Grip strength isn’t just about crushing handshakes or impressing friends with party tricks.
It’s about functional power that translates to every movement pattern in life and sport.
In a recent training session, legendary grip strength expert John Brookfield—who bent boxes of 60-penny nails and wrung out 100 decks of cards in just over two minutes—shared two simple yet brutally effective drills that require nothing more than a towel and a bucket of water.
These aren’t your typical gripper exercises, and that’s exactly why they work so well.
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Why Traditional Grip Training Falls Short
Most people approach grip training with a limited perspective. They squeeze grippers or hang from bars, working in a single plane of motion.
Brookfield sees things differently. Despite having hands smaller than most people—thin and compact—he’s accomplished some of the most insane feats of grip strength ever recorded.
What people most don’t realize, we want to make all five digits like our friends. Instead of just trying to squeeze a gripper or something like that, we want to make all five of these digits very mobile.
His philosophy centers on strength through the entire range of motion, not just maximum contraction in one position.
The Towel Wring: Progressive Thickness Training
This first drill looks deceptively simple. Fill a bucket about 80% full with water, grab a hand towel, and submerge it completely.
The magic happens in how you wring it out.
The Progressive Overlap Method
Start by grabbing the towel with your hands close together—almost like gripping a coin. Squeeze and twist like an arm wrestler, working your thumbs and all five digits equally.
Once the towel is nearly dry, here’s where things get interesting: overlap it to create more thickness.
See now it’s thicker. It’s opening my hand more. I’m just kind of start wrenching. You see, I’m squeezing. So everything, my thumbs, everything is getting hit.
Continue this process, overlapping again and again. Each overlap forces your hands wider apart, progressively challenging different aspects of grip strength.
- First squeeze: Hands nearly touching, working finger strength
- After one overlap: Moderate width, balanced grip and wrist twist
- After multiple overlaps: Hands spread wide like gripping a baseball
Why This Works So Well
The genius lies in the progression. Someone might have crushing grip strength in a closed position but weakness when their hand opens wider.
This drill exposes and addresses those gaps. The twisting motion mimics arm wrestling movements, hitting muscles and tendons that standard grippers completely miss.
Brookfield typically spends about 10 minutes on this drill, though the duration depends on the athlete’s needs and training status. All the water returns to the bucket, making it mess-free and perfect for doing while watching TV or listening to podcasts.
The Towel Roll: Dexterity Meets Strength
The second drill shifts focus toward dexterity—an often-ignored component of grip performance.
Using a slightly thinner towel, submerge one end in the bucket while leaving the other end out. Grab the dry end and begin a squeeze-and-roll pattern.
I’m going to squeeze, but then I’m going to roll. Squeeze. I’m going to roll. See the dexterity? I’m going to squeeze. I’m going to roll. But you see what’s happening now? I had something very thin, right? And now that’s getting thicker and thicker.
The Technical Challenge
As you roll the wet towel, the bundle grows progressively larger in your hand. What starts thin as a pencil becomes thick as a baseball.
The real challenge emerges as the fabric accumulates. Your hand must stay positioned over the top—not turning to the side—while your fingers work to manipulate and compress an increasingly awkward mass.
It feels remarkably similar to rock climbing. Near the end, when your forearms are fatigued and you’re trying to gather the remaining fabric, strategy becomes essential.
Your thumb has to reach behind the bundle. Individual fingers must coordinate between stretched and contracted positions. Every finger connects to ligaments and tendons differently, and this drill activates them all.
Train Both Hands Individually
Brookfield emphasizes working each hand separately, not for strength balance but to expose dexterity imbalances.
You might have equal strength in both hands but you might not have good dexterity in one hand. So this will expose that.
Your dominant hand likely has superior fine motor control. This drill reveals and corrects those asymmetries.
Understanding the Resistance
People often ask if they should add external resistance to these drills. Brookfield’s answer might surprise you.
The weight of the water-soaked fabric provides plenty of resistance, especially as the bundle grows. The couple pounds of water creates constant tension throughout the movement.
More importantly, adding weight misses the point. These aren’t feats of strength designed to impress. They’re building exercises that develop functional capacity through mobility and dexterity.
The Mobility Factor
What separates Brookfield’s approach from conventional grip training is his emphasis on mobility alongside strength.
Rock climbers develop incredible static grip strength but might struggle with dynamic movements. Powerlifters who deadlift massive weights might lack wrist rotation strength.
These towel drills integrate both. You’re not just holding or squeezing—you’re twisting, rolling, manipulating, and adapting through constantly changing hand positions.
You don’t get this with just an exercise that you’re just grabbing and holding on to as hard as possible. Most people’s grips, their thumbs are not very strong a lot of times.
Thumb strength in particular gets hammered during the towel roll. The opposition movement between thumb and fingers—essential for real-world grip tasks—receives direct training.
Practical Implementation
Both drills can be performed while sitting, making them perfect for recovery days or evening relaxation sessions. Brookfield suggests 15-20 minutes several times per week.
For athletes in heavy training cycles, push to fatigue. For general strength development, work at a moderate intensity that allows consistent practice without excessive soreness.
Watch your forearms during these movements. Every muscle and tendon activates, creating visible movement under the skin—proof that you’re hitting structures conventional exercises miss.
Testing Versus Building
Brookfield makes an important distinction: there’s a difference between testing grip strength and building it.
Maximum gripper closes and one-rep-max deadlift holds test current capacity. They have their place, but they don’t develop the foundational qualities that create long-term gains.
These towel drills aren’t impressive to demonstrate. Nobody’s going to film them for social media clout. Yet they build the unglamorous work capacity that supports every other grip-intensive activity.
For combat athletes grabbing gi fabric, climbers tackling overhangs, or anyone wanting functional hand strength that transfers to daily life—these simple drills deliver results that fancy equipment can’t match.
All you need is a towel, a bucket, and the patience to work through ranges of motion most people never explore.
