By Kyles Milsnap
In the sport and practice of Grip, one of the main disciplines is pinching. Pinching is the practice of lifting something holding together two or more things by pressing the thumb toward the fingers.
Some of the most common pinch lifting techniques involve plate pinching, block weight lifting, thumb clamping, and hub lifting.
Plate Pinching involves positioning two lifting plates together so that their smooth sides point out. You then put your thumb on one side and your fingers on the other and lift.
Block weight lifting is done with the head of a dumbbell. You can cut the head off a dumbbell and lift it, or you can tip a dumbbell up and pick the whole thing up by the head. The thumb will be on one flat face of the dumbbell head and the fingers will be spread out on various faces of the head.
Clamping can be done with a clamp from a hardware store, a very light hand gripper, or a lever pinch device especially designed to train the thumb. In all cases, the fingers are placed on one handle and the thumb is place on the other handle and force is applied in an effort to touch the two handles together or to come as close as possible.
Hub Lifting is lifting a weight lifting plate by the center of the plate. On most plates, in the very center there will be some form of a hub on them. Whether or not that hub is thick, thin, short, tall, flanged or smooth, can have a huge effect on how difficult it will be to lift.
For instance, if you search hard, you can find old-style York Barbell plates with huge hubs on them. Normally something that large would be a decent pinch, but most York plates have this dramatic sloping flange on them that make them extremely hard to lift.
Most plates, today, are thinner so that more plates can be loaded onto a bar. This makes their hubs very thin and often very wide - two traits that makes them very hard to lift.
If you are lucky you might be able to find some reasonable plates these days that are both thicker (about half way between the majority of today's thinner plates and the thicker York plates of yesteryear).
Two such plates are made by Fitness Gear and CAP. These plates can be found that are thicker than most plates sold today and they also have a straight hub on them, instead of the flange. This combination makes them great for lifting. These are the plates you are most likely to find these days that you can hub lift on. Of course, if you comb the desert, dig through yard sales and second hand stores, who knows what you might find.
More Information: For more information on Grip Strength training and hub lifting, check out the author's grip strength training website.
In the sport and practice of Grip, one of the main disciplines is pinching. Pinching is the practice of lifting something holding together two or more things by pressing the thumb toward the fingers.
Some of the most common pinch lifting techniques involve plate pinching, block weight lifting, thumb clamping, and hub lifting.
Plate Pinching involves positioning two lifting plates together so that their smooth sides point out. You then put your thumb on one side and your fingers on the other and lift.
Block weight lifting is done with the head of a dumbbell. You can cut the head off a dumbbell and lift it, or you can tip a dumbbell up and pick the whole thing up by the head. The thumb will be on one flat face of the dumbbell head and the fingers will be spread out on various faces of the head.
Clamping can be done with a clamp from a hardware store, a very light hand gripper, or a lever pinch device especially designed to train the thumb. In all cases, the fingers are placed on one handle and the thumb is place on the other handle and force is applied in an effort to touch the two handles together or to come as close as possible.
Hub Lifting is lifting a weight lifting plate by the center of the plate. On most plates, in the very center there will be some form of a hub on them. Whether or not that hub is thick, thin, short, tall, flanged or smooth, can have a huge effect on how difficult it will be to lift.
For instance, if you search hard, you can find old-style York Barbell plates with huge hubs on them. Normally something that large would be a decent pinch, but most York plates have this dramatic sloping flange on them that make them extremely hard to lift.
Most plates, today, are thinner so that more plates can be loaded onto a bar. This makes their hubs very thin and often very wide - two traits that makes them very hard to lift.
If you are lucky you might be able to find some reasonable plates these days that are both thicker (about half way between the majority of today's thinner plates and the thicker York plates of yesteryear).
Two such plates are made by Fitness Gear and CAP. These plates can be found that are thicker than most plates sold today and they also have a straight hub on them, instead of the flange. This combination makes them great for lifting. These are the plates you are most likely to find these days that you can hub lift on. Of course, if you comb the desert, dig through yard sales and second hand stores, who knows what you might find.
More Information: For more information on Grip Strength training and hub lifting, check out the author's grip strength training website.