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Is training wide pinch necessary for a well rounded grip? (Joint pain)


DevilErik

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2 minutes ago, DevilErik said:

it's low volume though so "easy" to recover from.

The very first program I used when I first got my gripper was my own.

I first started out  with holds because I wanted it to carry over to my gym lifts.

After I fell in love with grippers and realised I didn't really care about the carry over I  started doing triples in order for me to get used to the heavier grippers.

I started doing 3 triples twice a week.

After doing this for a while I started testing my max.

After finding my max I added my max to my routine so I would do a warm up then max out and then 3 triples and that was it.

After a while my progress  stalled so I started looking for a new program and that's how I found Nathan's program and I have stuck with it ever since.

 

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I'm personally on Nathan's program right now for my left hand (I've already done it for my right hand) and i find it to be a program great for specializing in grippers, But if you want to do anything else its just too much volume, However it got me to the point of being able to cert on the 3 real quick so its definitely great for super fast gains on grippers

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1 minute ago, Jermiah Merciconah said:

I'm personally on Nathan's program right now for my left hand (I've already done it for my right hand) and i find it to be a program great for specializing in grippers, But if you want to do anything else its just too much volume, However it got me to the point of being able to cert on the 3 real quick so its definitely great for super fast gains on grippers

Awesome man!

The thing is I always assumed that it would be great for pinch and thickbar as well because he can at least pinch 2 20k plates ( maybe more I don't know) he also lifted the millennium trainer so his pinch and his thickbar are also world class so I thought it would not impede my recovery for pinch and thickbar at all.

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3 hours ago, Joe Sullivan said:

You may be doing too much grippers and it’s affecting the other things. In my opinion grippers are terrible for thick bar and pinch progress. I stopped doing grippers completely because it was detrimental to my other training progress and only seemed to help grippers. Grippers seem only to help grippers.

I have decided that I am going to scale back grippers to twice a week if that doesn't work I will go to once a week.

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Just now, Joe Sullivan said:

I would do once, man. Especially if you are training hard on other things and want them to progress.... but do as you see fit...

Then I will do once you obviously know what you are talking about so I am taking your advice.

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23 minutes ago, DevilErik said:

I have decided that I am going to scale back grippers to twice a week if that doesn't work I will go to once a week.

Yep, I started with once, a week with grippers and recovery has gone up. They are very hard on the hands.

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7 hours ago, Joe Sullivan said:

There is such a thing as too wide for some... find your sweet width and stick with that and below. 

I totally agree. There is definitely a sweet spot for most people, and if you have the option I highly recommend playing around with different widths until you figure out what your hand likes. As some people have already mentioned, you might also just be overtraining that width right now.

Additionally this is a great article on pinch widths that I recommend to almost everyone.

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20 hours ago, Joe Sullivan said:

You won’t regret it... and your grippers May go up as a result as well.

This is what I was talking about on youtube look at how retarded wide my hands are this is me holding a Vulcan V2

20211006_150910.jpg

Edited by DevilErik
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After 29 years of using grippers, I made an observation that , applies to me, but,  I think it would ring true for most who have had the ups and downs with training grippers …

it helps to have a short period of going hard and peaking for a short time, then easing off the volume or strength of your grippers. I’m not a doctor 👨‍⚕️ but I feel grippers really compress the tiny bones of the wrist, and thus inflame the carpal tunnel area…then you have an irritated nerve that’s getting less blood flow and can hurt grip strength and thumb strength. Now, you don’t have to have numbness or tingling, but wrist pain is common with the less severe case. Icing afterwards or on off days can go a long way…and massaging that area right above the crease in the wrist will get blood in there to keep the gains coming. Now, if you have thick wrists you will find that you have more room for that nerve to not get affected too much; I have avg wrist size and I have to be cautious to not go crazy. But I’m pretty confident that if you go a lot at grippers and then hit a wall with gains, it may not be overtraining, but a compressed wrist starving that nerve of blood. I don’t give medical advice haha…but I’d bet anyone who has had problems I mentioned, would see improvement in steady gains just like you were a newb again! Oh, yeah…that’s another reason why the newb gains slow down- that damn compression. 

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31 minutes ago, slazbob said:

After 29 years of using grippers, I made an observation that , applies to me, but,  I think it would ring true for most who have had the ups and downs with training grippers …

it helps to have a short period of going hard and peaking for a short time, then easing off the volume or strength of your grippers. I’m not a doctor 👨‍⚕️ but I feel grippers really compress the tiny bones of the wrist, and thus inflame the carpal tunnel area…then you have an irritated nerve that’s getting less blood flow and can hurt grip strength and thumb strength. Now, you don’t have to have numbness or tingling, but wrist pain is common with the less severe case. Icing afterwards or on off days can go a long way…and massaging that area right above the crease in the wrist will get blood in there to keep the gains coming. Now, if you have thick wrists you will find that you have more room for that nerve to not get affected too much; I have avg wrist size and I have to be cautious to not go crazy. But I’m pretty confident that if you go a lot at grippers and then hit a wall with gains, it may not be overtraining, but a compressed wrist starving that nerve of blood. I don’t give medical advice haha…but I’d bet anyone who has had problems I mentioned, would see improvement in steady gains just like you were a newb again! Oh, yeah…that’s another reason why the newb gains slow down- that damn compression. 

I haven't had any nerve problems so far and I don't mind taking time off from grippers or adjusting my volume my problem is that I start losing strength crazy fast.

I had to take 3 weeks off from grippers because I injured myself due to  being stupid.

After resting for 3 weeks I went back to training grippers and noticed that I had lost more than half of the strength I had built up over 9 months of grip training.

It took me months to regain all of my strength.

I am going to start training grippers once a week from now on because I don't want to hurt myself  but I am pretty scared that I am going to lose all of my strength again.

Also my wrists are like 8 inches. (7.87)

 

Edited by DevilErik
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5 minutes ago, DevilErik said:

Lol I quoted myself again trying to correct a typo

 

 

Edited by DevilErik
Typo
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1 hour ago, slazbob said:

After 29 years of using grippers, I made an observation that , applies to me, but,  I think it would ring true for most who have had the ups and downs with training grippers …

it helps to have a short period of going hard and peaking for a short time, then easing off the volume or strength of your grippers. I’m not a doctor 👨‍⚕️ but I feel grippers really compress the tiny bones of the wrist, and thus inflame the carpal tunnel area…then you have an irritated nerve that’s getting less blood flow and can hurt grip strength and thumb strength. Now, you don’t have to have numbness or tingling, but wrist pain is common with the less severe case. Icing afterwards or on off days can go a long way…and massaging that area right above the crease in the wrist will get blood in there to keep the gains coming. Now, if you have thick wrists you will find that you have more room for that nerve to not get affected too much; I have avg wrist size and I have to be cautious to not go crazy. But I’m pretty confident that if you go a lot at grippers and then hit a wall with gains, it may not be overtraining, but a compressed wrist starving that nerve of blood. I don’t give medical advice haha…but I’d bet anyone who has had problems I mentioned, would see improvement in steady gains just like you were a newb again! Oh, yeah…that’s another reason why the newb gains slow down- that damn compression. 

29 years that is insane I haven't even been alive for that long lol.

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58 minutes ago, DevilErik said:

29 years that is insane I haven't even been alive for that long lol.

Haha…yeah I’m 46 now. It should be 30 years but I didn’t want to include the year of using sporting goods store grippers for sets of 100! Haha 

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8 hours ago, slazbob said:

Haha…yeah I’m 46 now. It should be 30 years but I didn’t want to include the year of using sporting goods store grippers for sets of 100! Haha 

Crazy dedication man!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just did my first wide pinch session after not doing it for 13 days.

I have zero joint pain everything is feeling great.

It definitely was the grippers.

My grippers did go down a bit but I don't really care.

 

Thanks everyone for helping me out!

Edited by DevilErik
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Just now, Joe Sullivan said:

I told you! I’ll send my bill in the mail and you can bill your insurance company.... 👨‍⚕️ 

I am glad I listened man thank you very much.

About the insurance thing they really don't like me so I was kinda hoping that my eternal gratitude would be sufficient....

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Just now, Joe Sullivan said:

Okaaaayyyy Fiiiiinneeeee...... but just this once!

Phew I just dodged a bullet I mean uh... Thanks Joe!

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