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Building hand strength or wrecking your hands


Mikael Siversson

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3 hours ago, Paul Markowski said:

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!!

I like the profile picture u picked 

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So how many people here like me conduct a mix of high rep [10+] (warm up & some working grippers) and low rep [8 > or =] for the ones 60-70% and more difficult.? Just 2 days ago I performed about 400-500 (per hand) reps on a Walmart gripper (Gold's Gym) in about a half hour session then used my torsion spring grippers (rgc of about 75-95), used my mutantly strong I.M 2.5 (it's about as strong as my old GHP7 rated at 154) for partial closes and also used my adjustable Vatiz gripper on levels 1-3 (45-65) for about 30 reps each level.

 

Though I recently have felt some sores which did not really exist before (mostly fixed by stretching), this thread seems quite helpful in seeing the perspectives of others & what they're going through.

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52 minutes ago, vickg said:

I have to check the name 2x in order not to get confused.

I'm the better looking hulk :)

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I've been training with grippers for a long time on-and-off, and have gotten a lot more serious with them the past 2-3 years.  Been through KTA and RRBT too over the past year.  I've had no issues from grippers, regardless if I was doing high volume, high-rep, every day frequency, heavy negatives.  The only problems I have had were temporary bruising and skin tears.  If anything, grippers (and related training) have helped strengthen my previously messed-up wrist, which used to give me a lot of issues.  Now, I have no pain, aside from the above problems.  

I've injured my elbow and forearm from bending, and exasperated the problem with grippers, but never gotten injured directly from gripper-work.  For perspective, most of my closes are MMS or with a 20-25mm block, but I used to do CCS for awhile, though stopped when I was focusing more on technique for comps.  I couldn't imagine life without grippers now!    

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I also think the holds are what bring on the elbow and wrist pain, so I pretty much stopped doing them and stick to reps. I don't want to develop tendonitis or carpal tunnel.  I will also brace and press up against things for support sometimes during training. I try not to overdo it either since I like to train a few times per week. Those that go really hard would probably need at least a week or more to recover. Another thing I do is hyper extend my hands and fingers, then ball them up into a semi- tight fist for reps. I think it's Ironmind that sells those rubber bands that you put over your fingers and thumb and try to extend your hand open with the band on. They claim it eliminates elbow pain. So, I just put my finger tips over the fingertips of my other hand to simulate what the band does when opening your hand. It might balance things out a little since we're always working the muscles used for closing and this exercise works on the muscles used to open the hand. 

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I hadn't done a gripper workout in for hell and ever so I decided to do a short workout.  After a really good warmup I did 3 sets of 10 MMS set with a #3 and the next day it felt like I had knives in my elbows.  I had been doing some pinch, sledge hammers and a lot of thick bar so it wasn't like I hadn't been training.  I cleaned all my grippers and put them in a box, I doubt I will ever fool with them again.

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34 minutes ago, Bearcat 74 said:

I hadn't done a gripper workout in for hell and ever so I decided to do a short workout.  After a really good warmup I did 3 sets of 10 MMS set with a #3 and the next day it felt like I had knives in my elbows.  I had been doing some pinch, sledge hammers and a lot of thick bar so it wasn't like I hadn't been training.  I cleaned all my grippers and put them in a box, I doubt I will ever fool with them again.

If you wanna sell them for cheap, I call dibs. Just kidding dude. Sorry to hear that. You are crush royalty.

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8 minutes ago, Chez said:

If you wanna sell them for cheap, I call dibs. Just kidding dude. Sorry to hear that. You are crush royalty.

 

Lol, thanks for the comment but I wouldn't go that far. 

 

I'll probably hang onto them so I can tell people I used to be strong, that's what the old people do.  :)

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Thanks for starting this topic and sharing your experience. It is informative. I also found when doing nothing hurts more generally.

 

On 8/25/2016 at 5:12 AM, Bearcat 74 said:

 

Lol, thanks for the comment but I wouldn't go that far. 

 

I'll probably hang onto them so I can tell people I used to be strong, that's what the old people do.  :)

Or maybe sell :P ?

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