Digs in Enter the Dragon.

A recent question on Joe DeFranco’s site reminded me of a great exercise for strengthing hands and wrists – as well as helping to relieve a little shoulder and elbow pain – Rice Digs. The exercise is an extremely simple one; pour some uncooked rice into a bucket and repeatedly burrow your hands into it. Make fists, rotate your wrists and generally move your hands around whilst they’re surrounded by rice.


To make it more difficult, use sand or even lead shot instead of the rice. Nice and painful.
NB : All other things being equal, a finer material will feel more difficult. The shot just has less give, and will quickly prove challenging. Rice is a good starting point.

Further reading
Rice Digs are one of the excercises mentioned in Dave Tate’s 7 Exercises for Rapid Strength.
Finger Extensor Training (Body Results) : notes the importance of training finger extensor movements (open your hands wide in the rice, rather than making a fist). As well as rice digs, it briefly discusses the use of heavy rubber bands and mason jars.

Uechi-Ryu Karate video : The Jar Holds alone are worth watching.