[Martaillaw]

What are some good ways to strengthen the wrists, hands and fingers?

[Sybersnott]

I should ask you: what are you doing NOW to strengthen your wrists, hands and fingers? Is this for a particular sport or what?

For wrists, two things: I would recommend doing dumbbell wrist curls and using a wrist roller.

For dumbbell wrist curls, get a dumbbell of, say 30 pounds (the weight will depend on what you have and what your individual strength is at the time). Then, from a sitting position, drape the dumbbell over your knee using your wrist - your wrist is directly over your knee - now curl the dumbbell up and down for several reps.

For the wrist roller, you'll need a 2 foot piece of broomstick, a 3 to 4 foot piece of rope and a 10 pound weight. Tie one end of the rope around the middle of the stick, and the other end around the 10 pound weight. Now, holding the broomstick horizontally and straight out in front of you with both arms - twist the weight up and then down. This movement works the entire arm - wrists, forearms, biceps, etc. As you get better at it, increase the weight.

Now for the hands. Do you want pure grip strength? Have you heard of hand grippers? There is a place I can recommend on the internet. It is a company called IRONMIND. They sell strength grippers - these are NOT the kind you can buy at the local fitness store; these build hand strength. I recommend getting the Trainer to start with and possibly the #1 gripper and maybe even the #1.5 -- as you get stronger, you might even want to get a stronger gripper, that's your choice.

There are many other exercises for the hands as well: pinching weight plates, lifting using thick bars, hammer movements, etc. Google some of those to get the ball rolling!