Scott Clayton

[Guest Jeff Roark]

I was talking with Heath last night and he sounds very enthusiastic about his progress with the pinch work. He thinks it will be key for him in closing the #4. He told me a few of your thoughts on pinching about it not being so tiring to the hands allowing for more work. I am slowly discovering that the grippers just cause me much pain and trouble with my hands. Heath advised me to set some solid goals on wide and narrow pinching and to work the wrist roller to balance my wrists out. He told me to just throw in an occasional light to med gripper workout so my hands don't take the "stupid pill" on the grippers. He seems to think that there will be a carry over down the road a bit. I think I'll try to get 2 35s by May 1st and I am not for sure about the roller. We didn't really speak on what he thought would be optimal frequency for the workouts... any suggestions? I also have eagle loops, Rolling thunder, wicked wrist roller, wide and narrow pinch blocks, super gripper and the COC grippers. Heath your input is more than welcomed and appreciated too.

[Clayton]

When you start out, probably pinch twice a week, use the roller twice a week, and pick one or two other exercises.  I would break them up into 3 workouts, doing whichever exercise you felt into that day.

The wrist roller is a good warm-up for your hands.  I like to do it first.  For right now, I wouldn't set a strict poundage goal, just add a few pounds here and there.  maybe 2-3 good rolls, rolling each way.  Whenever I've had any kind of pain in my hands or wrists, the wrist roller always clears it up.  I'm no doctor, but I think it fixes any kind of strength imbalance you may have.

I would do holds pinching.  25's for as long as you can, up to a minute.  probably 2 nice, fairly long holds.  Maybe some work with the wide block, just kinda fooling around.  

So, maybe something like...

Monday

Wrist Roller, 2 "sets

Pinch, 2 long holds

Pinch, go for broke on wide pinch block

Wednesday

Light work with grippers

Rolling Thunder, a few heavy singles

Plate Curls, 2 sets of 10

Friday

Wrist Roller

Pinch, 2 holds

farmer's Walk

If you want pinching to be your "focus" always pinch every week, but rotate the other exercises.  After a few weeks you'll probably be able to handle a lot more volume, so you may want to pinch three times a week.  This is when training your hands gets really fun, because you can get crazy and do all kinds of stuff, and set new PR's every workout.

After a month or two, your poundages will increase, and workouts will start to take more out of you, so you'll probably have to cut the volume back down.  But, that's putting the cart in front of the horse.  Start easy, mix things up so you don't get stale, and add a few pounds or a few seconds to your holds whenever you can.

[Guest Jeff Roark]

Thanks a ton Scott. It looks great. It is basically the same as Heath suggested only he talked a bit more about the grippers instead of pinch. I think this will work well for me, because I won't be focusing totally on the grippers which seem to bring about CTS and allow me to clear up imbalances and to see if that could possibly be the true problem here. Heath said it was helping him, so I hope it does the same for me. I want to thank you and Heath for all the help you have provided.