The DIesel Injection: Plate Pinching for Massive Thumb Strength

This is a guest post by “Napalm” Jedd Johnson of the Diesel Crew. He is obsessed with Grip Strength and wants to spread his sickness to everyone else in the world of strength training. Join his Legion of Grip at The Grip Authority, today!

If you want to build Grip Strength that is to be respected, then you need to train your thumb.

It doesn’t matter what sport you play, the thumb is involved:

  • Baseball – holding the ball, squeezing the glove shut
  • Football – carrying the ball
  • Hockey – stick control
  • Basketball – stiff chest passes
  • Rugby – carrying the ball

The thumb truly completes the chain when thinking of all around hand and forearm strength.

But perhaps one of the most important reasons to train the thumb is to keep it strong and resilient against injury.

Imagine playing your sport with a sprained thumb? How well will you perform? Will you have to sit on the bench and watch from the sidelines if you hurt your thumb?

Even if you are in track and field where the majority of the events involve the lower body, the ones that involve the hands such as pole vaulting, shot put, and discus, are all affected if your thumb is screwed up, so we need a way to train for thumb strength and resiliency.

The quickest and easiest ways to train the thumb without buying a bunch of extra equipment is with the very plates at your gym.

Plate Pinching

Plate Pinching involves facing several plates together with the outside two facing smooth-sides-out and pinching them with one or two hands.

You can start out by pinching two or three tens, for instance to get a feel for pinching. Then move on to more tens. Once you hit 5 tens, you are getting near very respectable pinching power and six tens is world class.

Other one-handed combinations include the following:

  • 2-25’s – Every man should be able to do this
  • 2-35’s – Very respectable
  • 2-45’s – World Class levels of pinching
  • 3-25’s – World Class Level of pinching
  • 3-35.s – Out of this World. Never been done, as far as I know. 3-15-kg plates has been done, but my understanding is they were very narrow, and they are also 6-lbs lighter in total, than 3-35’s.

Here I am lifting 6-tens.

 

Two Hand Pinching

Of course, all of these combinations can be done with two hands as well, and if you want to get into some truly bad-ass and obsessive training, go for the two hand pinch on two 45-lb plates with a pipe run through the middle of the plates and more weight added on the bar.

This is actually a grip contest test of pinch strength. If you can get up near 200-lbs on two 45’s, also called a Ghetto Two hand Pinch, you should be damn proud.

Here I am lifting 262-lbs in competition on the adjustable two hands pinch.

Hub Pinching

You can also get a lot of value by hub pinching, which is lifting the plate by the center hub. Hubs vary quite a bit. They can be short and shallow, tall, sloped flat, rough, slick – you never know until you try to hub lift the plate how tough it will be.

Here I am hub lifting a 45-lb Plate.

 

These simple Grip drills are things you can start implementing right away, and while you may not be at my level yet, that doesn’t mean that one day in the future you won’t be.

In fact, if you want to learn more about how to develop grip strength, you can work with me at my grip strength instruction website, TheGripAuthority.com.

Sign up today so you can complete the chain of strength in your lower arms and start performing better at your sport while staying injury free.

Jedd Johnson http://www.thegripauthority.com Free 8-Week Grip Training Program <== Sign up today