If you want to build formidable grip strength with a steel club, the Side Clean is one of my favourite exercises.
What makes this exercise so effective is that your grip gets very little opportunity to rest. There are two different variations: the Outside Side Clean and the Inside Side Clean.
With the Outside Side Clean, you cast the club away from your body. With the Inside Side Clean, the club travels across the front of your body.
Both are great exercises, but you’ll probably find that you’re stronger performing the Outside Side Clean. It normally feels a little more natural because you’re casting the club away from your body rather than across the front.
It’s kind of like a forehand and backhand tennis stroke. The Outside Side Clean feels more like your forehand, while the Inside Side Clean feels more like your backhand.
Why the Steel Club Side Clean Builds Grip Strength
Your grip has to work hard to accelerate the club and cast it away from your body.
You get a brief period of rest during the downswing, but then you have to grip tightly again at the bottom of the movement. This is the heaviest part of the exercise because you have to control the club, accelerate it out of the bottom and then guide it back into the order position.
Your wrist gets short periods of rest, but your grip gets very little rest throughout the movement.
This is what I call intelligent gripping.
I’m not death-gripping the club throughout the entire exercise. I grip firmly when I need to accelerate, decelerate or control the club, and relax my grip whenever the movement allows me to.
This gives my grip a chance to recover during the set, allowing me to perform more reps and swing heavier weights.
How I Use the Side Clean in My Training
I like to tack this exercise onto the end of a workout.
I’ll normally choose a heavier club and perform the movement continuously for 60 seconds, getting through as many quality reps as I can while really fatiguing the grip.
You can perform the Outside Side Clean for 60 seconds and then repeat the same drill using the Inside Side Clean.
By adding these short grip challenges to the end of your workouts, you’ll gradually build the strength and endurance needed to grip and swing heavier weights during other steel club exercises, including mills, shield casts and other casting movements.
Give both variations a try and let me know how you get on.
