My griplog 2.0 (A renewed quest for gripstrength)

[Geralt]

Not much too mention, really. Still training and plowing away. Sometimes gripperstrength is way off, sometimes it's good. Can't pick a certain reason for that. 
Started two times per week now for grippers, once heavy negatives and holds, followed by a straphold with a filed IM#2 (pretty taxing) and a second working for blockset reps. 

Today was supposed to be the first gripperworkout in that regimen. Did it, but my hands were probably still a bit too fatigued still by one hand hangs with fatgripz Extreme last Friday. Just tried these as I saw some guying doing these and my lowerarms were sore as hell last days lol probably not very smart given my current goals. Anyway, they'll recover eventually. Next sessions after a day or three/four for blockset reps. Need to see which RGC works best for that, since I really need to start working harder to get over the 150+ CCS bump. 

Overall body is mainly pushups, dips and rows in all kinds of fashions and pistols. The flu is going around pretty heavy but we managed to stay away from that. Energy levels have been higher though, but all around live has been pretty busy also lately. 

 

 

[Royz]

28 minutes ago, Geralt said:

one hand hangs with fatgripz Extreme

Thumbs under or over? Seems pretty damn impressive knowing you weigh about 100kg /220lbs right? I have a hard time doing one arm hangs even with a regular grip (partly due to shoulder problems, but still...).

[Geralt]

1 hour ago, Royz said:

Thumbs under or over? Seems pretty damn impressive knowing you weigh about 100kg /220lbs right? I have a hard time doing one arm hangs even with a regular grip (partly due to shoulder problems, but still...).

Hey man, wait I probably need to adjust that, I meant attempts.  My best 0,02 seconds lol

I do have to say in my defence, that the handle of my pullup bar is a little bit too thin, which makes the FG spin, so that's not working in my advantage also. 
The attempts I did were with thumb under, so not thumbless. Thumbless doesn't work even if I wanted to, because the handles just spins my hand off. 

The attempts did make me squeeze like hell of course, so I had a muscle soreness deep in the muscle belly of my lowerarm. Nice feeling, but not productive when recovering for grippers. 

[Fist of Fury]

Geralt, I think FGX might help you in your quest to cert the #3. I actually got much stronger with CCS when I used FGX (without training CCS). Missed my light #3 with a hair only, I have not been anywhere near that before I used FGX and not after I stopped using them either. I have not felt this with smaller thick bars, FGX seemed to help my CCS strength tremendously.

The trick is to use light weight and low volume though. If you go heavy you will not have anything left in the tank for grippers. 

[Geralt]

On 28-2-2018 at 7:01 PM, Fist of Fury said:

Geralt, I think FGX might help you in your quest to cert the #3. I actually got much stronger with CCS when I used FGX (without training CCS). Missed my light #3 with a hair only, I have not been anywhere near that before I used FGX and not after I stopped using them either. I have not felt this with smaller thick bars, FGX seemed to help my CCS strength tremendously.

The trick is to use light weight and low volume though. If you go heavy you will not have anything left in the tank for grippers. 

Thanks, Fist! Yeah...there probably is correlation because open hand work builds massive strong hands, though I never found carry over to grippers for me, I personally would do a build up with Fatgripz for a while and then recover and switch to grippers. I don't think the both work together, for me, even with lower volume. 

Started since last week with negatives and strapholds one sessions and blockset work the other session. Last mentioned last Sunday, goal short term is 3 x 3 BBGM @137lbs before deep filing, 30mm blockset reps BTR. I'm on 2.5 reps so it's doable for short term. The negatives are with a 176lbs Ghp8 and IM3.5 @ 175lbs. Strapholds are done with a double filed IM#2, thin strap with 1kg attached. Very tricky. I vary the training moments, I take rest 3 days in between at least, preferably 4, so my trainingdays shift, which works actually quite better now I work more focused. The days in between I carefully do my allround body training, with the exercises I mentioned earlier. 

 

[Geralt]

Update, still twice per week grippers. 

Negatives first workout I used my 169lbs BBE; 
Concentric phase second workout goal is 3 x 3 Filed BBGM (137 before filing) 30mm blockset.

Almost able to get 3 reps which means when I should get this, when not adding negatives in the same week. I want 3 reps in this less recovered state however, so today I added one extra set of 2 reps. This way I am getting the closes in, but not learning the hands to miss the 3rd rep everytime. BTR work is hard to judge with a deeply filed gripper. When I get the 3 reps I go to my 142lbs filed IM#3. 

Lost a dear family member last week and had a funural this week. Also some nagging aches started to come up in my left arm so I didn't train other that grippers. Not really motivated to do other stuff. Got a decent workout in today with pistol squats, pushups and rows in a different variation, the constant neutral handposition with pulling work probably got my tendons a bit irritated. Hope it works out now. 

[Geralt]

Flu since Friday. 

[Jörg Keilbach]

Get well soon!

[Geralt]

Holy crap, can't remember being so sick in years. My energy was completely gone this week. From last Thursday till now I got out of bed and slowly got my energy back. Wife is still sick. Since I felt reasonable again since the last two days I decided to go and train grippers today, just for the sake of getting into it again. Got to start somewhere and see how it feels. 

Vulcan Gold spring TNS 2 x 3 lowest level; 
IM#1 (filed) 2 x 3 TNS; 
IM#2 (filed) 1 x 2 TNS (this just felt hard);
IM#2.5  3 x 3 20mm blockset; 
12kg kettlebell bottom up lifts, thumb on the flat stamped side; 
Thumbscrews till failure, mounted on sportsstore gripper. 

That's it, couldn't be bothered to do other stuff. Downright frustrating how easy a week sickness can set you back. 

[jvance]

Sorry about your loss Geralt. Wish you and your family healing and strength.

[Geralt]

On 3-4-2018 at 12:08 PM, jvance said:

Sorry about your loss Geralt. Wish you and your family healing and strength.

Thank you Jon! 

Friday April 6th
Bunch of pistols, Shoulder presses (light), pushups and rows with underhand grip because of left arm nag (Brachii is irritated), 

Saturday April 7th
Ridiculous amount of muscle soreness in the legs, showing my body isn't at the level where it should be, given the pretty mild training before; 

Today
Grippers, after warming up:
IM#3 (150lbs) wide set 2 x 1 closed (felt fairly easy); 
BBE (169lbs) Paused parallel set slight miss, forced closed; 
IM#3 144 lbs 1 x 2 attempt, missed the second rep by a hair, at parallel set; 
IM#3 144 lbs 1 x 1 closed wide set with pause.

lifting 12kg kettlebell upside down with hold, this pretty much a handsize related lift, but it taxes my fingers and thumbs pretty good; 
Wrist work with 8 kg kettlebell in towel, 4 x 10 all directions. 
 

[Geralt]

Tuesday April 10th
Pistols, shoulderpresses, chin ups and assisting pulling work. 

Friday April 13th
Grippers after warming up:
IM#3 (142) speedclose 30mm blockset 1 x 1 close; 
BBGM (137 before filing) 30mm blockset 2 x 2; 
IM#2.5 (130-ish) 30mm blockset 'speedset' 2 x 2; 
Kettlebell lifts at the bottom 12kg and 8kg with loading pin and weight attached holds; 
Thumbscrews; 
8kg kettelbell with towel, wristwork all directions. 

Saturday April 14th
Shoulderpresses, abs and triceps (skullcrushers) after working around the house. Energylevel was still not 100% this week.

 

Edited April 15, 2018 by Geralt

[Geralt]

Monday April 16th
Trapbar DL, need to get used to lifting actual weights again lol worked up till 150kg from deficit. 
Chinups, standing supinated barbell rows. 

Tuesday April 17th
Grippers, TNS 5 x 3 filed IM#2, IM#1 timed strapholds. 

Thursday
Gripmachine, plateloader, several sets, pyramid style, wide set, then switched to smaller set, ended with pyramid style singles up to 125kg. 
 

Rest of the week is full with other plans and activities. Energy level still not 100%, perhaps it's the sudden weather change or something, went from cold to high summer temperatures. Switch from winter to summertime is not my thing, let alone combining it with being sick. Also had small surgery in my mouth today which isn't contributing to the happiness feeling lol

I am going to hit grip harder, specially grippers otherwise this isn't going to flow in the direction I want it to. Basically training grip every other week, so one week hard griptraining, then week off. In my 'off week' I do regular weighttraining, in my 'gripweek' I am going do grip only. Not changing anything in the way how I train, just more rest. 

 

[jvance]

2 hours ago, Geralt said:

Monday April 16th
Trapbar DL, need to get used to lifting actual weights again lol worked up till 150kg from deficit. 
Chinups, standing supinated barbell rows. 

Tuesday April 17th
Grippers, TNS 5 x 3 filed IM#2, IM#1 timed strapholds. 

Thursday
Gripmachine, plateloader, several sets, pyramid style, wide set, then switched to smaller set, ended with pyramid style singles up to 125kg. 
 

Rest of the week is full with other plans and activities. Energy level still not 100%, perhaps it's the sudden weather change or something, went from cold to high summer temperatures. Switch from winter to summertime is not my thing, let alone combining it with being sick. Also had small surgery in my mouth today which isn't contributing to the happiness feeling lol

I am going to hit grip harder, specially grippers otherwise this isn't going to flow in the direction I want it to. Basically training grip every other week, so one week hard griptraining, then week off. In my 'off week' I do regular weighttraining, in my 'gripweek' I am going do grip only. Not changing anything in the way how I train, just more rest. 

 

Good to see you still training!! Good work, looks like you're consistently very close to cert strength.

[Geralt]

14 hours ago, jvance said:

Good to see you still training!! Good work, looks like you're consistently very close to cert strength.

Hey man, thnx. Well, I am on and off on strength and I can't put my finger on what that is. Most logic reason for me is that I just can't give so much output on a weekly basis. It must be a recovery thing, that's why I  decided to train less but with the same setup. Doing more reps with lighter grippers or more negatives isn't going to set me in a better position. When I was in my 30's I needed a week rest already and now I am 40. A bit illogic of me to think that I can get away with the same restperiods.  Should be a logic step. Time will tell! If I never get the cert I will be in time magazine with 'the most tweaked and advanced gripprogram maker without any results'

Edited April 20, 2018 by Geralt

[Fist of Fury]

8 minutes ago, Geralt said:

Hey man, thnx. Well, I am on and off on strength and I can't put my finger on what that is. Most logic reason for me is that I just can't give so much output on a weekly basis. It must be a recovery thing, that's why I  decided to train less but with the same setup. Doing more reps with lighter grippers or more negatives isn't going to set me in a better position. When I was in my 30's I needed a week rest already and now I am 40. A bit illogic of me to think that I can get away with the same restperiods.  Should be a logic step. Time will tell! If I never get the cert I will be in time magazine with 'the most tweaked and advanced gripprogram maker without any results'

You'll get it man. Stay consistent and train hard and it will happen.

[Andrew Dube]

2 hours ago, Geralt said:

If I never get the cert I will be in time magazine with 'the most tweaked and advanced gripprogram maker without any results'

1

You'll get it! I figure you still have at least 20 good years to make it happen!

[jvance]

You'll get it done good sir. No question - it will mean more to you given the struggle to get here. I'm in the same boat as well... 

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Hopefully said:

Maybe try building some more muscle overall would help you, going with a bodybuilding routine (with a litte more focus on forearm hypertrophy) for awhile. Maybe gain a good 30 pounds or so. When you max out your current muscle mass strength potential, you need to build more muscle to get stronger at some point. I am of the opinion that grip strength works differently, but maybe not. Just something to consider. 

A good read:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/5vj39w/concept_wednesday_relative_strength/

 

I agree with this. I’m at my all time heaviest weight and also crush power. I have been hitting powerlifting hard to make my entire body stronger and it’s paid great dividends 

[JHenze646]

2 hours ago, Hopefully said:

. Maybe gain a good 30 pounds or so.

From pencilnecktraing to #nonecktraining 😂

 

[Geralt]

On 20-4-2018 at 5:52 PM, Andrew Dube said:

You'll get it! I figure you still have at least 20 good years to make it happen!

Or I will die trying! haha this thing crossed my path years ago and goals should be a challenge, right? 

22 hours ago, jvance said:

You'll get it done good sir. No question - it will mean more to you given the struggle to get here. I'm in the same boat as well... 

Yeah...reckon we're the in between guys, good for higher grippers up, but just missing that extra few fibers to fire up when doing the CCS work and bigger grippers up. We're at the point that we need mathematical skills, extra testosteron in the metabolic window and lot's of hail mary's before bed lol 

21 hours ago, Hopefully said:

Maybe try building some more muscle overall would help you, going with a bodybuilding routine (with a litte more focus on forearm hypertrophy) for awhile. Maybe gain a good 30 pounds or so. When you max out your current muscle mass strength potential, you need to build more muscle to get stronger at some point. I am of the opinion that grip strength works differently, but maybe not. Just something to consider. 

A good read:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/5vj39w/concept_wednesday_relative_strength/

 

I try this, but my body is very keen for  losing weight very quickly. Was sick a few weeks ago and really I have to hear people saying to me for more then 3 weeks now 'Gosh did you lose weight'? Probably shaving my beard off also didn't help a lot but still. I am 40 now so I am not going to stuff everything down my throat anymore to get 'bigger', I need my arteries and heart for at least 40 years more haha so when I gain weight, it should be done with clean eating and a lot of it, which for me simply doesn't work with my work and all. Tried it, some guys can, if I read about their succes stories, being a good dad, working 12 hours per day, sleeping 2 hours, training and gaining and prepping. I call b....t. but hey, maybe I see it wrong. I have no idea how these guys help their kids with homework, do stuff around the house, etc. Probably because they don't and training is their only focus. My point is, the BB life doesn't work for me, though I fully agree that most #3 CCS closers are all 100kg / 220 lbs and up, few exceptions left out of the equation. I try to eat more, prevent that I feel hungry and all and do that extra bit, for the rest, I do believe that I should be able to do this with my 'natural' weight, which is around the 220 lbs, but I am pretty tall, 1,94cm / 6 feet 4⅜ inches. My 'new' setup is more focused on the basic weighttraining one week and the griptraining the other week. If I want my lowerarms to heal and recovery properly, doing curls isn't going to fire up the recovery, so I am going to focus a bit more on the compound stuff. But like I said, I was doing pretty consistent before I got sick and even now after 4 weeks I am still missing that little bit of extra energy. Typical. A good flu suck big lemons. I hear people over here complaining a lot about the after flu period. Very draining. 

 

I appreciate the input by the way guys, always have found a lot of encouragement here on the GB. Thnx

Edited April 21, 2018 by Geralt

[Geralt]

Started off with my 'new' setup, as in grip every other week. Last week I trained overall body, but had to find my groove and we had some national festivity days in between incl a weekend off with the family, so I missed a bit of structure in what I did. 

April 19th was my last griprelated workout, so I was curious how I should feel today, but ofcourse I got a headcold yesterday. It's probably going to be one of those years lol
Today's workout only grippers, next Thursday or Friday I am going to focus on the other gripaspects, then a week off with 'normal' training. 

Warming up with lighter grippers, up to #2.5 single 30mm blockclose. All easy so far. 
Working sets  
Lightly filed IM#3 (142) 4 x 1 rep 30mm blockset, 15 seconds rest between closes; 
6 minutes rest;
Ghp 6 (125)  6 x 1 CCS with just a few seconds in between, very tough; 
6 minutes rest; 
Ghp6 (125) CCS closes on the minute, messed up my counting, got 6 or 8 singles. Felt tough last closes; 
6 minutes rest; 
Ghp6 (125) 20mm blockset, 5 reps and I was toast; 
5 minutes rest; 
IM#1 1 x 20 TNS with overcrush on every close. This was not  meant as burnout set btw. Kept enough in the tank. 

Enough volume to tear the skin on my pinky, but with this spread out training it’s no problem. 

Lefty same type, several TNS sets with my filed IM#2. WOrking with #2.5 and Ghp6. Lefty felt weaker then normal. 

All in all not a bad session to start with, I will need to keep up with this for a while to see if the prolonged restperiod is helping me out. Better to be undertrained than overtrained for a while. regarding grippers.  

Edited April 30, 2018 by Geralt

[jvance]

Nice... biggest thing with higher volume that I've found is keeping track of what you did last time and pushing yourself past it each week... You may not PR every time - but pushing past last week's challenges wires my mind and body mentally for continual progress. If I don't hit a top end PR, or even a rep PR, I'll push myself to a total workout volume PR... This is finally pushing me past some old boundaries

[Geralt]

12 hours ago, jvance said:

Nice... biggest thing with higher volume that I've found is keeping track of what you did last time and pushing yourself past it each week... You may not PR every time - but pushing past last week's challenges wires my mind and body mentally for continual progress. If I don't hit a top end PR, or even a rep PR, I'll push myself to a total workout volume PR... This is finally pushing me past some old boundaries

Makes sense, it's the only thing where I can improve myself in also. Volume and recovery icm strengthgains. If my workouts are going to be spaced out too much, I can shorten the rest period. 

[Geralt]

Tonight's griptraining, open hand work: 

Rolling Thunder since probably last year SJ4 I haven't touched it anymore...
Triples and then singles up to 75kg / 165lbs, was surprised to lift it fully, though I didn't pause really in the top. Tried to reproduce it on video but no cigar. Dropped to 72,5 kg and good lift. 
Repped it out with lower weights. Pretty humbling device lol 

Pinch: Flask.
One handed R up to 38.5 kg and it felt pretty good! Tried 40 kg next but that was a no lift. Maybe if I had skipped to 38.5 kg I would have gotten good air. 
Same as with RT, repped it out with lower weight. 

Multiple sets with kettlebell and towel for wrist work. 

Felt pretty tired throughout the whole session, my hands felt ok, but my body didn't feel that primed.