5 Unusual Training Tools for Arm-Wrestlers

March 2nd 2015

The World Armwrestling League’s top pullers don’t just rely on standard weight room gear to get ready for the table. Many have fashioned gadgets of their own design to help them get to the top of the arm-wrestling pecking order. Here’s 6 homemade training apparatuses that the top guys swear by.
 
3-INCH ROPE: Louisiana’s Craig “The Fury” Tullier has a ton of gadgets he uses to work out muscles, tendons and ligaments. Many pullers don’t work out the more obscure parts of the arm, hand and wrist, but building those capabilities is key to arm-wrestling success. At his training space, Tullier has a 3-inch rope attached to a pulley at the ceiling. He and his team get their hands stretched out pulling on the thick rope as they hoist 150 pounds’ worth of weights into the air.
 
SOFTBALLS: In order to further open up the muscles in the hand, Tullier takes softballs and drills a hole in them before hanging about 20 of them from the ceiling on chains. Guys then grab two balls, pull themselves off the ground and move their way ball-by-ball to the end without touching the ground. The action gets a person to hoist their body weight along for an extended period, largely just on the strength of the hands.
 
A BUCKET OF RICE: Some arm-wrestlers go to strange lengths to work out hard-to-train hand muscles in reliable ways. One simple and effective method is to fill a 5-gallon bucket with dry white rice, dig your hand into the center and then try to make a fist and move your fingers. It’s a simple but immensely challenging task that quickly exhausts the hand and builds the tiny muscles that help grip control in competition.
 
FINGER WALKING BEAM: Tullier has also fashioned a 2-foot by 12-foot beam with just enough space along the edges for his fingertips. He hangs it about 7 feet off the ground, sticks his fingers onto the edge, pulls himself off the ground and “walks” to the beam’s far end, using just his fingers to hold up his body weight and move him along. The action helps improve finger and grip strength – crucial tools on the table.
 
WEIGHTED SLEDGEHAMMER: Super heavyweight Dave “Easy Money” Chaffee does wrist raises as part of his daily training regimen. But for the Erie, Pa., maximum security corrections officer, a regular store-bought 10-pound sledgehammer doesn’t cut it: Chaffee adds up to 35 pounds of weights duct taped to the business end, then grabs the handle and raises the cudgel using just his wrist. As an added tip: he also uses the hammer to do reverse raises (placing the hammer’s head behind him and raising it) to work out other wrist muscles.
 


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