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Quest For Gripstrength Starting With Gripper #3


Geralt

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I have switched up my grippertraining and will continue to keep this approach for another two weeks. After that I have a one week vacation where I will rest up and do no training at all. 

Work included Beefbuilder Elite CCS singles, working to nudging(™ Brous inc.) the gripper closed. 

Reversed wristcurls with wristroller and some light assistance kettlebell wrist work for a healthy balance, regarding the extensorzz

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Yesterday
531 squats / goodmornings for assistance, shoulderpress with front barbell raises for assistance. Was pretty much toast, since those last sets of the week should be pretty intense. 

Tonight
Need to shock my girly hands a bit if I want to get over this hump I am experiencing with the heavier 3 CCS's. 
Long working up, up till x 5 TNS with a filed #2, lots sets and reps, intensity high enough to get a decent pump and bloodflow. 

PR: got a double CCS on my 137lbs BBGM which is heavily filed. First one pretty easy and second one as good as closed if it weren't filed. Had my wife check this during the closes. 
IM#3 (153) CCS attempts, missed of course, but assisted it closed. Couldn't hold it tight closed without assistance, but since I have trained grip pretty heavy last Sunday, this didn't feel bad. 

TNS 2 x 8 reps with filed IM#2. 

Extensor bands. 

It's ok if this is pretty heavy after going heavy also on Sunday, but I have a week vacation coming up so this week and next week I allow myself to punish and shock my hands a bit. 

 

 

 

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Yesterday evening

Trapbar and bench, 5/3/1, 70,80,90% x 3, ending with 3+ (150kg x 10) trapbar and (85kg x 10) bench. It all felt 'easy' today. 

assisting in between, dips with weightvest, triceps pulldowns pronated and supinated grip. Skipped the pullups since I feel my lowerarms have had enough now for the next couple of days. Can't train anymore till past the weekend, so 4 days recovery is fine. 

 

 

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Grippers. First scheduled them for next Tuesday, but since I felt reasonable good, I wanted to cram in a session the moment I was recovered enough. 
Not on topstrength at all, I need at least 6 - 7 days for that, instead of the 4 I now had (last DL training was Wednesday evening). But that will bounce back after proper recovery. 

Focus on as quick closing, beyond the range, as possible.

After warming up TNS, all closed unless stated otherwise:

RB240 (135lbs before filed) CCS 2 x 1; 
BBGM (137lbs before filed) CCS 2 x 1; 
IM#2.5 (Regular, not rated, guess 130) CCS 1 x 3.
IM#3 (142lbs before filed) CCS 2 x 1, last single was a slight miss. Because of filing, feeling a close is more difficult. 
IM#2 (filed, not rated) 1 x 10, first rep CCS, the following parallel. 

Off hand coming along nicely, although I still find the MMS set more difficult than the wider sets. Closing light #3's. 

 


 

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Monday:
Trapbar DL and Shoulderpress 75, 85, 95% 5, 3, 1 
Assisting exerc. Chinups neutral grip and front laterals with barbell. 
Pinch, singlehand pinchblockpulls on pulley, x 10, x 10, x 10, x 8 (22,5kg ending). 

Tuesday/Today;
Backsquat and Benchpress, same intensity as Monday work. 
Assisting exerc. Goodmornings and pushups with pushup stands
In between IM#1 CCS speedcloses just for greasing the groove 3 x 3. 

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Gripperstrength is lagging in the top end for creditcard sets. I have been trying some twists lately in approach and see what made me sore for grippers and what not. Volume per session but also per week / intensity, etc. Think I have a good idea what I can do and will try that, together with some assistance work. Will need to try this for a few weeks of course to see if this works. The principle is still simple: 'easy' #3's CCS no problem, 'harder' (153+) still tricky. Now I don't want to be able to continuously close a 160 #3, but consistency in the 150 - 153 range is important. 

Working
IM#3 (filed, 142) 2 x 2 CCS, want to work up to at least decent triples CCS, filmed the last set, second rep was a slight miss. 
BBE (169) 1 x 1 CCS, forced to closed position and tapping the dogleg; 
GHP8 (176) wide set, forced closed and tapping the handles 1 x 10; 
IM#3.5 (unrated 175+ for sure) same as Ghp8
IM#4 (unrated) same as Ghp8 and 3.5. 

Thumbwork (pulls with pinchblock on pulley). 
Light wristwork. 

It is always difficult to feel for me wether or not the general training is interfering. I have good nights sleep and so it isn't too much of a recovery thing, just a trainingstimulus my hands are missing regarding grippers. It is hard for me to feel 'worked'. Thickbar no problem, but grippers seldom make my hands/lowerarms sore. 

My wife filmed a few things. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp-3q5sqY0c

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Did the assistance work today, getting a little bit of rest because of the #4 negatives. Decided to do RT for open hand strength. 
Should have waited with thumbwork for today instead of yesterday, but it still worked out nice. 
Worked up to 1 single @ 75kg/ 165lbs. After that several singles with 70kg and repwork with 65kg. 
Dumbell lift with regular Fatgripz, got decent air under 70kg, than 65kg full lift, 60kg several lifts. 
Tried my 55lbs Blob but no movement to be detected. 

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First Monday after a week vacation with the family, took a week from training and only trained grip last Mon- and Tuesday. Perhaps grip, end of this week or after the weekend, since tomorrow it's only 7 days after RT work and I felt this in my lowerarms till two days ago. My training has matured enough to know that I cannot expect anything miraculous to happen with grippers at this point. 

New cycle of 531 Wendler Wk1, squats and shoulderpress, 2 x 5, 1 x 8 workingsets. Switched to a selfmade spreadsheet for tracking progress instead of writing it down. 
In between the two main sets 4 x 10 goodmornings and 4 x 10 barbell frontraises for assistance. Tonight some ab work. 

 

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Yesterday evening:

Trapbar DL & Benchpress. Worksets of 5+, Wendler, first week of second cycle 531. 
Assisting work Chins neutral grip and triceps single arm pulldowns, legs felt quite stiff from monday and my shoulder is playing up suddenly out of nowhere. But all in all good worksets. 

 

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Took two weeks rest instead of one, needed it. I notice open handstrength kills my gripperwork, but it's probably also being not used to it. 
Decided to jump back in  'easy' not immediatly working on CCS, but 1.5" blocksetwork with 150lbs+  grippers. 

Overdid warming up a bit, try to feel what warming up feels best. 
Working:
IM#3 and MM2 replica (150lbs and +) 5 blockset singles, filmed last 3. The MM2 replica feels much more different in the end, it was rated @150lbs but it ramps up earlier than my #3's in that area. 

1 x 'easy' IM#3 1.5" blockset tried doubles but strength was not there anymore; 
RB240 (150) narrower set then 1.5" missed the 3rd rep.
IM#4 forced reps; 

First time homemade Axle overhand thumbless holds, again as with grippers, worked up to 130 kg but could have gotten a bit better times for holds if I didn't do so much warming up with the axle, but I don't want any strains or whatever. Aiming for 10+ seconds holds. 130kg x 5 seconds or so, let the bar roll out of my hand, damn 120kg x 10 secs (around) bodyweight (102kg) x 20 seconds (around). 

Pinch work. I'm okay with this workout, see if I can up the thickbar work and also get stronger on them gripperz 

https://youtu.be/HY3AXTjQH2s

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531 Wendler, cycle 2, week 2, Squats & Shoulderpress. Assisting: goodmornings & rear delt shoulder raises. 

Hands still felt good despite the day before. Read about the WSH and in particular the 76mm Silarukov rolling handle. I have bought a 76mm rolling handle (RB) in the past and never did much with it, so decided for fun to see what I could pull thumbless. The handle spins very much. 

1 x 1 50kg / 110 lbs, went up both hands, no problem; 
1 x 1 60kg / 132lbs both hands, good lift; 
1 x 1 66.7 kg / 147lbs, only right hand; 
1 x 1 66.7kg lift and hold for time, 5 sec. hold; 
1 x 1 70kg, fail. 

Felt good, despite having done grippers and thickbar DO thumbless holds yesterday. 

Rest of the week will be four days of marches in the evening with the kiddos over here (walking 5km or 10km every evening this week, depending on age).Together with work and one evening of training that will enough movement this week. 

A good friend called me unexpected last Thursday, telling me he just found his father dead, still lying in bed. Was one of the first he called. Tomorrow his funeral. Cherish the moments you have with your parents guys. It can be over very quick and suddenly. Puts training and other things in perspective. 
 

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Wednesday 531 Wendler cycle 2, week 2, deadlifts and bench.  Assisting: Bent over logbar rows with fatgripz and bicepwork.
Did all working sets for DL with the trapbar with fatgripz attached. Ended my workset with 155kg fatgripz holds for time. Tough!
Specially after doing open hand stuff earlier this week.

 

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This afternoon several wide set #3 closes. 

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I was wondering how the big plan towards the #3 cert goes?
When I just rated your 3 grippers I thought you where getting really close. Did you have a setback or is everything still according to plan? 

 

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6 hours ago, Grind said:

I was wondering how the big plan towards the #3 cert goes?
When I just rated your 3 grippers I thought you where getting really close. Did you have a setback or is everything still according to plan? 

 

It's a combination of both. It is very hard - speaking for myself - to continuesly stay on topstrength, plus above that, improving in pounds. I am pretty consistent in CCS-ing in the lower range #3's. But they don't compare with the harder #3's. So I need to work out for myself for that new phase how to trigger that growth. I search this now in my general strengthtraining (without costing too much recovery for grip) and letting CCS work go for a bit and focus on some general horsepower with thickbar and such. It's normal for grippers to set back during this. And it's also a nice break from those CCS workouts with little improvement. I wish I had the linear strength rise that some guys seem to experience but unfortunately that's not meant for me. 

But, this week for instance, Sunday and Monday pretty heavy gripperwork and openhandstrength training (#4 forced reps, do thickbar holds thumbless 130kg etc), Wednesday again fatgripz holds (150kg+) and today, with sore arms, still closing my #3 @149lbs for several singles, so my base strength is definitely building up. 

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What makes you decide to stop training the CCS for the moment? Are those taxing your hand/forearm to much? Or did you notice a loss in strength because of it?
I always thought that for a cert you need to train the CCS a lot. 

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If I can't close a gripper from CCS and always come to a stop before closing it, I don't see much sense in keep training that ROM. But that's not to say I don't do the CCS anymore. Most wide set work I do now is with the heavier 3 range. These low #3's are nice and all to work with, but for the upper segment I need to get more proficient with those. Tried TNS a lot, but I just don't seem to get used to TNS-ing heavier grippers. That is my really weak spot. This is what I address now with building more horsepowers. 

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I think it's a good idea to focus more on general grip stength for a while Geralt. You've been bashing your head against those heavier #3's for some time now and it's not working. So a small step back is a good approach imo.

It's the same with my deadlifting. I can basically always deadlift 1x200kg but can't seem to really get past that number. I'm going to take a step back in the weights I use and do 531 for at least 6 months.

 

 

 

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True, it is very hard to progress past a certain sticking point. The #3 cert is a very tough feat to be doing if you need to be on max topstrength all the time. Sometimes you can work to a point that you're on your max of strength at the end of a certain period but that doesn't work with the #3 cert very wel. There probably are gus who will say otherwise, but then it's a higher basic strengthline in their case. You need to be consistent and then maintain that strength for a longer period. I have tried excluding other training but that doesn't matter much, except not loading the grip and biceps too much outside griptraining. I also found that purely focus on MMS strength also doesn't work.  I am now 38 and have been chasing this damn cert for a long time, but in the end I will get it and have became much stronger in other areas. I see it as beginning with strengthtraining and grip without having a clue whatsoever and having crammed all basic big and small mistakes and injuries in the first few years. Now progress is there but it is not going as fast as with the select few over here that are leading in grip. I found rest in that, but will progress nonetheless - cue epic orchestal soundtrack and fade out - . 

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Before work.
Cycle 2, week 3 Wendler 531. Squats and seated shoulderpress. Assisting work, goodmornings and front raises.
Grippers 10 TNS speedcloses IM#1. 

 

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If you can't get past a certain threshold when targeting it with intensity base cycles I have seen other atletes have succes with a lower intensity fase and cranking up the volume. I've also experienced this with succes.

For example if your deadlift max is about 200kg it's useless and almost contra-productive to lift 200kg on a regulative basis. Multiple worksets (about 5) 3x180kg or 5x170kg will do wonders. Slowly add weight after each cycle and before you know it you're doing worksets of 3x200kg. I'm guessing this can also work for grip. 

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On 5/21/2016 at 10:11 AM, Geralt said:

True, it is very hard to progress past a certain sticking point. The #3 cert is a very tough feat to be doing if you need to be on max topstrength all the time. Sometimes you can work to a point that you're on your max of strength at the end of a certain period but that doesn't work with the #3 cert very wel. There probably are gus who will say otherwise, but then it's a higher basic strengthline in their case. You need to be consistent and then maintain that strength for a longer period. I have tried excluding other training but that doesn't matter much, except not loading the grip and biceps too much outside griptraining. I also found that purely focus on MMS strength also doesn't work.  I am now 38 and have been chasing this damn cert for a long time, but in the end I will get it and have became much stronger in other areas. I see it as beginning with strengthtraining and grip without having a clue whatsoever and having crammed all basic big and small mistakes and injuries in the first few years. Now progress is there but it is not going as fast as with the select few over here that are leading in grip. I found rest in that, but will progress nonetheless - cue epic orchestal soundtrack and fade out - . 

yoda.jpeg

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:tongue lol

Let me put it this way I have DONE grip exclusively and still had the same amount as on and off days as when training as regular. 

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I cert in 2013, a few month before 41, after 7 years + of training with grippers. 2 years before cert, I was able to CCS close different #3 I owned at that time and during short periods of time. Then, strength missed for any reasons which is really disappointing. In my opinion, to cert MMS, CCS, TNS, ... you need to train in those specific ways. As a reminder, I trained CCS with cut credit cards and added a few millimeters every 2 months. That worked well for me.

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On 23 mei 2016 at 2:29 PM, Grind said:

If you can't get past a certain threshold when targeting it with intensity base cycles I have seen other atletes have succes with a lower intensity fase and cranking up the volume. I've also experienced this with succes.

For example if your deadlift max is about 200kg it's useless and almost contra-productive to lift 200kg on a regulative basis. Multiple worksets (about 5) 3x180kg or 5x170kg will do wonders. Slowly add weight after each cycle and before you know it you're doing worksets of 3x200kg. I'm guessing this can also work for grip. 

That is true, I incorporate that and approach this in the same way as regular strengthtraining. Working on easy 3 ccs reps and tns work on incremental grippers. And i change that up with the heavier #3 blocksets and forced 4 work. I don't do goal gripper CCS attempts because misses are bad programming for the neural network. Very true point indeed. 

8 hours ago, Joefrey said:

I cert in 2013, a few month before 41, after 7 years + of training with grippers. 2 years before cert, I was able to CCS close different #3 I owned at that time and during short periods of time. Then, strength missed for any reasons which is really disappointing. In my opinion, to cert MMS, CCS, TNS, ... you need to train in those specific ways. As a reminder, I trained CCS with cut credit cards and added a few millimeters every 2 months. That worked well for me.

Thx that headsup Joefrey. Strengthgains come and go, but I also see a rise in strength. First steady low 3 ccs sets...then middle 3's...and the upper range. And than collecting eternal glory. 

:rock The cut CC never really sunk into my workouts, but with the heavier 3's perhaps a good option. Uncle Nate also mentioned this I believe. So many options heh 

thnx for the input guys 

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