0:02 About two years ago, I had very small
0:03 forums and I decided to go on a journey
0:05 to become Popey. And it all started with
0:07 hand groomer training. I spammed them
0:10 for days, weeks, months on end. But do I
0:11 still use them now? Are they actually
0:13 the ones that caused all that growth?
0:15 You are going to find out. So, at the
0:17 start of my foreign training journey, I
0:18 was doing all kinds of grip workouts.
0:20 Whether it was farmers walks, dead
0:22 hangs, studies in uncomfortable places,
0:23 and of course, hand grippers, which
0:25 resulted in me having the strongest grip
0:27 of my life and being able to close a 250
0:29 lb hand gripper while being fairly
0:31 skinny at 70 kilo body weight. This not
0:33 only gave me a crushing grip strength,
0:35 but also very vascular forearms that
0:37 were pretty aesthetically pleasing. To
0:38 achieve this, I was mostly focused on
0:40 using hand grippers and did the other
0:42 stuff more occasionally. At first, I was
0:44 using a 40 kilos resistance one and
0:46 slowly worked my way up to 60 kilos,
0:49 then the 250 lbs one, which I wasn't
0:50 even able to close with both hands at
0:52 the beginning. It was going to be a long
0:53 grind, but I decided to start training
0:55 forearms every day. So, I picked up the
0:57 40 kilos one and started doing multiple
0:59 sets to failure about 100 reps each
1:01 hands, and I was then alternating them
1:03 both as rest time. I did that many times
1:04 through the day without really having a
1:06 structure. I wasn't having any problems
1:08 with recovery as forearms can be trained
1:10 every day without rest. In fact, my
1:11 maximum amount of reps were going up
1:13 each day. I was doing both slow and fast
1:15 pace as they have a different feeling
1:16 each, which I like, and I think it's
1:18 great to get gradually stronger. The
1:20 first change I noticed was the flexor
1:22 muscles starting to appear and bulge out
1:23 of my forearms, but I wasn't happy with
1:25 the lack of vascularity and wanted much
1:27 more. As I kept going, my forearms were
1:29 getting more and more defined, and the
1:30 extensor muscles were starting to
1:32 appear, which is counterintuitive as the
1:33 hand grippers are supposed to target the
1:35 flexor muscles much more. Even though
1:37 I've always found that clenching my fist
1:38 activates them like crazy for some
1:40 reason, like shown on this clip. After
1:42 the 40 kilos gripper started feeling too
1:44 easy, I decided it was time to step up
1:46 my game and go with the 60 kilos one.
1:47 Doing this greatly improved my strength,
1:49 and the vascularity started getting
1:51 insane. My flexors and extensors were,
1:52 of course, getting much bigger and
1:54 defined, too. Something worth noting is
1:55 that my hands were also starting to
1:57 develop muscles and veins, which is a
1:59 pretty nice addition. The training with
2:01 the 60 kilos one was the same as the 40
2:03 except I reduced the reps a little and
2:05 was doing around 60 instead. Although I
2:06 was never too focused on counting them,
2:08 I just went to failure. I think that
2:10 such high volume was the reason my
2:11 forearms were being this vascular and
2:13 defined. I was also doing it every day
2:15 and I simply repeated that for weeks on
2:17 end until I was able to close the 250
2:19 lbs. After achieving that, I wanted to
2:21 see how my hand strength translated to
2:22 arm wrestling and the results shocked me.
2:32 I got completely destroyed and
2:34 discovered that grip strength wasn't
2:36 that important in arm wrestling. What I
2:37 thought were big forearms were actually
2:39 pretty useless on the table as I had
2:40 never trained specifically for that
2:43 sport by doing pronation exercises or
2:45 wrist flexions for example. I just had a
2:46 strong grip strength that was good to
2:48 prevent my opponent from slipping. But
2:50 other than that, it was pretty useless.
2:52 After that, I decided to start training
2:54 arm wrestling specifics, and the least I
2:56 can say is that I put on some size. I
2:59 went from having 33 cm forearms to 41
3:01 cm. Now, I've already made multiple
3:03 videos on my forearm training routine,
3:04 so I'm not going to talk about it here,
3:06 but was I still using hand grippers in
3:08 the meanwhile? Yes, I kept training with
3:10 them, but I started using them in a way
3:12 that would benefit my arm wrestling,
3:14 like doing thumb workouts and other
3:16 exercises that you can find in my hand
3:18 training guide. They were still being
3:19 very useful as I developed massive
3:21 thumbs that makes it uncomfortable for
3:23 my opponents to grip up during a match.
3:25 But concerning the grip training itself,
3:26 I kind of stopped being consistent
3:28 pivots as I have other goals and other
3:30 machines that are also useful to develop
3:32 grip strength like the Bruce Lee grip
3:34 machine for example. They are still a
3:35 pretty fun challenge to do with friends
3:37 as there are six different grippers in
3:39 that box that range from 50 for the
3:42 level one to 300 for the level six. You
3:43 can find the link in the description if
3:45 you want to find out which one you can
3:47 close. So to summarize, training with
3:48 hand grippers will make your forearms
3:50 incredibly vascular. And this is coming
3:51 from a skinny kid that had no
3:53 definition, no muscle mass, and zero
3:55 vascularity at first. You can do high
3:57 volume like training them every day. If
3:58 your forearms aren't sore, if they are,
4:00 just take a rest day. Doing this is the
4:01 best way to increase your grip strength
4:03 fast. I remember my dead hanger went
4:05 from 2 minutes to 3 minutes when I was
4:07 70 kilos and training with hand grippers
4:09 a lot. I didn't really have a defined
4:10 number of set. As I said, I was just
4:12 picking it up whenever I felt like it
4:14 through the day. Whether I was playing a
4:15 game, watching a video on YouTube, or
4:17 whenever I would walk past the hand
4:19 gripper in my house, I'd quickly get a
4:21 pump and then go on with my day. It was
4:23 that simple. If you want some structure,
4:24 I would say don't go under four sets a
4:26 day. That would probably be useless. I
4:28 would just recommend not training it
4:30 during a pool day, as it could fatigue
4:31 your grip before your session and make
4:33 you perform worse. Or at least do the
4:35 grip training after you're done with
4:37 your gym workout. Grip strength is also
4:38 a very good way to know if you're
4:40 overtrained as it is highly correlated
4:42 to your testosterone levels. So, I like
4:43 to track it sometimes with a hand
4:45 dynamometer. I'd like to end this video
4:47 on something I haven't mentioned yet. I
4:48 also reduced the frequency of grip
4:50 training because I hurt myself while I
4:52 was training with a hand gripper.
4:53 Something just popped between two of my
4:55 knuckles and know it sometimes hurts
4:56 when I'm clenching my fist at full
4:58 force. I would just advise you not to do
5:00 a ton of volume like I was doing
5:01 because I remember it was after
5:03 countless sets taken to failure that
5:05 day. Also check out the fitness
