DISCLAIMER

The information herein is not meant to replace the advice, diagnosis or treatment of a medical
professional. Always consult a medical professional before beginning any exercise or nutrition
plan. Any information within the Grip Guide is for informational and educational purposes only
and any use thereof is at your own risk.
 About The Author
Josh Thigpen is a 4 time World's Strongest Man competitor and has been one of the top pro
strongmen in the world for 15 years, competing in over 60 contests. In addition to competing at
the very highest level in his sport, he is also the creator and author of the revolutionary, Cube
Method for Strongman programs. These programs have been used by thousands of people
across the world with great success, including World's Strongest Man competitors.

Josh also coaches strongmen online and in person through his strongman classes in Webster
and Galveston Texas. You can reach Josh for online coaching or his strongman classes through
email - [email protected]

Click here to purchase other books by Josh Thigpen including Cube Method for Strongman and
Strongman Training Camp

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 Grip strength is one of the most important strengths to have in strongman. Farmer’s
walks, axle cleans and deadlifts, Hercules holds, car deadlifts/car deadlift holds without straps,
arm over arm pulls, and any other event that you have to hold or squeeze weights with your
hands are all times when the grip is tested. There have been many contests won or lost based
solely on grip strength. Some athletes will have great strength on other events but their grip
just won't hold up and it will cost them in points. The following protocols have been used by me
in order to have one of the strongest grips in the world. It has also been used to help other
strength athletes greatly improve their grip. Just one example is of a powerlifter who was
having difficulty holding onto 700 on the deadlift even though he was plenty strong enough to
deadlift that weight and even more. Straps are not allowed in powerlifting like they often are in
strongman. I put him on these methods and in one training cycle he was able to not only
deadlift 800 but he was able to hold it at the top confidently. Now that is what I call
improvement!

A list of my own grip accomplishments while following these training protocols:

- Unofficial World Record 600 lb. Farmer’s Hold (most weight anyone has ever held in
their hands)
- IHGF World Record Dinnie Stone Replica Farmers Walk First Man To Carry 50 ft. Distance
Without A Drop (lighter set then the actual Dinnie Stones)
- 484 lb. Axle Double Overhand Deadlift
- 2010 Fit Expo 1st Place 950 lb. Frame Hold for time defeating Mark Felix
- 275 lb. Rolling Thunder
Different Kinds Of Grip Strength

Many mistakenly assume that all grip strength is the same and of equal value in strongman.
However, this just isn't the case. Strongman primarily deals with what is called "supportive" grip
strength which is strength that is holding on to weights. Supportive grip strength is the ability to
hold a certain amount of weight in the palm of your hands for either weight or time. As I stated
this is the type most commonly used in powerlifting and strongman. But there are also multiple
other kinds of grip strength that include the following:

- Crushing Grip Strength, this is the type of grip you are using when you shake someone’s
hand, or close a Captain’s of Crush Gripper, etc. Think about squeezing something
closed. Truck pull in strongman is an example of crushing grip strength, but the best way
to train for truck pull is to pull a truck so the focus of this book is on how to improve
your supportive grip strength. Nevertheless, the methods in this book will still
strengthen your truck pull by strengthening your hands and forearms.

- Pinch Grip Strength, this is when your fingers are straightened and you pick up
something with your fingers and thumb extended.
Training Every Other Week

So to actually train the grip, we do either farmer’s holds for time or axle front holds for time
every other week. Which one you choose depends on one of two deciding factors. Either which
one is more applicable to your next contest coming up or which one you need more work on,
although it is possible to train them both. Our grip "assistance work" is trained when we do
biceps and this is done every week.

Some may wonder why not train grip every week like everything else, but every other week is
how I have been the most successful in my own personal experience and also for others. Over
time I learned that training grip every week tends to make you stall out or even worse, go
backwards. Skipping that week in between is vital to progress and at the end of the day that is
what we are all after, progress. We aren't just training for trainings sake, we want to continue
to get better and we want to continue to get stronger. Perhaps, if we were dealing with less
weight and holding it for less amounts of time, we could train grip more frequently. But with
the amount of time that we are holding these substantial weights, it just takes more time to
recover and we need to respect that fact to make the necessary improvements.
Advancing The Holds

Advancing the holds is fairly straight forward, to do so we either increase the weight while
trying to reach the same time (or longer if possible) as the last session or we keep the weight
the same and focus on going for the longer time. If you have farmers walk in your regular
training program, keep those sets of farmers and add the holds in on top of them.

The Importance Of Thumb Strength

One aspect of grip training that tends to be overlooked is thumb strength. When you start
dropping a heavy farmers walk, the thumb is the last line of defense fighting to hold on. By
strengthening your thumbs and the supporting muscles, your grip will no doubt improve. This is
one of the main reasons we include reverse axle curls because it will put the thumb in a
position where it is forced to work.
Overload Holds

A great way to overload the grip is to do farmers holds picking the weights up from an elevated
box or rack. For instance, when I held 600 it was from really high boxes. This allowed me to test
and train my grip with weight I otherwise wouldn't have been able to use if I had picked it up
from the floor. This practice can also serve to build confidence. Maybe you can't pick up or
carry a weight for distance yet, but your hands are capable of holding onto it. This gives you an
idea of what you will be able to do in the future when you get stronger. Start with the weights
as high as you need for pick up and then over time you can slowly begin dropping the boxes
lower and even start progressing to taking steps with it to see how far you can go. In time, the
weight you are only holding from boxes is the weight you will be using for farmers walks! To use
this method, build up boxes, plates, mats, whatever you have to make the pickup height to be
what you need for farmers walk. For axle hold, you can use all of the same items or a rack.

Heavy Barbell Curls

Barbell curls have been an important key in developing my grip. We use our forearms a lot
when doing curls. Don't be afraid to go heavy with these and remember we are building
strength that is the goal. Don't worry about online form Nazis who usually are the smallest and
weakest among us. A little bit of body movement/swing is not a terrible thing to incorporate on
curls. I am not talking about throwing your whole body back into the movement, but don't try
to be so strict that you are forced to do really light weight which defeats the purpose of what
we are doing. We want our forearms overloaded to give them no other choice but to get
stronger. We can do wrist curls to strengthen the forearms as well but since most people can
do more weight on a curl it does tend to have more of an impact on grip. And since biceps are
also used so heavily in strongman, curls are very beneficial.
Hand Position

This simple tip is one of the things that I have seen make the biggest impact on grip. In fact this
stand-alone tip may be enough to fix some people’s grip problems. When doing a farmers walk,
wrap your hands slightly under the bar, getting the handles in the center of your palm and keep
your wrist slightly bent the whole time (shown in photo below with check mark). Doing so will
not only put you in a stronger position but also if the handles were to slip, they would slip from
this position to your fingers, whereas if you start with them only in your fingers, they don't have
as much (if any) room to slip (shown in photo below with X). The same goes for gripping an axle
double overhand.
Finger Roll Protocol

This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You can either use farmers walks or cable
attachments to do these. To use the cable attachment, set it up like you are doing a Hercules
hold. With either option the idea here is to slowly let the weight roll out of your hands and then
using your fingers to close your grip up again. This will really strengthen your fingers, hands,
and forearms especially when you do 2 sets of 15 reps for each hand. Pick a weight that is
appropriate for this set and rep scheme.
Callouses

Although there is a danger of callouses tearing, callouses actually help to give you a better grip.
So the key is to finding the right balance with them. Have some callouses but not so much that
you are constantly worried about them tearing. Some people do too much hand and callous
maintenance and they completely shave them off altogether. You don't want them to be
nonexistent make sure you are leaving some when filing them down.

Training Without Straps

If your grip is not yet a strength of yours, it can be beneficial to train everything without straps.
But also remember we are going to be hitting grip specifically in this program and so you may
want to avoid doing too much extra grip work negating the benefits we see from training grip
every other week.
 Grip Program

Week 1
(On the day you train biceps)

- Barbell Curls work up to 1 set x 5 cheat curls

- Reverse Axle Curls 1 set x 8 reps

*Holds can be done on either the same day as forearm work or on strongman event day,
particularly if you are training farmers walk

- Farmers or Axle Hold for time x 1 set

Week 2
(On the day you train biceps)

- Barbell Curls work up to 2 sets x 5 cheat curls

- Reverse Axle Curls 2 sets x 8 reps

Week 3
(On the day you train biceps)

- Barbell curls work up to 1 set x 5 cheat curls

- Reverse axle curls 2 sets x 8 reps

*Holds can be done on either the same day as forearm work or on strongman event day,
particularly if you are training farmers walk

- Farmers or Axle Hold for time x 2 sets

Week 4
(On the day you train biceps)

- Axle Curls work up to 1 set x 8 curls

- Reverse Axle Curls 2 sets x 8 reps

Week 5
(On the day you train biceps)

- Axle Curls work up to 2 sets x 5 cheat curls

- Reverse Axle Curls 2 sets x 8 reps

*Holds can be done on either the same day as forearm work or on strongman event day,
particularly if you are training farmers walk

- Farmers or Axle Hold for time x 2 sets

- Finger Roll Protocol 2 sets x 15 reps

Week 6
(On the day you train biceps)

- Barbell Curls work up to 1 set x 5 cheat curls

- Reverse Axle Curls 2 sets x 8 reps

Week 7
(On the day you train biceps)

- Barbell Curls work up to 2 sets x 5 cheat curls

- Dumbbell Hammer Curls 1 x 8 reps

- Reverse Axle Curls 2 sets x 8 reps

*Holds can be done on either the same day as forearm work or on strongman event day,
particularly if you are training farmers walk

- Farmers or Axle Hold for time x 2 sets

- Farmers Hold for time with PVC or Fat Grips x 1 set

Week 8
(On the day you train biceps)

- Barbell Curls work up to 1 set x 5 cheat curls

- Reverse Axle Curls 2 sets x 8 reps

Week 9
(On the day you train biceps)

- Barbell Curls work up to 1 set x 5 cheat curls

- Reverse axle curls 2 sets x 8 reps

*Holds can be done on either the same day as forearm work or on strongman event day,
particularly if you are training farmers walk

- Farmers or Axle Hold for time x 1 set

- Farmers Hold with PVC or Fat Grips x 1 set

- Farmers/Cable Finger Roll Protocol x 1 set

Week 10
(On the day you train biceps)

- Barbell Curls work up to 1 set x 5 cheat curls

- Reverse Axle Curls 2 sets x 8 reps

Week 11
(On the day you train biceps)

- Axle Curls work up to 2 sets x 5 cheat curls

- Dumbbell Hammer Curls 2 sets x 8 reps

- Reverse Axle Curls 2 sets x 8 reps

*Holds can be done on either the same day as forearm work or on strongman event day,
particularly if you are training farmers walk

- Farmers or Axle hold for time x 1 set

- Farmers Hold for time with PVC or Fat Grips x 1 set

- Farmers/Cable Finger Roll Protocol 2 sets x 15 reps

Week 12
(On the day you train biceps)

- Barbell Curls work up to 1 set x 5 cheat curls

- Reverse Axle Curls 2 sets x 8 reps

Week 13 Testing

Go for a New Farmers Walk or Double Over Hand Axle PR

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