Building hand strength or wrecking your hands

[Mikael Siversson]

Over the last few months I carried out an experiment. Like most of you my hands rarely felt fresh and sometimes just picking up a milk bottle would produce a weird stabbing pain. So I decided to lay off all wrist work for a month while still training thickbar grippers and pinch hard with high volume. After a month I evaluated the condition of my hands (pains etc) and took notes of changes in strength in thickbar grippers and pinch.

These are the results.

No wrist training for a month: No significant gains in thickbar grippers or pinch. No significant reduction in aches or weird pains.

No thickbar training for a month: No significant gains in any of the other three. No significant reduction in aches etc.

No gripper training for a month: No significant gains in wrists or thickbar but a 5% gain in the pinch. All aches and pains gone absolutely all of it.

No pinch training for a month: No significant gains in strength in the other three. All aches and weird pains back again.

 

I doubt I will ever train grippers hard again on a regular basis. I don't think our hands were meant to perform this movement. 

Also all elbow pain completely disappeared while not training grippers.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Mikael Siversson

[Jeremy C.]

I have been thinking about the same thing so i'll add my thoughts.

I agree with your thoughts, I have trained grippers for years with no problem. This past year I have had aches and pains In my hands and wrist (from setting grippers).

It is beginning to bother me outside of gripper training so I have now stopped gripper work. That being said I have 3 thoughts.

1. ANY activity where you are pushing to the max will eventually take it's toll on your body

2. I'm getting older and can't recover like I use too, that's just life.(for me the juice isn't worth the squeeze anymore)

3. I have enjoyed grip sport and if I had it to do over I would do everything the same.

Don't take my post as being negative towards grip, this is just where I am in my grip journey, so keep squeezing. 

[Mikael Siversson]

At one stage I suspected the wrist wrench which I still train high volume with but no it was all grippers.

[KapMan]

My pain comes from nerve issues, but when I do train grippers my hand hurts quite a bit and I pride myself on pain tolerance. I've reduced my training to one time a week and I alternate between some heavy stuff and then reps. I agree with Jeremy in that I do not think our hand anatomy and musculature was designed for this movement.
 

[vickg]

I think another big factor is how often we train. A lot of us train some form of thick bar, and pinch already and if you throw in grippers it might just be to much volume we can handle. Then you have stuff like bending and levering which might also be overkill. Best we can do is warm-up, train hard and most importantly rest to recover not just when injured.

[wobbler]

I've noticed this too. You might try only choker closes (or U spring gripper, or ext handle negatives), and/or higher reps only with lighter grippers. 

My hand dyno readings go up, my tns gets a little better and my knuckles aren't sore 24/7. Haven't tried max grippers in awhile but I think I'm at least maintaining there.

[climber511]

I have said for years now that the "nut cracker" shaped grippers are not natural.  I found the same thing as Mikael years ago and seldom touch them.  I can do the ISG gripper or a parallel handled grip machine with no issues at all though.

[vickg]

9 minutes ago, climber511 said:

I have said for years now that the "nut cracker" shaped grippers are not natural.  I found the same thing as Mikael years ago and seldom touch them.  I can do the ISG gripper or a parallel handled grip machine with no issues at all though.

Could it be closing grippers at a wide width puts unnecessary stress on our hands?

[bender]

I've noticed (and stopped) that closing a gripper from the full wide-open position is difficult because I can feel my joints shifting and repositioning trying to achieve peak force.  I've also noticed that when I cheat-close the gripper so it's just the end-range crush, I both feel no pain during and after, and don't feel my joints shifting or repositioning.   I've stopped closing anything with out a cheat-set over a #2, as it hurts during and after. 

I agree with the sentiment that our hands aren't the best at crushing through a large range of motion, and that applying peak force through either a low range of motion or no range of motion is best.  In the real world, I can't think of any situation where I need to develop significant force with my hand through a large range of motion.  The hand is comprised of dozens of levers, and peak force can only be achieved from a static position.  The hand needs to reset to assure all of it's levers and joint surfaces are lined up to allow max force generation.  Simply grinding through a full range of motion isn't appropriate with heavy resistance.

On the other hand, I found narrow pinching and thick bar to cause worsening thumb pain.  With a family history of severe thumb arthritis, I can't justify training these positions with any force.

[Mikael Siversson]

Over the last year I trained grippers using a 20mm block set so not very wide.

 

[slazbob]

I agree, as soon as I use grippers my elbows hurt. I work them once a month anymore. It's kinda sad in a ways...since I've used them for so long. They just aren't fun anymore. 

[richcottrell]

So does this mean we are about to see a bunch a used grippers for sale?

[Yan_Wei]

All of you guys that have elbow (or hand/wrist) pains, do you guys train your extensors or perform other types of exercises? Do you perhaps ever stretch fingers or forearm? How long have you all been doing the sport, I only began (seriously) about 6 months ago.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Yan_Wei

[Chez]

29 minutes ago, Yan_Wei said:

All of you guys that have elbow (or hand/wrist) pains, do you guys train your extensors or perform other types of exercises? Do you perhaps ever stretch fingers or forearm? How long have you all been doing the sport, I only began (seriously) about 6 months ago.

I was actually going to ask this same question. I'm a gripper guy and I have hit them hard over the last couple years. I got bad pain once, but as soon as I started to regularly train my extensors I had no pain at all. 

[avasatu]

Excellent thread. We need more experimentation like this. I have arrived at a lot of the same conclusions as you have, though you obviously carry much more experience than I do. We have to all remember that no one is forcing us to train every type of grip, regardless of what contests are coming up. Have fun, stay pain and discomfort free. 

[wobbler]

Extensors all the time, after one bout of elbow pain that has never come back. Nothing left to do about the knuckle pain from grippers. Tried ice baths, fast open/closes to get blood flow, dexterity balls, DMSO, super cissus. It all helps some, but it's always there for longer than it should be, and it is not a good kind of pain.

I started out doing only grippers, but most of them have been collecting dust. Because blobs and bending (yes, less pain from bending than from grippers.)

[Yan_Wei]

2 minutes ago, wobbler said:

Extensors all the time, after one bout of elbow pain that has never come back. Nothing left to do about the knuckle pain from grippers. Tried ice baths, fast open/closes to get blood flow, dexterity balls, DMSO, super cissus. It all helps some, but it's always there for longer than it should be, and it is not a good kind of pain.

I started out doing only grippers, but most of them have been collecting dust. Because blobs and bending (yes, less pain from bending than from grippers.)

Not sure what to say, maybe (if you haven't done so already) you should see a doctor and get an x-ray or something. Depending on how your old routine(s) were, revolving on training, a long period break may be needed.

[anwnate]

8 hours ago, Mikael Siversson said:

At one stage I suspected the wrist wrench which I still train high volume with but no it was all grippers.

With the exception of the occasional tweak to the elbow, I've never had any injuries (besides torn skin) with grippers.

...and I don't train extensors.  

 

Saying this pretty means pretty little, other than it's possible (for some) to train grippers without injury.  (I was a spotty 183 when I stopped just to bend.)

Since I'm an extremely low volume gripper guy, I wonder if that has something to do with my lack of injury...or simply the type of gripper training I do versus others.

 

Mikael...you've been in grip for a long time.  I imagine you have tried a number of programs over this period.  

Did you remember ever specific injury during a grip workout (ala Gabriel Sum etc.)?

[Mikael Siversson]

No I have never had any really serious injuries from doing grippers but I have stayed away from doing heavy negatives.

[Chez]

I will also add that I don't train high reps and high volume. Low reps (3 or less) and low volume works for me to move up in grippers just like powerlifting. 

[wobbler]

Yan Wei, my sister is an orthopedic surgeon. She says don't do that, you'll hurt yourself.

It goes away if I watch what I do with grippers, just one of those things. Couldn't care less about the pain, it just doesn't feel right for a week or two when I overdo it.

I've got it figured out for myself, was just sharing because it might help someone else.

[gripmaniac]

I wonder how many gripsters with sore elbows, etc actually take the time to properly warmup/stretch before jumping into a gripper session.

I've always included a couple of rubber band extensor sets in my warmup and I've never had lingering injury/discomfort from gripper training.  Of course I should mention that I take the time to be mindful of cycling the intensity and workload with grippers especially.

Dave

 

[Chez]

4 minutes ago, gripmaniac said:

I wonder how many gripsters with sore elbows, etc actually take the time to properly warmup/stretch before jumping into a gripper session.

I've always included a couple of rubber band extensor sets in my warmup and I've never had lingering injury/discomfort from gripper training.  Of course I should mention that I take the time to be mindful of cycling the intensity and workload with grippers especially.

Dave

 

Ya. I agree. I always take me time and warm up with very light grippers. Even when I was at my strongest and able to close light #4s around 200, my first warm up was a coc sport and then gradual jumps until my heavy working grippers

[dave murray]

Dave here. about sore or aching hands. i tried my own version  of a certain well known grip program. a disaster. !!!!. couldn't hold the toothbrush for days. wouldn't say sore, but just numb. . does age have a bearing ? i am 51. . so, i go now ,mon, wed and friday, this week . tues and thurs the next week. i am not promoting any brand of grippers. but if ya think of it, grippers , i mean will never be an event in the Olympics. whats called a "niche" sport. ok, sorry for the rant. regards , Daithi. 

[Paul Markowski]

I was glad to see this post the other day on the Grip Board.....I too have a sore right elbow/forearm....I figure that the most likely culprit is the holds/negatives that I was doing.  Interesting fact here is this:  though my elbow and forearm do have a small amount of discomfort (pain) at times, it dos NOT hurt me as I train!!!

However, I'm going to go with the "no negatives" from now on mantra...I will do some "holds" but only for a brief 5 second crush (hold) on a gripper that I can fully close from a credit card set....I hope the injury will heel soon....

Just my 2 cents!!