Fat Gripz

Friday my new toy was Fat Gripz. Not sure if I like them, but I love new things, I love trying different things and I will use them for a while and then decide!


I met Roy for my usual shoulder training, darn shoulders just cannot get big enough if you ask me!


We are still working on behind the neck barbell presses, and the weight is still going up. I suppose as long as I am not at a plateau, then this is good!


Then seated dumbbell press and again, still moving up in the weight each week.


Front raises, and I am just a wet mess here. I suppose that my arms and shoulders are a bit fatigued by this point, and Roy wants me to perform the exercise very strictly. Honestly, I watch others in the gym do this and they almost have a little dance going, they bounce along, using momentum to swing the weights up, and then just drop them down, completely ignoring the fact that the eccentric movement (the lowering) is really important to be done in a controlled manner- this is where the strength and size is developed.


Times was up and his next client was there stretching, I was still trying to lift my sorry little dumbbells for my front raises. Although I make fun of myself, I am actually doing a good job, you can tell, my arms look great and look better and better everyday actually.


I finish and Roy starts working with his other client then comes over and tells me to do some pull ups with these. We talk a bit about them, they make the bar much, much thicker, so it is incredibly difficult to hold on. 


The theory behind these is simple and it makes sense. Your grip and your arm strength typically give out before the larger muscles that are being trained. This is why I use lifting straps for deadlifts, to hold my dumbbells with walking lunges, with barbell bent over rows, you have the idea right?


By using these large rubber grips, your are supposed to be able to develop the grip and arm strength which in turn allows you to continue on or with more weight with your main lifts.


Roy had them on the pull up bars in the middle of the dual cable machine, I tried some pull ups. Much more difficult! What I noticed is I had to strategically place the opening where the slit in the rubber was, as it tended to turn a bit in my hands. Once I found the right position it stayed though.


I love pull ups and chin ups (I told you recently right?) so I just hung out, doing a few sets, moving the Fat Gripz to other posts and trying those.


As usual, my gym doesn't have any of the fun toys, so I cannot use these there, I have to use them at Roy's place.


I will keep track of my progress and let you know how it goes!