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Started by VegVeg, November 17, 2013 · 16 Replies · 507 Views
hey!
Well I recently got 150-250 lbs grippers and since my wrists are the main thing which is holding me back in some exercises I thought if it might be too much volume for them???
what do you guys think? I'm thinking of doing grip training 4 times a week...Can't quite figure out when tho...
BTW I highly recommend starting to work on your grip asap, even tho I pulled 400 lb deadlift raw I STILL have a weak ass grip (RC6 will testify)
Instead of working grippers, try throwing a towel over your pullup bar and hanging off that. If you can do it one handed for a minute, your grip is pretty beastly.
RC/PE6 is just a lot of muscle tension that continues to build up. Of course grip matters, but not too a huge degree.
Eventually gripping a rope will build a lot of grip strength.
When you say weak wrist: do you mean tightness or actual weakness. Strengthening both ways are different. Handstand One is pretty comprehensive in terms of wrist
As long as you are progressing in your strength training, your grip strength will too, its your grip endurance that needs to be trained, so try doing movements slower and put more focus on gripping(the bar, the ground etc). The grip is best trained by time under tension. I cant even imagine what the grip of high level gymnasts is like. Handstand one is all about wrists, check it out if you don't have it already.
Hey thanks for the replies 
Well I don't want to train with the grippers just for the purpose of improving on GST, I also plan on closing the 500 lb gripper eventually 
Think of it as an extra hobby and how to incorporate it with GST
(Well, how? 
)
I use grippers for fun, but i use them with isometric holds, about 30 seconds each hand. I just do it when i'm driving in the car so i have something to do. So it's actually nearly every day, but fairly low volume. I think it does help my bar strength as well. Only adverse effects i noted was that it affected my grip endurance when i was working on RC stuff and I would have to lay off it altogether for a day or two before my workouts on those days. Now that I'm on to more concentric strength on RC it doesn't affect it much. The other thing to be aware of is it may put you at risk for wrist tendonitis. I do some rice bucket work when i'm sitting around watching TV and it evens out the stresses on the wrist nicely. Bipocni's right, though. Hanging, especially from a rope or towel will build your grip far better than grippers. Just hard to do in the car! 
Be careful with heavy grippers, it's easy to over-tax the tendons. I'd recommend not training more than 3 times a week.
I got a bad case of medial epicondylitis by training too often.
I also think it's safer to train your ability to hold onto something. Towel chins, rope climbing etc.
The grippers are good to test strength, but I've heard they are not a very natural movement to develop the strength.
I have a Captain of crush 2.0 I'm about 1 cm from closing it.
Here's a list of exercises used by the grip master John Brookfield:
I do rock climbing and my grip is pretty decent considering I am 90 kilos and working on 7b+ but my wrists are still horribly weak. Although since I started h1 my wrist strength has increased considerably! Something so simple yet so useful.
I can close the COC #2 and my Martial Arts instructor can close the #3 30+ times consistently (he has closed it as many as 50 consecutive times, and has actually closed the #4, but won't contact Ironmind till he can do it at will) and I would concur that you do need to watch overtraining with grippers. They put a lot of strain on the structures of the wrist and hand and can lead to things like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome,Tennis Elbow, or other overuse conditions associated with the structures of the forearm/wrist.
I would also strongly advise that you add in done finger extensor exercises (Ironmind has some good products for that sort of thing, but even just a heavy duty rubber hand will work ok) to avoid developing too great of a strength imbalance.
Hope this helps.
Keegan Y - That's very elite if he are doing what you say. When you say 30+ times, does he let the grip fully open before next close or is he doing "mini-reps"?
VegVeg - I think you should put the gripwork in the end of your Foundation-traning days.
Keegan Y said:I can close the COC #2 and my Martial Arts instructor can close the #3 30+ times consistently (he has closed it as many as 50 consecutive times, and has actually closed the #4, but won't contact Ironmind till he can do it at will) and I would concur that you do need to watch overtraining with grippers. They put a lot of strain on the structures of the wrist and hand and can lead to things like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome,Tennis Elbow, or other overuse conditions associated with the structures of the forearm/wrist.
I would also strongly advise that you add in done finger extensor exercises (Ironmind has some good products for that sort of thing, but even just a heavy duty rubber hand will work ok) to avoid developing too great of a strength imbalance.
Hope this helps.
Finger extension is like the opposite movement of the grippers? ( opening the fingers? )
Gripjj said:Keegan Y - That's very elite if he are doing what you say. When you say 30+ times, does he let the grip fully open before next close or is he doing "mini-reps"?
VegVeg - I think you should put the gripwork in the end of your Foundation-traning days.
bigB said:Be careful with heavy grippers, it's easy to over-tax the tendons. I'd recommend not training more than 3 times a week.
I got a bad case of medial epicondylitis by training too often.
I also think it's safer to train your ability to hold onto something. Towel chins, rope climbing etc.
The grippers are good to test strength, but I've heard they are not a very natural movement to develop the strength.
I have a Captain of crush 2.0 I'm about 1 cm from closing it.
Here's a list of exercises used by the grip master John Brookfield:
I think I'll do like 10-12 reps total of various gripper exercises after the workout+eating.
3-4 times a week.
That doesn't sound like 'too much volume' amirite?
Gripjj said:Keegan Y - That's very elite if he are doing what you say. When you say 30+ times, does he let the grip fully open before next close or is he doing "mini-reps"?
VegVeg - I think you should put the gripwork in the end of your Foundation-traning days.
His grip is definitely elite. He closed the #3 back in '96 the first time he ever tried without doing any specific training for it. From what he has gathered from talking to Brookfield (who he is a certified battling ropes instructor under) and numerous other top grip strength guys he has the most consecutive closes (or at least has worked up to that point).
When he has done the super high reps it has been partial closes, but he can easily grind the gripper and I've seen him close it with 2 fingers (plus the thumb) on numerous occasions, so I think he could get at the very least a dozen full ROM closes if he wanted to.
To the best of my knowledge he's got the strongest grip of anyone in the Martial Arts today. I know he got the late great Joe Lewis into the grippers and Joe would take them all over the world and challenge Martial Artists, strength athletes, and bodybuilders to close the grippers every chance he got. Nobody was even close to Charlie Lysak in that regard, not even in the same ball park.
Keegan Y: can he crush an apple? I'm not even going to waste my time asking if he can roll up a frying pan...
Yes, and a potato too I believe.
Keegan Y said:I can close the COC #2 and my Martial Arts instructor can close the #3 30+ times consistently (he has closed it as many as 50 consecutive times, and has actually closed the #4, but won't contact Ironmind till he can do it at will) and I would concur that you do need to watch overtraining with grippers. They put a lot of strain on the structures of the wrist and hand and can lead to things like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome,Tennis Elbow, or other overuse conditions associated with the structures of the forearm/wrist.
I would also strongly advise that you add in done finger extensor exercises (Ironmind has some good products for that sort of thing, but even just a heavy duty rubber hand will work ok) to avoid developing too great of a strength imbalance.
Hope this helps.
I have seen a lot of videos from the top gripper guys, but I don't think I've seen anyone close the #3 more than ten times. The feats you are saying he can do are things I would have a hard time believing without a legitimate video. It would be like someone saying they can hold a perfect planche for 30 seconds. I'm sure some folks can, but no way I'm taking anyone's word for it without a video.
fitwell said:I have seen a lot of videos from the top gripper guys, but I don't think I've seen anyone close the #3 more than ten times. The feats you are saying he can do are things I would have a hard time believing without a legitimate video. It would be like someone saying they can hold a perfect planche for 30 seconds. I'm sure some folks can, but no way I'm taking anyone's word for it without a video.
You can believe whatever you want, I've seen it with my own eyes and counted the closes (which you can audibly hear) on several occasions. Again, Lysak closed the #3 way back in '98, sorry, misquoted the date in my earlier post, (look on Itonmind's site for yourself and you'll see his name listed as being certified for closing it in that year) without ever training specifically to do so and on his first attempt (and he could actually do several reps at that point).
We are talking about someone who is in the genetic elite in terms of strength (especially grip strength) here and just like some of the other feats (like some of the routines of the top ring guys or the insane 100 yard dash times of the top sprinters) of such people sometimes seeing is believing and without doing so can be hard to accept. But, unfortunately I have never thought to film it, so can't provide such a video.
Maybe one of these days I'll ask him to film it; I know he's considering writing a book on grip training for Martial Artists so maybe he'll do a video for that.