Sometimes you gotta fuck with a fattie, a guest post by Adam T. Glass.

Shown for size comparison a 3", 2.5", 2",and a standard 1 & 1/8" barbell

 Editor's note: After a few years meandering around the DD forums, Adam gave me my first instructions on the Gym Movement protocol.  Needless to say, a coaching call was 70 bucks well spent.  Check his other links out at the end and improve your life greatly.

You like to deadlift? Then you need to pull with a fatbar!

I like that Peter Fucking Baker named his blog Death metal and Deadlifting. That shit makes a lot of sense to me.
If you love to pull big weight on a bar, then you know how key a strong grip is. Unless you are one of these wimps using straps. Stop with the excuses, ditch the straps.
One question I am often asked is "I want to do grip training, so what should I do?"
The first answer is almost always the same--if you train with a fat bar you will probably not need much else, except of course for the motor miracle of pinch lifting.

The fat bar, and why it's awesome

Barbells are great. They allow you to lift a lot of weight in a huge variety of ways. They are common to find and easy to use, so if you know how to use one you can probably get a workout in at nearly any gym. One minor problem with a barbell is that it really doesn't tax the hands that much, unless you use a ton of weight for a given movement. Even then, the tight fist grip is not doing much for the fingers and almost nothing for the thumb.
Fat bars (also known as "Axle") allow you to train the grip and wrist while doing your favorite motions. It's getting two for one; you do your goal movements and you get more finger and thumb strength.

I own a number of different sized bars, which allows me to test and find the best diameter for a given movement. Naturally I think you should too.  At base level you can use an axle for anything you would use a barbell for, assuming you can hang on to it. The only limit is your imagination. The steak and potato lift is the Double Over Hand Axle Deadlift, where both hands are forward with no hook grip. This taxes the power of the hands to the maximum.  

In the beginning

Barbells and weights at the turn of the 20th century were not like the ones of today. Materials were not the same, manufacturing processes were not as advanced. Many of the barbells and dumbbells of the time had thicker handles because thin ones were not sturdy enough. Most people didn't have a choice, either lift the thick handled weight or stare at it like a lame ass.

The sad decline....

As body building got more popular, a lot of gyms moved away from thick bars. Most people training for general fitness in the average gym do not think about hand strength, and certainly do not wonder why the bar is not harder to lift from where it already is. Fat bars declined nation wide, while wimpy hands increased by no less than 6,130%.

The upswing....

Strongman sport uses the Axle bar for the clean and press, deadlifting, and other generally awesome activities. Other lifting federations such as the radically bad ass USAWA use fat bars in both 2" and 3" sizes for a variety of lifts. It looked like we were on the brink of destruction, and then it all got better....

A 2" diameter bar shown in reverse curl position for hand placement

The epic return

Grip Sport, the pinnacle of human motor ability and talent. Your newest obsession, assuming you get started on it as I have directed. Could there be anything more awesome than picking things up then putting them down? I think not.
The overhand deadlift becomes a standard event in more and more contests due to the ease of judging and wide spread availability of equipment. The awesome increased more and more, as fat bars popped up all across the country. I have no doubt this will turn the whole economy situation around and likely bring about a new age of knowledge and wisdom.

The fat bar and you

More and more people are getting in to fat bar lifting with popular pieces of equipment such as the ingenious "FatGripz" “Manus grips” "Grip4orce" and “Iron Bull T250” handles which can attach to any piece of gym equipment to get your hands back into the game. For many people that is going to be more than enough additional grip work just by adding those to their rows and pulling movements. I can't think of a $40 dollar investment for equipment which will be a higher pay off to your strength than one of these things.
For the serious lifters out there, you are going to want to get a real axle. Before you buy anything, measure your hands. Take a tape measure and start it at your middle finger tip. You will measure from the tip to the crease of your wrist. I am assuming you have measured a few other things from the tip before and will figure this one out.
I have no doubt that immediately after measuring you will want to know what the average is, so you can tell all your friends how you are bigger than average...
The average hand is between 7.5 and 7.75 inches.

If your hands are under 8" a 2 inch diameter barbell will work well. This size axle will probably allow your middle finger to almost or just touch the thumb when you gorilla grip it, preventing you from hooking it but still allowing decent friction.If your hands are between 8" and 8.75" a 2.5" diameter bar will likely be a better fit. I do not know of anyone who makes them, but they are really easy to have fabricated using standard size fence post materials. You don't even need special skills to make one, you can simply cut a piece of stock to the size of your barbell (from inside collar to inside collar) and unscrew the sleeves to slide it on. It takes two Allen wrenches and less than 60 seconds to do. You will figure it out....
 

If your hands are over 8.75" inches you have seriously huge hands. I am guessing you are either like a 6'8" tall man or an inbred mutant with enormously disproportionate features. Are you finding your evenings get fucked up with all those villagers chasing you with torches and pitch forks? You will be able to hook a 2" diameter bar and easily handle a 3" axle. If you get in to grip training you will probably be good at it.

On the market there are a few companies who sell axles. In my opinion the best ones are made by Submit Strength Equipment, who were formally known as Swagger strength and the classic Ironmind Apollo's axle. If you have been reading my page for a while you will know I have been using an SSE axle for several years and I really like it.

I had my friend Joe Tebbe fabricate a 3" diameter axle for me recently. I dig it. It's been humbling to deadlift with, you'd be surprised at how hard it is to lift a mere 240 lbs with it. I have included some photos holding the axles to show you how it changes hand position. Since you are now wondering, my hands are 7 & 7/8" long, but I'm sure you have known for a while I am bigger than average.

God damn dick jokes in a grip article. Priceless humor.

3" diameter axle held in reverse curl position.  You can see it leaves a huge gap in the hand position, making it an exceptionally challenging bar to lift with.

So here's the deal

Fat bars = more hand strength. Fat bars = more wrist strength. Fat bars = more PR's for you, which in turn brings more muscle, less fat, and more awesome.
In math there is the transitive property. It states that if A =B, and B= C, than A = C. To this end Fat bars = Awesome.
Be well
ATG


Adam Glass is one of the best grip athletes in the world. Want to learn about grip strength? Visit
www.industrialstrengthgrip.com/ and check out his training blog at www.adamtglass.com