Why some people have strong hands?

[moonhill99]

Why is it some people hands and wrist are so strong it feels unnatural? What are they eating or how do they exercise to get such strong hands and wrist? When they grab you it feel like bones will break in your body because of pressure. Some guys just have very strong hands.

I don’t know what they are eating or how they exercise to get strong hands. Some guys also for what ever reason have big hands don’t know what they are doing that they can get big hands.

There was a video of one person yes video person doing pull ups with one hand. Some people when they grab you the grip is so strong they feel like superman. I don’t know what they are eating to get strong hands. I don't know may be they are going rock climbing that is why they have strong hands and such powerful grips.

But there is some thing about these people that is different than other people their hands and powerful grips are just so strong they are eating some thing or doing some thing to get this strong.

 

[drop bear]

Do you do real physical labour?

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Why is it some people hands and wrist are so strong it feels unnatural?

You can get strong grip from throwing bag with BB in it.

 

[moonhill99]

Do you do real physical labour?

What kind of work are we talking about? Some type of landscaping, brickmason, roofer or working at lumberyard?

​

 

[Jared Traveler]

I grew up building houses, swinging a hammer, climbing ladders, cutting boards and moving lumber. I started at 12 years old on weekends (really before that) and worked full time at 15 years old.

That combined with 20 years of Judo grip fighting will give you strong hands. Although I don't think they are abnormally strong, but certainly I can attribute much of that strength to physical labor.

 

[drop bear]

What kind of work are we talking about? Some type of landscaping, brickmason, roofer or working at lumberyard?

​

Pretty much.

 

[Holmejr]

First off, some people are just stronger naturally than others. Secondly, some people involve activities in their day to day life that promotes hand/grip strength. i am a plumber so by the nature of the work, I'm constantly using my grip. I do not have particularly large hands, but I do have above average hand strength.

In our class, part of our circuit workout is lifting 10 or 20 pound dumbbells by their ends, one in each hand, holding for 5 seconds while walking then setting down. Then repeating. Great grip strength exercise.

Also we use a center pull bar and weight that you must wind up and down. Great for both forearms and wrist.

In the FMA, the student starts off with 28 inch rattan sticks (arnis) and even though the stick is not exceptionally heavy, it does weigh something (haha, never actually weighed one). Through the course of our stick warm ups, exercises, striking and blocking it does initially build up grip and forearm strength and through continuous practicing maintains that strength. We supplement with the above mentioned exercises. We have loose mini contests of who can hold the 20 pound weights the longest above their own foot. Lol!. Fun stuff.

One of the characteristics of our particular flavor of FMA is gripping the weapon hand/wrist and/or the weapon itself and isolating it. We also include combat judo in our style which also requires grip strength. We consider grip strength an important aspect of our art.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I do office work, but I've got grip strengtheners I use like 4-5 times a day while I'm just in meetings listening. Gives my hands something to do and strengthens my grip.

Might be work looking into if you're finding an issue here.

 

[Gyakuto]

Why is it some people hands and wrist are so strong it feels unnatural? What are they eating or how do they exercise to get such strong hands and wrist? When they grab you it feel like bones will break in your body because of pressure. Some guys just have very strong hands.

I don’t know what they are eating or how they exercise to get strong hands. Some guys also for what ever reason have big hands don’t know what they are doing that they can get big hands.

There was a video of one person yes video person doing pull ups with one hand. Some people when they grab you the grip is so strong they feel like superman. I don’t know what they are eating to get strong hands. I don't know may be they are going rock climbing that is why they have strong hands and such powerful grips.

But there is some thing about these people that is different than other people their hands and powerful grips are just so strong they are eating some thing or doing some thing to get this strong.

They are ’touching’ themselves

 

[Gerry Seymour]

The strongest grips I’ve known belonged to (in no particular order) a diesel mechanic, a farmer, a mover, and a judoka. All developed over long usage, rather than an exercise program.

Some of the zipline guides I work with are pretty impressive, too.

 

[frank raud]

Or farming, or mechanics, or weight lifting. Or genetics.

 

[Gyakuto]

I incorporate forearm exercises into my weight training sessions as strong forearms really help in Japanese swordsmanship since initial whipping of the swords tip over ones head and down to the point of contact with an imaginary head is done by the fingers in a sequential tightening of the fingers starting with the fifth digit (digits minimus manus ). Since the forearms are often the most visible body part especially in the warmer months, lean muscular forearms look great! I utilise these exercises (apologies for the shouty motor mouth presentation here)

 

[Xue Sheng]

Why is it some people hands and wrist are so strong it feels unnatural? What are they eating or how do they exercise to get such strong hands and wrist? When they grab you it feel like bones will break in your body because of pressure. Some guys just have very strong hands.

I don’t know what they are eating or how they exercise to get strong hands. Some guys also for what ever reason have big hands don’t know what they are doing that they can get big hands.

There was a video of one person yes video person doing pull ups with one hand. Some people when they grab you the grip is so strong they feel like superman. I don’t know what they are eating to get strong hands. I don't know may be they are going rock climbing that is why they have strong hands and such powerful grips.

But there is some thing about these people that is different than other people their hands and powerful grips are just so strong they are eating some thing or doing some thing to get this strong.

They are TCM docs who do Tui Na

 

[mograph]

The best way is to lift heavy stuff all day long: doing manual labor.
While we can improve our grip strength, to do exercises a few evenings a week just won't compare to guys who do manual labor.

As for tui na, you'd have to do that all day long as well.

 

[Gyakuto]

The best way is to lift heavy stuff all day long: doing manual labor.

That’s difficult if one is a surgeon, fighter pilot, astronaut, chicken egg sorter, concert pianist or circus clown.

While we can improve our grip strength, to do exercises a few evenings a week just won't compare to guys who do manual labor.

Funny you should say that, but I compared my grip strength with a builder/carpenter and a plumber who are doing some work for me, using a digital hand dynamometer and I had a better objective grip strength than both of them and I’d just done an hour’s cutting practise and my forearms were fatigued! There might be different results for a bricky or a lumberjack, I admit.

 

[Gyakuto]

I bought a (4.5kg/10lb) sledgehammer yesterday to do these exercises on non gym days.

I can barely type this message after doing them! They’re brilliant and the load may be varied by moving the hand along the shaft! I love moving my hand up and down my shaft (c’mon on…that’s funny).

 

[mograph]

That’s difficult if one is a surgeon, fighter pilot, astronaut, chicken egg sorter, concert pianist or circus clown.

That should be obvious.
I realize it's hard for hobbyists to accept, but sometimes they'll never be as good as someone who does something all day, for a living.

 

[Gyakuto]

I’m sure many hobbyist weight trainers have forearm muscle as strong if not stronger than many manual labourers!

 

[geezer]

I’m sure many hobbyist weight trainers have forearm muscle as strong if not stronger than many manual labourers!

Not so sure about how far weights will take you ....especially as you get older. And whatever you do, watch out for the negative effects of repetitive motion.

Many years ago I used to do all kinds of hand and forearm exercises including weights, pole exercises (Escrima baston and WC luk dim boon kwun, etc.) and then I am also a pottery instructor ...so I've spent a lot of time wedging and kneading clay over the years. Yeah, my grip improved up to a point but I ended up with tendonitis and now have a pretty average grip for my size and age.

On the other hand I know people with "Popeye" forearms and unbelievable vice-like grips ...like one local Escrima instructor I know. I asked him if he got such a powerful grip through his work. He said "Yeah, probably" ...turns out he worked at a bank.

Anyway, I still have to wedge clay, but over the years I've learned to let my body do the work so my hands and forearms don't work so much. I really just developed my own approach over the last 30 years and it totally feels ...well, like Kung fu!

I found this guy on Youtube. He does it almost exactly the same way that I do. Watch the effortless way his power comes from his core:

 

[MetalBoar]

Not so sure about how far weights will take you ....especially as you get older. And whatever you do, watch out for the negative effects of repetitive motion.

This is one of the big advantages of a good weight lifting program, it should provide a powerful stimulus to grow stronger with very little repetitive motion. If your weight lifting routine has even a small chance of causing RSI issues you're using the wrong strength training protocol in my opinion.

As far as age goes, my experience has been that if someone has never lifted weights before (or hasn't done so in an organized fashion with a high quality protocol) that with a year or two of work they'll often become nearly as strong, and sometimes even stronger, than they've ever been in their life, even if they're in their 70's. They'll definitely gain significant strength over not lifting, even if they can't surpass the levels that they enjoyed in their prime. The 80's get trickier as not a lot of people make it that far without some serious health problems, but I've seen strength training make a huge difference in functional ability for people with compromised health, even into their 90's.