Product Review: Gym Gear – Part One of our 3 Way Grip Battle: Fatgripz – the Ultimate Arm Builder *

Part One of our 3 way Grip Battle for 2014 Grip of the Year and possible Product of the Year

Fat Gripz are being used by thousands of athletes and military around the world, including members of the US Special Forces, teams in the NFL/MLB/NHL, top MMA fighters and top bodybuilders
Thick bar training with Fat Gripz immediately targets your body’s weak links – increasing muscle activation and giving you more strength and mass

Fat Gripz fit virtually all barbells, dumbbells, chin-up bars and cable attachments in seconds – making the bar more than twice as thick to help you get big arms

Made from a military-grade high-density compound, they grip the bar like a clamp and don’t compress – even when deadlifting extreme loads
Immediate Impact Guarantee: You must feel the impact in your first workout or we’ll give you a full and immediate refund – no questions (we’ll even pay for shipping)

Why Your Body Is Only As Strong As Its Weakest Link
HERE’S A SIMPLE FACT OF LIFE
“If your back and legs can dead-lift 700lb, but your grip ends at 300lbs, your dead-lift is 300 lbs. When it comes to strength, you are only as strong as your weakest link and most strength athletes know that fact all too well.”
Will Brink, strength trainer for US SWAT teams
Your body’s weakest link is your grip. It’s the same with pretty much everyone: bodybuilder, athlete, MMA fighter. There aren’t many people who don’t want to improve their grip.

But most people don’t realize that their grip is holding back their whole body’s strength development.

The reason is: most barbells and dumbbells are ridiculously easy to grip. They’re designed that way. That’s fine when you’re getting started. The trouble comes later on…

After you’ve been training a few months – or even a few years – you’ll start to plateau. You just can’t keep adding on the weight every session like you used to. So you lift the same – you look the same – month after month, year after year. (I know – that was me for years.)

This is what’s been going on. While you’ve been building up the rest of your body, your grip has been left behind. It has become your weak link.

The barbells and dumbbells you’ve been training with have become your own worst enemy. By being easy for you to grip, they’ve stopped you developing strength in your hands and your forearms.

Dr Mauro Di Pasquale, author of The Anabolic Solution, former Medical Director of the World Body- building Federation and former World Powerlifting Champion.

THE BODY IS ONLY AS STRONG AS ITS WEAKEST LINK
“The body is only as strong as its weakest link. Weakness in the forearms and wrists will limit how hard you can work your arms and the rest of your upper body.”
Your body is programmed to stay in proportion – so weak forearms put the brakes on your muscular development and stop you from getting big arms
Your body’s natural reaction is to prevent imbalance and injury. So if you’re lacking strength in your grip and forearms – and almost everyone is – your body literally stops you increasing in strength and size.

Having a strong grip doesn’t just mean you can mashing the Captains of Crush grippers. It literally unlocks your body’s potential to smash through your plateau and develop every muscle in your body.

You don’t need to do more exercises. You don’t need grippers or forearm extensions. You don’t even need more time in the gym.

The most effective way to increase your grip and forearm strength is…

Brooks Kubik, author of legendary training manual Dinosaur Training and holder of over 12 US and world records in the bench press

DEVELOP MAXIMUM MUSCLE SIZE AND STRENGTH
“Using a thick-handled bar is one of the very best things you can do to develop maximum muscular size and strength. It develops big arms and levels of upper body power strength virtually incomprehensible to those who train only with regular bars.”
Training with thick bars
Thick-bar training is a whole different ball game. It’s like watching guys switch from machines to free weights for the first time – the difference is intense and immediate. (Seriously – try Fat Gripz risk-free today and we guarantee you’ll feel the difference immediately.)

“Train with thick bars when training the upper body. Can’t get big arms? Try working the forearms!”
Charles Poliquin, world famous trainer of over 400 Olympic athletes, Olympic medalists in 17 different sports and numerous bodybuilders and stars of the NFL and NHL
When you train with thick bars, you’re automatically targeting your body’s weak links that were literally stopping you increasing in size and strength.

“Invest in a thick bar and do ALL of your barbell exercises
with it”
Joe DeFranco, world famous Coach and Trainer of NFL football players from ALL 32 NFL teams!

“So if thick bar training is so effective, why doesn’t everybody do it?”
The secret behind thick-bar training is ridiculously simple. But it can also be ridiculously expensive.

Just one high-quality thick barbell can cost over $800.00. That’s nothing – a full set of thick dumbbells can cost over $10,000.00!

That’s why almost no gyms have thick barbells – let alone dumbbells. The only guys who can afford to get the elite advantage of thick-bar training are Olympic athletes and professional sports teams.

But now thick-bar training is within easy reach of anyone in weight lifting, strength training, UFC/MMA and powerlifting.

ONE PAIR OF FATGRIPZ NOW:$39
Was:$47
(you save $8)

Try Fat Gripz risk-free for 60 days. If you don’t feel the impact in your arms in your very first workout, we’ll happily give you a full and immediate refund (we’ll even pay shipping both ways).

Charles Poliquin, trainer of over 400 Olympic athletes, Olympic medalists in 17 different sports and numerous bodybuilders and stars of the NFL and NHL

BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE I HAVE EVER SEEN
“Thick dumbbells are not cheap and you can only find them in top notch training centers. But there is an alternative: FAT GRIPZ. They are tough as hell and fit on any regular weight training equipment better than anything else I have ever seen. Now you have no excuses for sporting your weak eleven-teen inch arms!”
How Fat Gripz Can Unlock Massive Increases
In Your Strength And Mass
Fat Gripz will give you the benefits of thick-bar training – at a fraction of the price.

They instantly turn any bar into thick bars. That’s why everyone from professional footballers to mixed-martial arts fighters is using them.

Most Olympic bars are 1” thick. Slide on your Fat Gripz and all your bars will be more than twice as thick – not just your barbell, but your dumbbells, pull-up bar and cable attachments too.

There’s no need for extra exercises – no forearm extensions, wrist rollers or grippers. Fat Gripz work with your existing exercise routine to develop functional hand and forearm strength.

Unlike products that you squeeze to get a stronger grip, thick-bar training with Fat Gripz improves your grip when it’s at its weakest – when lifting heavy weights. That way, every time you press, row, curl with Fat Gripz, you’re improving your grip – your weak link – which in turn trains your chest, back and arms more effectively.

The science behind training with Fat Gripz
The proof below explains exactly why thick-bar training with Fat Gripz is more effective.

When you use Fat Gripz in your normal workout, you’re improving the effectiveness of the exercise in three ways.

1. You’ll spread the weight more evenly across your body
When you first use Fat Gripz, you may notice that there’s less pressure on joints like your wrists, elbows and shoulders.

By using a wider grip on the bar, you’re actually spreading the weight more evenly across your joints.

This helps you:

Decrease the risk of injury – Because the weight’s spread evenly, there’s less pressure on individual joints like your wrists or elbows. In fact, Fat Gripz can even help to heal existing injuries.
Lift more weight – With Fat Gripz, you won’t be limited by pain in your joints or the memory of old training injuries. Instead, they allow your core muscles to lift the weight efficiently and effectively. (What’s more, with fewer injuries, you’ll be able to train more consistently and make quicker gains.)
“I have had some severe elbow pain for over 8 months and have been unable to perform any pressing exercises for approximately 2 months. I had to completely change my routine until yesterday when I tried someone’s Fat Gripz in the gym. It alleviated a huge amount of pain and I was able to push 225lbs all the way up to 315lbs with no pain.”

2. You’ll increase muscle activation
When you use Fat Gripz, you engage your hands and forearms more than with a regular bar.

3. You’ll eliminate imbalances
Every exercise you do with Fat Gripz will help to strengthen your grip, hands and forearms. And by eliminating these weak links, you’re unlocking bigger strength and muscle increases in your whole body.

Because our bodies are programmed to stay in proportion, the brain actually stops your arms, chest, shoulders and back developing – until your hands and forearms catch up. You can keep on training regardless – but you’ll hit a plateau.

Regular barbells and dumbbells don’t help – in fact, they actually make it worse. They’re designed to be easy on the hands and forearms, meaning that the more you workout, the more they’re falling behind.

But when you train with Fat Gripz, you’ll start to eliminate imbalances – from the very first workout. The first time, you’ll notice an intense burning in your forearms – hotter than anything you’ll have felt with grippers, wrist rollers or forearm curl and extensions.

“Great product. Does definitely put a lot more stress on the forearm which, in turn, makes any bicep, tricep, shoulder, or bench press even more intense. Keep up the good work.”
Eliseo Vera, Texas
Built to last a lifetime
“They feel/look solid as hell. I think I will die before they do. Could be an heirloom.
Chris Lemky
Fat Gripz are made from a military-grade high-density compound.

They grip the bar like a clamp and doesn’t compress – even when deadlifting extreme loads. That means they won’t wear out – even after years of punishment (we guarantee it).

Using Fat Gripz: No New Exercises, No More Time In The Gym – Just Effective Training
Don’t change the routine – just add Fat Gripz
With Fat Gripz, you don’t need to do any special grip exercises: no grippers, no forearm extensions or forearm curls. You don’t need to do any extra sets. You don’t even need to spend more time in the gym (unless you like the feeling of your arms burning).

Just put them on your bars and workout like normal. You’ll feel the difference immediately. With Fat Gripz, you’re doing functional grip training. You’re improving your grip at the same time as bench pressing, overhead pressing, deadlifting, rowing – making these exercises massively more effective.

“I did not change my training at all, I just added the Fat Gripz. I have been lifting a long time, 500lb squats, 365 bench press etc, so gaining on my upper arms without putting on any bodyweight only shows how effective Fat Gripz are!! Also, my gains haven’t stopped and my arms are continuing to get bigger!!”
Wayne Boucher (Ottawa, Canada)
“I F***ING love these Fat Gripz. When I do the same arm routine as usual it takes a whole new level of focus and intensity.”
Chris Green (USA)

The perfect fit for barbells, dumbbells, pull-up bars and cable attachments
Fat Gripz are 2.25” (5.5 cm) thick when closed. That’s over twice as thick as most Olympic bars. Without Fat Gripz, standard bars just feel like toothpicks.

Fat Gripz are 5” (12.5 cm) long. That’s big enough to fit your hands, and small enough to fit snugly in virtually every dumbbell (we know – we’ve literally tested thousands to make sure). We’ve even beveled the ends of the Fat Gripz to ensure they give a tight fit.

If you’re not sure if they’ll fit your bars, don’t worry. You can try Fat Gripz risk-free for 60 days. If they don’t fit your bars – or if you don’t see the benefits – just return them for a prompt and full refund (we’ll even pay the shipping both ways).

It takes just 10 seconds to add Fat Gripz to your bars
Fat Gripz are simple to use. Just open the slit and push them over your bar. It takes 10 seconds max:

Fat Gripz fit barbells and dumbbells in seconds
When they’re in place, they’re rock solid on the bar. They won’t budge, slip or compress – so you can focus on your lift. And when you’re done, just slip them off.

“They easily slip on and off and are made of extremely high quality, heavy duty rubber which is hard as a rock and doesn’t wear out or compress”
Jason Ferruggia (Chief Training Advisor to Men’s Fitness (US))
“No muscle gets let off when you use these, they help seek and destroy every muscle fibre being trained! Everyone has a weakest link that’s bringing their training to a halt. Fat Gripz make that weakest link stronger than ever and help maximise gains.”
Kevin Raison (strength and conditioning coach, UK)
“Do it – as long as you don’t mind not text messaging for a few days after using them.”
Jimmy (New Jersey, USA)
Feel the difference in your first workout
I know what you’re thinking. Anything that promises that you’ll feel the difference in the first workout must be BS. You’ve heard it all before.

I thought the same thing. Till I tried thick bar training myself. Nothing – nothing – compares to training with a thick bar. Your arms will feel pumped, your veins will be popping out, and the next day… Let’s just say, go easy the first time you use them.

We get a ton of feedback from people who use Fat Gripz (you can see a fraction of it on this page). Everyone says the same thing:

Effective in all barbell and dumbbell exercises

Fat Gripz work in every exercise where your hands grip a barbell, dumbbell, pull-up bar or cable attachment.

These are just a selection:

BENCH PRESS
“Stronger grip means more weight and more reps. Particularly noticeable with dumbbell flat and incline bench as well as upright rows.”
John Fellers (PA, USA)

BICEP CURLS
“I’m a 198lbs with 21″ arms. The Fat Gripz hit the bicep as well as forearm great. I believe my grip is getting stronger which is very important when you got 600+ lbs in your hands and over your head.”
Charles Farmer (WABDL 198lb submaster world record holder in the bench press and two-time world champion)

TRICEP PUSHDOWNS
“Fat Gripz are great. Killed the triceps, which is what we need for a big bench.”
Ron Carroll (LoneStar Barbell Club)

DEADLIFT
“My grip now fails last on deadlifts where before it would fail first.”
Rafael
“My raw deadlift without straps went from about 365 lb for a single to [censored] for a triple. My limiting factor was my grip.“
Daven (Colorado, USA)

FARMER’S WALKS
“The Marine Raid branch are doing group sled pulls and farmer’s walks with Fat Gripz.”
Commander Chris Edwards, Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific
“I use them for deadlifts, farmer walks, and pullups/chinups. I get a serious workout in much shorter time, especially when I want to increase grip strength without wearing down other muscles.”
Justin (UT, USA)

“Fat Gripz are awesome on farmers walks. The grips on my handles are already thick but the grips make them extreme. Separates the men from the boys.”
TyJ (San Diego, USA)

Who They’re For: See What The US Special Forces, MMA Fighters And Athletes Are Saying
Fat Gripz deliver real-world results – whether you’re a bodybuilder, Olympic lifter, MMA fighter or athlete.

By making your strength training more effective – as well as giving you a devastating grip – you’ll develop transferable skills for every sport.

These are just a few:

BASEBALL

Chicago White Sox second baseman Jayson Nix bench
pressing with Fat Gripz
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

“I love Fat Gripz. They’re well worth the investment.”
Chris Grayson (Gracie Barra Jiu Jitsu Academy)

Brian Marshall, Olympic weightlifting champion and
member of the Canadian National Olympic Weightlifting Team
OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING

““I have been working out for 15 years. I was a competitive Olympic weightlifter for 6 of those years. In addition, this is what I do for a living, I am a personal trainer/strength coach. After 4 days off, and no lift today, my arms are bigger than they were at their biggest, 2 years ago right after a workout. And that is in just 4 workouts!”
Jeremy Jacobs
You get the idea. It doesn’t matter which sport you play – Fat Gripz will help. It doesn’t matter whether you’re gripping a bat, a club, or a ball – or just the arms of the other guy in the cage.

THEY’LL GIVE YOU FOREARMS LIKE POPEYE!
“Fat Gripz are a must have for any serious strength trainer or athlete, whether you are a badminton player or an MMA gorilla. Plus they’ll give you forearms like Popeye!”
Joseph Coyne (strength and conditioning expert for Men’s Fitness (Australia))

Common Questions
“But can’t I just wrap a towel around the bar?”
Good question. A lot of Fat Gripz users started out with a towel or a bit of foam wrapped around the bar. They quickly saw the difference when they progressed to Fat Gripz.

“They are awesome. Been using something similar made with dense foam but your Fat Gripz are incomparably better – rock solid on the bar. I love them – without a doubt the best $39 I’ve ever spent.”
Scott Roberts (UK)

Fat Gripz don’t compress – even when you stand them on their end and stick 280 lb on top
It’s easy to see why:

The military-grade hardened compound in Fat Gripz doesn’t compress when you hold them. It doesn’t matter if you’re curling 60 lb or deadlifting 500 lb. Fat Gripz won’t compress – so you’re always getting effective thick bar training.
They have a vice-like grip on the bar. There’s no movement, there’s no give, there’s no slippage – so you don’t need to worry about the towel slipping and dropping the weight. You can just focus on lifting the weight.
Fat Gripz are quick to put on and take off your bars. There’s no hassle and nothing to tape in place. Just stick them on the bar and lift.
(The only thing Fat Gripz won’t do is wipe your sweat off afterwards.)

“Have only trained with them a couple times but so much better than wrapping a towel round the bar.
I’ll most definitely do more thick-bar training now!”
Steve McMinn (Certified Kettlebell Instructor, Vancouver, Canada)
“But won’t I have to use less weight?”
Some people like to temporarily drop the weight as their grip builds up. But that’s a good sign – it shows just how much your grip was holding you back. Your grip will quickly build up… and then you’ll be stronger than ever.

“Put your ego aside and accept the reduced weights you have to use when employing Fat Gripz. You only need a couple of sets for the pain to tell you it’s working!”
Rob Smith (UK)

“You have to check your ego at the door as you have to go down in the amount of weight you can use on some exercises, but it’s worth it.”
Nathan Ng (Hawaii)

And some people will find that using Fat Gripz lets them lift more – immediately. Because Fat Gripz relieve pressure from your wrist, elbow and shoulder joints, they allow your core muscles to lift the weight efficiently and effectively.

“I have had some severe elbow pain for over 8 months and have been unable to perform any pressing exercises for approximately 2 months. I had to completely change my routine until yesterday when I tried someone’s Fat Gripz in the gym. It alleviated a huge amount of pain and I was able to push 225lbs all the way up to 315lbs with no pain.”
Rishi Muchalla

Using Fat Gripz in your normal workout improves your functional grip strength
“But I already do grip and forearm exercises”
Exercises with grippers, forearm extensions and curls are a good start.

But with Fat Gripz you’re training functional grip strength. You’re not just working your forearms in one plane of motion, or just focusing on the grip itself. You’re actually strengthening your hands and forearms in the movements where it matters most – when you’re lifting.

That’s why you can do the same program as normal – just add Fat Gripz and you’ll immediately be targeting your grip and forearms as well.

“No muscle gets let off when you use these, they help seek and destroy every muscle fibre being trained! Everyone has a weakest link that’s bringing their training to a halt. Fat Gripz make that weakest link stronger than ever and help maximise gains.”
Kevin Raison (strength and conditioning coach, UK)

You must:

…feel the difference in your arms in your very first workout
…wake up nicely sore the next day 😉
…see the difference in your arms within weeks
If you don’t, we’ll give you a full, immediate and no-hassle refund (we’ll even pay shipping both ways).

“Ordered my Fat Gripz on Sunday. Received them Tuesday. Very impressed with the quickness. Used them today. Got to say they are awesome. Without a doubt the best $39 I’ve ever spent.”
Scott Roberts (UK)
-FATGRIPZ.com

This one I really can’t wait for!! I hope you are psyched about this product too!

**Update** January 16th 2013
Ok so yesterday I did my first workout with these!! I did back and I was doing bent over rows on the smith machine. I have been doing them long enough so I don’t have to face the mirror. I was doing them looking straight ahead and my friend ran over and said look at your forearms and they were blasting out! Like you can see almost every tendon in my arm individually! It was crazy! Then I was doing seated rows later on and I can see it myself.

However; I do have a gripe to the manufacturer! When I do seated rows, I use the whole machine and if no one is looking I’ll go steal a pin from another machine and add a 45lb plate or 2 to the stack (la fitness diner like that lol) anyway; yesterday I was doing the stack and my grip was starting to fail as I figured! But what I didn’t figure, was I started to get a blister on the inside of my thumb from the recessed writing on the grips.

In future molds I would do away with the names on the grip surface, after all you have your name on the ends!

Big boy problems!! I’m trying to get the whole gym to use them! So I decided I need to differentiate mine from theirs…
😡😡😡And my sharpie died!! Ughhh!😡😡😡

#bigboyproblems

Got a new Sharpie… Finished!

**Update** January 16th 2014
Ok so I used the gripz today for traps and I was doing light upright rows on the smith machine and my forearms were rocking, but the name recessed in the grip face was irritating the inside of my thumb again. Then I did a superset of incline shrugs with 60lb dumbbells, with standing shrugs before I put them back on the rack and my forearms were on fire! Then, I lowered to 40lbs and still on fire. Finally, I had to put them away so I could burn out my traps. I can’t wait till tomorrow for arm day!

I think for continued use, I will ultimately have to take a piece of fine grit sandpaper and hit the names with it just a little to round off the edges.

If I don’t do that; they will surely end up on the bottom of my gym bag only to see daylight when a protein shaker opens up and I have to clean the powder out of the bottom of the bag!

Check it out me curling a 75lb dumbell while using a pair of limited edition black FatGripz! I usually do hammer curls with 120lb dumbbells for 6-8 reps each arm.

Ok so; today was bicep day. How were the FatGripz? Well; honestly today FatGripz ruined my biceps workout. How so? Let me explain.

I started off with straight bar curls and it felt great! But I could only do: 135lbs instead of 165-175lbs keep in mind I’m still rebuilding my shoulder…

Then I did alternating dumbbell curls with 35’s then I did 40, 50, 60, 75lbs hammer curls with no break in between

(Normally I do 40-120lbs in 10lb increments no break) but my forearms were so shot I couldn’t hold anymore!

Then I went to 2 machine curls and a rope curl to utilize CBVT.

When I did the CBVT I had trouble holding the peak contraction in my biceps and I felt it instead in the brachioradialis of the forearm.

From now on while doing Biceps I will use them for straight bar curls then put them away till I am done then take them out and burn out my arms and then take them out for shoulders after I do my shoulder press.

I will also continue to use them on back day. Tomorrow I want to try them for triceps! Hopefully I will not fail during skull crushers if so I’ll have them post my obituary here! Then I want to try them for the vbar triceps push downs. I will not be using them for reverse grip push downs lol!

Oh and btw the biceps workout did not irritate the inside of my thumb. It’s only with an overhand grip.

Stay tuned for that and check back in 4 days for the updated biceps review!

**Update** February 2nd 2014
I did them with bicep straight bar curl and then at end of bicep workout and then with shoulders and they worked much better!

I did them with skull crushers which wasn’t much of a difference, but I put them on the vbar below!

Let me tell you! What a difference! I usually only feel it on the outer head of the triceps and the only way to hit the rear head is to do reverse push downs, but with these grips on the vbar my rear head was screaming!!

A couple of my buddies using the Fat Gripz. The last one is my boss!

What is my finding of the challenge?

Well, I haven’t gotten to the extremes yet, but whether you choose Fat Gripz or Iron Bull it’s all preference! I say get both and see which one you like best! If you lose a set or if it gets stolen you have a backup!

These grips will indeed enhance your workout and will indeed build your arms to record sizes and are worth every penny! My arms have been hurting for the first time in a long time!

As far as part 2: Grip4orce I’m not going to totally write them off yet. Just because I don’t like them now doesn’t mean I won’t like them after my grip strength builds more. I will revisit them in a little while!

So; get over to FatGripz.com and Ironbullstrength.com and get a couple pairs of Gripz! I am going to rotate one week Fat Gripz and one week Iron Bull back and forth so my arms keep guessing and don’t get used to either of them!

**Update** February 28th 2014
Using the Fat Gripz Extreme on smith machine upright rows did 60lbs now going for 80lbs not sure if I can. I can do 180-200lbs without grips lets see these things are rough!

I did 80 and I started to feel it on my external forearm going for 100! Lets see if I get it! I got 6 and it was hard to hold at the bottom of the rep won’t go anymore! Have to drop to lower grips to finish workout!