should I use fat gripz on arm exercises for bigger biceps, triceps?

[oozymrbunbun]

Do thicker bars really work your biceps, triceps work more hard? I know it works more forearms, but would you use them in your arm workouts, or just regular dumbbells/barbells.

[Bunk66]

I don't see how a thicker bar would work your biceps or triceps at all.

[Curlers]

I don't see how a thicker bar would work your biceps or triceps at all.

This^

It will give you a better grip though. stronger hands and forearms.

[kanis999]

No.

[mikegilbert1986]

i dont like thick grip/thick bars nothing. my grip is strong ass hell just from lifting..

[davisj3537]

At 15 you should stop chasing this kind of stuff and just focus on lifting straight weight. You don't need any special exercises, routines or gimmicks.

[DCSpartan]

I like fat gripz especially for pressing exercises, but like others here have posted, it wont make your arms bigger, and if you are doing plenty of deadlifts, pullups, and rows (all without straps) you get great grip strength for free.

[magician27]

no , it only works your forearm flexors and fingers harder

[SaraGriffin]

No. But it will make you have stronger hands and forearms.

[Hardgainer2000]

Yes, a fatter bar allows for greater isolation of the bicep.

[mjf100215]

Yes, a fatter bar allows for greater isolation of the bicep.

Feel like explaining how exactly?

[NateSteen]

What's funny is so many people blindly ignore the CNS system for gains. I don't use Fatgripz cause my gym has fat bars and DBs. But the science behind a fatter grip isn't JUST to get stronger grip strength. Using a fatter bar increases neural drive to your ENTIRE arm. Do you think your CNS system just skips over the upper part of your arm and goes straight to the forearm? The body is considered a chain and has downstream effects. You want bigger arms? Strengthen your posterior chain with deadlifts, squats, swings, and cleans; it increases the neural drive to your upper arms as well.

[Khalicks]

You want bigger arms? Strengthen your posterior chain with deadlifts, squats, swings, and cleans; it increases the neural drive to your upper arms as well.

You almost made sense up until this part. Or you could've been about to unleash some startling revelation, backed by cutting edge science, say.

Never mind. The seemingly inconvenient fact is, if you want bigger arms, you need to train your damn arms. There really is no getting around that, no matter how hard the modern hardcore connoisseur of Starting Strength-esque "wisdom" rails against it.

As for Fat Gripz, just stick to the standard barbell, and dumbbells, and machines (!), if you want bigger biceps and triceps.

[Jayjoe]

Dude listen up, I purchased some fat grips, used them on arm and shoulder moves, then got some BAD TENDONITIS. Maybe you could handle it cause you are younger. And yes my forearms did get a sick pump, but the injury was not worth it. The best thing for my forearms and grip has been using KETTLEBELLS. I use kettlebells to warm up and do a dedicated kettlebell day now and then filled with cleans, swings, snatches, military presses, jerks. Its a lot of fun and holding onto that thick handle while its swinging works the grip.

But if you want big biceps try different angles, like preacher curls vs. drag curls, also wide vs. narrow grip. And Chin Ups work em too.

[Hardgainer2000]

Feel like explaining how exactly?

The fatter bar forces you to grip it harder, which makes the weight more stable. Less wrist flexion which results in less energy being lost as it travels up the arm. Try it and see what I mean.

[NateSteen]

You almost made sense up until this part. Or you could've been about to unleash some startling revelation, backed by cutting edge science, say.

Never mind. The seemingly inconvenient fact is, if you want bigger arms, you need to train your damn arms. There really is no getting around that, no matter how hard the modern hardcore connoisseur of Starting Strength-esque "wisdom" rails against it.

As for Fat Gripz, just stick to the standard barbell, and dumbbells, and machines (!), if you want bigger biceps and triceps.

Large dynamic movements recruit/require more neural response since those complex lifts like snatches, cleans, etc require your arms to have dynamic movement, not just "hold on." Power lifters have INCREDIBLE grip strength and most never train arms yet most have pretty massive arms. Why/how do you think that is? Genetics? Sure, to an extent...but the neural trail /link from posterior exercises is immense. Same goes for gymnasts. Gymnasts can experience up to 10x their body weight on the downward swing when on the rings...gymnast don't "train arms."

There's a guy Pavel Tsatsouline (sp?) that has shown the CNS link and neural boost that your grip strength increases from tensing your glutes and abs. Funny how that works how neither of those two are directly connected to the arms, yet have an amazing effect to your grip strength. You don't need to "train arms" you need to increase your neural response and "train" your CNS system. Power lifters never really train to jump high either, but are usually the most explosive and have the greatest height in box jumps.....why (besides strength)? CNS, CNS, CNS....

As for it causing tendinitis...tendinitis stems from overuse or the tissue being weaker than it's adjacent connective tissue. Were the fatgrips the cause? Sure, they caused it, but they're not SOLELY to blame. Inhuries and conditions don't pop up from nowhere....they come from a deficiency in another area downstream.

You can build the baddest motor on the planet, but if you don't have the electrical system to fire it up, it's pretty useless.

[Khalicks]

Power lifters have INCREDIBLE grip strength and most never train arms yet most have pretty massive arms.

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about, once again. Most powerlifters absolutely DO train arms, and there's one particularly good reason for that: It helps build their bench 1RM. There are other raesons as well, however.

But re: grip strength, they mostly get better at gripping bars... by gripping bars. Surprised? I'm not.

Gymnasts can experience up to 10x their body weight on the downward swing when on the rings...gymnast don't "train arms."

Many gymnasts utilise weights training. I'm not sure whether they *all* do, but even so, your universal claim doesn't stand.

Power lifters never really train to jump high either, but are usually the most explosive and have the greatest height in box jumps.....why (besides strength)? CNS, CNS, CNS....

No, not phucking CNS. They have a stronger squat than most people, therefore their initial sprint speed, and yes, perhaps other things like box jumps - will be, all else being equal, better than most people's. Strength, generally speaking, translates very well to power.

[NateSteen]

Of course you can train arms, but I personally know several Elite gymnasts (like olympics level elite and collegiate elite/L10), both male and female (my wife was one) and NONE of them trained arms to the extent of doing forearm curls or forearm work. None of them did "grip strength" drills. When I was an L6 gymnast, I never "trained my forearms" and could do a couple L8 swinging routines (remember that 10xbody weight at the bottom swing statement?..not saying I was moving that fast for my stored energy to equal 10x my body weight, but it gives you an idea.) My wife has TINY forearms and was able to do tons of swinging stuff on bars. It sounds like a lot of your gymnast information is based on what you've read on the internet, not actually experiencing it first hand. It's also apparent you just move weight without actually analyzing and optimizing anything. Maybe that's the engineering thought process I've been beat down with, or the gymnastics mindset I grew up with, but no, there's far more reasons as to why you can't move weight other than just muscle mass or brute force. Several gymnasts lift weights because it's a short-cut of sorts for technique and just makes them a LITTLE more competent on various apparatus and picks up the slack for lacking technique that could be attained by more apparatus time. Several of the guys at my gym and some friends that do strictly olympic lifts and no isolation work never train arms and can move weight upwards of 500 lbs raw. Attached a picture. He's not moving 400 in that pic, but he is moving over 400 and never "trains grip strength."

I'd be willing to bet my grip strength is stronger than a decent percentage of people on here simply from holding on to handlebars on BMX and trials bikes most of my life and gymnastics as a kid alone and I have FAR LESS mass than most. It's your CNS neuro-muscular pathways not just your muscle mass. It's simple physics. The acceleration at which your muscles contract dictates grip power output more as your fingers in a closed position do not offer a leverage advantage...i.e. the ratio of acceleration to which your muscles can fire is more advantageous/favorable than mass in a lower leverage scenario, such as your fingers. They've done NUMEROUS studies on this as to why those people at freak shows can bend pots, wrought iron, and steel rebar bare-handed, yet never hit a gym a day in their life. Their neuro-muscular receptors in their arms were able to send/receive crazy amounts of electricity to their forearms to contract their fingers.

Sure, if you want to train your forearms, go right ahead...but it isn't "necessary."

[Khalicks]

So much indoctrinated moonbat drivel, which is not surprising at this point. And hey, y'know, this was all actually about biceps and triceps, not forearms. But anyway, this little gem here...

It's also apparent you just move weight without actually analyzing and optimizing anything.

You are speaking of a thing you know literally nothing about (that being my training). So, not just your general levels of ignorance and noise. Going for broke now.


There is no reasoning with those who have wilfully abandoned reason. So, bon voyage...

[NateSteen]

LOL. OK. What's funny is, I found somebody else saying the EXACT (almost word for word) things I've been saying:

chadwaterbury.com/bigger-arms-the-unbiased-truth/

Hmm...a Doctorate of Physical therapy from USC says so...



This article about human kinetics says so too:

humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/learn-how-muscles-build-up-strength



Oh, and so does Tudor Bompa, who was responsible for the soviets dominating for over 3 decades in olympic events, which many power lifters adopted his practices and still do today. He's responsible for that thing...what's it called? Oh, periodization; that thing almost every competitive athlete on the planet utilizes that is pretty much centralized around the training of your CNS.



Every gymnast I've known trains form over function and NONE of them have trained forearms to gain functional grip strength. Ever. And I know this was about biceps and triceps, but the point was that increasing your grip strength is like the bottle neck of sorts to getting bigger arms via neuromuscular passages. You can look at ANY scholarly article or journal and see the CNS is the single most important factor in muscular strength and it's effects downstream.

But all that aside, if you don't believe your CNS has a much larger role at making gains then you're completely delusional. The entire academic community knows your CNS is your foundation for muscular progress. Because ya, know, it what's actually responsible for making your muscle contract and the speed at which they do...which equals power output. More neurons activating more muscle fiber requires more CNS demand. Having a crappy electrical signal is as good as a strong one, right? But I guess I didn't need to tell you that....cause "scholarly drivel" has no place when speaking about the human body....just add more plates, bro.

[ironwill2008]

As is often the case in this forum, this thread, which required only a simple answer to a small-statured 15-year-old kid, went way OT.

should I use fat gripz on arm exercises for bigger biceps, triceps?

No.

At your level, just stick with a basic beginner training program using regular barbells/dumbbells, and eat a couple of sammiches.