How can my wife strengthen her hands/arms to rack the slide?

[randypollock]

So my petite wife 105 lbs 5'2" is getting into shooting with me. She has a few revolvers .22, .38, .357 and can shoot them all and qualified with a Ruger SP101...but she wants a pistol like everyone else. So she purchased a cheap 9mm Sccy (I'm not here to debate the purchase as many people would love to do) mainly because she was able to work the gun.

But she watched this video last night http://www.youtube.com/user/limalife#p/u/4/kbayNc6D9HY and she is annoyed that she is too weak to work all the other guns that we own.

What can she do to strengthen her hands and arms to be able to work most of the semi autos out there?

[TAP]

Here is a great explanation (written by a woman) of some things that may help.

http://www.corneredcat.com/RunGun/rack.aspx

[John Ralston]

One of the grip exercisers you can get from the sporting goods store work well - have her try them out and pick the one that she can do 5-10 of. Have her work up to 20-30. No need to do them daily, but it will help a bunch, and you can do it while sitting on the couch.

[randypollock]

I'm emailing her the website and will pick up the grip exercise gizmo in town.

So is it all in the hands? I have never really thought about it.

[jslaker]

Here is a great explanation (written by a woman) of some things that may help.

http://www.corneredcat.com/RunGun/rack.aspx

+1. Cornered Cat is a great resource for women interested in shooting. It's written with such a great, encouraging tone.

[jetfire]

People would be amazed at the difference doing pushups makes in upper body strength. There's even an iPhone app called 100 pushups that puts a person on an incremental strength building program.

[Godzilla]

I have had a few shooters (men, women & kids) have a difficult time trying to "PULL BACK THE SLIDE"

The easy and most comfortable way to rack a slide is to:

1. Hold the slide with either your fingers or hand.
2. Push the grip with the opposite hand.
3. Let go of the slide and let it slap back.

This method takes the strength needed in the wrist and allows a shooter to push instead. Many people have looked up and said "why didn't I think of that?"

It might solve her issues. Good luck.

[jslaker]

So is it all in the hands? I have never really thought about it.

I really think it's as much about technique and getting the gun in close to your body and using leverage to your advantage as anything. Your support hand only has to grip tightly enough to generate friction with the slide; what strength is involved is going to generally be generated by your upper arms.

Like mentioned in the Cornered Cat link, I think a lot of the issue is that a lot of shooter's have always gotten by simply manhandling the slide and don't know any differently. I really think most people are ultimately capable of racking the slide of most semiautomatics given proper technique and barring medical disability.

[MTechnik]

Is it the hand strength or the arm strength that she lacks?

[randypollock]

Is it the hand strength or the arm strength that she lacks?

It worked out great today because we was both at home for lunch and she tired to rack my SA Range Officer and my Para PDA 9mm she couldn't do either one. When I watch her it's hard to tell where the weakness is..it could be both. If I had to choose I would say arm strength.