1. “Strength” is a Specific Term

Nothing that you can do for dozens of reps or for countless minutes can be deemed a strength exercise. If we’re really being specific, anything you can do for more than 5 reps or a handful of seconds isn’t really developing strength, either. Distance running? Not strength. 100 ab crunches? Not strength. Sets of 20 front squats? Not strength. Rice Bucket for 5 minutes, resulting in a moderate “burn” of the forearms – NOT strength.

2. Your Grandma Could Do Them

Watch the following video. Your grandma could do this. Don’t tell me she couldn’t. Do you want real strength, or grandma strength? She can’t even open a jar of mayonnaise but could do these drills…

3. Weak People Do and Recommend Them

When’s the last time you saw a 250lb guy with a 600 pound deadlift telling you to build your forearms this way? Do you think he got to be able to hold such massive amounts of weight in his hands by flicking rice around? No. He got there by moving heavy weights with his hands. Many of the people who will recommend these are old and/or scrawny – do you really want their advice about how to get strong hands and forearms? The actually strong people are carrying heavy things around or pulling their bodyweight up with their fingers (climbers). Would 5 minutes of Rice bucket or 5 minutes of the following farmers walks increase grip strength more? Do you really have to think about it?

4. The Whole Forearm Is Covered By Better Exercises

There are countless exercises that would be more beneficial in the same amount of time you would spend doing rice flicks. The Tommy John rehab circuit is one of them, and it covers all 6 motions of the forearm. Plus, you can do them with legitimate weight to make them bonafide STRENGTH exercises that will yield real benefits. Flicking and crunching rice in a bucket has very little resistance. Just because it gives you a burn after 5 minutes doesn’t make it useful. I can squat in the catchers position for 5 minutes and my legs and ankles will burn – doesn’t mean I’ll be strong because of it; grandma can squat, too.

5. They’re Rehab-Level Resistance

Again – the level of resistance the rice is going to provide is negligible. My personal best rack hold is 585lbs for 5 seconds. How is crunching my hands into a bucket of rice going to improve on my already high level of grip strength? How is a kid who can do 10 chin ups on a fat rope going to benefit by low-resistance rice? How is a rock climber with legendary fingertip strength going to benefit from flicking rice? The answer is, they aren’t.

6. They’re Not Progressive

How do you get better at rice bucket drills? Do them longer, I assume. If doing them longer is the answer, then again – not a strength exercise. Do you get rice-shaped lead? A jacuzzi full of the grain? Go to China and dig your way back home through the center of the earth? There’s really no way to get better at it and prove that you’re continuing to get “stronger”. Sure, people may just say that rice bucket drills are to be mixed into a regimen and not really progressed, but screw that – I can prescribe dozens of progressive and highly effective grip strength exercises that are proven to create elite grip strength. The bucket can’t deliver on that, and the old guy who’s recommending it to you probably can’t either.

7. They Don’t Create Balanced Musculature

If your grip is strong, performing super-light rehab exercises like the rice bucket isn’t going to balance out your forearm and hand musculature. A sprinter with super strong quads needs super strong hamstrings and glutes to balance his legs – performing heavy strength exercise with one and not the other doesn’t cut it. To train your crushing grip to be very strong, then mixing in a low-resistance exercise like rice drills for the rest of the forearm movements (again – there are 6 directions of movement controlled by the forearm that combine to create all the motions we use) is missing the point. If you train for strength in one movement you need to train for strength in the others, lest ye have a big imbalance and predisposition for injury. 50lb wrist curls don’t match up with rice bucket wrist extensions.

8. No Comparative Strength

Okay – post a comment telling me how you love the rice bucket and how doing it regularly has made your forearms so much stronger. Then, swing by my gym and compare your grip strength to that of my athletes. Then, go by the local rock climbing gym and see how well those basmati-hands get you up the wall. You’ll embarrass yourself at both locales.

Here’s How I Sum It Up:

The Rice bucket is a waste of time. For any amount of time spent on it, I could do infinitely more productive exercises to build hand and finger strength. Even if it’s only 1 minute per day, I’d rather be doing something else for my hands. Myself and my trainees have exceptional grip strength relative to other athletes, so I think I’m time-efficient with grip training.

**I am a strength coach and pitching instructor in the Central Illinois area. Strength training, pitching lessons, and velocity development are among my available services. If you liked this post, please subscribe to my monthly newsletter – you will receive updates chock full of awesomeness.

Thanks for reading! -Dan Blewett

But in the professional season, off-days are few and far between, and the rotation gives each starter 4 days to prepare for his next outing. Everyone is different in what he needs to prepare, but I’ll share my own preparation schedule that I feel gives me the best chance to succeed and stay strong throughout the season.

Day 0: Pitch (hopefully well)

I do very little on this day.  I stretch everything out, warm up really well, and go out and give em my best on the mound. Afterward I ice my elbow If I think I need it, but I generally am not a big icer.

Day 1: Repair Thyself

I do not lift weights on this day, nor do I do any shoulder or elbow prehab. I usually do not throw, either. My rationale for this is that throwing 100+ pitches is very destructive on the body, and a full day of rest is necessary to keep me healthy. If I do prehab, even without throwing, I’m still not allowing those tired and inflamed tissues in my arm to fully rest. So, I leave my arm alone – completely. I once asked my surgeon what he thought a pitcher should do after a start. His reply? “sit on the couch and eat potato chips.”

I keep off my arm as completely as I can, but my legs are a different story. Day 1 is my big run day, and I like an interval type workout with slightly longer distances. 10-12 “Bows” is one of my favorite workouts on Day 1. A “bow” consists of a very light jog on the warning track, and then an all-out sprint from foul-poul to foul-pole. A short rest is OK in between each bow, as keeping the sprint a sprint is a goal, and too little rest will reduce it to a fast run.

A crude drawing of a Bow

After getting my running done, I do hip work with a mini-band around my ankles, and I get a whole-body stretch in. After that, it’s bucket duty during BP and sitting through the ballgame.

Day 2: The Busy Day

Day 2 is hectic. No rest on this day.

First priority is a full-body lift, which will consist usually just of big, compound lifts like deadlifts, squats, chin-ups, floor pull-ups, and one pushing exercise like DB bench press. In-season I use heavier weights for low reps, with usually one higher-rep set thrown in to maintain my muscle mass. The low rep stuff keeps my max strength up without depleting all my energy, and I’ll typically use sets and reps such as 4×2, 4×3, 2×2 and 3×1, etc., done at 80-85% of my 1rm. Keeping max strength up is crucial, or else you end up a weakling by the all-star break, and all your offseason work becomes for nothing.

After lifting it is time to take care of my arm, which means my complete shoulder circuit of 2-3 sets, and all my elbow prehab. I also like to do some grip work holding heavy weights, (in addition to the deadlifts) like farmers walks or blob holds, if I can, because they make my elbow feel really good. I’m not sure why holding heavy things makes my elbow feel great, but it does.

Holding heavy things is fun!

After all the strength and prehab stuff, hopefully I have few hours break before going to the field. I’ll throw at the park, stretching it out a bit if my arm feels up to it, but basically the goal on this day is to get the arm moving again and prepare for my bullpen the next day.

After throwing, it’s time for al little more running. Short sprints, maybe 12x40yd is about par for this day, but I play it by ear depending on how I feel.

Day 3: Back to Work

Day 3 is highlighted by my heavier bullpen of the week, usually in the 5-10 minute range depending on what I need to work on and how I feel. This pen is thrown at maybe 70-80%, but I might pump it up higher if I feel I need a little higher intensity work, as your pitches and they way they feel change the harder you throw.

I do another set or two of shoulder and elbow prehab, this time with lighter weights. Usually 2lb is all I touch after Day 2 for my shoulders, and I like doing some table scapula stability exercises on Day 3 as well. Elbow work is very light. The workload starts to taper down on Day 3, as I have to be fully recovered by Day 5.

This is the last day I run hard. The other day I did 20x40yd sprints, but I mix it up depending on how I feel. Pick-ups, maybe 3 sets of 20 is something else that I might do on this day, to get some lateral leg work.

Day 4: Tapering Down

On Day 4 I play catch, usually ending with a flat ground or maybe a short, light mound bullpen of just a few minutes. The goal is to keep the arm moving while still working on the feel of my pitches. I feel better on game day when I have played catch the day before, rather than taking day 4 off.

I jog a little bit, just to get the blood flowing. I stretch really well and don’t do any other physical stuff with my arm.

Day 5: Pitch (hopefully well)

Hopefully I maintain my place in the rotation and give the fans something to cheer about. Then the preparation starts back up again!

Again, everyone is different, and this is so far what I have found works for me. Making sure you’re recovered for the next start is key, and if fatigue sets in you have to adjust your workload to compensate, ensuring that you’re at your best every time you take the mound. I enjoy training hard, but being a hero in the weightroom or on the track isn’t worth a damn if it leaves you tired for that next outing.

Closed Hand Strength

This is just what it sounds like, holding things with a closed fist.  This is the most important type of strength for a hitter to have, as gripping the bat is done with closed fists.  This isn’t meant to be groundbreaking info, but I want you to see the carryover from the weight room to the field for both pitchers and hitters.

Closed Hands Gripping a Bat

Training this type of strength is extremely easy, and yet produces noticeable results, especially to the untrained.  After just 3 weeks of dedicated sessions with grip training intermixed, one of my third baseman clients remarked how much harder he would hit the ball at showcases, and how much longer he could swing in the cage without fatigue.  The big major league hitters who seem to just flick the ball over the fence?  Big, powerful forearms with a crushing grip.

Training Closed Hand Strength

As I mentioned, this is easy and allows for a lot of creativity.  The root of all of this is holding something that you can get your hands completely around, such as a chin-up bar, barbell, towel, dumbbell, etc.  Then with that weight in hand, you hang or hold while you stand still or walk.  Vary your weights, sets, time, etc. to maximize your training effect.  Grip training is something that you in most cases want to do to failure… making the weight fall from your fingers.

Hangs

Towel Hangs

Pretty easy.  Grab something overhead and hold on with closed fists.  Chances are, you won’t last nearly as long as those people in movies do, and you would absolutely drop off that building before help arrived.  The grip work involved in performing chin and pull ups is an additional huge benefit of doing them (and if you know me, you know I love me some chin ups).  A weak grip is also a limiting factor for many novices with poor chin up numbers.

Farmers Walks

-Grab heavy things and walk with them.  Repeat until you’re tired or preferably, can’t.  There are many ways to vary this such as with dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, towels, etc.

Towel Farmers Walks

"Blob" Farmer's Walks

Lift Heavy Weights

Do you push yourself when doing deadlifts, bent-over rows, RDLs, etc?  If you do, then your grip has been improving as a side effect.  My forearms transformed one summer when I used  a program from school that had me deadlifting twice per week, sometimes with a straight bar and sometimes with a trap bar.  If you have strong legs and push yourself to get stronger, you might find yourself holding 450 pounds in your hands, which will get you a crushing grip in no time.

Open Hand Strength

This is, again, just what it sounds like: holding onto things while your fist isn’t completely closed.  This type of strength is most important for pitchers and those who want to improve throwing velocity, because the force is applied to the ball from the tips of the fingers.  Having a strong fist isn’t going to help as much here, because closed fist exercises build more strength in the more proximal digits of the fingers.

Fingertips Transmit Power to the Ball

Training Open Hand Strength

I keep talking about rock climbing, but it’s just a fact that those people have freaky strong fingers.  I see the parallel to throwing, and I try to adopt their training methods (within reason).  Loading the fingers should be a gradual process, as the lever arm is really lengthened, which further increases the stress on the forearm muscles.  Point being, don’t just jump into 10 minutes of 2-finger hangs from your door moulding – you’ll have tendinitis or a popped flexor in no time.

Strong fingers

Use An Open Hand Grip…

Rock Rings Open-Hand Grip

Open-hand grip dumbbell

Top of Dumbbell or "Blob" hold

Weight plate farmers walks

Squeezing the life out of a Medicine ball

Final Thoughts

As you probably realize, grip training is something that never has to get boring; it can be varied a thousand different ways.  I just want people out there to start thinking about what their goals are, and how their training is preparing them for their sport.  In baseball, I think it’s clear that grip strength is huge.  Yet, an even more narrow focus (open vs. closed) should yield maximum carryover to the field.

Rock ring connected to dumbbell by carabiner

The Three-Finger pocket in use

Pictured here is Adam Baxley, a freshman catcher at Frostburg U.  What we did with him was a 4 hold drop set – he started with the most difficult grip (3 finger shallow pocket) then when he couldn’t hold anymore, picked the weights back up with the next easiest grip, ending with the big sloper hold.  This way we were able to get his hands under tension longer, which resulted in a really tough grip exercise (he’ll attest to that).

Hand and finger strength is really under-appreciated and under-trained in the baseball community.  This blows my mind, as the last thing a thrown ball is in contact with is the (drumroll please) fingertips!  Sure, doing wrist curls, holding heavy things, etc. etc. develops grip and forearm strength, but it’s just not the exact type of strength I see as most important- fingertip strength.  If you haven’t been to your local rock climbing wall recently, you’ll realize how lacking your finger strength is – even if you have monster forearms and a great closed hand grip.

I’m hitting the rock climbing gym 2-3 times a week right now.  Do I expect it to help me throw harder?  Yes.  I do.  Can’t imagine how it wouldn’t.