How to Improve Your Grip Strength

November 11, 2022 by Andrew Forrest in Men

This morning at our Asbury Men’s Breakfast, I gave a talk entitled:

How to Get a Date and Keep a Wife.

It was really fun pulling into the parking lot before dawn and seeing so many cars already there. When I walked into the room where the breakfast was held, the line was out the door!

The program started with the guys singing two hymns together. Man, I love hearing a room full of men singing together! Here are 2 brief videos I recorded with my iPhone.

“Faith of Our Fathers” from Andrew Forrest on Vimeo.

“America the Beautiful” from Andrew Forrest on Vimeo.

My goal is to talk about practical things that will help Christian men thrive in our culture.

So, you had to be there, but one of the things we discussed is the importance of strength, particularly grip strength. Virtually every man can improve his grip strength. So, the links below are some things I personally am using. You might want something harder or easier, so consider accordingly.

Equipment for Improving Grip Strength

Expand Your Hands Bands.

Captains of Crush Size 2 “Sport” (80 lbs.) Hand Gripper.

Captains of Crush Size 3 “Trainer” (100 lbs.) Hand Gripper.

[Note that there are many different levels—these are just 2 I use.]

And you can’t beat the good ole Farmer’s Carry:

Good luck, gents!

P.S. Here’s the handout I distributed. See if you can fill-in the blanks yourself.

P.P.S. Devoted readers will recall a similar post last year. Sometimes it’s just good to repeat yourself!

P.P.P.S. If you are receiving this over email, it’s because you signed up for my general Andrew Forrest Newsletter. In addition to occasions posts here, I also post every weekday in the Bible section of my website, and if you are subscribed to my Daily Bible newsletter, you should received those posts in your inbox every weekday at 4:00 AM Central. As always, feel free to unsubscribe at any time.

How to Improve Your Grip Strength

September 24, 2021 by Andrew Forrest in Men

This morning at “7”, our Friday morning men’s series, I gave a talk entitled:

How to Get a Date and Keep a Wife.

Our idea for 7 is to talk about practical things that will help Christian men thrive in our culture.

Equipment for Improving Grip Strength

Expand Your Hands Bands.

Captains of Crush Size 2 “Sport” (80 lbs.) Hand Gripper.

Captains of Crush Size 3 “Trainer” (100 lbs.) Hand Gripper.

[Note that there are many different levels—these are just 2 I use.]

And you can’t beat the good ole Farmer’s Carry:

Good luck, gents!

You Need a Sex Habit*

January 17, 2016 by Andrew Forrest in Marriage, Men, Parenting, Personal Development, Sex, Thoughts

Couples who are having problems aren't having sex. Yes, I'm not a researcher or a therapist and my evidence is all anecdotal from conversations with lots of different couples, but I'm telling you: couples who are having problems aren't having (enough) sex. Correlation or causation? Here's what I think.

Sex is a Keystone Habit

I've written previously about keystone habits:

A keystone habit is a simple habit that has effects that cascade into other aspects of an individual‘s or a group‘s life.So, a keystone habit might be:

Exercising every morning;

Making your bed every morning

Having all?players on the team put on their socks in a certain way;

Putting safety concerns on the top of your corporate agenda.

To think of it another way, a keystone habit is the first domino that falls and knocks down all the others with it.So, a keystone habit in healthy families is having dinner together at home every evening. That simple practice affects?the relationship between the mom and the dad and the kids? behavior in school and even their reading level. It‘s one domino that falls, knocking over a bunch of others."

It's not the keystone habit itself that matters as much as what that particular habit represents and sets in motion. I think sex between a husband and a wife is exactly that sort of habit; it's a domino that falls and knocks over a bunch of others. Here's why:

Sex requires proximity. It's good for a husband and a wife to spend time together--too much time apart is never good.
Sex requires selflessness. Like everything else in life that's good for you, sometimes you won't feel like it, but there are times when your husband or your wife will need?it, and therefore your relationship needs it.
Sex requires?intentionality. Unlike in the movies, married folks don't walk around ripping each others' clothes off whenever possible. With jobs and kids and schedules, sex requires intentionality.
Sex sends a message. Women tend to become self-conscious about their bodies as they age and have children, and when a husband tells his wife she is?desirable, it draws them together in a profound way. And vice versa (though not the having children part).

Everybody likes sex, but contrary to what a 15 year-old boy would think, it's not the sex itself that makes the difference for couples so much as it is the proximity, selflessness, intentionality, and message of commitment that regular sex brings to a marriage.At least, that's my theory. What do you think? *If you're married. I subscribe to the outlandish and clearly ridiculous belief that sex has a purpose, and that that purpose is only realized within a marriage between a husband and a wife. If you're not married, not having sex won't kill you, believe it or not. You should try it.

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The 2 Skills Every Man Needs

October 14, 2015 by Andrew Forrest in Culture, First15, Marriage, Men, Personal Development, Prayer

When I was a boy, I thought that grown men men knew about the world; I thought that grown men weren't afraid of anything. But now that I'm a grown man myself and now that I know lots of other men, I've come to realize that most grown men are just as insecure, feel just as inadequate, and are just as fearful as they were when they were boys, but that now, as grown men, they have more power, more responsibility, and more potential to hurt others. Unfortunately, our culture doesn't teach men the skills we need to thrive as men; there are 2 skills in particular that I believe every man needs to know.

Every Man Needs to Know How to Pray

Men don't know how to pray. I talk to guys all the time who feel completely inadequate when it comes to prayer. Prayer makes the man. To be a man of confidence, peace, and inner strength, you need to be a man of prayer.I talked at length about prayer here, but I believe there is one thing any man can do immediately to become better at prayer:To become better at prayer, you need to be specific.

Be specific in your time and place for prayer. Pick a favorite arm chair, or your kitchen table, or your front porch, and pray there every morning.
Be specific in your prayer requests. Lots of men are afraid of really asking the Lord for specifics, but this is a misplaced fear. God desires our specific prayers. "If you want a brown hat, don't just pray for a hat." I keep an index card in my Bible with specific prayer requests on it. Pray for a specific meeting at work, or a specific issue with a child, or a specific fear or worry. (It's also powerful to be specific in your prayers of gratitude.)

Learning to pray can do more to change how a man sees and engages the world than anything else.

Every Man Needs to Know How to Apologize

Do you know how to repair relationships that you've damaged? Many men, not knowing how to apologize, do one of the following:

they either walk away when relationships become injured; or
they ignore‘the problem, hoping that it will somehow get better.

Neither tactic works. And we wonder why so many men are so lonely. If you don't learn how to apologize, you'll live with failed relationships, and over time you'll see marriages and friendships wither. A failure to apologize is one of the primary ways I've seen men fail at relationships.There are 3 parts to a good apology.

Make eye contact.? If possible, an apology should be done in person. Apologizing over the phone is a distant second. In my opinion, a man should never apologize in email or over text.
Take complete responsibility. Say, "I did [X] and it was wrong." Never ever make an excuse when apologizing.
Say, "I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?"

Learning to apologize and repair a relationship?will change a man's life for the better.

Here's the Good News

Praying and apologizing are skills that a man can learn. Like riding a bike, they don't come naturally to us, but we can learn to get better. And, like riding a bike, you have to start somewhere, and when you fall down, you get back on and have another try.

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