Ashtar
Jul-23-07, 11:29 PM
Who trains these? Do you do them with forearms vertical (wrist below elbow), horizantal, or vertical (elbow below wrist)? Somewhere in between? Varying throughout the movement? Barbell or dumbbell? How much weight?
When using dumbbells, one neat variation is buying those light 1-10pound women's dumbbells, but instead of grasping it in the middle, you grasp one of the sides in a sort of eagle claw grip. I think this would vary how it hit since the first joint of the fingers is extended (instead of flexed like when gripping a dumbbell normally) and not only that, but actuvely extending. Do to the levering effect, the most difficult point in the movement is different at the aforementioned forearm alignments.
I'm really impressed by guys who do 'wrist pushups' basically on the back of the hand instead of the palm as usual. I can't do that without some serious pain. I think it would be easier to work up to them if you had some sort of V-shaped floor (or curved or whatever) so that when you laid them flat the knuckles would be lower than the wrist and could bear some of the weight. That way you could gradually move from knuckle to wrist.
I sort of wish there was some way you could do a bodyweight row hooking with your wrist instead of holding on to the bar, so it could be the real opposite of a flat-palm pushup instead of the reverse of a pushup on a bar.
I see it as valuable not just to balance wrist flexion movements (which I think is done more in common movements) but to balance finger flexion, which is heavy in most pulling exercises, like chins for example. Stuff for training finger extension is so shitty, a bunch of weird rubber bands or whatever, that it almost seems easier to train wrist extension instead, since the finger extensors assist the other muscles that extend the wrist.
When using dumbbells, one neat variation is buying those light 1-10pound women's dumbbells, but instead of grasping it in the middle, you grasp one of the sides in a sort of eagle claw grip. I think this would vary how it hit since the first joint of the fingers is extended (instead of flexed like when gripping a dumbbell normally) and not only that, but actuvely extending. Do to the levering effect, the most difficult point in the movement is different at the aforementioned forearm alignments.
I'm really impressed by guys who do 'wrist pushups' basically on the back of the hand instead of the palm as usual. I can't do that without some serious pain. I think it would be easier to work up to them if you had some sort of V-shaped floor (or curved or whatever) so that when you laid them flat the knuckles would be lower than the wrist and could bear some of the weight. That way you could gradually move from knuckle to wrist.
I sort of wish there was some way you could do a bodyweight row hooking with your wrist instead of holding on to the bar, so it could be the real opposite of a flat-palm pushup instead of the reverse of a pushup on a bar.
I see it as valuable not just to balance wrist flexion movements (which I think is done more in common movements) but to balance finger flexion, which is heavy in most pulling exercises, like chins for example. Stuff for training finger extension is so shitty, a bunch of weird rubber bands or whatever, that it almost seems easier to train wrist extension instead, since the finger extensors assist the other muscles that extend the wrist.