingers
- Supporting grip – Isometric OR static grip, that focuses on holding onto something as long as you can while maintaining it in the exact same position the whole time
- Extending grip – Complex extensor movements to provide you with muscle balance – Involves your wrists & fingers, to adjust your grip position, or perform flexor counter-moves
What are the Best Tools to Improve Extensor Muscles?
The Best Default Choice
One of the easiest & most effective tools to train extensors are rubber hand bands.
Hand band exercises are fun & easy to do yet they’re extremely important for your hand health.
These tools are portable – Simply put one into your pocket & use it whenever you need – No excuses to skip your exercise!
- Great Complement to Grippers – To improve your Crush Grip work on extensors. Extend-Your-Hand Bands are perfect Complement to Captains of Crush grippers. For each repetition you do on your hand gripper, do 1 repetition with hand bands to achieve balance. Once you get into proper routine, you’re deadlift results will go up like crazy in the next few months.
- Hand Health & Recovery – Excellent, if your hands are sore from repetitive motions. It’s a great tool to exercise your hand extending instead of flexing. Hand bands help you to relieve pain from your hands, recover & restore the muscle balance to keep you away from injuries. Quickly increases your hand dexterity & fingers strength – A great way to balance your exercise plan.
Always remember to start with a proper warm-up!
Don’t go crazy right off the bat – Start light, go from there
More Specialty Tools – Tune up Your Wrists
Build Crazy Strong Wrists!
Another great tool & a simple way how you can improve your overall grip strength – This tool specifically focuses on your wrists. This type of equipment is very easy to obtain & it is portable. You can always take it with you as you hit the gym.
Build Strong Wrists in All Directions – This little specialty tool produces a forearm workout unlike anything else out there – If your goal is to improve & build strong wrists in all directions, simply latch on to the Twist Yo’ Wrist & give it a spin.
It becomes extremely hard, & it doesn’t take much weight to achieve that..
Outstanding tool for you if you want a new way to pump up your forearms & you like to train your grip strength at the same time. Again, remember..
..this device doesn’t take much weight to become extremely hard, so don’t expect to load this up with as much weight as your regular wrist roller – You simply won’t be able to move it.
Even loading a light weight is actually enough to get in a basic workout & it works your hands in ways like nothing else will.
If you want a challenge, it also stands up for heavy weights to fit your preference. Always be cautious: Take a look at the rope & knot that secures weights, so you won’t experience unnecessary surprises if all of a sudden the rope comes out of the pulley & the weights crash on the ground. This device comes with durable rope, but it’s also replaceable if it breaks.
What to Avoid when You Train Extensors?
Don’t Overdo Your Thing
So, you’ve just got a new set of hand bands & a wrist roller – You’re excited & very motivated to get things going.
You want fast results & you’re going to do as much repetitions as you can & work your forearms as intensely as possible.
Meanwhile, dedication is great & gets you results, also be cautious while training your forearms:
Remember, your forearms are one of the SMALLEST muscle groups in your whole body.. you can injure your hands easily if you’re pushing it too far.
..you can easily get inflammation in your hands if you overdo your thing. Be reasonable!
DON’T go for hundreds of repetitions with hand bands OR hand grippers like some guys out there are doing – There’s a high chance you’re likely going to injure yourself! It’s really not worth it to over-train, take your time.
The best approach is to give your hands short yet intense workouts – Up to 5 sets & up to 15 repetitions in each set would be usually more than enough.
If you can do more than that, you’re ready to move to more advanced difficulty level.
After a grip workout, always take a day off & give your hands a proper rest! It’s good to train your grip no more than 2-3 times per week. If you train, train.. if you rest, rest. Do not do something in between.
Again, remind yourself that this is a small muscle group – You don’t want to fatigue it too much – No need to work harder BUT work smarter – Use short & intense workouts, then give your hands a proper rest.
This is the standard approach how to progress quickly & the fastest way possible. In that way there’s higher chance that you’re not going to injure yourself, so you can keep training for years to come.
Remember, no matter what your sport is, getting stronger is a marathon not a race – Longevity is the name of the game.
Thanks for stopping by!
I hope you enjoyed reading my article & learned a lot about Extensors training along the way.
Feel free to ask for assistance & share your thoughts by leaving a comment.
Cheers,
Henry
Hi Henry,
I sure learned a lot from this article. It’s very informative and complete. Thank you for posting it.
I had no idea about the tools that exist to work on hand muscles.
You are right, I never thought about exercising hand muscles.
I’m gonna have to look into some of these.
I’m glad it all has inspired & encouraged you to try out new things.
Ironically, despite the fact how tremendously useful grip strength can be, even in our everyday lives..
..training grip strength is often very overlooked if not completely neglected in workout routines
Working on your hand muscles can be fun – Quick, intense & has great many benefits to it.
Strength is never a weakness..