I have noticed a trend in the fitness community and it involves wrist strength.  Most folks forget about training their wrists.  How often in your personal training is grip strength the limiting factor in your lifting?  Do you have to use lifting straps to hang onto the bar?

I personally struggle with endurance, for instance when I do long kettlebell sport sets my grip is the first thing to go.  Because of my personal weakness I spend extra time working the crushing component of my grip, but effective wrist training needs to be done through all angles of movement.  The crushing movement trains flexion so to complement the training I have to add extension, ulnar and radial deviation (rotation).

Constantly training flexion (this can simply be wrist curls or grippers) builds a lot of tension in the lower arms.  This tension over time can lead to painful inflammation in the elbow, wrist, and forearm.  I even started getting a sharp pain in my right-hand ring finger.  One of the best ways to combat this cumulative trauma is to add rotational exercises.  I was using sledge hammer rotations, but a few weeks ago I came across a YouTube video from Valery Fedorenko, kettlbell guru-extraordinaire, doing a rotational exercise with a kettlebell.  I added this exercise to my routine once a week and have been loving it, so I wanted to share the video with you.

Enjoy and let me know how it works for you!