WarriorOfHappiness: closing the COC 2

[Ambitious Guy]

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).

My stats are 173 cm and 63 kg. Can anyone help me with a kickass program?

 

(Here an interesting study about grip strength and social dominance, sex and ´anti-church` stuff: http://www.albany.edu/news/pdf_files/Gripstrength.pdf)

I have closed the Captains of Crush 0,5 in the past but now that strength is gone, won´t let that happen again...

07/01/2017: 1st training day

Guide: 25 closes per hand

Trainer: 10 reps per hand in 1 set

 

[Kluv#0]

Focus on being mentally strong- nobody should control your feelings. Get into some martial arts or MMA and that should help immensely. Closing gripper is fine since that is your stated goal but being happy, good person and mentally and physically strong all over much better. Old saying " best revenge is living and Lifting well". Many guys can close big grippers but don't have overall body strength and/or out off shape- DONT BE LIKE THAT!! Good luck to you

Edited January 7, 2017 by Kluv#0

[Chez]

Good luck in achieving your goal. 

[Ambitious Guy]

Thank you very much for the kind words, today (09/01/2017)1st training day: 1.warming up with the Guide 

2.  3 attempts at closing the 0,5 per hand

3. 5 reps*5 sets of closing the Trainer (with the ultimate goal of 5 sets of 20 reps with the Trainer and then using the Trainer as warm-up and doing the 5*5 system with the 0,5)

Edited January 9, 2017 by Ambitious Guy

[pburke23]

Good luck! Will be following along. You got this! 

How many days a week will you be doing grippers, and what else are you doing besides them for general strength?

Also, how did your attempts go with the .5? If you video them next time, we can help with your set, which will make a difference too!

Edited January 9, 2017 by pburke23

[Anemptybox]

Good luck, and like pburke wrote, if you show us a video we might be able to help you out with your technique.

[JD Murray]

Good luck. I'll be following along as well. Our goal is similar. I'm aiming to close the GHP5 this year.

[Ambitious Guy]

Thank you for all the positive responding guys, I really appreciate it.

I will post a video here on how I closed the 0,5 a few months ago and will also post my training program here.

As for general strength, currently I don´t have acces to a gym but I´m following a bodyweight program called

the ´Trifecta` (from the book Convict Conditioning 2 ) which consists of bridge holds, L-holds and twist holds.

 

At the moment I think I will be training one day and always taking one restday after your training to recover.

I also am going to buy the ´Expand-your-hand`- bands to not let my extensor muscles fall behind (= major cause for injury)

 

Edited January 10, 2017 by Ambitious Guy
put a video

[pburke23]

Watch that link, with some improvement to your set, you'd already be closer to a COC 1 gripper.

Biggest things to pay attention to, that you did in your video are using your off hand to set the handle, instead of holding the spring, and using your thumb to keep the gripper much further up in your hand. In your video, you can see how far it is back toward the wrist at the end, which puts you into a serious disadvantage leverage wise.

Take care!

[Ambitious Guy]

Today´s training log (11/01/2017)

1. Warming-up with the Guide: 25 reps per hand

2. 3 attempts at closing the 0,5 per hand (closed it 2 times with my right hand and 1 time with left hand)

3. 3 max ´handstands against the wall` to train my shoulder+ training for handstand pushups (I didn´t train with the Trainer because I Always want to keep my training as interesting as possible)

P.S. I don´t know if any of you gripsters know this program, but I´m also doing the ´Trifecta` daily (it´s a bodyweight program out of a book called Convict Conditioning

 2 and it´s supposed to keep your joints healthy and it indeed feels really good when I do it)

 

Thanks Pburke from now on I will train with my grippers just as Jedd Johnson from the video says.

[pburke23]

Nice job on the workout! 

When are you ordering a coc1 so you can see where you're currently at with it??

[Ambitious Guy]

I already have the CoC 1; 1.5 and the 2. I will make a video tomorrow.

[pburke23]

Cool, would be good to make one every 6-8 weeks with attempts at the 1, to see if you're making progress, or if you need to switch some things up.

[Ambitious Guy]

I have a question pburke23. How many times do you train a week with the grippers and do you use a weightlifting program in combination with your grippers?

[pburke23]

I'm not the best guy to ask, as I'm not very good with grippers, but recently I've been doing grippers 2x per week, and generally it's always paired with other "gym lifts". 

Lately I've really enjoyed doing them with something that primes the CNS for big closes, such as deadlifts or squats. 

Take care!

[Ambitious Guy]

Training log 14/01/17

- 25 closes with the Guide (warm-up)

- 6 sets of 5 reps with the Trainer (per hand)

- 2 negative reps with 0,5 (per hand)

Notes: The 0,5 today was really hard for me to close, I think that I will train by doing lots of repetitions of 5-8 reps with the Trainer to build those forearms up

and doing a lot of singles during the day with the 0,5 (that´s how I originally closed the Trainer when I was 16)

+ I also have the CoC 1 lying around, should I already start training with that one? If someone experienced can tell me?

Edited January 15, 2017 by Ambitious Guy

[Ambitious Guy]

Training log 15/01/17

- 6 sets of 5 reps with the Trainer (per hand and not in one session, just multiple times during the day)

- handstand against wall (for shoulders): 46 sec- 42 sec- 35 seconds

- 3 times headstand to handstand (I tried but I still don´t have the strength to push me up into a handstand, maybe I can do handstand negatives where I pop into a handstand and then slowly descend until my head touches the ground)

 

Motivation of the day: I don´t need to worry, if I keep on training, I will surely achieve my goal of crushing the CoC 2 handles together!

+ In about 3 weeks I can go back to the gym where I will be following a Stronglifts type of program, I´m almost 100% certain that that will make closing

the grippers way easier.

 

[Ambitious Guy]

Training log 17/01/17

- 5 sets of 6 reps with the Trainer

 

Waiting until I have a gym membership again, because I know that a lot of that gym-strength will carry over to my grip strength.

[Ambitious Guy]

I have a question for all of you grip guys. For the next months I won´t be able to access any weights. Can I close

the number 2 (Captains of Crush) (I have the Guide, the Trainer, the 0,5; the 1, the 1,5 and the 2)

just by training with the grippers (or maybe with bodyweight exercises) ? Advice on this question would be greatly appreciated because I want

to hear that satisfying ´click` when those gripper handles touch!

[Ambitious Guy]

Training log 20/01/17: 3 closes with the 0,5 per hand

Training log 21/01/17: 10 sets of 7 closes with the Trainer per hand (that´s 70 closes per hand, I do this because I want to condition my forearms in preparation for the 0,5 and the 1)

Edited January 21, 2017 by Ambitious Guy

[wobbler]

A good in between is to tns (table no set) an easier gripper. Just pick it up with one hand, try to get it in a decent place without using your other hand, then close.

[Ambitious Guy]

Another question for all of you grip guys, do you train every day with the grippers or is that too much? How many times a week do you

train with the grippers?

[Squeezus]

8 minutes ago, Ambitious Guy said:

Another question for all of you grip guys, do you train every day with the grippers or is that too much? How many times a week do you

train with the grippers?

I would definitely not recommend training every day with grippers. I personally use them twice a week, but if you are new to them, you can get away with more than two days a week as long as you listen to your body and allow it to recover adequately.

[Anemptybox]

What Squeezus wrote. If I do more than three times/week my hands don't get enough time to recover properly. Of course it depends on how hard you train as well.

[Syscrush]

On 1/21/2017 at 11:36 AM, Ambitious Guy said:

I have a question for all of you grip guys. For the next months I won´t be able to access any weights. Can I close

the number 2 (Captains of Crush) (I have the Guide, the Trainer, the 0,5; the 1, the 1,5 and the 2)

just by training with the grippers (or maybe with bodyweight exercises) ?

I think you will get differing opinions on this, and I am not a grip expert so take my advice with however much salt you find appropriate.

I think that there is a lot of evidence that the body's response to training tends to be very specific. If you want to get good at something, you have to do that thing. Cyclists get fast and fit by riding their bicycles A LOT. Olympic lifters get good by doing C&J and snatch A LOT. Whatever your goal, other exercises can help, but nothing else will ever be more important than the primary activity associated with your goal.

I would recommend considering other exercises to help with minimizing/mitigating injuries, providing some variety to keep enthusiastic, and to work past any sticking points you may hit. But these are secondary - if your goal is to close a gripper, then gripper work should always be your focus.

I'd go a bit farther - if your goal is to close a high resistance gripper for one rep, then your training should probably focus on low-rep work. I personally like to let the reps get a bit on the high side (up to 20) but I can't agree with the idea of super high-volume training. The people who are squatting 800+ lbs are not doing 200 reps in a workout.