Are Weak Men Allowed To Post Routines!?

[lifesnotfair]

Thank you both.

I've been thinking about something bender said in another post. It was something like this: Just like someone who wants to specialize in benchpress, must first get overall strong... one who wishes to close some big grippers, must first get overall hand-strength. bender started training with blockweights and he saw huge gains, and then was easier for him to close grippers.

I need to train blockweights, grow a bigger thumbpad and overall stronger hand... I wont lay off the grippers, but I gotta do something else. I'm thinking of ordering the Blobette and use it for timed-holds or tosses from hand-to-hand like Brookfield describes in Mastery of Hand Strength.. maybe they will help and it could help grippers somehow. And I could lift it with ring/pinky only to strengthen those two weak fingers, and that kind of stuff.

My TTK numbers never go up, that thing is frustrating, so definitely I could try some blockweights and I might see gains in there.

It's frustrating... but I'll keep trying!!!

[Wes]

Don't worry man, the numbers will go up it just takes time.

[don chi]

Hang in there man. Wes is right, they will go up. Keep working hard!

[lifesnotfair]

Today was biceps/triceps day at the gym... one of my last days of my current crappy routine, heh... can't wait to start "dinosaur-training", which I should get next week or the week above that. I hit a PR in the bicep preacher curl though, I did 10 reps with the 70lb ez-barbell curls, and I managed 2 reps with the 80lb ez-barbell curl. I had never even touched the 80lbs before. Seeing as I got 10 reps on 70 I thought I could do more on 80, but maybe I was getting tired, or maybe I need to dominate the 70 a bit more (those 10 reps were HARD!). Oh well, just wanted to share that.

Today was Pegasus day after work. I went nuts with it and decided to go heavy.

Extension

7.5lbs x 10

10lbs x 5

10lbs x 4 + 1 crappy.

10lbs x 4 + 1 crappy.

10lbs x 5. (all 2.5lb plates)

13.26lbs (one 6kg plate) - I thought I had a chance for a single here, seeing it's just one plate, so the weight isn't as far from my hands... I think I managed 1 crappy rep, but I wont count it. I'll just continue with the 4 little 2.5lb plates and see if I can up to 12.5 soon enough.

Flexion

25lbs x 10 (20 + 5)

30lbs x 10 (20 + 5 + 2.5 + 2.5)

40lbs x 8 (20 + 20)

45lbs x 5 (above + 5)

46.5lbs x 3 (20 + 6kg + 6kg) - crappy reps, was very hard for me.

40lbs x 8 - wanted to finish with good reps.

Comments: I do one set ext, one set flex, and so on. I have to switch the aux. pads from side to side after every set, but that's OK as I have to recover at least a bit. The Extension is fine, but the flexion is depressing... my wrists hurt! Damn! Same as with the barbell, almost. They hurt in the lower part of the ROM (under parallel), so in those last sets (45 and 46.5) I was trying to only go past parallel until it hurts, and I found out I can't go much past parallel at all... so I'm doing what armwrestlers call "power wrist curls", from parallel -- up, you know, so your wrist never gets into a "losing position" if you were armwrestling. Damn, but then I wont workout my forearms as much. It sucks! :-( ... Or maybe I'm just using too much weight. I'll try not to go past 40 next workout, until I feel it's too easy, and see how I feel.

I couldn't resist and grabbed my Trainer, lol... I can TNS it right handed even in a bad possition, as in, putting my hand way above the handles, ya know.. but not left handed, if I do this I can't come close. So I tried a "good" TNS left handed and was about 1-2mm away, darn... wasn't at my best after all the forearm work though.

[lifesnotfair]

02.10.2006

First of two updates, I will update tonight after I do grippers (which I intend to do, and set at least one PR!!! ARGH! I feel strong today!).

But I wanted to update, because today at the gym some interesting stuff happened.

First of all, I tried a 5x5 routine on the benchpress.

95x10

135x8

165x4 - did not feel confident enough to try for the 5th, no spotter.

155x5

165x4 - did not feel confident enough to try for the 5th, no spotter.

I absolutely SUCK at benchpressing, but I'll see next monday if I got any better. I actually tried the 5x5 on many excercises.

I tried the pulldown, with palms facing towards ME, at shoulder width. The last two sets were 180x5. I felt so strong on these, that I decided to try to do a regular chin-up with this grip (which should be the easiest). Last time I tried this (about 5-6 weeks ago?), I couldn't lift me for the heck of it. Well, today, I got UP!!! HUGE PR!!!!, it was an unbelievable feeling when I got my chin past that bar, it's like, I can see black/white when I'm down, but after my chin passed the bar, I saw in color. WOAH! It's just such a great feeling, and I felt so confident, that I went for a rep (STRICT, lowering myself entirely until arms are fully extended), and I did it! And then, I got a third strict rep!! So I did 3 chin-ups !! H U G E Personal Record for me, wow... back when I weighted 250lbs of fat I never thought I'd do this. I weighed myself today, I'm at 185lbs. This was an awesome feeling, I tell ya. I guess the pulldown does translate a little bit on chinups, but since I can do chins now, I will no longer do the pulldown, as everyone suggest the chins and I've read articles saying the chins are better in almost every aspect.

Now, with a wide grip, and palms facing away from me, I'm still not able to do those, BUT, on the pull-up-assist machine, in which I had to use 80-90lbs of counterweight to do these about 6 weeks ago, I am now using much less. I got 5 reps using only 30lbs today (although I don't know if I got up completely). I will continue with this assist machine for a few more workouts untill I have to use no counterweight, then I'll also replace this excercise with normal pullups (without counterweight), and later I'll ADD weight.

I also did DIPS! PR! .. yeah, I wasn't able to do these either, not if I went down strictly. I did a few sets of 3, some of 4, and some of 5 reps! PR! .. what a great feeling. I was using a machine where one is seated, and it simulates the movement of the dip. I have to use a seatbelt so I don't get myself up. All it has is 255lbs max, and I can do a few reps with that. If those pounds were accurate, I'd be able to do dips with my own BW + 70lbs, yet I struggle with my own BW.. heh, but since I can now do regular dips, it's buh-bye to that machine as well, and from now on, BW-dips, and later adding a bit of weight.

I also did a 5x5 routine on a seated-row machine, the last two sets with 200lbs which I had never done before, it has 260, but when I get my Dinosour Training book and change my routine, I might not do this machine and do bent-rows instead, who knows. I kinda like this machine though.

I also did incline bench with dumbells.

45x10

55x5 x 4 sets.

(There is a missing 60dumbell at the gym, and there is no 65!! So the next one would be 70, which is too far for me, damn! Next time I'll do incline in the bench instead).

AND THE MOST INTERESTING THING OF TODAY!

Before the workout, I decided to try out a 3 minutes and 50 seconds routine that bender recommended me. It's 8 sets of squats, 20 seconds all you can, then rest 10 secs. You end at 3:50 as you don't count the last 10 secs of rest, heh. All I gotta say is this:

I HATE YOU BENDER!!!!!!!!! ... but in a good way, so I forgive you. When bender said "it trashes your thigs and burns blood sugar", I just thought "hrm.. ok".... man, it REALLY trashes your thigs, I did this 4 hours ago and I can BARELY WALK right now. Wow. And supossedly I work my legs on those leg extension and leg press machines... I will also quit all this machines once I start doing Squats and deadlifts. (where is my book!?!? ) ...

Anyways, I felt good today. I did not touch a gripper either sat/sun, so my hands should be rested, although I had to grip tightly today working my back, but that's nothing compared to grippers :P .. If I don't get 8 reps on that #1 right handed, I'm gonna kill that gripper. Stay tuned. :P

[Martin_Arildsson]

Congrats on all your PR!

[Scott Styles]

You are doing really well. Keep at it and be patient.

[lifesnotfair]

I hit the grippers.

... and I use this emoticon because there is not one that represents crying, frustration and disappointment.

I couldn't close the #1 left handed, though I could hold it at 1-2mm for quite a while.

I couldn't even equal my 7-rep record on the #1.

I put the #2 in PDA Choker in the closer possition, I think there's about 20mm between handles... I could barely move that lefthanded, and I could take it to maybe 10mm right handed.

Screw this. I'm ordering a Blobette tomorrow, I'm gonna strengthen my hands somehow. :-(

Next time I will go back to strapholds, BUT this time, I'm gonna use a piece of a belt that I cut today, which is a bit thinner than IM's strap, and since it's leather it's more slippery I would say. I should file my grippers about the width of this belt, both the T and #1... Been thinking about it.... and I believe I could benefit from a gripper that's anywhere between a #1 and #2 for my RH...

I'm gonna order a few BB grippers, all of the ones before the Super Master (which is like a #3 I've heard).

I gotta admit one thing: I don't really like the ISG very much .. maybe someday when I'm stronger I'll find it more comfortable.

[Scott Styles]

They won't all be great workouts. Some things to think about:

1. The closer you choke the gripper, the easier it will be to finish. You may just need to put a hose clamp on the gripper handles to choke them down to 5-10mm.

2. Even if you can't shut the choked #2, you might be able to do a good negative with it in the PDA choker. Force it shut with 2 hands, release, and focus on crushing it back shut with one.

3. The blobette is WIDE. I'm not sure how long your hand is, but the blobette may be too wide for a lot of the block work exercises. Unless your hands are at least 7.5", I'd probably look for another tool.

4. Just earlier today you had a huge PR workout where you pulled your biggest weights ever for chins and rows. You also hit an exhuasting squat workout. It's quite likely your hands are feeling the impacts of that and are a little weaker tonight. That isn't a reason to change your plan mid-stream or buy new equipment. You will adapt.

5. People seem to either love or hate the Ivanko Super Gripper. I had one for a few years, then sold it, cause I could never get anything out of it. The guys that train on it regularly are in the minority.

[lifesnotfair]

Thanks a lot for your input!!

Answering some:

1. You're right, I did notice Temmu_I using a hoseclamp and starting at a very little distance, then opening it up. The PDA only choked it to about 20mm which is maybe too far to start with. I will see if I buy good hoseclamps, I don't want one breaking on me.

2. I have never really tried a negative. I *think* I can close it with two hands, but even that's not easy! Those last 10mm are tough. I'm gonna try that in my next workout. I will also do less warmup on the Trainer. 25 reps might be tiring my hands a bit, at least the left.

3. My hands are not 7.5 ... ok, wont get the 'bette for now. Actually, last night I picked Brookfield's book, and in the chapter of blockweights, one of the things he says is that different blockweights have different width, so you train your hand at many different angles, and that's one of the reasons that blockweights are so good. I guess that is eliminated with the Blobette.

And yeah, the hands get tired on some workouts, specially when working out the back muscles, as one pulls so many stuff, and pulling involves gripping tightly to the bar and stressing the fingers.

Thanks for the input again!! Gonna look for hoseclamps right now.

[lifesnotfair]

Teemu would be proud of me.

I brought my T and #1 to work and filed them. I used a saw! Man did I sweat doing that. I can still close them both right handed, and the T left handed can still close it. I don't know how much this BTR work will help, but I'm sure that doing strapholds with this filed gripper will be much more helpful tan doing them on a normal gripper.

I placed an order to Weightlifter's Warehouse for a BB Advanced, Super Advanced and Master.

According to the "Gripper Rankings" thread in the FAQ section:

The BB Advanced has the exact same specs of the #1 - should be good to have as my #1 is now filed.

The BB Super Advanced has specs that would place it between the #1 and the #2. The optimal thing would be if it fits right in the middle of them both, but I don't care if it's just a bit harder than the #1, or if it's just a bit easier than the #2, from 1.1 to 1.9 on the COC scale, it should be more benefitial to me than my #2 which I can only get to about 10mm even clamped at 20mm. I'm hoping it's not TOO close to the #2 though.

The BB Master has the same specs as the #2, I don't know why I got it, but since grippers vary, hopefully it'll be different.

[Teemu I]

Teemu would be proud of me.

I brought my T and #1 to work and filed them. I used a saw! Man did I sweat doing that. I can still close them both right handed, and the T left handed can still close it. I don't know how much this BTR work will help, but I'm sure that doing strapholds with this filed gripper will be much more helpful tan doing them on a normal gripper.

I placed an order to Weightlifter's Warehouse for a BB Advanced, Super Advanced and Master.

According to the "Gripper Rankings" thread in the FAQ section:

The BB Advanced has the exact same specs of the #1 - should be good to have as my #1 is now filed.

The BB Super Advanced has specs that would place it between the #1 and the #2. The optimal thing would be if it fits right in the middle of them both, but I don't care if it's just a bit harder than the #1, or if it's just a bit easier than the #2, from 1.1 to 1.9 on the COC scale, it should be more benefitial to me than my #2 which I can only get to about 10mm even clamped at 20mm. I'm hoping it's not TOO close to the #2 though.

The BB Master has the same specs as the #2, I don't know why I got it, but since grippers vary, hopefully it'll be different.

I am proud of you!

I'm pretty sure that you'll benefit from BTR work and strapholds done with filed grippers.

Try to choke your #2 to 10 mm or even to 5 mm and start building up from there.

I read that you thought you did too long warmups with Trainer, you are absolutely right. Try to limit the amount of warmup closures to only a couple and do them as singles.

If your hands are about 7", they are certainly big enough to get a hold of Blobette. Besides Brookfield says that when his wide open pinch position is at it's peak, his grip strength is at it's best for overall purposes. So you still might want to consider Blobette, if money's not an issue for you. With about 7" hands, you can use Blobette for plenty of exercises, just vary the load. That's the beaty of Blobette.

Edited October 3, 2006 by Teemu I

[lifesnotfair]

I will go to a hardware store and see if I can buy a couple of clamps today.

Also, I wanna repeat this: I hate bender! (in a good way though). Man, I can still barely walk! And it's wednesday, it's been two days since I did his 4 minute workout...

It's amazing how effective that workout is. Last friday, I squatted on the smith machine (for the last time! Next time I'll do regular squats) and I ued 50, 100 and 120lbs x 5 reps... and my legs did not hurt either friday, saturday or sunday. Then on monday I do bender's 4 minute BW squats (20secs of squats, 10 secs of rest)... and on that same day, on the following, and even the following (today), I feel an incredibly pain in my thigs muscles. I'm supossed to workout my shoulders and legs today. I have now idea how am I gonna squat any weight feeling like this. I might workout on the leg-curl machine and the calves, and leave the squats for another day. I'm gonna do military press today and see if I can get at least 115lbsx5, I have only done this excercise once (was doing it on a machine, but I've been switching from machines to the ever-manly oly bar, heh). I will also do the Pegasus after work, so I'll post again tonight, and I'll do grippers tomorrow or friday, depending on how hand feels. (Does anyone think that doing grippers the day after the Pegasus work, is bad by any means?).

[Teemu I]

I bet you aren't ready to do grippers immediately the next day after training with Pegasus.

[lifesnotfair]

I did the Pegasus yesterday, it definitely hurts when I do flexion, which stinks. So I tried normal wrist curls with dumbells, and they weren't painful at all, weird! I think if I turn my forearm a bit to the inside, I feel less pain. I even tried to lay my forearm on the opposite leg (like, right forearm over left thig), but it was kinda uncomfortable on the shoulder. But I did it on the correct thig and it felt good. I worked up to 55lbs for a couple of reps RH and 50lbs for a couple of reps LH (tried 55 but felt truly hard). Gonna start a 5x5 routine with those. I did 5x5 on Pegasus flexion with 10lbs. I want to do my 6kg (13.26lb) plate x5 and then 15lbs as a short term goal.

I will rest my hands today, and I will hit the grippers tomorrow. I don't think I'll have my new BB grippers by tomorrow, but possibly for next week. I wonder if the knurling will be uncomfortable, I've heard they're harder than IM's grippers, and I used electric tape on the finger handle of my IM grippers. My pinky finger was being affected by the knurling. Maybe it's time to man up and remove the tape. Wonder if tape is an advantage...

I measured my forearms yesterday and they're about 12-1/4", I know, weak. I measured my wrists and they're 6-3/8" at their thinnest point, some girly measurements. I think I wasn't made for grip, but since people on the board say genetis do not matter, and only hard work, then I'll work hard and see what I can do.

[Teemu I]

Forget genetics and train hard and be patient and persistent with your training.

[lifesnotfair]

Biceps/Triceps day today, and I added forearm work since I'm on it. I'm still on a crappy routine, but bare with me, I will change to a better one as soon as my Dinasour Training arrives. Here's what I did today, I tried to apply a 5x5 style to all excercices.

Preacher curls

60x8

70x6

80x5

80x4 (damn!)

70x5

The rest I did combined (one set of each at the time)

Hammer curls & Standing Tricep over-head with a dumbell.

HC's:

20x8

25x6

30x5

35x5

35x5 (man! And I remember 2 months ago I couldn't HC a 15lber left handed! armes are pretty much equaled in strength now, maybe a slight difference, but not huge as it was).

Triceps with the dumbell:

40x8

55x6

70x5

70x5

70x5

70x5 (because the 40 felt too easy so I didn't count it).

Then I combined DIPS with concentration curls.

BW dips: 5x5, they were hard, but I could do them all! @ 185lbs or so.

Concentration:

20x8

25x6

30x5

35x5

35x5 (yay!! 2 months ago this was even wore than the hammer curls, couldn't do 2 reps with 15lb leftie, don't get me wrong, I could do at least 25 rightie, which is not bad for a total begginer).

And lastly I combined 2 cable excercices:

Standing Bicep Curls:

80x6

90x5

100x4 (argh!)

90x5

100x5 (yeah!)

Standing tricep pushdown on inverted-V bar:

100x8

150x5 - felt rather easy, but this is all this mahine had. So I moved to another machine, which strangely enough has THE SAME WEIGHTS, but they are much heavier. I think it's because it has 2 pulleys, and I estimate it's about twice as hard, so don't be confused because of the following numbers.

80x5

80x5

80x5 (I estimate this is AT LEAST 160lb on other weights I started with (and where I did the bicep). This felt pretty hard and I had to give it all I had to finish it.

COMMENTS: First of all, forgot to mention 10 minutes on the stairmaster for warmup - this gets me all sweaty, this is an amazing machine. Second... does it look like too much? According to a website I use to see how excercices are performed, it says that preacher curls are NOT mainly for biceps!! This was a huge shock to me, I always thought it was a bicep excercise. Actually, by reading that website, I have noticed that the only Bicep Brachii excercise I did, was the cable curls. Since it states that:

-Preacher Curl is mainly brachialis, although synergists are biceps brachii and brachioradialis.

-Concentration curls ALSO a brachialis excercise, with the same synergists, so I did two of the same thing! ARGH!

-Hammer curls is mainly brachioradialis, with biceps brachii and brachialis as synergists.

-Cable curl is the only one that says mainly works biceps brachii, and synergists are the other two, brachialis and brachioradialis.

So today I did more forearm than biceps, duh. Man am I an ignorant in the world of weightlifting. At least I know for a fact the 3 triceps excercises I did are truly for tricep. I was aiming to do 2 biceps and 2 forearm... so I gotta eliminate either preacher curl or concentration curls which have the exact same targets and synergist muscles, and I gotta add a mainly bicep one, like standing barbell curl.

I know, I write too much. I intend to do grippers today, we'll see how it feels. I was reading Heath Sexton's guide to close big grippers, and one of his suggested routines was to work out about 5-6 days a week, but with about 3 of them being Trainer and #1 days (easy stuff for him). So last night I couldn't resist and closed the Trainer a bit. Since I filed it down, it pinches a bit of my palm and can't close it, I have to push that bit of palm down with my other hand to finish the close, hah. The #1 isn't that bad and closes easier, I guess I filed it better. I didn't do max attempts, I attempted the #1 only once lefthanded, and although it did not close, it would've been closed if it weren't filed, which made me happy. I don't know if I can rep my #1 righthanded now that it's filed, but I'll find out today. I'm sure strapholds will help even more now.

Oh, BTW, the 80x5 preacher was a PR (previous was 2), the HC's with 35 was a PR (never before done), the concentration curls with 35 were also a PR (never before done), the dips were kindof a PR too (I did a dip for the first time ever last monday), the 80lb on the "heavy weighted" tricep pushdown was a PR (previous 75)... so it was a hell of a day actually, bad routine or not :P

Edited October 6, 2006 by lifesnotfair

[lifesnotfair]

Yay! Today has been a good day, strength-wise.

I tried to do a rather short routine.

Filed trainer warm-ups, 2x5 .. I have to press a bit of my palm with the other hand, otherwise the bottom of the handles "pinch" some skin. I don't like filed grippers for closes.... but I do think they're very benefitial for strapholds!

I attempted the #1 leftie and got it to where it would've been closed if it weren't filed.

I attempted the #1 rightie and it was hard to close, darn filed gripper... I didn't even try to rep it.

I went to strapholds with IM's strap, but now it's MUCH harder seeing that I filed a piece of the gripper that is even wider than the IM strap, so while strapholding the gripper is still a little bit Beyond The Range. I hope my BBA is about the same as a #1 so I can have a non-filed of that force (as I said, I don't like how they feel for normal closes).

So I went on and strapheld 7.5 and 10 pounds or so, considerably less than what I was doing before filing (I used the T in my left, #1 in my right).

I then went insane and tried the #2 right handed, and got it to 10mm or so, and for the first time EVER, I tried a negative on it; it was easy to close with two hands (last time I tried it was very hard), and to my surprise, it only opened to about 1/4, and held it there for at least 3 seconds. I then tried the #1 left handed, but that hand was getting tired, but did a negative and held at about 1-2mm (remember it's filed). Then I went with the #2 rightie again, a negative, Parallel set and two-handed close after getting it to maybe 9mm with one hand, and it opened back up to only 3/16 for at least 1.5 seconds, then 1/4 for at least 2-3 secs, then very slowly opened up another 1-2mm, then I let off. For the first time in my life, the #2 seems doable, although I'm pretty far from a normal close. This is a Personal Best at least, and I'm pretty happy.

I hope I get my BBA, BBSA and BBM for my next workout, although I will leave the BBM unopened for until I can close my #2 (same specs), and then I'll try to close the BBM out of the package. I want to close my #2 before this year end, or better yet, before my first child is born, which is due in early January (not too much of a difference). I swear if I can close it by then, I'll bring the gripper to the hospital and straphold him the umbilical cordon. :P ...ok, bad joke. But I wanna tell him someday, "you gotta get strong my son, I was closing #2's when you were born!" ... :P

I then cooled down with some T reps, which felt hard, about 5 reps and held for a few secs in the last.

IM Yellow bands finally feeling easier, did many sets of 10 reps with them.

Contrast baths to finish off... BOTH of my pinkies are numb, I don't feel the tips very much, even now after the contrast baths... wow, should I be scared? ... that's it.

[gerryg]

Your workouts are looking good! I doubt your BBM will come in a package so fire away, my BBM rates around a 1.8 a little less than my CoC#2!

[lifesnotfair]

Your workouts are looking good! I doubt your BBM will come in a package so fire away, my BBM rates around a 1.8 a little less than my CoC#2!

If BBM's are all a little less than #2's, that would even be better, it would mean I will have 2 grippers between the #1 and #2? (BBSA, BBM) ? Should make it easier to train for closes with them, and negatives on the #2 until I can close it. Darn, I might be needing to get a stronger gripper sooner than I expected, if I'm going to be doing negatives, because last night I did them and I kinda liked the feeling. My pinkies are still feeling weird today! The tips, they feel kindof "asleep", heh.

[lifesnotfair]

Saturday 07.09.2006.

Since I did grippers yesterday, and I'll rest from them today and tomorrow, I decided to do forearm work today, which doesn't really require heavy gripping.

Extension with Pegasus.

7.5 x 8

10x5

10x5

10x5

10x4 and halfway through the fifth! Darn!

7.5x12 because I got angry for not finishing that fifth.

I did one set of these combined with Dumbell Wrist Curls, for which I don't count the weight of the pin and screws.

31x8

41x5

51x5 RH / 46x5 LH

51x5 RH / 46x5 LH

51x5 RH / 46x5 LH

My right wrist is stronger, I struggle with 46 leftie more than I do with 51 rightie. And now I have a slight pain in my left shoulder, but I know it'll go away, no biggie. As this is done on a regular 1" handle, I don't think much gripping effort is required.. I mean, I do squeeze it hard, but it's not like closing grippers or anything.

I bought a few different clamps, to clamp my #2 or whatever, we'll see. I also noticed the store had new sledges, so I immediately bought a 6lb, as my 8lb is very hard for most excercices. I think I can do totally strict nose-levers without lowering my arm, with both hands, from the very bottom... so training with the 8lb has helped some... but I'll sharpen up with the 6lbr without even touching the 8lber for a while, so next time I grab the 8lbr I wont need to be holding it closer to the weight, than to the end of the handle!!! :-)

[lifesnotfair]

09.10.2006

Not a bad day. I had a few drinks last night, and I slept 6 hrs or less, and had a slight hangover at work today, I knew I'd be weak so I didn't wanna do weights, instead, I decided to do cardio (so I'll do weights tues/thur/sat this week, no problem). However, at noon, I didn't feel like going to the gym, so I decided to do grippers.

A few closes on the T, which are actually hard since I filed so much off of it.

Then proceeded with attempts. I tried the #2 right handed about 3 times, got to about 10mm each, forced in, and opens up to about 3/16-1/4", held for a couple of secs, and I let it open quite slowly. The #2 is feeling more and more doable. I did attempts with my #1 left handed, the first two should've been closed if it weren't so filed, then my hand got tired os I did negatives, but cannot hold it closed with a tired hand and being filed. I did IM Yellow bands which are getting easier, finally, I used the green ones for a long time. I'm doing over 10 reps with the yellow now.

After work, I didn't feel like going to the gym either, so I decided to start rope-jumping, and I jumped the rope 3000 times. This is a personal best for me. I took about 5 breaks of maybe 2 mins each.

I did Pegasus Extension combined with Wrist Curls.

Peg:

7.5x5

10x5 x4 sets. (all 2.5's)

13.26 (6kg plate) x1 very, very hard rep, I think I didn't cheat, but it was damn slow.

WC's:

31x8

41x5

46x5 x3 sets. Wrists were weak today.

But before all this, I decided to do some grippers AGAIN! For the second time in the same day. I decided to do this since I did very low volume at noon. So I wamed up on the T, and proceeded with attempts again.

RH - went straight to the #2, setting it is feeling easier (finally! it used to feel unbelievable hard to set), and I got it to 10mm or so with a MMSet, forced closed, and opened up to 3/16"; second time it opened to that or 1/4".. I can hold it there for a couple of seconds, and then let it open quite slowly again. I did some attempts with the #1 left handed, at least the first two seeem like they would've been closed on a non-filed #1.

Tomorrow is chest/back day, I wont do any gripping, I hope to get my BBA, BBSA and BBM soon. I thought the BBM, having the same specs as the #2, would be the same, but most people say it's a 1.8-1.9. I expect to slam shut the BBSA at least, which is supossed to be harder than a #1 too. I think this grippers will help as they'll reduce the huge gaps on IM grippers. I hope they arrive soon! Argh! Can't wait till tomorrow as I'm gonna try chin-ups 5x5 (easy underhand grip) for the first time ever.

[acorn]

Excellent Progress, you will be getting that #2 before you know it.

- Aaron

[Teemu I]

Doesn't look bad at all with that #2.

[lifesnotfair]

Got my grippers, I'm at work right now, 9:40am.. and squeezing them, lol. I shouldn't, as I trained with them yesterday, but I just want to see where I'm at. So far these are my impresisons.

BBA - Easily closed RH, not too hard LH. Spread is small, maybe 2.75" or so.

BBSA - Closed and repped RH, got to about 1-2mm LH, I will close this very soon, I felt I could've almost done it.

Both of these have very havy knurlings, wow.... I used electric tape on the finger-handle of my other grippers, and this grippers seem to have harsher knurling than the COC grippers. Let me try the BBM....

ARGH! Was interrupted as I was setting it, I squeezed, felt almost like my #2 I think, a bit easier maybe. I know I can't shut it right now, but I wanna give it another squeeze just to see what I can do to it. The knurling causes some pain in the fingers, heh.

Wow, tried it again, not even close, got to maybe 10mm, tried a negative and it opened to 1/4" quickly. The knurling is INSANE on this thing. I was supossed to rest today and now I have done 2 squeezes LH and 4 RH, damn.

Also, it's official, everytime I attempt grippers LH I get pain my elbow and I think a bit in my shoulder too, wow... right side is fine though. It goes away though, so doesn't bother me all the time. :-(

I think my plan for the moment should be:

LH: try to rep the BBA and attempts on BBSA.

RH: try to rep the BBSA and attempts on the BBM.

I'm thinking of taping the handles of these... but dunno, it's a girly thing to do :P