Blarg's Training

[Blarg]

Just got my first pair of grippers last week, some CoC #1's, and couldn't close them. I was about 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch away on them with my right hand, and about 1/2 to 2/3 of a inch(just eyeballing) on my left hand. Pretty big disparity!

Anyway, I ordered the KTA program, and saw I needed more grippers, so I placed two orders, and got one in today, with a #2 and a trainer. I also got the Ironmind "helpers" to help span the gap between grippers, and the rubber bands for using the extensors.

Anyway, I've been squeezing every or every other day for the past week, and am now just a hair away on the right hand and my left hand is now about 1/4 inch from closing the #1. Not bad progress for all of a week!

Today I tried the trainer as soon as it came in, even though I had decided to take this as a complete rest day, and it sure was easier than the #1. But the last 1/8 inch feels about the same as the #1! So I guess that means the last part of the close for me is a big weak point.

I just got KTA a day or two ago, and was waiting on my trainer to start. Now I have it, but I think I'm going to try to work on crushing the trainer with both hands to see if I can firm up my closing power in the last 1/8 inch. I'll do this and some negatives and other fooling around for a few days, and see if at least the trainer becomes easier in that last 1/8 inch. I'd like to have the #1 closed and be able to do a couple reps before I do KTA, because when that happens, I'll be leaping up to the #2 as my goal gripper, and that's a bit much for me for now, when I'm still having trouble on the last 1/8 inch of the trainer!

So anyway, it looks like I'm going through a couple weeks of learning and preparation etc. before committing to an organized training program. I'd like to clean up my range and maybe the disparity between my hands just a little before committing to pursuing the #2 -- not to mention getting able to close the #1 first!

I did give my #2 a squeeze with the right hand(the left is too sore to bother, though I tried -- the immediate "ouch!" made me decide to run away and live to squeeze another day on that one). I couldn't even get the handles to parallel! Oh well, they'll get what's coming to 'em eventually.

Eagle loops coming tomorrow. I want to eventually see what I can do with them from a chinning bar, but in the meantime, they'll be good to work my thumbs with, using my dumbbell weights, or whatever feels heavy at the time! I have an 18 lb Bodybar that I'm using a little like a sledge for levering, and am using that for some thumb work, too. It's well-padded, so I can mess around with it without hurting my gripper-ruined hands, which is a big plus.

And tomorrow also comes the #3 and extra #1 I ordered. The disparity between my left and right hands makes me feel I'll often be overclosing on the right hand while the left is still struggling to click the unfiled version of whatever my right hand is working on.

My weakness in the close really makes me think I should get a choker. I checked the nearby auto shop for washers, but couldn't find any. I did see some nice gloves, and since I had my gripper on me, closed it with them. It sure made my hand feel better than the knurling! But I'm going to just use ungloved hands like everyone else, unless I feel it's slowing down my strength too much or making me stop gripping because skin injuries suck too much. We'll see. Tomorrow's delivery also has chalk, athletic tape, and a "close the gap strap" from Ironmind.

[Scott Styles]

Welcome to the addiction. You can never have too many grip toys! Here's what I think about what you've experienced so far:

Everyone has trouble on the last 1/8" of the close. Due to the nature of the springs, that's just the hardest part. It shouldn't require specialization at the start.

Waiting until you can get a couple closes on the #1 before starting KTA is smart. Your hands don't need that level of stress yet to progress. You also need to be dominating the #1 if the #2 will be your goal gripper on KTA.

Finger extensions with the rubber bands will be keep your elbows healthy by balancing out all the crushing work from the grippers. Using them is a good idea.

I haven't seen anyone who was able to consistently use the hand gripper helpers. I've never tried them, but heard lots of complaints about them changing the feel of the gripper close.

I've been doing the grippers for years and my right hand is still stronger than the left. The winding of the grippers causes them to favor the right hand. Most people also have a dominate hand that will pretty much always be stronger.

You'll get used to the knurling. Two things happen. 1. Your hands callus. 2. The gripper knurling fills with crud. Chalk speeds the latter process.

The pony clamp recommended in KTA is one of the best training tools out there for the thumb, especially for the price. I'd get one and use it.

[Blarg]

Oh, I thought I should mention what I was doing for hand therapy.

At the local drugstore, for eight bucks each, I found some plastic Igloo coolers, and bought two. They're perfect! They're tallish cylinders about two fists or so wide(I have wide hands from top to bottom and a tall cylinder that I can stick my forearm in all the way up to 4 inches short of my elbow, if I'm making a loose fist. There's enough wiggle room to turn my hands, but not a lot of wasted space to have to pack with more ice cubes or anything, and the tops mean I can fill them up with hot and cold water and then easily lug them without splashing in front of the t.v. or computer so I can amuse myself while soaking.

I got some Freez-Pak's from a different drugstore, which are basically Blue Ice but in a hard plastic container. I got four that are about 3x5" and one that's about 4x6". I can keep them in the freezer and quickly slip them into a cooler and be ready to go. They're also good for holding in my hands, or even plopping on a bare leg or resting on a collar bone on a blisteringly hot day like today(106 degrees).

Anyway, I boiled some water and put it in one of the coolers, on top of some regular lukewarm water, and them poured more into the cooler. I keep testing the water, but it's not bearable yet. My left hand especially is sore as hell, so I look forward to this treatment. I thought it was going to be a big pain that I would have trouble sticking to, but heck, I can even web surf while soaking a single hand, so I think I'll be really good about the hand therapy. And I'm hoping that my hands will feel better tomorrow, because I really want to start up again!

[Blarg]

Thanks for the welcome and counsel.

I can get my thumbs very tired from jimmying that 18 lb. body bar very quickly, and I'll also have the option of using the eagle loops that are coming in, so I'm probably fine for thumb work. But, I'm sure I'll get the thumb clamps just to be absolutely sure I'm not missing out on anything. They're cheap, anyway.

I heard negative things about the helpers after I got them, but what the hey, I'll try them. Even if they make me use the grippers a little bit differently here and there, that will just lead to a more rounded kind of strength, I guess. I'm sure I"ll be getting "in-betweener" grippers anyway, though. If the helpers help a little, fine; if not, oh well.

You're right about the never having enough grip toys thing! I'm pretty set for a good long while, I think, with tomorrow's order. But looking through the Ironmind catalogue makes me want to destroy my wallet!

[Muscle Turtle]

A wise wise old man once told me.... Build up your foundation first or else your house will fall down later... build up full hand strength, get into everything, not just grippers.. just my opinion though..

[3Crusher]

I am really insulted at the way you use the word weiner. Take it back!

Steve Weiner

[supermagnamon]

I am really insulted at the way you use the word weiner.  Take it back!

Steve Weiner

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lol. that's too funny.

[Vice]

I am really insulted at the way you use the word weiner.  Take it back!

Steve Weiner

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lol, at least there was no pun intended.

Good luck Blarg, looking forward to following your progress.

[Blarg]

LOL, sorry Steve! haha! Never even occurred to me that might be someone's name! Boy, the kids must have given you hell in elementary school.

[Scott Styles]

Heh, I've gotten to the point now where I usually try to finance my purchase of new stuff by selling some old stuff. The nice thing about the grip toys is they retain about 3/4 of their value when you sell them used.

Sounds like a good setup for the contrast baths. You shouldn't have to boil water to get the hot at a decent temp. Typically 100-110 F is the recommended temperature. Even if you want to go a little warmer, water should come out of the tap hotter than that. My tap runs at 130 F.

[Blarg]

Finally got in some Jumpstretch bands yesterday. I really like them!

I only got into gripping last week, and ordered these before that, and started to think about what they might do for hand/forearm strength while I waited.

Well, I got the $150 pack with two each of the Light, average, and strong bands, as well as two free "mini" bands, which rate at 50, 75, and 100 lbs, and 25 for the mini's. I tried some lat pull-downs with the various sizes, improvised some "bench presses" by slipping inside some of the bands, curls, reverse curls, neck lifts, and tricep presses. I haven't really tried any stretching with them yet, though they might be very good for stretching my back, I'd think. After a lot of shoulder work, they get tight and it gets hard to reach behind my back, so I think they'd be perfect for that.

Anyway, I really loved them for tricep presses, curls, and neck stretches/work-outs. They were also great on reverse curls, and fantastic for thumb work! I hooked one around my foot while sitting in my easy chair(that's how I net surf! sooo sweet and lazy!), then around both feet, and worked out a range where I could comfortably pull with just my thumb muscle. What a beautiful work-out for the thumb! I felt every millimeter of the length of the muscle getting hit perfectly!

I really like these bands! The thing is, they're so incredibly adjustable, if you use just a little common sense and imagination. For instance, you can do an exercise with varying combinations of bands to hit different weights, but you can also change the effective pressure by doing a figure 8 on a band and then using the two loops for twice the pressure. Or, by stretching the rubber band more or less before a "lift." For instance, in a seated position with my leg extended, I can start a curl with the band looped over one foot, and the length fully played out that way before the curl begins. However, stick another foot into the band, or loop the band around the opposite foot(further from my hand) and the band must be stretched a bit to reach my hand, starting me off with a more difficult exercise. Spread the feet and the pressure before beginning becomes greater. Leaning back increases the tension too. Basically, I can infinitely vary the amount of tension in an exercise by how much slack is in the band before the movement proper begins. Adding in more bands or doubling one or more bands varies things immensely.

The ability to instantly double the difficulty by doubling a band on itself, or add more bands, means that there is actually quite a bit of potential difficulty in this package of bands. Combined with the adjustability just mentioned, I think I made a very good investment.

For hand strength and forearm strength in particular, I'll get quite a lot out of these. I tried my version of a reverse curl "Formulator" style, and it was perfect! I looped one band around my foot and got my arm set up in a reverse curl position, then looped a band around the back of my hand. It was very comfortable levering my wrist back, and unlike barbell reverse curls, I was able to easily move my wrist around to get full range on the muscles from all angles without cranking my thumb or worrying about the weight slipping. The burn was great! And complete -- twisting my wrist around here and there really let me cover the entirety of the muscle perfectly. I was very sold on the idea of buying a Forumulator, but now I'm not so sure, as this exercise already seems to cover the bases it does flawlessly. These bands look like they could actually replace a lot of different equipment at the same time.

I also did some hammer curls, and a few wrist curls, and used them to lever as if I were holding a sledgehammer, and they were great for that, too. I'm also going to experiment on using the bands for single-finger work, curling fingers into my hands. And I think that by using two bands on my feet, one for the thumb and one for my fingers, I could get something very much like pinch-grip work going.

I'm really looking forward to finding out the potential of these things. With a little imagination, it seems you can come up with very functional duplicates of weight-lifting exercises easily. I am just using my hands to do them with, but Jumpstretch also sells barbell and dumbbell type handles, as well as equipment to help you use the bands for things like squats, and I may eventually get those to experiment with, too. Check out Jumpstretch.com if you want to see the product. For people not familiar with these bands, you can combine them with weights, too, by looping them around the ends of your barbell in a bench press, for instance -- the idea being that you have to exert full power throughout the movement instead of letting the explosiveness of the initial push help you coast through the last part of a movement. The band stretches and gets tougher toward the end of your lift.

[Blarg]

Scott-- my tap takes so long to get hot it's frustrating. I have a cheap landlord, and the heating is underpowered here. So I set some water on the stove and come back in a few minutes.

I'm going to keep some in a separate pot to pour into the cooler when it cools down. The time span from when it gets bearable to stick the hand into the cooler to when it's just pleasantly warm is too short.

Gave my hands a good soaking last night, and they really feel a lot better today.

On equipment cost -- I think I may have saved myself some money buying those bands, as you can see by my rave review. I'm ticking off items I was thinking of buying that can easily, with just a bit of ingenuity, be replaced by the bands.

[Blarg]

After some crushing work and use of flexbands yesterday, a good soak put my hands and arms in better shape, and I felt very little soreness. So I was surprised how much weaker I was!

I couldn't close the trainer with either hand! On the left hand, I couldn't even get halfway there! Wow, and I thought the soak "healing" had set me right.

However, after working on some holds, I got the ability to close it again, and eventually even do it for a good number of reps on my right hand, and even do my right hand on the #1 as well as ever. My left hand, though, didn't recover as much and was next to useless on the #1. Just a day or two ago, I got only 1/4" away with it! Neverthless, it was an interesting lesson in how soaks can't accomplish everything, and on how deceiving your initial strength can be. I was amazed how much a slow warm-up helped.

Today I got my other order in from Ironmind -- a #3(distant goal!) and a second #1, as well as some eagle loops and a close-the-gap strap. The CTG strap actually comes with two straps, but one is 4x as wide as the single-ply of the other one, and looks too wide to be useful for straphold practice. The eagle loops just look, well, like a ton of fun will be had! The #1 is wider than the #1 I've been working on. I tried it out and it was notably harder. I never "seasoned" my first #1, but maybe my use of it has softened it up a bit and made it narrower. Ditto with my trainer -- it's a hair narrower than my other 3 grippers(second #1, a #2, and a #3).

My hands felt so weak that apart from a squeeze just for chucikles on the #2 and on the #3 once to see what it was like with my right hand, I stuck almost entirely to the trainer today, but did get a fair amount of repetitions in. I think I did 14 with plenty of gas left in the tank on my right hand, and much less on my still much weaker left hand. I felt some sharp soreness come back in both hands, but especially long the outer edge of my palm, right after working very hard with the Ironmind extensor rubberbands. That seems to have gone away, but there's a dull ache in my left hand. Nothing serious or scary though.

My hands are very new to this, so I'm still building up some base strength in my hands before I go on to the KTA program. I'll play it by feel for a while, waiting till I can get 20 on the trainer and clean closes for a couple of reps on the #1 with both hands before doing KTA.

Did some shoulder presses with kettlebells and some tricep and shoulder work with the Flexbands today, and will do some more later on. I'm on a few days break from leg work, as I overdid pistols and strained my lower back a little a couple of days ago. I'm hoping I'll feel fine by tomorrow, as I've been making good progress on the leg work and really want to continue as soon as I feel it's safe and smart to do so.

Went on to the bodybuilding.com site and started reading up about nutrition timing, protein powders, creatine, etc. That stuff looks expensive. But I am interested in whether timing some regular food or supplements right could help my hands recover faster.

[Blarg]

More work with the bands, lots of it. Shoulder raises, shoulder presses, a lot of tricep work, lots of reverse curls, wrist curls, thumb-only curls, some hammer curls and regular curls, and lots of formulator-type leverage work, both reverse-curl-type and the perpendicular movement like you would see with a sledge. Basically arm and shoulder work, but also did enough neck work that I thought I had better stop so I don't wake up with my neck trashed tomorrow. Really hit all the angles on the forearm today, and they were really pumped. Gotta do some soaking now.

Giving the back a rest, so the pistols I was planning on doing are out. I always have a tendency to overtrain because I get very enthusiastic and it warps my judgment sometimes. The fact that I used to be extremely athletic I'm sure warps my ego into making me do more than I should out of some kind of expectation that I should still be able to do things that are now actually way beyond me. I'll get a lot better though, but I have to keep both my ego and my body in balance, or I'll make things worse instead of better. Programs like KTA were made for an obsessive like me, but my realizing that is part of what's making me put it off for a while, because I know how easily I could fall into overtraining on it, and I'd like to firm up my foundation first.

Think I'll do just a little work on my ab wheel and call it a day for physical stuff.

[Scott Styles]

Man your busy. It sounds like you're just getting back into this? Bodybuilding.com is a waste of time IMO. Very few supplements have been proven conclusively to work, but they sell pretty much everything under the sun. Too much bad information. If you're looking for sound training and nutrition advice, I'd try

http://www.hardgainer.com/forums/ (the foundation routine and core diet are a great place to start)

http://www.cyberpump.com (membership is well worth it, but it can be confusing to navigate through everything)

[Blarg]

Man your busy.  It sounds like you're just getting back into this?  Bodybuilding.com is a waste of time IMO.  Very few supplements have been proven conclusively to work, but they sell pretty much everything under the sun.  Too much bad information.  If you're looking for sound training and nutrition advice, I'd try

http://www.hardgainer.com/forums/ (the foundation routine and core diet are a great place to start)

http://www.cyberpump.com (membership is well worth it, but it can be confusing to navigate through everything)

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Yeah, I used to be extremely athletic, but slacked off for a while, and then got really sick at the beginning of the year, so that compounded things to strip a LOT of muscle off my already ectomorophic, seriously hard-gainer frame. It made me feel I really am coming back from nothing -- really weak as hell, and I don't get muscle back easily; as a matter of fact I've never known anyone to put it on slower despite spending many years being furiously physically active. I know I've got a very hard row to hoe when it comes to getting back what I've lost, unfortunately. But, I'll work with what I've got. I can be enormously dedicated, even obsessive.

I'm not supplement obsessed, but have used protein powders in the past and will probably get another one. It's so incredibly hard for me to put on muscle that I feel I should probably spend the extra money to be sure I've got enough protein to do so. I'm also almost entirely vegetarian -- just for health reasons, I eat meat too and have no problem with meat eating -- and get most of my protein from beans and tofu, so extra protein couldn't hurt. I also bought a cheap jar of creatine on a lark to see what that's like. But that's as far as I'll go. I'm not interested in "medicating" myself with 20 different bodybuilding supplements -- or even with bodybuilding at all, outside of just getting back some of the muscle that being ill stole from me. Maybe a little more, but that's it; being strong I think is cool and great, but being huge isn't something I'm interested in.

Thanks for the links. I see lots of grip stuff on the cyberpump site, which I didn't know existed as a standalone. That's who I got the KTA program from, but I just went directly to the KTA page previously. The hardgainer site doesn't let me sign up with my Yahoo account, so that's out.

[Blarg]

A couple sets of pistols early morning.

More Jumpstretch band work today.

Stepped on two 100 lbs to do deadlifts. Spreading my feet shoulder width and a half seemed to feel pretty right, giving me a good long range to pull up through. I was happy that the movement felt good and natural, and that I didn't get the willies about the bands snapping back out of my hands or from under my feet or something. Grip work will undoubtedly help in that regard.

I did them easily, and could really feel it in my back. I can definitely do these for a number of reps per set. It's been ages since I've deadlifted, and I wanted to be careful, so I stuck with just these two bands. I'll get my lower back used to the strain, as I don't really give it much more work at all besides twists and the ab wheel indirectly, and pistols more directly, though that's not all that intensive a low back exercise(just a moderately dangerous one).

I have more bands...hmmm... pairs of 75, 50, and 25, so that would be 150 plus 100 plus 50 = potentially 300 more "pounds". Okay, cool. Holding too many bands would be cumbersome, though, so I might get their special bar that holds the bands. No hurry though. Just adding the two 75's would give me an extra 150 on my 200, and I do intend to try to be slow and careful about this. Deadlifts have always kind of scared me a little bit, which is probablya good thing.

I then looped a 100 over each shoulder, whicih was hard to do, as I had to get down into a low squat to do it. Squatting with the two bands was pretty easy. Not surprisingly, since I weight about 200 myself and am doing lots of one-legged squats with bodyweight. I should try a one-legged squat with a band! Hmm, verrrrry interesting!! Jeez, a single 100 over just one leg would be adding a lot more difficulty!.

Before and after the band work, I did 5x5 military presses with my kettlebell, no rest between sets, just going from one arm to the other. Did some twist work too. Decided to take the weight off my lower back to let it relax a few minutes, so here I am now.

Arms feeling just a little slow from the heavy band work last night, but an extremely mild result. Arms STILL feel a little pumped from last night LOL. Right hand outer palm edge, toward its middle, feels a bit tender and strained. I'll do another soak in a bit, I think, before I shower. Glad I decided to splurge on air conditioning yesterday and today. It's starting to pick my mood up -- the heat makes me lazy, angry, sad, and stupid. Whatever severe heat leaves of me isn't worth having. I feel human again, and more alert by far.

Think I'll do a little ab wheel and some pistols. I kind of want to do some grip work, but the outer edge of my hand -- well, I'm not sure if it's purely muscle that feels sore or if it's partially a tendon, so ...well, I guess I could always just work the left hand. That one needs badly to catch up anyway.

[Blarg]

Grabbed a #1 with no warm-up and no set, and closed it to within just a hair of closure! Woohoo!

Frustrating that I didn't get the click, but anyway it's a lot of progress since I started just a week and a half ago, I think. At this point, I figure any old time I try it might just be victory!

[BigT]

Grabbed a #1 with no warm-up and no set, and closed it to within just a hair of closure!  Woohoo! 

Frustrating that I didn't get the click, but anyway it's a lot of progress since I started just a week and a half ago, I think.  At this point, I figure any old time I try it might just be victory!

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#1 nearly no set...good job keep going and let me know when you hear it click

[pdoire]

Time for negs with a #2!!

[Blarg]

I did a couple negs on the #2 last night -- maybe that's why I got so close today on the #1.

I was really supposed to be taking a rest day for the hands, but ... when you have those grippers staring at you, well ... you know how it goes.

I was reasonably good today though. Only squeezed the #1 twice.

[Martin]

I did a couple negs on the #2 last night -- maybe that's why I got so close today on the #1.

I was really supposed to be taking a rest day for the hands, but ... when you have those grippers staring at you, well ... you know how it goes.

I was reasonably good today though.  Only squeezed the #1 twice.

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Nice going try some timed holds or strap holds on the 1.

[Blarg]

Did some more deadlifts with the stretchbands, two sets of 6 with the two 100 lb bands, and squats, a couple of sets of 6 with two 100's and two 75's.. Nice feell in my lower back, but working into them slowly and I hope safely, since a messed up back ruins everything else. I feel like I could have done more on the squats, but I have to work out my body positioninig a little better, as it was a bit awkward with teh bands. I have to squat down REALLY low, which puts my upper torso a bit more forward than I would like to be. I guess I'll get the hang of it, but I need to experiment more before I use more or tougher bands. Besides the vendor's site says you shouldn't put more than two bands on top of each other. Right now I'm resting two on my shoulder. With the bar I'm getting, I could put two on each shoulder and I guess two on the bar, to total four, for a hell of a lot of "weight."

Grips:

Right hand:

Trainer x 1, #1x2, #2 x1, then #1x3, then alternate #2 x3 smooth-out negatives with Trainer overcrushes x3, for three sets

Left hand:

same thing, only I couldn't get as far on the squeezes with the #1 and #2. Strangely, though, I could hold almost as long on the neg smooth-outs on the #2, though my left hand is much weaker.

I noticed my grip felt overall much weaker today, even though I took a couple days off. I was disappointed! But, I did do the deadlift business first, and that did have an effect on my hands. Maybe greater than I realized? Anyway, I was just a hair from closing the #1 the other day, and I'm farther away now.

In my book order, along with Pavel's Power to the People, I also got Brookfield's Mastery of Hand Strength and his the Gripmaster's Manual, and Martial Musings, by Robert Smith. I've got some very enjoyable reads coming up!

Along with the bar I ordered for using the Jumpstretch bands in a barbell fashion, I ordered a strap for holding the bands together so you can squat with them, straps for a dumbbell feel, and two "monster" bands that are 4 inches wide and have a poundage estimate of 200 pounds each. That should allow me to put a pretty formidable amount of tension on, either as the 400 lbs in just those two or supplemented by the other bands I have. With two more on each shoulder (100 + 75), I guess I could get a pressure equivalent of 400 + 175 + 175 = 750 lbs, whicih gives me a lot of upside potential. The bands might not be stretched to the shoulder height range of a six-foot man, where they reach that effective poundage, on deadlifts, though; if so it would be a bit less than that. But I'm almost 6'2", so that 750 lbs. would fully apply on a squat. Thoser "monster" bands are definitely going to be a killer!

I wonder how much the deadlifting will mess up my grip training. I mean, I'm sure deadlifting can't help but make hands stronger, but...I'm going to have to figure out how to integrate it with regular gripper training so my progress is maximized.

[Blarg]

OMFG I almost closed the #2!!!

Well, I bet almost can be interpreted many ways, but I put it down to about 1/8 of an inch! I set it in my right hand, but not very much from full extension. And then I kinda blew my mind! It really wasn't very far from closing! Jeez, I looked at the bottom of the handle several times by now to be sure it was a #2, and yep...and I was around 1/4 inch from closing the #1 just on 7/12.

Jeez, it's apparent to me that working on a gripper above the one you're trying to close really is a valuable way to train. This is not just hand strength I"m getting back or anything -- I've always had a crappy grip, so this is a legit huge leap up. I can't believe it!

This was after a session yesterday that was rough enough on my hands that I was very hesitant to do another session, today, too.

My left hand is really sore along the back, and I can barely move the trainer! Funny thing was, it was fine earlier today even after a rough session yesterday. But I did do some "deadlifts" again with the stretch bands, and I could tell they were hard on my hands. But my hands actually felt fine afterward. I slept on my left hand in a funny position, stretching it, though, so that might be it. Sometimes I sleep on a hand or an arm.

Anyway, the deadlifts were done with the band equivalent of 350 lbs, and felt good. Somehow that made me hungry, and I ate a lot today.

Going to do a few more rounds on the #2, and maybe some wrist curls, on the right hand, and leave the left alone, then do some soaks. This left hand hurts like hell. I can't wait for the bar to come in you can hook the bands too. Usually they feel fine on my hands, but the solid never-changing plane of a bar is probably safer than the relative instability of a few different rubber bands held all at once.

So...woohoo!!! I'm pretty amazed!

It'll still be a while till I can do the #2, I'm sure, since I'm actually usually still having trouble closing the #1 LOL. I stink in that last 1/8 inch. I even suck on it in the trainer.

[Blarg]

Damn, hands are weird. I did some holds with my sore left hand on the #2, which is so far above it, and I didn't have it in far. But the thing is, I've noticed the hands suddenly recover with a little work sometimes, so I thought I'd give it a try, and -- my left hand suddenly feels much better, where it was aching like hell just a minute ago. Cool beans! Still gonna give it a helluva soak though.

Did a few more grips of the #2 with the right hand, but I felt a twinge in my elbow on my first almost-close, so I didn't push it very hard, and didn't come near a close again. I'm tempted to try again, but all things in due time. No need to risk injury, when my forearm and elbow are already hurting.