It's true. The barbell bench press is the single most popular exercise done with a barbell. It's also true that most advanced bench pressers suffer joint pain.
More and more often you'll see both amateur and pro benchers warp their wrists and use elbow sleeves to help protect their aching joints, use bench press shirts to relieve shoulder pain, live off of ice packs and anti-inflammatory medication post workout just to be able to get out of bed without too much pain.
I believe the root of the problem is the barbell itself and I also believe this problem can largely be prevented.
Let me explain. Due to gravity, there are no straight lines in nature. The planets in the solar system are round and move around the sun in circular orbits. All organic life is a curved shape, some a little more like the shell of a turtle, some a little less like the branch of a tree. Naturally, the human skeletal and muscular systems are also curved, allowing us to function in a world where gravitational lines are continually pulling and pushing.
Therefore, when an athlete is pressing a barbell, he is essentially asking his body to do something it is not designed to do. This is not such a big deal for the novice athlete as the weight of the barbell is not yet heavy enough to damage his joints, but it is for the advanced bencher who uses extremely heavy barbells. Factor heavy bench workouts year after year, and over time, this will damage the joints.
The only way to prevent this is to change the one point where the athlete and the barbell meet, and that is the grip. Use of the TylerGrip will put the barbell into a more natural position in the hand, and this will help the joints.
Try this. Put the grips on the barbell so that the thumb side of the palm will grasp the small end of the cone shape. This puts the hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders into an improved ergonomic position to push, as if the bar were slightly curved. To check this out, have an athlete do close grip bench press with the bar only. Observe the hands and wrists in relationship to the bar. Then do the exact same thing with the TylerGrip on the bar. You will now see the wrists are in a much more natural position.
The TylerGrips are not a magic bullet that will immediately take away all the pain from the joints but use of the grips will ease the stress on the joints and, over time, will ease the pain of pressing heavy barbells. Expect to reduce the amount of weight normally used. The grips make everything harder because of having to squeeze harder to control the weight. Allow a couple of workouts for your muscular and nervous system to adapt to use of the grips before using heavier weights.
First and foremost, I would like to thank TylerGrips for allowing me to experiment with there product. I definitely see many benefits from the TylerGrips.
I weight train on a regular basis and was very excited to get the cone shaped rubber handles onto the dumbbells. After about one month of using this product I can easily name 3 reasons that anyone can benefit from these in the gym.
During bench pressing I noticed right away that my hands on the grips, that were on the barbell, felt much more comfortable and less strenuous. Instead of gripping onto the straight bar, my hands molded into the grips which also felt as if the bar was slightly bending and molding to my hands too! All the weight felt balanced throughout my hands and also the rest of my body. It was relieving to concentrate on the proper techniques of the bench press instead of focusing on whether or not I have a good grip to continue.
Next, I benefited from the TylerGrips by building more strength and reaching higher goals of weight during my dumbbell curls. The first week I felt most sore in my hands and forearms. The second week, I wasn't as sore and reached all my goal reps easier while feeling stronger with my hands. By the third week, I was breezing through my reps and was ready for more weight. At the beginning of the fourth week, I tried my dumbbell curls without the TylerGrips and couldn't believe how strong my forearms and hands were while I was curling a heavier weight. But of course, I couldn't resist going back to the TylerGrips for the rest of my workout.
Last, since I am a female I was psyched to finally find a product that not only helps build more strength, but also reduces the amount of calluses on my hands. Every female knows that its not very lady like to be walking around with rough hands with blisters lining around them. The soft rubber-like is the solution to my very annoying problem. My husband definitely has been appreciating smoothness to my hands.
I really enjoyed experimenting with the TylerGrips. If this wasn't a one page review I could of easily gone on explaining more benefits I see with the TylerGrips. Anyone who desires to build strength and cares on keeping there joints and ligaments healthy should try this product. I honestly can say that TylerGrips will be joining me with all my future workouts! Thanks again and congrats on such a wonderful product.
Let me explain. Due to gravity, there are no straight lines in nature. The planets in the solar system are round and move around the sun in circular orbits. All organic life is a curved shape, some a little more like the shell of a turtle, some a little less like the branch of a tree. Naturally, the human skeletal and muscular systems are also curved, allowing us to function in a world where gravitational lines are continually pulling and pushing.
