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I was reading about weight training with thick bars, and the alleged benefit this has on joint health (in particular for straight bar lifts), and overall arm strength and development.
Here’s a picture of Fat Gripz, which are basically rubber hand-holds that approximate this effect on smaller bars.
Anyone have experience with these? Worth giving a shot, or don’t bother?
I have experience with them and own a pair. I guess they are good for grip development. Be careful with if doing something like curls. You can hurt soft tissue in forearms easily. Definitely better than buying an expensive thick bar. I would say that as long as you are consistently using them, they are worth it.
Thanks Thomas. One thing that struck me about them was various testimonials about bringing deadlift capacity up by helping the lagging grip manage the higher weight.
I’ve definitely experienced that. My ability to hold onto the bar is probably weaker than my lower body strength on deads. So this might allow for better deadliting down the line if grip strength improves.
What’s the soft tissue concern on curls? How would it put me at greater risk for injury?
You only need to worry about the soft tissue issue if you are doing the fat gripz with curls. I don’t know how common this is, but I had the problem when using a fat bar for it.
Fat gripz should help with increasing grip strength, but you should probably look into other strategies as well. There’s a lot of good stuff at Ironmind In particular, I have seen Louie Simmons recommend this for increasing hand strength for deadlifts. Expensive, but you might find a cheaper version somewhere.
Be sure to use plenty of chalk. In the meantime, if your grip is lagging, use straps on your heaviest deadlifts.
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