arms

[ladyvolspvcoach]

Here's one my ladies do. 10 pull-ups hands facing away from your face. then 9 with your hands facing towards your face. Then 8 with your hands facing away from your face. Etc down to three. You'll feel like Popeye guarenteed!

[fx]

My thoughts exactly. If you can hang onto a high bar to do pull ups, bubka's, or anything else, or hang onto a weight bar to do cleans, deadlifts, or snatches, your forearms should be overqualified to hang onto a pole.

I think it's a little more complicated than that. If you're stiff poling, then no energy is being returned. However, as you start bending poles, then go on stiffer and stiffer poles, the poles will return more and more energy. It takes a lot of grip strength to be able to cap say a 16' 12.0 flex pole than to cap a 13' 150.

[rainbowgirl28]

My thoughts exactly. If you can hang onto a high bar to do pull ups, bubka's, or anything else, or hang onto a weight bar to do cleans, deadlifts, or snatches, your forearms should be overqualified to hang onto a pole.

I think it's a little more complicated than that. If you're stiff poling, then no energy is being returned. However, as you start bending poles, then go on stiffer and stiffer poles, the poles will return more and more energy. It takes a lot of grip strength to be able to cap say a 16' 12.0 flex pole than to cap a 13' 150.

Yeah but the things you do to be able to cap a 16' pole will naturally build the forearm strength you need.

I don't recall ever seeing an elite vaulter trying to build their forearms.

If you want to spend time in the weight room to improve your pole vaulting, take that time you would spend focusing on forearm strength and do power cleans instead.

[VTechVaulter]

yeah as people have said, a large portion of all lifts will work your forearms

for those who do serious power lift training, straps should only be used for heavier sets, on lighter sets its good to do some of the work w/out straps to build that strenght. plus every time you vault, you build those muscles. they get worked a lot, no need to focus on them

[drcurran]

Real simple. Squeeze a tennis ball 10 to 12 times each hand. Put the ball some place where every time you go there you repeat the exercise. My dad put a tennis ball on the passenger seat next to him and at every red light he would do the exercise. (He wanted more strength for golf grip not PVing) Simple, effective, and cheap!

Dan

[ifavault]

I wonder if the original post may have something to do with hand size rather than forearm strength? I know that was an issue for me as poles got longer and thicker and thus harder to hold on to. It sure felt better to get a hold of some thinner carbons when they first arrived on the scene instead of feeling like I was holding onto a telephone pole as I began my approach.

Has there ever been a discussion on PVP about small hand size and it's affects on a vaulter's ability to hold on or on their psyche? I'll bet I'm not the only one and I'll bet it is a bigger issue among the females. Any comments?

ifavault

[robillard]

heres a very simple exercise my wrestling coach taught us. it requires no equipment or anything and i guarentee it will work your forearms out better than almost anything

grab the news paper.
take a single page from the paper.
crumple it up with one hand until it is a ball small enough to fit in your fist.

trust me it works great. we do one handed sand vault drills to build grip stregnth among other things and im like the only one on the team that can do them w/o grabbing the pole w/ my other hand.

[rainbowgirl28]

trust me it works great. we do one handed sand vault drills to build grip stregnth among other things and im like the only one on the team that can do them w/o grabbing the pole w/ my other hand.

I doubt it is a grip strength issue for your teammates, they are probably trying to grip the pole too high for their ability and that drill.

[robillard]

trust me it works great. we do one handed sand vault drills to build grip stregnth among other things and im like the only one on the team that can do them w/o grabbing the pole w/ my other hand.

I doubt it is a grip strength issue for your teammates, they are probably trying to grip the pole too high for their ability and that drill.

ya thats possible. ill watch them next practice and recommend it. probably wont be for a while though.

[SlickVT]

Further up in this post, someone said that everyone has enough forearm strength to pole vault. That is completely true, but I wanna share some input that I got about it from a hand expert.

Last summer, one of my best friends and I went to a grip exhibition. The man giving the exibition was Steve McGranahan, who has one of the top five strongest pairs of hands in the world.
To put his hand/forearm strength into perspective, some things that he did at the exhibition:
1. Closed an Official Captains of Crush #4 gripper. For those that don't know, it takes 365 pounds of pressure to close one of them. (He didnt actually do this at the exhibition, you have to be in top gripping shape to do it once, but he is one of only five men in the world that have done it. Magnus Samuelson is one of the other four.)
2. Rolled a frying pan up like a newspaper.
3. I actually am looking at a normal size horseshoe that he took in his hands and twisted into a pretzel in less than 30 seconds. He gave it to me afterwards (the best giveaway of the day).
4. Probably the most impressive that he did the entire show: In the box and still in plastic, he duct taped a playing card deck three times around and proceeded to rip in in half like it was paper.

Anyway, he and I had a talk after the show and I asked him if it would be beneficial for a pole vaulter.
He explained that it is just as important for any event where weight or force is being transferred through your hands: You will transfer more energy more efficiently with more forearm and hand strength. Essentially, that junction between your hands and the pole is the more important junction for a vaulter and energy can be conserved with stronger forearms/hands.

Just food for thought.

PS If you ever meet a man in a bar named Steve McGranahan, don't pick a fight.

[bjvando]

i herad bicep curls make you look sexy

[robillard]

Further up in this post, someone said that everyone has enough forearm strength to pole vault. That is completely true, but I wanna share some input that I got about it from a hand expert.

Last summer, one of my best friends and I went to a grip exhibition. The man giving the exibition was Steve McGranahan, who has one of the top five strongest pairs of hands in the world.
To put his hand/forearm strength into perspective, some things that he did at the exhibition:
1. Closed an Official Captains of Crush #4 gripper. For those that don't know, it takes 365 pounds of pressure to close one of them. (He didnt actually do this at the exhibition, you have to be in top gripping shape to do it once, but he is one of only five men in the world that have done it. Magnus Samuelson is one of the other four.)
2. Rolled a frying pan up like a newspaper.
3. I actually am looking at a normal size horseshoe that he took in his hands and twisted into a pretzel in less than 30 seconds. He gave it to me afterwards (the best giveaway of the day).
4. Probably the most impressive that he did the entire show: In the box and still in plastic, he duct taped a playing card deck three times around and proceeded to rip in in half like it was paper.

Anyway, he and I had a talk after the show and I asked him if it would be beneficial for a pole vaulter.
He explained that it is just as important for any event where weight or force is being transferred through your hands: You will transfer more energy more efficiently with more forearm and hand strength. Essentially, that junction between your hands and the pole is the more important junction for a vaulter and energy can be conserved with stronger forearms/hands.

Just food for thought.

PS If you ever meet a man in a bar named Steve McGranahan, don't pick a fight.

ok now thats just sickly strong. reading that made me sick to my stomach.