Grenadier Grips Vs. Fat Gripz | Next Level Thick Bar Training
What if you could build bigger arms, increase overall strength, reduce joint pain, and much more with one quick change to your workout. You want to know more right? RIGHT!?
What Is It?
Enter thick bar training. By adding a grip to the bar and making it thicker, you can get all the benefits above and more without changing anything about your workout. All you have to do is grab a pair of Grenadier Grips or Fat Gripz.
Throw the grips on during certain lifts and immediately feel the difference. It’s truly that easy.
What’s not “that” easy? Finding the absolute best thick bar training grips for your needs. With tons of grips available, it’s hard to know when you’re getting a legit product and when you’re buying junk.
Plus, every grip has a different design. Certain designs offer improved ergonomics, while others don’t. Some grips offer impressive joint pain reduction, while others just add a little pump to your forearms.
But, that’s where we come in. In this article, we’ll breakdown which grip is better, the Grenadier Grips or Fat Gripz. So, let’s dive into the details and show you how to get the most out every single rep!
What Are Grenadier Grips?
Considered by many to be the next generation of fat grip training, Grenadier Grips are some of the best grips on the market. Sure, we may be a bit biased, but the unique, ergonomic design adds a ton of value for novice and advanced lifters alike.
You just throw them on any bar - barbell, dumbbell, or pull-up bar - and you’ve instantly got a thick bar to train with.
Overall, Grenadier Grips are designed in a circular fashion to add increased comfort, offer significant joint pain reduction, and give you insane pumps.
What Are Fat Gripz?
Fat Gripz were the original thick bar training grips. The company has been around awhile and offers a product many have used throughout the years. To put it simply, Fat Gripz is the “name brand” of grips for the weight room.
Does that mean they’re the best? Not necessarily. Sure, Fat Gripz offers many benefits for lifters, but so do Grenadier Grips. This is why we’ve decided to compare and contrast the two. We’re going to find out which grips are the best of the best!
The Benefits of Thick Bar Training
Now, before we dive too deep, let’s take a quick look at thick bar training and why it’s so important.
If you want all the detailed info about the benefits of thick bar training, make sure you check out this piece right here. We detail everything you ever want to know about training with a thick bar and why many professional athletes and bodybuilders incorporate Grenadier Grips into their workouts.
But, we’ll summarize things here. Thick bar training is incredibly beneficial because:
- Builds bigger arms and forearms.
- Increased muscle activation leading to huge strength gains.
- Improved grip strength.
- Simple way to eliminate weak links in your physique and improve your major lifts.
- Reduce joint pains, especially on elbows, wrists, and shoulders.
- Makes almost every lift much more difficult.
- Grips work with almost any and every lift.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg folks. The fact of the matter is - fat grip training has taken off because it works really well. If you want to see more gains, train with a thicker bar. It’s that simple.
Grenadier Grips Vs. Fat Gripz
Now, we’ve got to the meat and potatoes. What grips will ensure you get the type of gains you want? Which one is better - Grenadier Grips or Fat Gripz?
Well, let’s take a look:
Design
From a design perspective, both products offer unique benefits. Plus, Grenadier Gripz and Fat Gripz work. We’ve tested both products here at Gunsmith and they both are legit. You’re not buying “D-grade” junk when you buy from either of these companies.
Fat Gripz use a cylindrical design that keeps the bar straight. When you use these grips, the bar becomes thick, but your grip doesn’t change shape. It simply gets thicker.
Grenadier Grips are a little different. Instead of a cylindrical design, these grips have a sphere shape. They look like two tennis ball grenades! As such, the grip when using Grenadier Grips on a bar is significantly different.
The whole bar changes shape when using this product. It’s a major difference between training with a bar. The ergonomic design allows lifters to hold the bar in a more natural grip. This activates more muscle and offers tons of comfort.
Many have tried Grenadier Grips and can’t lift without them ever, again.
Check out our grenadier grips.
Comfort
Both Fat Gripz and Grenadier Grips offer massive comfort benefits, as the thick bar takes pressure off overworked joints and places it on all the joints near equally.
While this info may not benefit Gunsmith, we want to honest and open about things. If you’re a newbie lifter, then both Fat Gripz and Grenadier Grips will work incredibly well. If you have smaller hands, Fat Gripz may even be better.
If you’re an intermediate to advanced lifter or have mid to large sized hands, the Grenadier Gripz in a sphere shape will be best for you.
Cost
This is an easy comparison. Fat Gripz are more expensive.
Unless you like wasting money, Grenadier Grips offer a much better value.
Minor Injury Relief
One of the best reasons to start fat grips training is the injury relief potential. By using a thick bar, you can eliminate a number of nagging injuries by taking pressure off the joints and putting it back on the muscle fibers.
But, which grips do it better? That all depends on your injury. Fat Gripz will alleviate certain pains. However, due to the ergonomic design of the Grenadier Grips, most users find pain relief skyrockets when using them.
The sphere shape ensures a natural grip, which allows lifters to easily take pressure off aching shoulders and elbows while still getting a pump.
Longevity
Grenadier Grips are a newer product. Fat Gripz have been around for awhile. If you’re looking for a company that’s got some longevity, go with Fat Gripz. If you’re looking for innovation, you’ve found it with Grenadier Grips.
Style
Now, it’s nearly impossible not to be a little biased here. But, c'mon! The Grenadier Grips look pretty awesome. The military green shaped like a grenade? That’s a solid design that’ll look good in damn near any gym around the world.
Fat Gripz don’t look bad, per se. But noone wants to whip out a couple blue looking phallic things from his gym bag when he could have a set of Grenadier Grips!
Results & Pump
Both Fat Gripz and Grenadier Grips offer massive pumps and impressive results to athletes. Ultimately, your results will be determined by how often you use thick bar training in your routine and which muscle groups get a little extra activation from the grips.
For advanced lifters and athletes training through injuries, we’ve found the ergonomic design of Grenadier Grips adds a little more pump after each workout.
Versatility
Similar to how the EZ bar, the bar that zig-zigs up providing multiple grip options, allows you the option to place your hands at a different angle in relation to your elbows, Grenadier Grips allow you to move along the curvature of the grip and achieve the same thing.
This offers a few different advantages:
Internally rotating your wrists to a 45 degree angle will allow you to lift more weight which…
Places your thumb and index finger closer to the bar, which is smaller and easier to grip, making your middle, ring, and pinky finger squeeze the hardest!
This truly is a massive advantage over straight cylinder Fat Gripz because your thumb and index finger are notorious for taking over the lions share of the gripping work.
The oval shape of the grenadier grips produce an entirely different stimulus that your hands and forearms haven’t seen before -- they’ll be totally confused by it and have no choice but to grow larger in an adept to adapt!
Grenadier Grips - Cylindrical Version?
At Gunsmith Fitness, we also offer Grenadier Grips in the traditional cylindrical version. While they're designed somewhat like Fat Gripz, they offer some distinct benefits in comparison.
First, our cylindrical grips are a little wider at their thickest point. This offers lifters extra space to apply pressure throughout their grip. Many of our athletes have raved about the extra width and how much their grip improved.
Next, our cylindrical grips are much less likely to dangle on bars compared to Fat Gripz. These bad boys stick on the bar and ensure you can grip with the utmost confidence. We want you confident when using fat grip training.
Lastly, our design and carrying case are pretty damn cool. Sure, we're biased, but you know these grips look pretty awesome...
What's So Great About Big Forearms?
First of all, strong hands are just about the most “functional” strength that there is. Let me drop some knowledge on you: Your hands have more nerves in them than any other body part and 90% of your sensory neurons are dedicated to sight.
What am I getting at here?
Your reality is experienced via your hands. The world is quite literally at your fingertips. Hands are incredibly important and nothing inspires immediate confidence faster than a firm handshake.
Another good thing about having strong hands and ripped forearms is that they are one of the most visible body parts. You don’t need to be at the beach with your shirt off for your physique to command respect.
Just roll up your sleeves!
Quick Wrist Curl Workout with the Grenadier Grips
Some people will be able to grow their forearms just by doing heavy compound lifts that involve the forearms like deadlifts and barbell overhead press. These are the gifted ones for forearm development.
The rest of us usually have to treat it as a weakness and hit the muscle directly and deliberately with isolation work.
Wrist curls work pretty well but the short range of motion means that gains will plateau fairly quickly and you’ll have to find other ways to coax new growth out of them.
One of these ways is with grenadier grips, and let me tell you, the pump is insane.
Here’s a dropset routine you can do in 3 minutes after every workout to grow your forearm circumference in just a couple months:
Get three sets of dumbbells, the heaviest of which you can do 15 curls with
Put the Grenadier Grips on the heaviest and do wrist curls to failure
Drop the weight, put the grenadier grips on and do 15 more or until failure
Drop the weight again, put on the Grenadier Grips and do 15 more or until failure
This takes very little time and produces such a vicious pump that your forearms will look like a spiderweb.
Grenadier Grips Vs. Fat Gripz | Taking Thick Bar Training to the Next Level?
At Gunsmith, we like to be open and honest. Overall, both Grenadier Grips and Fat Gripz will get the job done. You’ll size massive pumps and impressive gains using either - along with a myriad of other benefits.
But, we believe Grenadier Grips are better than Fat Gripz for two main reasons. First, they’re cheaper. Why pay double for a similar product?! That’s nonsense.
Second, for trainers working through injuries and striving to prevent them, the sphere shape of Grenadier Grips is absolutely ideal. You’ll take a massive amount of pressure away from areas like shoulders and elbows - while still hitting the muscle groups you wanted to, like chest, biceps, and triceps.
Half of the gains battle is staying in the gym. If you want to get swole while staying healthy, buy your Grenadier Grips today by clicking here!
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