Ironmind should be in the bookmarks of any strength aficionado. The news section is regularly updated with everything from Olympic weightlifting results, strongman competitions, highland games results and in the last year or so has been reporting on an ever growing amount of grip strength competitions. This picture shows the winners from a recent Grip Contest held at the Los angeles FitExpo. In the middle is a man familer to anyone who watches strongman competitions, Rolling Thunder World Record Holder Mark Felix. Chad Woodall, in third place, is another name well known in the grip circuit but what brings this competition to the interest of us kettlebellers is the man in second place. He has only recently been making a name for himself in the top ranks of the grip strength sport but Andrew Durniat is already an established name in both kettlebell sport and training.

I first became aware of Durniat when I saw this video about a year ago and a few months back I featured a video of him juggling on the IKI Facebook page. But seeing him fighting it out in a pure grip strengh contest with one of the strongest men in the world, relegating Odd Haugen to 4th got me thinking about the kettlebell and its use in training grip strength.



Most searches for "kettlebell Grip" in google will advise you how to hold the kettlebell during cleans and snatches to prevent it from hitting your forearm and cause bruising or to prevent it ripping up your palm. What I'm talking about is the type of grip strength that allows you to crush unopened cans, roll up a frying pan, rip up a deck of cards or tear a phonebook in half at 94 years of age. Grip strength is often overlooked and this is in no way helped by the fact that the hand and forearm has some of the most complex anatomy of the whole body. Opening my NCEF manual besides me the brachioradialis muscle is as far down the forearm that they adventure in the anatomy section but no actions are given for it nor are any exercises for this muscle included on the course but then again the ability to crush an unopened beer can isn't really something most people who go to a personal instructor are looking for. For those who search hard enough they will find the rather unenjoyable wrist curls suggested for working these muscles but now kettlebells presents us with probably the best exercise for forearm and grip strength.

Grip strength doesn't have much of a part to play in Gaelic football but when I was asked to do a two kettlebell sessions with the Laune Rangers team I'd get them to do a few reps of the bottom up clean and press towards the end. Often when a training session ended, be it with athletes or footballers, I'd see a few of them attempting another rep or two or seeing if they could clean a heavier weight. The bottoms up clean and press is both one of the easiest and hardest lifts to do; easy because there is only one way to grip the handle, that being as hard as possible, and hard because the way the weight is distrabuted desperatly taxes the grip. The first time I saw this was when Shawn Mosen held the AGATSU certification in Naas in 2009 and he said most men should have the grip strength to bottom up clean a 16kg. Say this to a group of footballers and most won't leave until they have managed it with the 16kg or explained off failed attempts as being the result of the handle, which was too slippery...The bottoms up clean and press make a great addition to training alongside the snatch and long cycle which also work the grip. Try to get in touch with an instructor before trying this as there are a number of aspects to be aware of, especially in the press part. It's not wise to attempt a push press with a heavy weight as you see some people doing (if it's not obvious why you shouldn't try to push press a kettlebell in the bottoms up position then this is not an exercise for you!) and pressure will be put across the lower back. Best advice, start light!



I don't want this to suddenly turn into an infomercial but you might notice there are two products in the sidebar, the fatgripz and the powerball. These are products designed for grip and wrist strength and I'm going to mention them briefly. The fatgripz works just like the bar in the above video from the grip contest and is designed to fit around a normal barbell or dumbell. This means that when you grip the bar the hand can't close fully which means the forearm has to work harder. This is an excellent product promoted by the likes of Charles Poliquin but what I really want to mention is the powerball!

We have a number of reasons to take interest in the powerball, not alone the fact that it is distributed worldwide from Co. Tipperary by RPM sports. The powerball works by using a cord to set the internal rotar spinning. You then hold the powerball and begin to rotate your wrist. The faster you rotate the powerball the more inertia is generated, making it harder to rotate! A relitivly simple concept. The great thing about them is that you can get a digital speed meter with them which records a number of stats including the maximum rpm which the internal rotar acheives. It's been a good while since I've beaten by best of 11747 but the speeds some of the best in the world can acheive is something else. To get inside the top 1000 ranked on the powerball website you need to hit 12980 and the world record set by Akis Kritsinelis stands at 16732. It can get adictive (and sore) trying to break your best score. Combined with a kettlebell and you have a very effective grip combo.

Grip contests have only became big news in the last year or so with the main leader being David Horne. In 2010 he set up the World's Strongest Hands competition and the 2011 competition, which starts on August 13th, will include an Irish qualifier at Atlas Gym ran by Dylan Scally. This gives you plenty of time to master the bottom up clean!