A full-time office worker hits a button on the keyboard thousands of times per day. With every keystroke we make, the muscles in our hands, and tendons in our fingers, are doing the exact opposite of what builds a strong grip.
But why does this happen?
You would think using our hands and fingers to type all day would make our grip stronger.
But these are the reasons why typing weakened my grip strength…
Why does typing weaken grip strength?
The unnatural motion of our fingers after each button is released
Our fingers make a negative motion every time we release a key. A motion that is the exact opposite direction of a strong grip. Making this motion thousands of times a day decreased my grip strength in a big way.
Hand muscles are overused
My hand muscles were always in use, regardless if I was hitting a button or releasing it. Even when my fingers were resting on the keys, my hand muscles were slightly activated.
The muscles in our hands are small and tendinous. In my experience, tendinous muscles get overworked much quicker than a larger muscle (like a quadricep, for example).
Repetitive strain of the wrist muscles
Hitting thousands of keystrokes a day is enough to decrease grip strength on its own. But when we are using a tall, bulky keyboard and mouse, we have to keep our wrist muscles engaged to lift our hands onto the high keyboard and mouse. This is also common when typing on a laptop keyboard. This is what caused carpel tunnel syndrome for me.
This repetitive strain adds up quickly when working on a computer 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, 2000 hours a year.
But enough about why typing weakens our grip strength…
Let’s talk about how to increase grip strength.
I’ve tried everything when it comes to improving my forearm and grip strength. From those old school hand grips that you squeeze together, to forearm twists, to farmer’s carry.
All of these helped, a little…
But in 2021, I finally found an exercise tool that greatly improved my grip strength.
How to Increase Grip Strength
Steel mace workouts
A steel mace is kind of similar to a kettlebell. But instead of having a handle, the weight is at the end of a short, thick, barbell-style rod.
Steel Mace Exercise 1
The above video is me doing one of my favorite steel mace exercises.
Since the weight is at the end of a short barbell, it’s far away from my hands. The momentum generated when swinging a steel mace is much more intense than compared to swinging a kettlebell. This requires me to hold it tighter, which greatly increased my grip strength.
Steel Mace
The steel mace pictured is made by Onnit. I bought 3 different sizes from them (7 pounds, 10 pounds, and 15 pounds).
I bought the 10 pound mace first. It was a little heavy for me as a first-time user. I could do it, but my movements were very slow. So, I bought a 7 pound to get used to the movements. Using the 7 pound steel mace increased my speed a lot for when I was ready to use the 10 pounder again. The 10 pound mace is the one I use the most these days. I recently added the 15 pound mace to my collection. This is pretty heavy for me. So I usually keep the repetitions low (around 3 to 5 per set).
Steel Mace Exercise 2
The above video is a similar exercise, but with a modification at the end. I like both of these exercises because of how much they increase my grip strength. Also, when the weight goes over my head and behind me, it does a great job of opening up my front lines. This is important because it helps counteract the anterior compression from slouching forward at a computer for long periods of time.
There are tons of different steel mace workouts available on YouTube. I still consider myself somewhat of a novice, so I won’t explain any exercises. I just wanted to introduce the steel mace to my readers since it has helped increase my grip strength so much. It really has been a game changer.
Side note: Amazon has cheaper steel maces, but I can’t speak for their quality since I’ve never used them.
Invest in a flat, low-profile keyboard and mouse.
This was a very valuable change I made to my ergonomic computer workstation. In the past, I used my laptop keyboard and mouse. In order to lift my hands up onto the keyboard and mouse, this caused me to engage my wrists for a long period of time. This led to carpel tunnel pain in my wrists. A misconception in the posture community is that typing causes carpel tunnel. In my situation, it was caused by overusing my wrists to lift my hands onto a high laptop keyboard. Once I switched over to a slim, low profile, external keyboard and mouse, my wrist pain went away within a couple days. It was pretty eye opening.
Side note: These are not paid ads. I’m not compensated by Onnit or Apple. These products have greatly improved my poor computer posture. They’ve also helped increase my grip strength. I’m just a satisfied customer, who paid his own money for these products.
Download my free ebook
Thanks for your interest in computer posture.
If you haven’t already, download my free ebook titled 3 Ways to Improve Computer Posture Immediately!
>>> Click here to download your ebook
This ebook talks about the 3 most painful computer posture mistakes I used to make. Then, it talks about how I fixed those mistakes with 3 simple changes to my ergonomic computer workstation.
Take care,
Todd
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