When I was making my MAG Grip purchase, I wanted to order potentially everything that I wanted at once because you have to pay for shipping and that actually does add a lot to the final price. That being said, one of the attachments that I was on the fence about was the Palm Press.
Now, just looking at this attachment, it may look a bit confusing. It is essentially just a sheet of metal with some knubs on top. I mean, I personally had no idea what this was upon first look and wrote it off. But that’s kind of MAG Grip’s whole thing. They do such a poor job of advertising and explaining their products that the customers actually have to look around to see what each handles do and what the benefits of the various grips are. However, I think because the Palm Press is pretty far out there, MAG Grip actually dedicated an entire page on their website to explaining this product. This explanation is also included with your order of the Palm Press. But to save you some time, you can basically think of the Palm Press as an alternative to a straight bar attachment.
The main benefits of the Palm Press, at least according to the included pamphlet, are that it’s more comfortable because you’re able to distribute the load across a larger area of your hand rather than a strip, like in the case of gripping a bar. The Palm Press also forces you to maintain tension for longer because when you use it, you naturally want to flex your wrist at the top of an exercise rather than pull up and have the handle above your wrist like with a traditional bar. The Palm Press also provides more stability as it allows you to hold onto a larger surface area. The rubber coating and thumb posts also help with this by providing a more secure connection with the attachment.
To use this attachment, you take your cable and attach it to the eye bolt. You then place your palms flat on the attachment with the nubs between your thumbs and index fingers. From there, you press with your palms, as the name implies. So again, think of this as a straight bar replacement. Standing upright, you can use this attachment for exercises like tricep pushdowns and curls. Laying down, you can use it for exercises like skullcrushers or pullovers.
After having this attachment and using it for a couple of workouts, I think that it’s interesting, to say the least. Straight up, I think that this is a better option than a straight bar for standing movements similar to a tricep pushdown. Those types of movements with the palms open and pushing down, just feel very natural and comfortable. However, I would say that changes when you’re lying down. Movements like skullcrushers and pullovers get complicated. It’s not like the movement itself is bad; it’s more that the shape of this attachment itself just makes it awkward to get into position and to put it down. If you’re someone who doesn’t just let your attachment go and fly back into position, I find that putting this attachment back just takes a bit more time, and that’s annoying. I much more prefer to use this attachment while standing than laying down, so I probably won’t do that with the Palm Press anymore. This just means that for me, the Palm Press is pretty much only going to be used for tricep pushdowns and straight arm pulls until I can think of other uses for it that fits my lifting program.
So for me personally, with the Palm Press at $64.95 and another $15.12 for shipping, this turns out to be an $80 attachment that is really only good for two exercises. But hey, it does those two exercises really really well, possibly the best at them. So I guess you’ll have to decide for yourself if that’s worth the cost.
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