If you’ve been reading my stuff for a while, whether it’s here or anywhere else, you know that I am a big fan of having a strong grip. There are a few reasons for this, including:
- Never needing assistance in opening jars
- Having healthy hands as a result of training your entire body, and not just the obvious stuff
- Submission grappling
- Helping my deadlift
Since I’ve spoken about the joys and benefits of training the grip/hands before, there’s no need to rehash all of it. You can go back and read in detail how the hands work and some exercises that facilitate that.
Today, we’re going to take two common back exercises and modify them so you can get the added bonus of training your grip and/or hands.
Hand Grenade Rows
As you can see in the video, there isn’t much in the way of novelty here. It’s a standard seated horizontal row with one hand. The main difference is in the attachment I use. In the video, I am using a modified softball. It has an attachment screwed in with a carabiner, which you can attach to any cable machine at any gym. If you don’t want to make it yourself, you can also buy spherical attachments from Sorinex or Rogue Fitness.
Making the exercise progressively more difficult (or easy) will depend on your hand placement. If you’re just starting it, cover the attachment with the surface of your palm and grab it. After that, perform a row like you normally would.
As you progress, use less surface area of the hand. Do this by using the fingers, progressively working your way to using only the fingertips to perform the row.
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