Forearm strength and grip training are crucial for OCR Athletes who want to improve their performance within OCR. The forearm is composed of several muscles, tendons, and bones that work together to allow us to grip, pull, and hold onto objects. In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at the anatomy of forearm strength and provide three key exercises to help you train your grip for OCR.

Anatomy of Forearm Strength

The forearms made up of two bones, the ulna and the radius, which run parallel to each other. The muscles of the forearm are divided into two groups, the flexors and the extensors. The flexors are located on the palm side of the forearm and are responsible for flexing the wrist and fingers. The extensors are located on the back of the forearm and are responsible for extending the wrist and fingers.

In addition to these muscles, the forearm also contains several tendons that attach to the wrist, fingers, and elbow. These tendons allow us to grip and hold onto objectswith strength and control. The flexor tendons are especially important for OCR Athletes, as they are responsible for the strength needed to grip and hold onto holds for extended periods of time.

‍

Training Your Grip for OCR

Improving your grip strength is a key component of my OCR training, as it helps me to hold onto different grips in rigs, and for longer periods of time. It also reduces risk of injury to keep these gym-exercises in my program weekly.

Here the 3 key gym-exercises to help you train your grip for OCR: 

Hang variations from pull-up bar: The pull-up bar is your best friend in the gym as an OCR racer, and besides of training tons of pull-ups, you can be really creative about hangtime and variations in the pul-up bar. It is an excellent way to improve grip strength and endurance, as it requires you to hold onto different grips for extended periods of time eg. in monkey-bars etc and really works all the muscles in the hand/forearm and learns you to control your bodyweight using your grip. Some variations is; hand switch in the bar, different degrees (90 degree lock, 120 etc.) of static hold in the bar, hip/shoulder taps in the bar etc.

‍

Deadlift static holds: Deadlifts are a compound exercise that work multiple muscle groups and in forearm endurance, which is essential for OCR. I mix up between overhand holds, and underhand locks, always wrapping my and fully around the bar. Also just rolling the bare purely controlled by your hands is a good way to also ad finger strength. Wanna make it harder, look if your gym has a fat bar, and try the same holds on the broader bars!

‍

Plate Pinch Holds: Place two weight plates together, and pinch them with your fingers and thumb. Hold for as long as possible and then release. This combines the grip strength with forearm endurance, and is scalable by adding weight or tuning into flips etc.

‍

Integrate Grip into your workouts

Incorporating different grip exercises into your sessions, will make you feel much stronger on rigs in OCR over time. Above is 3 exercises I really like to incorporate in my weekly program. Honestly, there are so many ways to train your grip and often I combine it in the end of an upper bodysession, or as a part of your upper body program, to be able to do grip specific training minimum twice a week.

Remember to always use proper form, listen to your body, and gradually increase the weight and intensity of your workouts over time. If you get tired of only training your grip at the gym, find a boulder gym near you or an OCR gym and play around on obstacles, no better specific training than this!

My OCR buddy Leon Kofoed, has also made a great Grip & pull program (either 4 or 8 weeks) that you guys can check out. I have tried his 8 week program, and I can highly recommend it! Find it here on GetAGrip.

‍