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what are the usual grip injuries


Karl

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Fellas any particular injuires or over training symptoms to be aware of for new guys? Also is there anything that catches up to old grippers in later years? I cant see there being major blowouts like you get with contact sports. How about arthritis long term? Not trying to soundmorbid, but starting something new in your 40's its always worth asking.

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Tendonitis in the elbow, "golfer" and "tennis" elbow is very common when gripping a lot. So you should be aware of that. Best way to prevent tennis elbow is to train the extensors. Golfers elbow can be more problematic, you can easily get that from thick bar training. So being aware of it is probably the best thing to start with, if you feel it the slightest you need to take it easy.

I always train my wrist and elbows with wrist levering it seems to keep these problems at bay.

Some dangerous implements which are prone to cause severe injuries like torn biceps and finger injuries are V-bar lifts and fingertip-lifts. So those are the most risky lifts in grip sport.

Other than that most events are fairly safe. You could injure yourself in many ways with grippers but it's usually with very heavy grippers when someone tries to overload way too much.

Finger injuries from pinching happens but I don't think it's worse than any other sport.

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I don't do much gripper because it can give me middle finger knuckle pain. I avoided it more than 7 years now thanks to God and smart training.

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I’ve hurt my biceps twice on RT lifts. It was definitely my own fault overdoing volume sets and form breaking down by the final reps. But I think this is kind of common. 

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On 11/22/2020 at 5:49 PM, Karl said:

Also is there anything that catches up to old grippers in later years? I cant see there being major blowouts like you get with contact sports. How about arthritis long term? Not trying to soundmorbid, but starting something new in your 40's its always worth asking.

More than  20 years ago, when I was in my 40’s, I wondered if subjecting the hands and fingers to the heavy abuse that gripsters do, meant there would be serious problems down the line, old age, etc.    I worried what trouble I might be inviting.

Well I have a card from the US Government that says I am old, so I feel qualified to answer my own question now.

I have all kinds of ailments right now. Without a doubt, the least of my problems are my hands.My hands are pain free, healthy, and far stronger than they were when I started.

I have seen someone pull a bicep with a Rolling Thunder, because he did not warmup. He was around 40, and owned a gym. He did one rep with 106 lbs., then jumped to 172 lbs., and it did not get one hair off the floor, and that was the end of his bicep.

At the 2007 British Grip Championships, I saw Chris James do the same thing while pulling a one inch Vertical Bar, don’t remember the weight, 340-360 lbs maybe? He was lifting it far higher than the required 2 inches in height, ripping it up, the bar and arm twisting, and then boom, a serious injuring requiring surgery.

In 2008, when I was “into negatives” for gripper training, I closed a hard (more than 220 lbs RGC) Number 4 gripper on my leg, did it for two reps. It took me about 4 months to recover. The heel of my hand felt bruised like it had been smashed with a sledge hammer. 

in my 40s and very early 50s, I used to do a huge amount of hub work. Unlikely anyone was doing the volume that I was doing. It was my thing . My finger nails on the sides of my fingers at times would dig into the fingers to the point where they would get bloody. It meant I was going too far. Backed off on volume, problem solved. Yeah, one time I was pinching so hard on the hub, I hurt a tendon in my finger and it took 6 weeks to recover.

That’s it. The moral of the story? Don’t do stupid things. 

Edited by Hubgeezer
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Snapped tendons from doing table top wrist curls. Makes it impossible to do eg regular wrist curls as the wrist bones pop out of alignment.

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3 hours ago, Hubgeezer said:

More than  20 years ago, when I was in my 40’s, I wondered if subjecting the hands and fingers to the heavy abuse that gripsters do, meant there would be serious problems down the line, old age, etc.    I worried what trouble I might be inviting.

Well I have a card from the US Government that says I am old, so I feel qualified to answer my own question now.

I have all kinds of ailments right now. Without a doubt, the least of my problems are my hands.My hands are pain free, healthy, and far stronger than they were when I started.

I have seen someone pull a bicep with a Rolling Thunder, because he did not warmup. He was around 40, and owned a gym. He did one rep with 106 lbs., then jumped to 172 lbs., and it did not get one hair off the floor, and that was the end of his bicep.

At the 2007 British Grip Championships, I saw Chris James do the same thing while pulling a one inch Vertical Bar, don’t remember the weight, 340-360 lbs maybe? He was lifting it far higher than the required 2 inches in height, ripping it up, the bar and arm twisting, and then boom, a serious injuring requiring surgery.

In 2008, when I was “into negatives” for gripper training, I closed a hard (more than 220 lbs RGC) Number 4 gripper on my leg, did it for two reps. It took me about 4 months to recover. The heel of my hand felt bruised like it had been smashed with a sledge hammer. 

in my 40s and very early 50s, I used to do a huge amount of hub work. Unlikely anyone was doing the volume that I was doing. It was my thing . My finger nails on the sides of my fingers at times would dig into the fingers to the point where they would get bloody. It meant I was going too far. Backed off on volume, problem solved. Yeah, one time I was pinching so hard on the hub, I hurt a tendon in my finger and it took 6 weeks to recover.

That’s it. The moral of the story? Don’t do stupid things. 

Hubgeezer, thankyou. very comprehensive post, good to hear from experience across the timeframe you have. I like to 'sneak up' on fitness and conditioning these days,  so will take what you said on board.

Edited by Karl
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4 hours ago, Hubgeezer said:

More than  20 years ago, when I was in my 40’s, I wondered if subjecting the hands and fingers to the heavy abuse that gripsters do, meant there would be serious problems down the line, old age, etc.    I worried what trouble I might be inviting.

Well I have a card from the US Government that says I am old, so I feel qualified to answer my own question now.

I have all kinds of ailments right now. Without a doubt, the least of my problems are my hands.My hands are pain free, healthy, and far stronger than they were when I started.

I have seen someone pull a bicep with a Rolling Thunder, because he did not warmup. He was around 40, and owned a gym. He did one rep with 106 lbs., then jumped to 172 lbs., and it did not get one hair off the floor, and that was the end of his bicep.

At the 2007 British Grip Championships, I saw Chris James do the same thing while pulling a one inch Vertical Bar, don’t remember the weight, 340-360 lbs maybe? He was lifting it far higher than the required 2 inches in height, ripping it up, the bar and arm twisting, and then boom, a serious injuring requiring surgery.

In 2008, when I was “into negatives” for gripper training, I closed a hard (more than 220 lbs RGC) Number 4 gripper on my leg, did it for two reps. It took me about 4 months to recover. The heel of my hand felt bruised like it had been smashed with a sledge hammer. 

in my 40s and very early 50s, I used to do a huge amount of hub work. Unlikely anyone was doing the volume that I was doing. It was my thing . My finger nails on the sides of my fingers at times would dig into the fingers to the point where they would get bloody. It meant I was going too far. Backed off on volume, problem solved. Yeah, one time I was pinching so hard on the hub, I hurt a tendon in my finger and it took 6 weeks to recover.

That’s it. The moral of the story? Don’t do stupid things. 

Very informative. Thank you. I hope @climber511 Chris Rice will also give his opinion.

1 hour ago, Mikael Siversson said:

Snapped tendons from doing table top wrist curls. Makes it impossible to do eg regular wrist curls as the wrist bones pop out of alignment.

When was this and do you still face the issue? If yes do you train wrist curls and if so how if not the regular way?

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I started generally working out at 11 years old in 1959.  I started Rock Climbing in 1983 and started Grip Sport in 2003 at age 55.  I still workout daily - I still climb and while I don't compete in Grip Sport any more I do still train many of the events.  Many many years doing construction.  So a very long time working my hands and grip muscles.  The most common injuries FOR ME were 

Occasional Palm bruising from grippers

Skin Tears from 1" V Bar back when that was a thing

Renewed low back injuries (several bad discs from my past coming back to haunt me) - mostly doing heavy one hand lifts.  These can be risky on those that allow a lot of weight to be used - especially if you lift too high and lean to the side a lot.

Occasional tendonitis here and there - a few finger pulley injuries (mostly from climbing).  Everything healed up well with the normal recovery protocols.

So generally speaking I have little to no long term consequences from all of this.  Almost zero arthritis in my hands.  I think what saved me more than anything was probably my genetics - didn't have a predisposition towards arthritis.  The other big thing I feel was my workouts - Variety variety variety - I never did long intense periods of any one thing but did a little of everything all the time and generally I do best on a low volume approach.  I think spreading the stresses out made a real substantial difference in the type injuries I developed - not only with my hands but with my entire body. 

Here's what I think is a really big issue - I believe people never "set the stage" for specialized grip work but jump right into competition type event training - big mistake.  I have to credit the several years of doing Health For Life's "Power Forearms" routine prior to Climbing and Grip Sport for giving me a wide and deep "base" upon which to build.  This I feel gave me a lot of "protection" against injury as well.  It also let me start Grip Sport with a pretty nice head start of decent event strength.

 

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On 11/26/2020 at 2:35 AM, Mikael Siversson said:

Snapped tendons from doing table top wrist curls. Makes it impossible to do eg regular wrist curls as the wrist bones pop out of alignment.

I was thinking about this one, but kept quiet about it, because I only “knew of it”, and did not experience or observe the phenomenon. I will describe what I know and heard, and my only exposure to it, and hopefully you can better report it, add to it. I hope I don’t bore people with this long story, but for years I have felt “lucky” that it happened the way it did.

The only time I have ever been overseas was in May, 2007. My wife and I vacationed in England and the Isle of Man. The timing was that she wanted to attend the Chelsea Garden Show in London. And, it just happened that it was the same week as the British Grip Championships, hosted by Steve Gardener. There were 5 events, and the last event was the Table Top Wrist Curl event. I read about it, and I trained for it using a now defunct gadget called The Formulator.

In my opinion, it is impossible to train for, because it requires a spotter at each end of the barbell, plus another one in the center of the bar to pull some blocks out when the gripster is ready. PLUS, in a contest, there has to be a judge. It is very much a “partial” movement. The judge just wants to see air between the back of the hands and the table top. 
 

As a result of the partial movement, ridiculously large amounts of weight can be done on it. And apparently, dangerously large amounts of weight on it.

Strongman/Veteran Gripster/Hollywood Stuntman turned Hollywood Stunt Coordinator/Man of Many Talents/Good Guy Nick Mckinless was the judge.

I did a one rep warmup with 100. That’s Kilograms, not Pounds. I think I opened with 110, and it was easy. Maybe around 125 for the second, and the third was 140 or 145, I don’t remember. For the 4th and last attempt, I had no clue, because they all seemed and looked easy. I was pretty  sure I had 160 in me, and I asked Nick what he thought and in his minimalist style of speaking said “165, 170”. I chose 170.

Right before I began the attempt, normally stoic Nick said, as I positioned my hands under the bar, “Don’t think of it as 374 pounds Mike, think of it as 170 kilograms.” The weight didn’t budge, no lift.

Shortly after the  contest, several fellows on the Gripboard spoke of this relatively rare event, and if my memory is correct, there were THREE incidents of wrist tendons snapping. One of them involved both arms! And to make it even more frightening, someone described the sound as a gun blast!

After I heard that, I am forever grateful to Nick Mckinless for giving me bad advice, and perhaps saving me from a serious injury 6000 miles from home.

If my memory is correct, Mikael  may have been a witness to one of those tendon-snapping incidents.

EDIT: Mikael, I just read your post again. Were YOU one of the tendon-snapping incidents? If so, how much weight were you using? It really is an event that makes no sense to me...

 

Edited by Hubgeezer
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For me for sure tendon issues 100%. I messed up my thumb joints training for six 5kg plate pinch just due to the extreme width and have had issues with palm bruising from heavy grippers doing them mms but other than that it's been all tendon issues. Tend to always get a build up of some tendon pain at top of forearm doing heavy grippers, and have had two long term (roughly 2 years each) issues with tennis elbow causing a lot of pain and basically meaning i cant train grip at all. One of them was from grippers / grip training in combination with work then one was just from work (both very grip heavy jobs). Also had two years of wrist pain from work. Unfortunately with these kind of injuries its slow to recover almost no matter what you do and really all you can do is completely rest and ice and it will still take a lot of time if they are severe. Id definately recommend if you can feel these kind of injuries coming on to stop whatever your doing to cause them whenever possible.

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15 hours ago, Hubgeezer said:

 

Shortly after the  contest, several fellows on the Gripboard spoke of this relatively rare event, and if my memory is correct, there were THREE incidents of wrist tendons snapping. One of them involved both arms! And to make it even more frightening, someone described the sound as a gun blast!

After I heard that, I am forever grateful to Nick Mckinless for giving me bad advice, and perhaps saving me from a serious injury 6000 miles from home.

If my memory is correct, Mikael  may have been a witness to one of those tendon-snapping incidents.

EDIT: Mikael, I just read your post again. Were YOU one of the tendon-snapping incidents? If so, how much weight were you using? It really is an event that makes no sense to me...

 

Yep that was me during a LGC grip competition and witnessed be eg David Horne. The tendon or perhaps ligament went with a very loud bang. Luckily it was during a one hand TTWC so my right wrist is fine. If I attempt a regular wrist curl one of the wrist bones moves vertically relative to the others.

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18 hours ago, Alawadhi said:

Very informative. Thank you. I hope @climber511 Chris Rice will also give his opinion.

When was this and do you still face the issue? If yes do you train wrist curls and if so how if not the regular way?

This was in 2003 and no I can't do any dynamic wrist curls of any type with my left hand but I can do plate curls and supination/pronation as well as adduction and abduction.

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6 hours ago, Mikael Siversson said:

Yep that was me during a LGC grip competition and witnessed be eg David Horne. The tendon or perhaps ligament went with a very loud bang. Luckily it was during a one hand TTWC so my right wrist is fine. If I attempt a regular wrist curl one of the wrist bones moves vertically relative to the others.

If my memory is correct, you were not the only person that suffered this type of injury on this “event”,  correct?

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