#1: Using PowerDot Smart Muscle Stimulation to Improve Grip Strength

#1: Using PowerDot Smart Muscle Stimulation to Improve Grip Strength

Your heart beating out of your chest, you crest the hill and glance back over your shoulder to check out your competition. No problem - you’re way ahead of the pack.

The obstacle dubbed “The Twister” stands before you. This obstacle is infamous for taking racers down. With no time to think, you go for it and grab the first handle and quickly reach for the next, and then the next, and the next. You’re not even halfway through and your forearms are on fire. Your arms go long and you feel your fingers opening, despite willing them to close with everything you have.

Suddenly, your hands refuse to obey, and you drop. Runners who were minutes behind you are passing you. You’ve lost this race not because of a lack of cardiovascular fitness, but because of something you didn’t count on: grip strength.

How to fix it? There are old school wrist curls and squeeze handles, pullups, and kettlebell swings. Or you can accelerate your progress with our Strength Endurance program. Follow the steps below to help your grip stay stronger, longer.

How to Improve Grip Strength with PowerDot Smart Muscle Stimulation

Before beginning, make sure you have something heavy to grip in each hand nearby. This can be kettlebells, dumbbells, or a loaded barbell.

Next, place the pads on your forearms as shown in the app. Start by running 10 minutes of the massage program to get the blood flowing in the forearms and ensure they’re warmed up.

After you’ve run 10 minutes of the Massage program, stop the program and switch it to the Strength Endurance program. (We recommend starting with the Beginner level and staying here for about 4 weeks before progressing to the Intermediate level.) Here’s where the fun begins!

Once the warmup phase of the Strength Endurance program is over, make sure you’re standing close to your weights because you’re going to have to grab them quickly during the rest phase of the program (No, that isn’t a typo. You’re going to have to do some work during the rest phase!) 

Let the program run through the first contraction cycle. Increase the intensity until you can barely tolerate it. When the first rest cycle begins, quickly pick up your pre-staged weights and hold them for the duration of the rest cycle. Set them down quickly (but carefully) when the next contraction cycle begins. Repeat this process for the full 32 minutes of the Strength Endurance cycle. Holding weights during the rest phase pre-fatigues the muscle and greater simulates the type of fatigue an OCR racer experiences during obstacles that require grip strength.

Once the program is over, make sure you run the full Active Recovery cycle to flush out any metabolic waste that will have accumulated during the workout.

On the days between your Powerdot workouts, you can run the Massage program to recover from soreness/fatigue and reduce any pain from soreness.

Once you feel like 2x a week at the Beginner level isn’t challenging anymore, feel free to step up to 3x a week at the Intermediate stage. We recommend staying at each stage for at least four weeks before moving up.

Ready to take the next step? Explore more below