If you are serious about building over all strength, do not neglect to develop your hands and forearms. The stronger they are, the more weight you can lift when working out with dumbbells and barbells. There are as many ways to develop your forearms as your imagination will allow; a lot of the tools you can use can be homemade.
For pinch grip exercises you can use a softball and drill a pilot hole part of the into it. Next screw a lag hook into the hole. You could then just run a small chain through the hole in a plate and hook the ends of the chain onto the hook. Hold the ball with a full grip or just with your finger tips and lift. Add more plates or a heavier one for more weight.
A variation would be to use a hockey puck. Drill a hole into the middle of the hockey puck and screw in a lag hook. For a stronger setup insert an eye-bolt through the hole with a washer on either side of the puck with a nut on the top side to hold it together. This makes a great finger tip pinch grip tool.
Two inch thick patio stones are great, you can get them from about 12” x 12” up two 24” x 24”. If you have a pair of them, you could carry one in each hand and do a farmers walk to get more of a full body workout. Squeezing and holding on to patio stones really gives your arms a excellent workout.
