Arm wrestling

[Thalastdon]

Ok I can bench press 300lbs. but yet I can't beat some drunk guy who is out of shape in arm wrestling? What excercises is there to do to be good in arm wrestling? I mean it is weird it seems like arm wrestling has nothing to do with strength

[jawan]

Theres a lot involved in arm wrestling besides strenght.
Everything from the grip you use, to the angle between your shoulder and your arm, is a factor. For example...my uncle is about 5'11 and weighs about 175, hes in pretty good shape...yet this guy never lost in arm wrestling.....he beat a guy who works in his warehouse who is a hardcore powerlifter....the guy is about 6'3 225. Im no expert, but i suggest, when starting the match, keep your arm at a smaller angle to your shoulder, and right at the onset, push as hard as u can, the first few seconds are extremely crucial. Also dont bend your wrist, and when u get the initial hand to hand grip, make sure your fingers are farther down the guys hand, giving you better grip and leverage. Hope this helps

Jawan

[TheCrumbGuy]

If its one thing I was good at iw would be armwrestling. I only ever lost once to a guy who just got out of jail. This was when I was 13 and he was like 17 so you kinda know why. It was jouvinal (did I spell it right) yet there was still weight lifting available and the such. When I was 15 I was the best in my entire high school. I don't know if you can understand but its like pure power, I felt I could not be beaten.

Explosive power works well for me, but the real thing I used was that I would hold him there until He would seem to feel weak and then I would use every thing I had into using my arm and bring him down. Keep in mind that I could only do armwrestling once a day. I wish I could explain it more....

[Ze_ev]

You can train for arm wrestling just like you train for anything else, by imitating the movement. Before I get to the actual exercises, let me mention that arm wrestling actually involves more forearm/rotator cuff than the biceps, unless your angle is really small and you're more pulling than rotating. You can cheat a little by pulling towards you and making his angle bigger, and yours smaller, which gives you an advantage. Also you can use your whole body weight to help the push, you need to position your body sort of sideways to apply more force than if you were sitting completely straight facing him. This is especially important in the end, when you need to put him on the table. Putting weight into your arm really helps then. Anyways without further ado, the exercises:


* Side rotations: Lie on your side, extend the arm on an approximately 45 degree angle between body and upper arm, and approx. 90 degrees angle forearm and upper arm (you can make variations in that from workout to workout, or from set to set, to target slightly different areas - just as your angle when you arm wrestle varies from time to time). Grab a dumbbell, and rotate it upwards. Make sure the weight is significant, but comfortable - you don't want to rip your rotator cuff. This exercise could be done with bending your body inwards or outwards a bit (as opposed to lying straight on your side) for variation.

This mostly helps you with the initial (and most important) part of the movement.

* Concentration rotations: Same as concentration curls, except you bend further, and instead of curling the weight towards you, you rotate it. For example, for the right hand, you should start with a dumbbell somewhere below your right knee, and end the movement with the dumbbell at about your left pec. This is a good variation to the side rotations, and works along the entire movement range of arm wrestling.

* High cable rotations: same as side rotations, except you stand up, attach a handle to the high pulley, and do what you do when arm wrestling. This, again, imitates the initial part of the movement. This could also be done with preacher bench (put it sideways in front of the cable station and rotate on it, one arm at a time of course), for further isolation.

* Low cable rotations: looking a bit stupid to the rest of the gym but who cares, this is one of the best exercises, since it keeps constant tension and imitates the entire movement range. Lie on the floor stomache down, about 45 degree angle towards the cable. Raise yourself on the arm that's not working of course. Nowattach a handle to a low pulley and arm-wrestle that cable!


Keep in mind, that those are function specific exercises. Anything to do with grip, forearms, rotator cuff and biceps to an extent, helps. You should be doing those general exercises as part of your routine anyway, though.

Hope it helps... I've won alot of arm wrestling competitions at bars and won me some little cash too , since I started training for it.

[Zulu]

Man do I hate arm wrestling. If you don't know the tricks you're royally screwed.

My friend once royally humiated me at arm wrestling, using an unbeatable grip. And I had beat him several times before that.

There are several hand grips which will allow you to win everytime.

-Zulu

[GeNeTicFreAk]

anyone want to post those??? rather than just saying they exisit?

[Ze_ev]

There are no magicial angles or grips... it's all in the physics of the motion. A better grip is one when you can do the initial twist to his wrist, its alot harder to push with your wrist backwards. This initial twist is very important. You may wanna use a thumbless grip to apply more force (the part of your palm under the thump can be used to push harder and twist his wrist backwards more efficiantly, but he may not agree to use such a grip).

Also, manage to get a smaller angle towards you, and you got an advantage because he gets more torgue and needs to apply more force, while you get less and also can put more body weight into your push. That's why I said you can use your biceps and pull towards you as well as rotating at the start to minimize your angle.. in alot of places it is considered cheating... but once you start, especially if you and your opponent are somewhat closely matched and you dont win/lose right away, nobody will really notice if you do it subtly, and it can win you a match.

[dustinp]

Um.......I havn't been to any competitions or anything to that extent. But i've also never lost a match....Seems to me that arm wrestling when done properly is all in the forearm....I credit most of my wins to my forearm being as there bigger than my biceps..

Just a thought

[LincolnHawk]

Strength is a very minor aspect of armwrestling. I've been in several armwrestling comps, and placed third in my state last September. I'm really not that great at it, but my strength has kept me in most of my matches (There are very few 153 lbers that are close to me in strenght). The three basics to armwrestling are leverage, speed, and endurance.

By leverage I mean, you need to apply back pressure to your opponent. By back pressure I mean... Off the start you always want your wrist as close to your shoulder as the judges will let you. Your opponent wants the same. So if you increase his wrist to shoulder distance while keeping yours the same, you've got the advantage. To do this, you need to lower your center of gravity (by leaning back, or bending your knees, making your waist lower then the table) and pull his arm back tword you while maintaining your wrist to shoulder distance. You do this, and you've loaded your entire body weight onto his bicep, so unless he's the Incredible Hulk, he's not strong enough to hold you off. He's done, simple as that.

Secondly you need to get the jump on him. In a sanctioned armwrestling comp, the judge yells "ReadyGO!" to start the match. Notice I didn't leave a space between "Ready" and "GO!" It's because it's that fast. You need to be pulling as soon as he starts to say "Ready". You get the jump, you gain the back pressure, you push his wrist through the table (Always push until you are STOPPED by somebody else), and you win.

Don't worry about grip and **** (leave that to Sly in Over The Top, because the only place that works is in the movies).

Most armwrestlers train for endurance. By stopping a close grip chin in mid lift, and holding, you'll gain this endurance.

There's most of what I know because I'm still learning myself. I've gained twenty pounds since my last competition, and I've lost focus on that sport, but I may drop down again next year and go the title.

[Ze_ev]

Those are all good points Lincoln, that's what I meant by your arm angle smaller = your advantage.

Plus, I remembered this trick , it may help you out but also may put you at a disadvantage if your opponent knows it. So it's especially useful to know, in case your opponent tries to pull it.

Anyway, here it is. If you are at a stalemate (relatively middle position, or leaning slightly to one side of another, but no definite advantage), and you are having trouble subduing him, you can rock your hand backwards slightly, giving him the illusion of a quick win. He will usually ease the tension a bit, since your jerking the arm backwards will be unexpected. The trick is, to push back with everything you got immediately, taking advantage of his ease of tension. If you are lucky and he doesn't catch it, you might even win right away. This might get you a more advantageous position, which is good too. However, if he knows it, you might lose right away, since he will never ease tension, expecting it. Hence all your arm jerk will do is give him some advantage.

So always remember: never ease tension and lose focus. I usually pull this trick with those huge wall-of-muscle older people (I'm 23) in bars who probably never armwrestle and think they can beat me just soooo easy. They never expect it

[Zulu]

FABULOUS thread guys.....keep it going.

Do any of you have any links or recommened books?

-Zulu

[Ze_ev]

Thanks Zulu.. and there is some stuff on the net, although it mostly repeats the basics with more or less elaboration.

http://www.armwrestling.ca/HowToArmw...armwrestle.htm

^- not a bad article, although it has missing points and unnecessarily complicates some things.

http://www.lycos.co.uk/dir/Sports/Ot...Arm_Wrestling/

^- a list of links.. most of them are useless but you may find something there, I havent checked out most of them yet.

[cramron]

its funny ive got the smallest little girly wrists and my forearms are a real weak point yet noone can beat me at arm wrestling my arm jsut doesnt move backwards its a very strange phenom at my school i think ive got just really good grip from holding 110 pound dumbells for shrugs and one arm dumbell curls

[mcxk]

bump

[splutty1]

I'm not sure about this, but I've heard that arm wrestling is bad for your arm or maybe it was the rotator cuff. Can anyone confirm this?

I've been avoiding arm wrestling for that reason. I'm guessing there might be some technique you can use to minimize chances of injury, but I'm not sure. Anyways, throwing that out there so incase you arm wrestlers want to research on that.

[2MuChBoDyFaT]

I'm not sure about this, but I've heard that arm wrestling is bad for your arm or maybe it was the rotator cuff. Can anyone confirm this?

I've been avoiding arm wrestling for that reason. I'm guessing there might be some technique you can use to minimize chances of injury, but I'm not sure. Anyways, throwing that out there so incase you arm wrestlers want to research on that.

There are many cases where people have ****ed up their shoulders because of this "sport"

Why not just have a competition to see who can piss the furthest ? Less chance of injury ...

[rockhuddy]

There are many cases where people have ****ed up their shoulders because of this "sport"

Why not just have a competition to see who can piss the furthest ? Less chance of injury ...

Hey, what do you know, this is the very reason I clicked on this thread. I fucked up my shoulder BAD by arm wrestling. I couldn't lift for a month and have had pain and greatly decreased flexibility in the shoulder ever since.
You know how you always hear about how internal rotation is what kills your RC? Well I can think of no better example of max effort internal rotation than arm wrestling. Do it if you want, but don't come back here asking for rehab exercises later.

[Mejiaf2021]

If its one thing I was good at iw would be armwrestling. I only ever lost once to a guy who just got out of jail. This was when I was 13 and he was like 17 so you kinda know why. It was jouvinal (did I spell it right) yet there was still weight lifting available and the such. When I was 15 I was the best in my entire high school. I don't know if you can understand but its like pure power, I felt I could not be beaten.

Explosive power works well for me, but the real thing I used was that I would hold him there until He would seem to feel weak and then I would use every thing I had into using my arm and bring him down. Keep in mind that I could only do armwrestling once a day. I wish I could explain it more....

I would think the reason why you can only arm wrestle for one day is because your arm can only arm wrestle for so much until u feel pain throughout the rest of the day. I'm currently undefeated and has beaten the strongest dude in the school who's on the football team and that's because i train and arm wrestle a lot. The video against the strongest kid in my high school is on my instagram: mejiaf2000. He's the dude with the tang top. It was a crucial match but it was worth it. the more matches you do, the more endurance you can get but the pain is devastating.

[LMS62]

I would think the reason why you can only arm wrestle for one day is because your arm can only arm wrestle for so much until u feel pain throughout the rest of the day. I'm currently undefeated and has beaten the strongest dude in the school who's on the football team and that's because i train and arm wrestle a lot. The video against the strongest kid in my high school is on my instagram: mejiaf2000. He's the dude with the tang top. It was a crucial match but it was worth it. the more matches you do, the more endurance you can get but the pain is devastating.

In case you are not aware, you are responding to someone who posted over 18 years ago.