Technique: Get a stronger grip

6 comments
By Andy Wadsworth, What Mountain Bike | Friday, Dec 31, 2010 1.00pm

All experienced mountain bikers have been there – out on the trail so long that grip starts to go and your hands cramp badly. This transforms a potentially fun downhill blast into a painful and dangerous experience – you’re hanging on for dear life with weak fingers. There is help to be found, though. Doing these basic exercises will improve the strength of your hands.

In cycling, your grip is the primary point of control, and its importance should really not be underestimated. Although simply getting out on the bike more often will help your grip get stronger, these exercises will definitely speed up the process. As is the case with all exercise, it’s much better to start off lightly and build up, but the secret is to do it as regularly as you can – why don’t you try to incorporate these into your regular training regime?

They say that an honest eye and a firm grip are a fair measure of a person. With the added bonus of a super-solid, granite-like handshake, these exercises might just help your career prospects too! Just try not to crush any fingers in your interviews – that’s never a good first impression to make.

1 The Monkey Curl

With a dumbbell in each hand, start with straight arms by your side and curl the weights upwards until your arms are at 90 degrees. Next, curl your hands towards you, bringing your knuckles in to your sides. Do this five times before lowering the weights to your side and starting again. Try to do the movement four times in a row.

The monkey curl:

2 The Praying Mantis

Start with the dumbbells by your side. With the backs of your hands facing forwards and away from you, do a reverse bicep curl, trying to keep your elbows tucked into the body as much as possible. This will help the muscles in the back of your forearms get stronger and more able to take strain. Do three sets of 15 with a weight that feels right.

The praying mantis:

3 The Wrist Twister

Use light weights and be extra careful to avoid injury with this exercise. Standing with your forearms at 90 degrees to your body and your elbows tucked in to your ribs, rotate your lower arm and wrist through a full 180 degrees. Focus just on the lower arm and wrist, attempting to isolate the correct muscles in each. Repeat 20 times for both of your arms.

The wrist twister:

You can follow BikeRadar on Twitter at twitter.com/bikeradar and on Facebook at facebook.com/BikeRadar.

You might also like...

User Comments

There are 6 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 6 of 6 comments

  • I was skeptical at first due to the title of the article and how it's promoted as hand/grip strengthening, but the exercises seem to be useful, maybe more so than upright rows and push-ups, but then again maybe not.

  • Also remember some of these exercises are actually wrong if the problem is forearm muscle pump. Not well known in the mountain bike fraternity but well known to the motorcyclists. Building muscle will actually make the problem worse. The problem is that maintained static grip actually reduces the blood supply and leads to swelling of the muscle.

  • these exercise wont increase hand strength to any great degree, use a power ball or one of them stress relief balls any thing which uses the fingers will help, we have no muscle in our hands

  • Well, the article targets hand cramps. I don't get those, but on long descents, my 1 braking finger gets tired enough that I have to use two sometimes. I might have to do some exercises for that. I'll probably just squeeze a water bottle for resistance to exercise my brake fingers.

    As for general upper body strength to to help lift, drop, pump, and absorb bumps the front end of a mtn bike typically encounters, I still will continue push ups and upright/bent over rows.

  • Strength is always good, but...............

    I have always aimed for a relaxed and neutral grip, focussed upon balancing my weight upon the pedals, driving my weight down through the bottom bracket. Modulating fore and as gravity/control dictated.

    If I get hand cramp or weakness due to excessive death grip, I see it as and indicator of putting too much weight through the bars and not through the pedals and that I am too rigid (usually through fear).

    vive la différence!

  • this article is nonsense IMO. You dont need to work on grip for MTB unless you way below average.

    You should be riding loose whenever you can to promote fluid riding and gripping hard only when nessesary.

    This should give ample recovery time between technical sections for the forearms to recover.

Post a Comment:

You need to login or register to post comments.