One of the biggest issues of the fitness world is growing your hands.
You can have large biceps and triceps, but your hands can still look small.
Even if you’re not into fitness, you might still want to consider your hands are small compared to the rest of your body.
Just how much your hands can grow is pre-determined by genetics. But there are certain sports or activities you can do to help make your hands bigger.
But before we get into these activities, you need to understand how your hands work.
Contents
- 1 The number of bones and muscles in the hands
- 2 1. Get used to hand grippers
- 3 2. Work hand muscles by squeezing a ball
- 4 3. Try variations of push-ups
- 5 4. A punching bag might help
- 6 5. Use elastic bands
- 7 6. Try rock climbing
- 8 7. Do physical tasks around the house
- 9 8. Start weight training
- 10 9. Get a new hobby
- 11 10. Don’t forget to stretch
- 12 11. Eat more
- 13 Final words
The number of bones and muscles in the hands
- There are 27 bones in the hands. These are categorized into distal phalanges, intermediate phalanges, proximal phalanges, metacarpals, and carpals. All of these are natively-influenced and you can’t make them bigger.
- There are 30 muscles in the hands. Most of these muscles are connected to the forearm. This is why forearm exercises can help. But these muscles are categorized into extrinsic (those from the forearm) and intrinsic (smaller muscles in the hand). This being said, most of these muscles can be worked to become bigger and stronger, together with some of their connecting joints.
1. Get used to hand grippers
Large muscles are only an adaptation of gaining strength. This is the reason you mainly need to focus on improving your strength first. What other way can be better than an inexpensive hand gripper?
Where to use hand grippers
You can use hand grippers multiple times per day.
When you take a work break, you can easily exercise each hand for 1-2 minutes to see real results within months and even weeks.
There are many types of hand grippers to choose from and your best bet is an ergonomic design that’s not going to put a lot of pressure on your wrists.
Since hands are interconnected with forearms, using hand grippers is also going to make your forearms bigger.
Should you be using hand grippers every day?
You want bigger arms fast. But you don’t need to be using hand grippers every day.
You can simply try to make the most of your free time and exercising 3-4 times per week is sufficient to see muscle growth. You can even consider using hand grippers on alternative days.
2. Work hand muscles by squeezing a ball
You will work different muscles than with your hand grippers when using a tennis ball. Furthermore, intrinsic muscles tend to be the main target of squeezing a tennis ball multiple times per day.
You can even consider using a tennis ball wherever you go, as it’s not going to attract unwanted attention as a hand gripper.
But if you’re at home or at the gym, you can continuously throw a Rogue medicine ball to exercise all of your hands’ gripping muscles.
3. Try variations of push-ups
You can try resting on your fists when doing push-ups as this is going to add a bit more strength to your hands.
Eventually, you want to move on towards finger push-ups. You can start by resting on all fingers and eventually move on to only using a few fingers to hold you above the ground in the classic plank position. This has the potential of developing isometric strength and balance.
4. A punching bag might help
You can try a full-size boxing punching bag or a smaller speed punching bag if you don’t have space at home.
One of the benefits of using a punching bag is that you also get better hand-eye coordination. This is why you’re also going to see other benefits to the activity apart from having bigger hands.
5. Use elastic bands
You can try various width bands for added resistance. These can go around your fingers as you’d need to use opening pal gestures to exercise the muscles.
You can also use creativity to work each finger at a time just using a simple rubber band. Alternatively, you can use a resistance bands training system to get stronger fingers with various exercises.
Both BodyBoss Portable Gym and Human Trainer Suspension Gym come with different strength resistance bands which can be used with a wide number of exercises for this purpose.
6. Try rock climbing
Sports in general are highly beneficial for bigger hands that are also stronger.
Tennis is one of the sports which puts a lot of emphasis on grip strength. But it’s not as intense as rock climbing.
You can start at your local rock climbing facility for safety reasons. You don’t even need to climb too high up just to see the benefits of muscle activation the activity is known for.
This will also teach you how to properly control handgrip strength and how to interpret hand muscle fatigue better.
7. Do physical tasks around the house
You can start chopping wood if you’d like to see your hands in action with the prospect of gaining size.
But you may also be interested in other tasks such as building sheds or decks which also involve all types of manual activities that are going to make your hands work extra-hard.
Another good activity for your hands you can start right now at home is gardening.
You can plant trees, flowers, and vegetables which are going to make your garden look better.
But these activities also involve a lot of hand action which is certainly going to improve your strength. Even watering plants around the house frequently is going to improve your grip strength and hand muscle size.
If you live in an apartment where there aren’t too many physical tasks to do, you can consider a small home gym.
This will work for your arms and hands properly using minimum space.
The Weider Ultimate Body Works is a home gym that can be used for a selection of upper and lower body exercises Another option comes with the Total Gym Fit. This home gym also requires a strong grip of the pulleys to perform most exercises.
8. Start weight training
Weight training might not specifically target bigger hands. But bigger hands are a byproduct of intense weight training.
You see most of those into bodybuilding tend to have big hands as they use them for almost all upper body and even for some lower body exercises.
Simply gripping dumbbells every day is a proven recipe for getting bigger hands.
We like the adjustability of PowerBlock dumbbells which let you progressively add weights which will help you develop stronger hands in time.
Ironmaster dumbbells are also efficient for building muscles, especially due to their fast weight adjustment design.
9. Get a new hobby
Old-school physical hobbies are mostly gone now. Sure, many people are into hiking, but this does nothing for your hands.
You can try to become a carpenter alongside your job to learn more about the wooden structure and to make your hands bigger. Carpentry is one of the easiest hobbies to pick up at home.
Other old-school hobbies can involve becoming an enthusiast blacksmith. You can learn everything about this trade and how to get started with it on YouTube.
Forging and hammering iron for a few hours each week is likely the best activity you can choose to get bigger arms that are the strongest.
If you don’t want to get into such an intense hobby, there are others that might be a better alternative for you.
Take archery as an example. It places a huge emphasis on your hands but it’s not as physically taxing as weightlifting. Your muscles won’t feel as sore after an archery training session as after an hour at the gym.
You might even get a basketball hoop for your home.
Simply playing basketball is going to considerably work your hand muscles. You will also learn how to use your fingers for extra grip which means both large and small muscles of your hands are going to work hard.
The best part is this activity is fun and even relaxing, unlike many others such as rock climbing which always require your constant full level of attention.
10. Don’t forget to stretch
You can look up various hand stretching exercises that help you get bigger arms faster as they recover a bit better from all of these new activities you get into.
11. Eat more
If you want bigger hands, you’ll also get bigger forearms and you should balance these with a bigger or more proportionate body as well. Eating more is just one of the basic foundation steps to getting there properly.
Final words
Getting bigger hands is often a task that is the result of multiple other physical activities indirectly. But you can also target your hands directly to build a bit more muscle.
At the same time, you want to ensure your efforts are now wasted by consuming more calories.
While there’s a limit to how big your hands can get, you can always do more with what you have even if you’re not going to have the biggest hands in the world.
Chris Jordan
Hey there, I'm Chris Jordan! I'm a certified personal trainer and dietician with over 11 years of experience in the fitness industry. I've helped thousands of people achieve better physical and mental health. When I'm not working, I love spending time with my dog.