Customer Reviews

Mastery of Hand Strength

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I must, with all due respect, disagree with the gentleman below, who I think was in a strange 'I love it, BUT ...' mood when he wrote his review.

Brookfield's book does indeed cover it all when it comes to grip, despite its lacks as a medical text-book. You will get to read in-depth descriptions of different grip strength types, and about possible and about improbable grip feats. Many urban legends die here.

Brookfield gives good advice on how to combine the exercises for the different grip types, and also shares his experience on what grip exercises that are best avoided if you want to keep gripping.

He also shares his best grip implements constructions, so that you will be able to walk out of your toolshed with the focused looks of an aspiring gripmaster in your eyes.

If you want to do one thing for your grip, buy that book!

I've been powerlifting and weightlifting for about 5 years now and I bought this book on a whim one day because it looked interesting. This book is simply awesome, a VERY good read! I ended up reading it from cover to cover. I've now become a grip training maniac and I love it. Not only have I learned that grip training is essential and often overlooked, but it's a lot of fun too. The best part is that most of these grip implements that John describes, you can make at home in your garage. Grip work seperates the men from boys, you can't "fake" a powerful grip. John will describe so many ways to work your lower arm, some of them very unorthodox but all very rewarding. People in the gym laughed at me when I first started training grip on a regular basis, now they ask for my advice. An incredible grip will give you more self confidence and respect at the gym than most anything..BUY THIS BOOK! you won't be disappointed!

To put it short and simple, this is an easy to read, incredibly informative volume on how to increase your hand strength. Lots of exercise suggestions, a little history on hand strength, some strength challenges. So many ideas that get you excited and motivated to train your hands. Truly a great book with lots of info that's very difficult to find elsewhere, and written by a man with some of the strongest hands in history, a genuine authority. If you want to build stronger hands for whatever reason, wrestling, rock climbing, jar opening, showing off, whatever, then this is about the best book you could buy.

I thought this book is drivel. Itis nothing more than a series of badly written, rambling articles written in the breathlessly enthusiastic style that is typical of body building mags. It does contain some suggestions for interesting excercises and tips on how to make equipment, but you can find all that for free by doing a Google on "grip strenth training"

There is not one diagram or word of explanation for the muscles in the hand and forearm and what movements they control. Not one! Other than suggesting ideas for the exercises themselves, there is no real discussion about an actual exercise program. Should one do 5 reps or 50 reps? Is it best to exercise every day? Twice a week? The book is no help.

If you cant get enough of the magazine article and you want to read a bunch of badly written accounts of who squoze what and when then this book is for you - otherwise save your $$

John is one of my heroes, but this book is outdated (even with the updates). "The Gripmaster's Manual" is a far better book, and contains everything from "Mastery of Hand Strength".

I felt the first edition of this book was quite complete but this revised edition has some new cutting edge research which is quite surprising. This version covers some new techniques using kettles and hand grips as well as some nuances on previously mentioned exercises. The book really gives you an amazing edge over the guys that are just doing wrist curls in the gym.

... It is an excellent book. If you are even ~slightly~ interested in strength you must get this. It is a classic. It covers so many things you will not think of yourself. I am a rockclimber, martial artist, lifter and work with computers (so my fingers need dexterity to type, and I used to get RSI) ... hands are important to me and I know what I am talking about.

So get it, you won't be disappointed, then build yourself some of the simple gadgets and you'll notice your crushing grip...

This book is the best, most focused book on the subject of hand strength I have ever read. Easy to read, easy exercises to perform, without extraordinary expense. I would consider this a must for the martial artist.

This book is one of the few books full of practical and excellent information about grip-training.It contains no-nonsense and honest information about training your grip. I like it so much because the author provides dozens of tips to train with equipment you can make your self or are easily obtained. And the best part is that you don't have to go to a state of the art(with crome dumbells and plastic balls) gym.

This book contains a lot of useful information and practical exercises for those of us who want to increase hand and grip strength. As someone who regularly trains with weights I found this book to be a revelation on how important it is to develop grip strength since weight training doesn't help much with grip strength.