Exercises for strengthening thumb

If you want to do this for drumming, you need to forget about strengthening exercises for the hand and master the free stroke. The hand and fingers need to develop from that and not from resistance training. That is the only way to get soft, real pro-level hands. Resistance training will only encourage the use of muscular strength to execute the stroke and will give you hard, tight hands.

You are not supposed to be squeezing with the thumb.
 
Jeff Almeyda said:
If you want to do this for drumming, you need to forget about strengthening exercises for the hand and master the free stroke. The hand and fingers need to develop from that and not from resistance training. That is the only way to get soft, real pro-level hands. Resistance training will only encourage the use of muscular strength to execute the stroke and will give you hard, tight hands.

You are not supposed to be squeezing with the thumb.
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I disagree...thumb can be and should be exercised independently. Also, resistance training and hand-yoga will not give you hard, tight hands. However, I would agree when exercising the thumb, you want to use the same concept as the free-stroke and allow the stick full rebound.
 
Best exercise i know is from "Secret Weapons.."

Hold hand out like you're shaking someones hand, palm vertical to the snare or surface
Begin bounce with one wrist turn, then use thumb and only thumb to continue the bounce. Do not move hand or other fingers to aid stick motion, only thumb. Go slow and use the entire thumb range of motion, don't go fast and use small motion.

Also, you can do finger yoga and stretching (which I personally recommend). One good exercise is holding your hand open, move your thumb all the way across your hand to the first joint of your pinkie. Go back and forth with repetitions.
 
I was specifically talking about doing "weight training" type exercises such as squeezing a gripper. You can do thumb/finger isolation exercises as a drum thing as long as you are mindful.
 
There's nothing wrong with strong hands, I heard Elvin nearly broke people's hands when he shook them. Maybe that's legend stuff though ;)
 
I got one. Make a "gun" with your hand. Thumb and pointer finger at a 90 degree angle, and the other 3 finger tips folded into your palm. Grip a drumstick with the thumb and pointer finger only and do full strokes on a drum or pad with as much motion as you can and don't use any wrist. Just use your thumb and index finger. Obviously, this is a matched grip thing. The thumb should bend at the joint when doing this. This will work your thumb muscle. Keep a nice space between your thumb and index finger.
 
If you're asking because your thumb hurts after playing drums then you're doing it wrong.
 
Brian said:
Also, you can do finger yoga and stretching (which I personally recommend). One good exercise is holding your hand open, move your thumb all the way across your hand to the first joint of your pinkie. Go back and forth with repetitions.
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larryace said:
I got one. Make a "gun" with your hand. Thumb and pointer finger at a 90 degree angle, and the other 3 finger tips folded into your palm. Grip a drumstick with the thumb and pointer finger only and do full strokes on a drum or pad with as much motion as you can and don't use any wrist. Just use your thumb and index finger. Obviously, this is a matched grip thing. The thumb should bend at the joint when doing this. This will work your thumb muscle. Keep a nice space between your thumb and index finger.
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Thanks so much for these exercises. Tried out Larry's method and immediately felt
the burn on my left thumb. By the way, I'm using matched grip with my middle finger as
the fulcrum.

Thanks to everyone who replied.
 
At the risk of repeating myself, all of these isolation exercises are only supplementary to the actual practice of the free stroke. They do not replace it and focusing on "feeling the burn" in a thumb or finger over time is a recipe for disaster.

Bill Bachman (who is possibly the best hands guy out there) has an exercise called the finger adder. You start with just the index finger playing the free stroke. Your stick should rebound about 15 degrees past vertical. (Like Larry's post) Do 8 strokes then add the middle for 8, ring and finally pinky.

The stroke should never change its movement or sound.

This has the effect of addressing fingers individually while limiting stress to any one finger and actually linking it all to the free stroke

Good Luck and stay loose.
 
I can't think of a reason to do isolated thumb exercises. I am sure your thumb is not "weak". I bet you just lack control with it, and that is giving you a mixed signal.

As far as strengthening the hands, pulls ups are great, or dead lifts using very thick bars. The thicker the bar the more grip strength you need.

Also I find that after an hour or two of playing "correctly" (without tension in my strokes), my hands and forearms are very pumped up with blood and my grip strength tends to feel misleading. That feeling where you feel much more powerful than you actually are. I can't think of the word at the moment for it lol...but feels like I could bust through a brick wall or something like that but in reality i would probably break my hand lol.... I hope someone else knows what I mean, and I'm not just crazy...
 
DustinB said:
I can't think of a reason to do isolated thumb exercises..
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There is more than one effective way to move a drumstick. With the technique I use, the thumb knuckle is a major motivator of the stick, helped by the fingers. When I play, I'm relaxed, but when I am working on my technique, one of the things I do is strengthening my thumb, mainly by working the muscle and stretching it. Because my technique demands a strong thumb. I am not saying that everyone should do it this way. I am saying that there's many ways to move a drumstick. I love my technique and never had issue one with tendonitis or any other negative thing. I only work the muscle at practice, not while playing. Relaxed while playing, always.

There's a lot of ways to move a drumstick. Alex Luce, an inactive member here, has this wonderful looking technique that basically starts at the shoulder. My technique is polar opposite, it's mostly in the hand and wrist. They both work great. So open mindedness is called for, as there are many ways. You just have to find what works for the individual.
 
DustinB said:
I can't think of a reason to do isolated thumb exercises.
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I can think of one. Why are athletes (except from long distance runners, and even those do some kind of e.g. trunk exercises from time to time) doing exercises? Maybe to get stronger and build up better endurance? But - any plus in pure strength has to be utilized to the specific activity you're doing - high jump, javelin, ...drumming. And that utilisation is where you have to work on your control because more strength gives you more potential, not better skills. I think it's worth adding some extra workout from time to time.

You can have a similar effect using heavier sticks - either much heavier ones (multiple weight of regular sticks) or sticks that are somewhat heavier than those you're usually using but enough to provide an extra workout. Don't overdo because those exercises won't add any speed by themselves, in fact, using e.g. heavier sticks will slow down your hands due to the higher weight. But this will strengthen your hands so when you switch to your regular sticks the same motions will/should feel a bit easier. Or maybe after some rest in case of intense workouts.

Personally I'm using heavier sticks rather seldom. That's because I think there's enough technical stuff to work on/get better that strengthening my hands isn't top priority, there's simply more important things (for now). I would use the Vic Firth Thomas Lang signature sticks or even heavier marching sticks for extra workout. Also have 2 pairs of ankle weights (super heavy and moderate/light) which I'm using once in a while for footwork - again, not on a regular basis.
 
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