Do you secretly wish you got comments like the below most of the time?

"You've got unnatural pulling power! It has to be something to do with the exercises you do!" (From folks who outweigh me by about a thousand pounds—well, not really, but you get the drift—and folks from various disciplines of life, including but not limited to those from the elite forces, boxers, weightlifters, and the like.)

"You need to take it easy, man!" (When shaking hands with folks.)

"Man—you're a skinny dude—and yet you've got this amazing grip strength, not to mention the fact you're in shape."

Farmers, wrestlers, strongmen (note–I mean strong men, not the bloated “muscle boys” you see preening “their stuff” in the gyms), tennis players, elite forces all over the world, and martial artists.

What do the following groups of people have in common, other than the fact they perform different types of physical activity on a regular and daily basis?

Some may have “bulging muscles”, and some may not. Some may be “ripped to shreds” (ugh, I think I’m going to rip the next book apart that spouts that sort of nonsense), and others might be solidly built. Some might even need to lose a bit of weight, while others might be so skinny you could hang a pair of freshly pressed trousers on them.

So, and again, what do these people all have in common?

Strength and stamina, I hear some of you say.

Well, good answer—but what else?

A strong grip.

A farmer, for instance, might not have archetypical “show” muscles, but grip his hand at the end of a long, hard day (his, spent working on the farm), and you’ll quickly experience the closest thing you can to an actual gorilla’s grip.

A wrestler’s forearm might not look “pretty”, and neither might his calloused and bandaged hands, but those very mitts can take the typical bodybuilder’s arm in a vicelike grip that the bodybuilder would be hard pressed to even try to escape from and do things with it that would have the average “pretzel” blushing with shame (that old line, “twist you into a pretzel”).

A tennis player, martial artist, a boxer, a gymnast—you name it, and the list goes on and on–all people who perform physical activity on a daily basis, different sorts, but they have all that one thing in common, i.e. a strong, bone-crushing, vicelike grip.

And this, my friend, is one of the most important parts of a human being’s overall physical development.

The forearms, fingers, and wrist are what make up the “gripping muscles”, and you use these in virtually all situations in daily life, from carrying groceries up the stairs to lugging heavy furniture around.

To put it another way, showy biceps might help you get the lady, for instance, but couple those with weak forearms, and you’ll never be able to carry her up that flight of stairs to your apartment.

You might be able to curl impressive weights in the gym using straps and other aids, but when it comes to doing pull-ups on a thick bar, a weak grip is what will let you down the most.

On the other hand, a strong grip is an advantage in just about every situation.

The plethora of exercises that I give you in 0 Excuses Fitness do a great job of building a vicelike, bone-crushing grip, and truth be told that's all you need if you do 'em right–and yet, there are those who want more.