The Iron Pancake Pinch Challenge

Trail Log · Movement Breakdown

Ladies and gents, welcome to the plate pinch — the exercise that looks like you're trying to commit a very small, very controlled crime with your fingers. You take two weight plates with smooth sides facing outward, press them together, and then grab the whole sandwich with your fingers on one side and your thumb on the other. It's like picking up a hamburger made of cast iron, except if you drop it, there's no bun to catch the mess.

From this precarious starting position, you simply squeeze. That's the entire movement. You pinch those plates together with everything your fingers and thumb can muster, and you hold on for dear life. Time slows down. Seconds feel like minutes. Your forearm muscles start to burn in places you didn't know had nerve endings. And through it all, you must not let those plates slide apart, because if they separate even slightly, gravity takes over and the exercise is over — along with your dignity and possibly your toes.

This is grip training at its most fundamental and most terrifying. There's no barbell to hold onto, no handle to wrap around — just you, your flesh, and two smooth plates that would very much like to go their separate ways. The strength you build here translates directly to any situation where your grip matters, which is basically every situation involving heavy things. Deadlifts, pull-ups, carrying groceries up four flights of stairs because the elevator is broken again — it all comes back to grip. Switch hands after each set and give both sides equal opportunity to suffer.