First knuckle mobility

My first knuckle mobility is poor: I can only extend to about 45 degrees. What is the best way to improve this? Should I just do FKP/PE1 until I am able to reach 90 degrees? Are there static finger stretches that could help?

Heheh... you think yours is bad Hari... I can get about 10-15 degrees

Richard Hamilton said:

Heheh... you think yours is bad Hari... I can get about 10-15 degrees

Me too I thought something was wrong with me ! or that kid in the video is a mutant !

Nautique163 said:

Me too I thought something was wrong with me ! or that kid in the video is a mutant !

No, you guys are right ... there is something wrong with you.

But I'm working on it.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

You guys with 15 degrees are lucky! I can't even get 5 degrees on my right hand ... too many breaks from years of boxing/wrestling. 

 

- Chris

Coach Sommer said:

No, you guys are right ... there is something wrong with you.

But I'm working on it.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Funny! I've got about 45° also, but what really makes me cringe is the shoulder dislocates. When I saw the video of the standing under grip dislocates, I think my jaw dropped.

hahahaha Thank god. I thought I'd be alone! My own is about 15 degrees.

 

As I read through HS1, I knew without a doubt that it was FKP that would be the big hurdle for me...

 

Coach, your guys are mutants. I saw Dillon leap frogging across the floor on all fours as he was chased by your daughter and I think he would beat me if I were sprinting...The more compelling piece of evidence for me: the prone floor dislocates video..

The normal amount of metacarpophalangeal joint (i.e. first knuckle) hyperextension is between 0-30 degrees (or 45 degrees according to some texts). So there's nothing wrong with you, from a population stand-point.

 

Gymnasts, apparently, need to be a quite a bit more flexible than normal.

I'm happy I haven't been able to stop cracking my fingers since I was a kid. I can easily extend to 90°

Did the stretches Kit showed above and now have about 30-40 degrees of freedom in that movement. Quite an improvement, but still a long way to go. Looks like these are going in with the wrist stretches.

 

However, I have a question about the best way to approach these movements for those of us with horrid mobility ...

 

In short, I am strong enough to do the last progression with the limited ROM I have. Obviously, I need a lot more ROM, but the first progression feels rather pointless at low volume.  Given that, I am thinking about doing PE3 at full volume (5 x 5r) until I have the full 90 degree mobility. Does this seem reasonable?

 

It is the lowest progression I can perform that still gives me some feeling of doing something - effort is well below moderate, but I think it is because I can load the stretch reasonably here.

 

What are others doing?

 

- Chris

chobbs said:

(...) In short, I am strong enough to do the last progression with the limited ROM I have. Obviously, I need a lot more ROM, but the first progression feels rather pointless at low volume.  Given that, I am thinking about doing PE3 at full volume (5 x 5r) until I have the full 90 degree mobility. Does this seem reasonable?

 

It is the lowest progression I can perform that still gives me some feeling of doing something - effort is well below moderate, but I think it is because I can load the stretch reasonably here.

 

What are others doing?

 

- Chris

 

I am in about the same situation as yours Chris, but I opted to start at the first step and not skipping anything.

There are several reasons:

(1) I need to increase the ROM.

(2) even if I feel strong now, at first I will be weak in any new ROM that is gained.

(3) I am hitting hard things with my hands, locks & other practice, already put a fair amount of stress on the joint.

(4) I find it particularly hard to predict how wrists will respond to unusual stimuli; I've been caught & injured before, so I chose to be very, very prudent.

(5) The boss (Coach Sommer) said to start at #1, and move from there.

(6) I am in no hurry, and if you look carefully, there are more HS exercises to master, than wrists progressions, so there is really no need to cut corners.

(7) I am no spring chicken, and the plasticity of my joints and their speed of adaptation are certainly reduced.

I get where you are coming from Fred. In regards to F1 that is exactly what I did (started at the complete beginning). For these FKP movements though I am torn because a single, essentially un-loaded, rep doesn't provide much stimulus at all. I wasn't looking at it as cutting corners, although I can see how it would look that way. I am essentially looking for the minimal effective amount, and just am not certain FKP1 meets that criteria in my situation.

 

It is possible the stretches from Kit that were posted above would be sufficient to actually improve that ROM to the necessary degree and that I don't need the FKP movement doing double duty. But if I need the movement to increase the ROM I can't see obtaining it with FKP/PE1 in my current state. Are you able to get a more substantial stretch out of it?

 

- Chris

chobbs said:

(...) Are you able to get a more substantial stretch out of it?

 

I am not sure what you mean by a "more substantial stretch" Chris, but I feel that FKP-PE1-iM gives me plenty already.

I have rather strong fingers and hands & what looks like 30+ degrees extension; however, in my case, this strength is playing against gains in ROM.

These movements are new to me, I want to be on the safe side.

 

I did my first H1 practice Sunday, and found there was a lot of pressure and tension on the wrists just with 3x12s tripod - no pain, just the feeling that a lot of force was applied; outside of being strong when aligned for striking, my wrists seem to be weak and in need of slow progressions at other angles.

 

I am working the rice bucket every day too.

Well, I have to say... Today I did my first "serious" training on H1, and in this particular exercise, FPK/PE1 I realised that the left knuckle it is more flexible than the left one; I mean, on the right knuckle I have more degree, almost 90º, and on the right I have varely 45º.

 

It has been shock, like "Wow, that is obvious! I'm seeing it! A weak link!!!"

 

It has been like a discovery, a wonderful discovery because now I can work on it much harder.

My left hand can do 85 degrees but my right does 45? what is wrong with me?

 

edit: I can see some jokes coming. *ducks*

Klaudius Petrulis said:

My left hand can do 85 degrees but my right does 45? what is wrong with me?

 

edit: I can see some jokes coming. *ducks*

 

Don't feel too bad - I think I'm between 30 and 35 degrees on both hands...

Cannister said:

Don't feel too bad - I think I'm between 30 and 35 degrees on both hands...

It just freaks me out because I didn't realise I had such a huge imbalance. I'm beginning to suspect it's due to using a mouse..

I had my wife test her first knuckle mobility yesterday and she had something like 80 degrees easily.  I was blown away.

My wife hit the 90 easily and im at 20-30