DIY Wrist Roller

A few months ago, I noticed that I was losing my grip on certain exercises. When doing pull ups and heavy dumbbell lifts, my arms felt like they could do more but my hands wanted to give up. So I started looking for ways to increase my overall hand and grip strength.

When in doubt, go back to the beginning. For me, the beginning is Bruce Lee. Lee was the reason I got into martial arts and fitness. I dug out my copy of The Art of Expressing the Human Body, an exhaustive study of Bruce Lee's fitness training methods. According to the book, the #1 training method Bruce used to develop grip strength was the wrist roller.

The wrist roller is a simply device that involves drawing a weight off the ground by rolling a cord around a tube similar to the way a winch retracts a cable. Inspired, I set about building one. It was an easy build that required minimum tools and it cost me nothing as I had all of the materials laying around my house already.

To build a wrist roller, you will need:

- An electric drill

- A sturdy pipe or rod at least one inch in diameter

- Some type of strong cord (I used 550 cord)

- A weight of some kind (plates, bricks, milk jug, whatever)

- A carabiner (optional)

Make the handle by cutting the pipe or rod just long enough to be able to hold it in both hands naturally in a horizontal position. Drill a hole through the center of the pipe and thread one end of the cord through this hole. Tie a knot in one end of the cord so it doesn't pass through the handle. Attach the other end to the weight. For my roller, I used dumbbell plates as weight and secured them by threading the cord through the center holes and attaching the rope to itself with a carabiner. This allowed me to change weights without having to tie the cord every time.

To use the wrist roller, stand naturally while holding the handle in both hands. Extend your arms to shoulder level. The weighted end should be resting on the floor.  Using large rotations, rotate the handle with alternating hands until you run out of cord. 

Below is a video I made showing how to make and use the wrist roller. If you like what you see, please give it a like and subscribe to the channel. I really appreciate it.

Keep training. No excuses.

DIY Heavy Bag made from tires

In 5 years, I managed to destroy two heavy bags. I would like to say it's because I'm such a beast but that's not the truth. The truth is that I'm a regular guy who likes to hit the heavy bag and train outdoors. This combination has proved to be a recipe for disaster with a heavy bag. I originally tried to keep the bag stashed in a tool shed when not in use and later wrapped it in a tarp. Both methods resulted in moldy bags falling apart before their time. 

Here in the Deep South, the climate is hot, cold, wet and stormy. And all of that is before noon. This unforgiving environment presents problems for those of us who don't like being cooped up in a building when we exercise. So, the idea of a weather proof heavy bag was born. 

I had used old tires in the past for various projects, so a heavy bag made from tires seemed like a natural progression. Old tires are good for all kinds of things and best of all, they're free. Tire repair shops actually have to pay to have their old tires hauled off. So when you show up looking for old tires, they're more than happy to let you take some off their hands.

In the case of the heavy bag project, the problem was that I needed four tires that would be of equal size. This meant either digging through a lot of old tire piles or waiting to change the tires on our cars. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long before the tires on my wife's car needed replacing and I kept the old tires.

The next step was to get the hardware needed. For this project I used:

- 3/4" bolts with nuts and washers. I could have easily made this project work with smaller 1/2" bolts but I got a closeout deal on the 3/4" bolts. Each tire was bolted to the other tire with 4 bolts and I needed 3 sets to connect all the tires for a total of 12 sets of bolts, nuts and washers.

- Four 1/2" eye bolts with nuts and washers to create mounts for the hanging chain

- I bought three feet of chain to hang the bag and ended up with about a foot left over.

- I used anchor shackles to attach the chain to the eye bolts and a locking carabiner to attach the chain to the bag stand's swivel.  

To bolt everything together, I first stacked the tires and marked the areas where I wanted to attach them with chalk. I used four bolts equally spaced to attach the tires and did the same with the eye bolts. I drilled pilot holes with a standard drill bit and drilled the actual holes with a paddle bit. The holes were tight and the bolts had to be forced through but this was my intention. I figured the only thing that could go wrong here was making the holes too big resulting in the bolts sliding through. Just in case, I also attached large washers to each side of each hole. The result was a very solid connection.

From there, it was a simple matter to cut the chain to the right lengths and attach it with the links. I already had a bag stand and swivel so mounting it was not an issue. 

Since building the bag, I have put it through its paces with great results. It is not so hard that it is painful to hit (always wear wraps and/or gloves when training on any heavy bag). It is very stable and despite being hit with fists, shoes, Kali sticks, a baseball bat and cut with knives, it is still glutton for punishment. 

It has been rained on several times and yes, it filled up with water. This turned out to be a minor issue. The first time this happened, I pulled it down and sucked the water out with a Shopvac. The next time, I simply kicked it several times to shake the water out and wiped up the residual moisture with an old rag. 

You can watch a video of me talking about the project here at The Punching Blog's YouTube channel.

If you liked this post, please subscribe to the blog and our YouTube channel. If you are into building your own martial arts or fitness training gear, I would love to know more. Tell me about it in the comments or click on the logo to send me a message.

Keep training. No excuses.