Daniel Strauss knows a thing or two about the importance of strong forearms and an iron grip because the popular grappling coach and jiu-jitsu black belt was taught by ten-time world champion, Roger Gracie. Now, the student is passing down the wisdom with his own training academy, and an informative Instagram account that has amassed more than half-a-million followers. In a recent post, the man they call the “Raspberry Ape,” shared a post from his home gym, showing how to make great grip strength gains while building those difficult to target forearms at the same time. It’s a fun, but really difficult wrist rolling challenge. Give it a go for yourself.
“You don’t need fancy equipment,” explained Strauss. “Here’s a makeshift wrist roller using just a weight and a towel, and it absolutely fries the forearms,” While the coach used a kettlebell, you could substitute this with any load that can move up and down in a straight line and has an anchor for the towel, such as a dumbbell. To get started, Strauss inserts the towel into the hole of the kettle bell until it reaches the halfway point. He then takes the two ends and puts them together, gripping them at the top. To begin his first rep, Strauss rolls the top ends of the towel while keeping his hands at the same level, so that as he rolls the towel toward him with his wrists, the weight begins to lift. When you can no longer roll the towel towards you, go in the opposite direction and let the weight descent back towards the ground in order to complete the rep.
Why does wrist rolling improve grip strength and forearm muscle mass?
Wrist rolling is a highly effective exercise because it activates the grip and forearm muscles in seconds, making you feel the burn and challenging your will to continue. Forearm muscles like the brachioradialis (the muscle we want to ‘bulge’ on the front of the forearm) can be difficult to target, because the shoulders, biceps, and triceps often come into play in order to move a load. However, working the wrist flexors is a sure-fire way to stimulate forearm growth and grip strength.
Barbells are often utilized for wrist flexion exercises, as are farmers walks and dead hangs, but this towel-based grip and forearm taxer is something else, and creates an “added challenge,” explained the coach, because the grip must expand to meet the growing towel roll. “The ‘handle’ gets bigger the higher up you go!”
In a follow up post, Strauss shared that he’d also begun to execute wrist curls with the same setup, simply making half turns and returns instead of full rolls. “So simple, but so effective,” concluded the game grappler. To make this work for you, experiment with a weight that challenges you. “Like any exercise, it’s personal preference and goal,” commented Strauss of the rep scheme. “Anywhere from five to 30 reps.”
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