1st Post, Brand New To Gripping

[1C5]

Glad I found this forum, looks like a great place for knowledge.

First of all, I have been weight training for around 8 years, play lots of golf and tennis, never have done much grip specific training but tendonitis in my wrist recently has led me to getting my wrist/grip as strong as possible.

I just ordered CoC Trainer, #1 and #2 which should be a good start I hope.

I am looking for a good starting workout program that I can incorporate into my other bodypart training sessions and if there is any other special equipment I will be well served to order as well as just the grippers.

Thanks for the help!

[Dude]

Welcome to the board. Search around a bit and you'll find that most of the stuff to train your grip is already in your gym or already laying around your house

[Blarg]

Welcome IC5!

Read up on the KTA program. You'll find talk and info here and at the other grip board. Also look for the volume training program.

Both of these programs are for people with some, but not necessarily a lot, of training, to lay down a foundation of tendon and ligament strength, and soft tissue toughness.

But some of the concepts are still useful. For instance, I bought the KTA program, and figured I would just use its concepts to lay a baseline of conditioning for a while before attempting KTA. It was well worth it, and also was the only video or description I found that finally let me understand how to properly set a gripper(position it in the hand for maximum leverage).

Keep in mind, too, that the world of grip training is a surprisingly broad one, with many different types of challenges to it, and different types of feats of strength and training approaches. Look through the gripper sites and you'll see stuff on lifting "blobs," sledgehammer levering, hub lifting, various types of pinch lifting, etc.

Some of this stuff looks pretty fun, and different types of training work the hands very differently. Having well rounded hand strength is a great goal and probably the healthiest and wisest. There is some overlap in strength and ability when doing one kind of hand work and others, sometimes. But the big variation between types of hand exercises also, it seems generally agreed, means that if you want to accomplish something specific, you'll get there quicker by training specifically for it. In other words, even becoming great at picking up blobs won't let you close a #3 CoC gripper.

So if you are extremely goal-oriented, you might want to specialize, and if not, you can just work at all sorts of hand exercise variations and build more general strength, maybe venturing into specialization here and there when you're in the mood, and maybe coming back again into other programs for variety or completeness of development. As a beginner, most people would probably recommend taking it reasonably slowly and trying out different things, and then taking off into really hard work-outs when you feel comfortable.

And they'll be hard indeed, since the hand can take so much abuse and the grip feats we're working on are so far beyond the ability of most people.

Have fun!

[TealGunner]

Buy a copy of Mastery of Hand Strength by John Brookfield. He is the man when it comes to strong hands. His ideas are varied and tested by him with awesome results. It's a cheap way to pick up lots of simple, cost-effective ideas.

BTW, his info about block weights is invaluable.

[diesel]

hey buddy

my best advice to you would just to start fooling around with the grippers. try the different techniques, get your hands accustomed to a new workload, get the tendons built up, etc, etc. search through the gripboard site and see certain workouts and different methods of applying your hand strength (pinch, supprt, crush, bending). once your hands are ready to go and you have some well defined goals, hit up some of the specialized programs.

keep yourself informed through the site. in no time you will have a firm grip on what you are doing.

btw, blarg has a lot of good points-he knows what he's talking about (actually i think i just restated what he was saying). good luck

nick

[Scott Styles]

Initially, for the first month or so, I'd just do some sets of reps with the grippers between your sets of leg work (or after if your leg work is deads), then end the workout with dumbell wrist curls and dumbell reverse wrist curls. To push a little further you could add some work doing plate pinches.

When you get more into it, you'll probably want to make some block weights and play with those. Maybe pick up a sledge and do some levering as well.

Again, as others have said, read and find what intrests you. This board is a great resource of free information. The site in my sig has links to many more. There really isn't a need to buy a lot of expensive equipment or books to start.

[Soilworker]

BTW, his info about block weights is invaluable.

←

Right on Teal.

Grippers will only build a small spectrum of grip strength, and while fun, are limiting. If you really want to strengthen your whole hands and wrists, block weight training and thick bar training are the way. Ever curled with a 3" diameter bar? It's no cakewalk.

[BigT]

Welcome IC5!

Read up on the KTA program.  You'll find talk and info here and at the other grip board.  Also look for the volume training program.

Both of these programs are for people with some, but not necessarily a lot, of training, to lay down a foundation of tendon and ligament strength, and soft tissue toughness.

But some of the concepts are still useful.  For instance, I bought the KTA program, and figured I would just use its concepts to lay a baseline of conditioning for a while before attempting KTA.  It was well worth it, and also was the only video or description I found that finally let me understand how to properly set a gripper(position it in the hand for maximum leverage).

Keep in mind, too, that the world of grip training is a surprisingly broad one, with many different types of challenges to it, and different types of feats of strength and training approaches.  Look through the gripper sites and you'll see stuff on lifting "blobs," sledgehammer levering, hub lifting, various types of pinch lifting, etc. 

Some of this stuff looks pretty fun, and different types of training work the hands very differently.  Having well rounded hand strength is a great goal and probably the healthiest and wisest.  There is some overlap in strength and ability when doing one kind of hand work and others, sometimes.  But the big variation between types of hand exercises also, it seems generally agreed, means that if you want to accomplish something specific, you'll get there quicker by training specifically for it.  In other words, even becoming great at picking up blobs won't let you close a #3 CoC gripper.

So if you are extremely goal-oriented, you might want to specialize, and if not, you can just work at all sorts of hand exercise variations and build more general strength, maybe venturing into specialization here and there when you're in the mood, and maybe coming back again into other programs for variety or completeness of development.  As a beginner, most people would probably recommend taking it reasonably slowly and trying out different things, and then taking off into really hard work-outs when you feel comfortable.

And they'll be hard indeed, since the hand can take so much abuse and the grip feats we're working on are so far beyond the ability of most people.

Have fun!

←

good advice right here