If owning freakily big sized forearms are your thing, and you want to get them in the shortest time possible, then Fat Gripz provides the solution.
It’s quite easy to strain the wrist and elbow flexors by doing wrist and forearm curls. I pulled both of mine at the same time as I was training hard to increase my grip strength. Little did I know at the time that Fat Grips provide a better way.
If you have long thin baseball shaped arms you can stack some meat on your upper arms with our biceps and tricep article. With your respectful increase in upper arm girth going on, to offset the balance, adding a fat grip around barbells and dumbbells will soon have your forearms popping.
Just look at the insane size of Phil Heath’s forearms. They are bigger than some peoples thighs. He incorporates fat grips into his workouts.
As well as working your forearms to an insane level they also work the heck out of the biceps. Bigger arms all round.
How They Work
They work by increasing the diameter of the barbell, dumbbell or pulley bar you are using. You can even use them on pull up bars, cambered bars and EZ bars as they have bevelled ends.
Their wide circumference forces your forearm to work harder to hold onto the weight. It will make your reps harder, but your forearms will be crammed full of blood as more muscle fibers are activated. Afterwards you will notice them swell to a huge size.
If your gym doesn’t have thick strength style bars you can expand your bar by wrapping fat grips around them.
Why You Need Them
- Shortcuts your growth time
- Used by Mr Olympia winning pros like Phil Heath, Jay Cutler and multiple Crossfit, Special Forces personnel, NFL, UFC and NBA athletes as well as movie stars looking a quick transformation fix.
- Award winning- bodybuilding.com and Mens Health Magazine
- Very cheap – less than a couple of large pizzas
- No brainer- so easy to use, wrap them around a bar and watch yourself grow
- Made from military grade compound which doesn’t wear
- 30 day guarantee
Not Just for Bodybuilding
For any sport where grip plays a major role they are extremely beneficial. Think rock climbing, wrestling, BJJ, Crossfit and powerlifting. A strong grip allows you to excel in these sports. If you compete in strongman the Extreme version are specifically designed for use on the Farmers walk, dumbbell holds and presses.
Functional Strength Increases
Fat grips are not just for increasing muscle size, they also increase your grip strength. A strong grip is useful for many things in life, not least for stopping larger people crush you in a handshake, but they have many key performance tie-ins across the gym.
Dorian Yates always used to pre exhaust his lats on a specialized lat machine before getting into his back exercises. Just because all of the back exercises rely on the biceps to pull weight. As the biceps are small in relation to the back they would give out before the back was exhausted.
Using fat grips, especially for holds increases the time you can hold weight under tension. Think of lat pulldowns, pull ups and barbell rows.
Instead of using wraps on the deadlift start using grips. You will have to reduce the weight but whenever you go for your max lifts you will be able to hold onto the bar a lot better.
When you are getting into heavy territory the back and leg may lift 500 pounds but your grip can fail. For powerlifting meets not every competition lets you use wraps, and if it does you can still win the bragging rights by lifting raw.
Trying static dumbbell holds and farmers walk holds if you need to increase your time for strongman competitions. Try this with a lighter weight on the deadlifts and you will notice heavier weights seem less of a strain to hold as you attempt lock out.
Which One Of The 3 Sizes Should You Choose
There are 3 size options available.
The Fat Gripz 1 has a 1.75 inch diameter. If you want to start off at the smallest size and work your way up this is a good option. If you have small hands they are ideal. Many people who start with the original or extreme have a hard time closing their palms around them. This can also leave you will sore wrists and take ages for you to get used to gripping them.
The Fat Gripz original has a diameter of 2.25 inches. These are the biggest sellers and offer a lot of scope to develop thick arms, without totally going overboard, such as the extreme offers. If you have average to large sized hands they will work like troopers.
The Fat Gripz Extreme with it’s 2.75 inch diameter is for serious users. Those with large hands, and especially for anyone working in the fields of strength, powerlifting and strongman. Even NFL. If you want the maximum amount of pain and width go for these. Be wary you may need to start at with the original gripz before transitioning to these unless you have hands like shovels.
Go Easy At The Start
Like all new toys that come into your possession go easy at the start. Your arms can be sore for days on end and you can damage your elbow and wrist flexors quite easy as they are small. They will be put under tremendous strain once you are just getting acclimatized to them.
You don’t need to use them in every training session for the first few weeks. Break yourself in easy. You won’t be able to lift the same amount of weight neither. But don’t worry the goal is growth not extreme weight. Once you take off the grips you will find your normal lifts get lighter.
Try them on the bench press for a few sessions, then take them off and you’ll immediately notice the same weight feels lighter. The same for deadlifts and practically every lift, even overhead presses.
Be Careful
The object of using these is not to use them when you are attempting a max lift. They do get sweaty and they can slip off, even with chalk. If you are benching with them make sure you have a partner or safety pins because if they slip the bar is coming down on you hard.
What Are Customers Saying About Them?
- grip strength went through roof
- only thought grip was strong until they tried these
- original 2.25″ fit powerblock sport dumbbells
- bit of a squeeze to get original size on selecttech 552s but they still work
- increased strength carried over to rope climbing/Crossfit
- had to cut back deadlift weight to maintain form!
- very robust material
- provides very quick pump in forearms
- grip strength improves almost immediately
If you want Sleeve Busting Forearms with minimal expense except some serious sweat and pain, these will push you harder and offer more reliability than any training partner.