A Comparison of Hand and Finger Exercise Equipment

One thing rock climbers and musicians have in common is the need for a strong, precise grip. Using hand and finger exercise equipment can build up the muscles in your forearm to improve finger, thumb and wrist strength. Such equipment may involve resistance generated by springs, a resistant foam or rubber or even your own body weight to build muscle through repeated use. Understanding the types of hand and finger exercise equipment can help you choose the one that is ideal for your sport or activity.

Kung-Fu Grip
You'll never bulk up your fingers, because there isn't actually any muscle in them. Fingers are controlled by muscles and tendons located in the palm and forearm, which work each individual finger like a puppet on a string. You can feel these muscles moving if you place your opposite hand on your forearm and wiggle your fingers. The muscles used for your fingers are intensely strong. Rock climbers routinely support their entire body weight using just a few fingers, since their finger strength and grip has been built up so much through repeated use.

Spring-Based Strengtheners
One type of hand and finger exercise equipment is the grip strengthener. One type of this device features four separate spring-based resistance pads arranged in a row. As the spring underneath the pad is compressed, the resistance increases, allowing you to build up the strength in each finger individually or all at once. These strengtheners are ideal for musicians, since most musical instruments exclusively require strength in the fingers, rather than the whole palm.

Get On The Ball
A stress ball is one of the least complicated pieces of exercise equipment available. Made of a rubber or foam composite, these elegantly simple tools strengthen your grip considerably through repeated squeezing. As you compress the ball, it pushes back on your fingers and palm as it attempts to regain its spherical shape, which works out your entire hand. The limitation of stress balls, however, is that they exclusively work out the flexor muscles in your forearm, rather than the extensor muscles, which limits the balance of your grip and could thus contribute to sports-related injuries.

Hanging Ten
One of the best workouts for your ten digits is rock climbing walls. A typical rock gym can have an extremely diverse collection of holds called slopers, pinches, jugs, and crimps that put your hands in different positions requiring strength to maintain your hold. Installing rock climbing holds or a rock climbing pull-up rack can give you an intense hand and finger workout, and a membership at your rock gym could go even farther. Bouldering covers almost every possible application for grip strength, since you'll be supporting your body weight using a wide variety of hand positions, which thus makes rock climbing one of the best methods for developing hand and finger strength fast.

Shared from livehealthy.chron.com