"new" On The Board & Last Two Mm With #2

[Guest veganlifter]

Hello board,

After lurking here for a few months I finally coupled all my courage to make my very first post! I joined this board after it was mentioned at www.muscletalk.co.uk where i post with the same nick.

I'm a grip newbie, and fairly new to strength training in general. Only about 6 months ago I was poncyiung around the gym doing isolation exercises and routines from Flex sporting lifting gloves, lifting belt and straps. After good advice from muscletalk i started compound only routine, ditched the gloves, belt and straps and got into strength training. I got exited about grip training soon afterwards as well.

This board is exellent, and the feats you gurus do are amazing. Maybe one day i'll be joining your ranks, meawhile though, i'd like to ask advice for getting past my gripper "plateau". I'm only about 2mm from closing #2. I've reached that about a month ago, but still just can't squeeze the gripper shut! very frustrating!

Other grip work i do is static holds, plate curls and other wrist work, rolling thunder work and plate pinching - but as i said i'm quite new in this.

Glad to be on board!

[Sean Dockery]

Welcome.

Try using your off hand to cheat the gripper closed, then remove your off hand and hold the gripper closed. Also, Look in the Grip FAQ section and read the article on strap holds. They are phenomenal for increasing your closing power. Good Luck and Good training!

[Guest veganlifter]

Cheers macronan,

funny thing is, even though i can get to 2mm away from close i can't hold the gripper shut even with a cheat hold - it shots right out, usually further away than say 5mm.

I think the reason for this might be that i never used to have #1 at all, just jumped into training with #2 directly, so my sweep might be ok, but the hold part sucks arse.

I'll get into strapholds properly, i've tried them twice with my friends #1 and managed 12.5 kg.

Just realised that i probably posted this to a wrong section - sorry - newbies are a pain, lol!

[imodnar_]

Welcome aboard

About the #2, as you haven't made much progress lately I think maybe you should try and change your training. Also for me holding the spring to stabilize the gripper helps some. Maybe you could try that and see if you can close it that way.

Edited December 23, 2003 by imodnar_

[dannyboy]

welcome friend, more the merrier.

[vince]

welcome

[Hulk]

Welcome to the board!

About the #2, although Overcrushes brought me from not being able to close a #1 to grinding up #2 in a pretty short amount of time. It has been StrapHolds that have brought me from THAT point to being 1/2 inch from closing my #3. (And I just got that gripper on Christmas)

So I'd recommend incorporating both into your Gripper workout as you see fit.

Also I'd thought I'd mention, when I started out with the #1 at one point I had the same problem as you, SO close but couldn't just quite close it. So I re-evaluated how I set the gripper location in my hand, and low and behold it was the way I held it in my hand that held that last 1mm open. (just thought I'd mention that)

Again Welcome to GrIp PaRaDiSe!

[bender]

Welcome to the board. Once you start "Strength" training, it's hard to go back to the bi-blaster routines. Congrats.

When I was 2mm on the #3, I practiced with a VERY-deep, illeagle set, and worked closing it that way until I could rep it with the super-deep set. It developed the strength in the last movement and soon after I was closing it.

As mentioned, cheat shuts and negatives are also a great technique.

[Guest veganlifter]

thanks fellas!

Good pointers. What i think i'll do now is to leave the #2 alone for a week or so and try to get to a nice amount with the #1 straphold and really work the close position.

[thomas straub]

Welcome, i wish you luck

[odin]

When I was 2mm on the #3, I practiced with a VERY-deep, illeagle set, and worked closing it that way until I could rep it with the super-deep set.

Bender, do you think that all your bending and block work allows you to set the gripper that deep in your hand? The gripper seems to want to sit against my thumb pad, despite doing well on block weights so far. My plate pinch doesn't seem to be improving yet.