How To Make A Homemade Block Weight

Maybe you want a respectable hand shake, improved grip for sport, or you want to try to break Jedd Johnson’s world record two hand pinch (pictured); if so you will need to train your hands.  Pinching something in your hands and performing an isometric type of contraction would be a good starting point.

Block weight training has been around for years and you can buy grip training devices or get really creative by simply picking items up and holding them.  Competition grip events are gaining in popularity and the importance of training grip for sports has become more of a priority than ever before.

Let’s face it, grip strength can make or break you.  Even female soccer players should be training grip.  Their limiting factor for training with weight is usually not leg strength.  It is usually how much weight they are able to hold in their hands for exercises like the dead lift, RDL, Lunges, Step-ups, etc..

I really like putting posts like these together to help athletes, coaches, and anyone else looking to improve and that is why I want to share with you how to build a simple block weight for great hand strength.

First, find a few scrap blocks of wood.  These can be of different lengths and thicknesses.  Look for new house construction sites.  They always are throwing away the ends of boards.  Just make sure you ask first so you don’t get in trouble for stealing.  Trust me they usually will not care about giving you what you are looking for-it is less for them to throw out.

Next, you will need a sturdy wood threaded eye bolt, spring clip, and a small length of chain that you can pick up at any hardware store for a few bucks.  Drill into the wood a little bit with a drill bit that has a smaller diameter than the threaded part of the eye bolt.  Place the eye bolt into the hole and start it with your hands until it bites into the wood.  Then take a screw driver into the eye of the bolt to use as leverage to twist it into the wood.  Make sure it is anchored into the wood very well.  Take your clip and attach it to the eye bolt, loop the chain onto the clip and place the other end of the chain through the hole of a weight plate and attach to the spring clip and you are ready to start pinch training.  If your wood has any splintered or sharp edges; sand it down a little bit with some sand paper.  There you go, it doesn’t get any easier than that!

Try holding the weight plate off the floor with your arms extended for time.  You should shoot for 30 seconds and you can progress from there.  You can also go heavier and dead lift the weight up and down for reps.  Typically, I will try to aim for 6-10 reps.  Another method to try is to  set weight for yourself and just hold it for time until failure and keep track of your time and watch how your it will improve as your endurance increases.

If you are a coach, try to make it competitive between athletes.  Have them face off for timed holds for bragging rights!  This will get heated and the athletes love the competitive spirit.

Remember, you can make single or double hand blocks and blocks of different thicknesses for progressive training cycles.

If you are serious about taking your grip strength and game to the next level then you NEED to checkout this information that Jedd Johnson has about training with grippers.  The information is top notch!  You can check that out here=> http://tinyurl.com/GripperDVD

Hope that helps!

To your health,

Jerry