Syscrush Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 On 1/7/2017 at 0:50 PM, Ambitious Guy said: BACKGROUND STORY: I am weak and pathetic and have been laughed at in my face and behind my back my whole life. Now I want to have my revenge by doing something that ´´normal`` people can´t do: closing a Captains of Crush no 2 (=88,5 kg). And now some life advice from an old man... Weak and pathetic are 2 different and entirely unrelated things. If you personally find physical strength admirable and you find training to be fun and rewarding, then by all means do it and be happy. But closing a #2 is not going to be any kind of revenge - the reason that normal people can't do it is largely because normal people couldn't care less about it! Strength training in general is a niche, and grip training specifically is a niche within that niche - the people who will respect or admire your accomplishment are mainly the people on this board. Nobody in your real life is ever going to think or say "I used to think you were a weirdo but I respect you now that I know you have strong fingers." From my own experience, I can tell you that when I was at the strongest I'll ever be, I felt VERY WEAK. Strength was all I cared about and I was always so focused on the next goal that I was incapable of giving myself credit for things I had accomplished. When I did a bench press of 300 lbs, I was inconsolable, because I felt like 3 plates (315 lbs) was so far away still - and that even when I did get to 3 plates, that's nothing anyhow, I was already squatting 4 plates (405 lbs) and I thought 315 was light because the bar barely bends when you lift that weight. Can you see how deeply messed up that thinking is? I was walking around as someone who could lift weight that 95-99% of men could never handle in their lives, and my perception of myself was that I was weak. Also, at a bodyweight of 190 lbs and having a 32 inch waist, I considered myself fat - because my belly was smooth and it bulged a bit when I sat down, and my veins only popped out when I had a pump from lifting. Was I super lean? No, I wasn't - but I certainly was not fat. But that was how I perceived myself. I would love to be that "fat" and "weak" again! If you work hard on closing that #2 and you make it the focus of your training, then you will be able to do it. There are likely to be setbacks, but the fact that it's difficult is what makes it worthwhile - keep at it! But it won't make you feel like a better or more successful or more lovable person. Those things are not about external accomplishments, they're about internal attitude and approach to life. Give yourself a break, give yourself credit for who you are, and ask yourself what you can do to open your heart and your mind to more positivity and acceptance of yourself and others. I think that a lot of us feel like we need to do something that we admire in others before we can be admirable to others. It doesn't quite work that way. You don't need to hit goals in order to give yourself permission to feel OK about yourself - try to just feel OK about yourself, your weaknesses as well as your strengths, your disappointments as well as your achievements. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syscrush Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Funny timing, after writing the above this morning, I happened to find this just now: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambitious Guy Posted January 24, 2017 Author Share Posted January 24, 2017 Training log 22/01/17 handstand against the wall: 1 minute - 45 seconds - 30 seconds 2* ´headstand pushups` (see video) Training log 23/01/17 5 sets of 7 closes with the Trainer per hand (35 closes for each hand) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambitious Guy Posted January 24, 2017 Author Share Posted January 24, 2017 Training log 24/01/17 handstand against the wall (timed) : - 1 min 5 sec, 41 sec, 41 sec 3* handstand ´negatives` (=dropping as slowly as possible until my head touches the ground) 2* ´headstand pushups` 1 set of 12 closes per hand with the Trainer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambitious Guy Posted January 25, 2017 Author Share Posted January 25, 2017 Training log 25/01/17 1* handstand negative Guide: 15 reps (L/R) 0,5: 3 reps max effort (L/R) (one close with left hand) Trainer: 3 sets of 8 reps (L/R) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syscrush Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 Good work! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambitious Guy Posted January 26, 2017 Author Share Posted January 26, 2017 Thank you syscrush, I hope I don´t sound too hippie but I´m sending all my positive energy towards you so that you may close the CoC 2 (and hopefully without injuries, I´m going to buy some ´Expand-Your-Hand-bands` so that my extensors also get to keep up with my flexors) Training log 26/01/17 Handstand against the wall: 1 min 7 sec - 1 min - 52 sec 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syscrush Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 16 hours ago, Ambitious Guy said: I hope I don´t sound too hippie but I´m sending all my positive energy towards you so that you may close the CoC 2 Thanks, brother! You're not gonna sound too hippie for me - I firmly believe that the road to success is paved with love and positivity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambitious Guy Posted February 2, 2017 Author Share Posted February 2, 2017 Currently at the moment I have arrived at a point where I´m not really sure what to do... The only option I have at the moment is bodyweight training but it gets too dull after a while and only training with the grippers hurts my joints after a while. My new plan is to buy some ´Expand-your-hand` bands to train my extensors (and avoid injuries) and to go to a gym (in the future) where I will be following a Stronglifts-based program (with which I have had succes in the past). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wobbler Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Do holds. More time under tension, less stress on the knuckles. Definitely start on the extensors, most people (myself included) wait until their elbows start to bother them, then add extensor work to clear it up, which it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syscrush Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 On 2/2/2017 at 3:05 PM, Ambitious Guy said: Currently at the moment I have arrived at a point where I´m not really sure what to do... The only option I have at the moment is bodyweight training but it gets too dull after a while Strength isn't a game of pounds and ounces, it's a game of months and years. If bodyweight training is starting to feel dull, KEEP AT IT. You can push past that sense of familiarity into a feeling of a welcome ritual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strongkeith Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Hey man im fairly new like yourself but progressing fairly well, i'd incorporate some negatives (holding closed for time), start with your goal gripper ie #1, use both hands to get it closed or as closed as you can and hold it for as long as possible, once you fail then pick up your #0.5 straight away and hold closed for time again, then do it with your trainer and then your guide, im feeling my hand strength is growing better doing negative with my closes. Also you said you only have the option to do body weight exercises, mate you have plenty of exercises you can do rather than handstands, you should be doing dips, pullups, pushups, wrap a towel around a bar and then hold the towel and hang off it, as you get stronger do pullups with towels around a bar (all of this will help build grip and forearms too). Mix up your training to, take a run to a local park/playground and do these exercises, grab a heavy rock or log and go walking lunges and squats. instead of buying another gripper get yourself a set of dumbbells where you can change the weight should be able to pick it up for the price of a set of grippers , then you can add alot more, bicep curls, shoulder press, chest press, shrugs, flys, everything you dont need a whole lot of gear to build muscle, i used to go to the gym alot and think i need to use every machine, but ive learnt that free weights are the best to build strength so now i have at home a 300kgs of weight plates, a dumbbell rack going from 1-50kgs, a squat rack, tbar row, bunch of different bars and two benches, with this i can do everything i need to do build my strength dont forget alot of those isolating machines you see at the gym were originally built for people with injuries, keep an eye out on local for sale places, i purchased easily $7000+ worth of gym equipment for under $1500. Start small and work your way up. Finally mate, look at your diet, diet is a huge HUGE key in building muscle, if your not eating enough your never going to grow. I feel diet and rest is 90% of getting strong. For me i need over 4000 calories a day to grow, a great place to start is here http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/macronutcal.htm use programs like https://www.myfitnesspal.com to calculate your daily intake research things like calculating macros hope this helps mate, dont give up, i wish someone told me this stuff when i first started training especially diet, i reckon i would of gotten alot bigger back in the day if my diet was on track Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beni Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 Could we get a 2021 update on your progress? Would really like to know where you are now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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