Hand troubles. All I wanna do is grip!!

[Guest]

All I wanna do is build my grip, but it seems my hands will not allow me to do this. One heavy workout, just one, and my hands have not recovered. First workout with the CoCs I noticed that my thumb knuckle was troubling me, but this problem didn't occur in my second (first heavy) grip workout. After my normal workout I went to work on my brand new grippers, starting off with a couple of sets of around 10 reps with the trainer, then doing maybe 3-4 sets of 3-4 closes/attemted closes on the #1, and one set of attempted closes with the #2. After this I moved to pinch gripping, 5 sets of 2x25lbs plates each hand and holding on as long as I could. That was it, nothing special, but fairly heavy for me and my hand was of course feeling a little sore. It has been a week since that day and my hands have not still fully recovered. The left hand feels close to normal, but in the right hand I get a sharp pain on top of the ring and middle finger whenever I try to squeeze anything. I have put off going to the doctor because I fail to see how they would be able to help, so I leave it to you guys for now. Anyone had a similar experience and know how to fix it? As I said I've only just gotten into the whole grip thing but I have big goals both short term and long, and I dont want this slowing me down.

[Guest 115-1005574997]

sounds like you could be trying to run before you can walk with regards to the conditioning of the tendons, ligaments and muscles in your hands and lower arms.

break into it more gradually over 12 weeks were you train twice a week on 2 or 3 lifts and end each exercise knowing you could do more.  this way your body is able to adapt to the changes.

Also massage, heat and stretch the muscles of your hands and lower arms.

once you have the basic conditioning you can then slowly increase the intensity and see your goals fulfilled.

[AnimalCage]

Time, patience, time, and more patience.  I jumped in too quickly myself, and got the sharp pain between my index and middle knuckles.  After continuing to work out for a month with no relief, I had to stop for almost 2 months before it healed.  After the break, my performance soared.  

Of course, then I jumped right into phone book tearing, doing too much too soon, and killed both my elbows.  I couldn't hub lift a can of tuna without pain.  My gripper performance went in the toilet, also.  Again, a few months off and things seem to be getting better.  I'm not where I was before, but definitely getting there.  

It's awfully tough to pace yourself in the beginning, but your hands need time to acclimate themselves to the stresses.  In response to your first statement, my hands will allow me to do it, it's my ego that keeps getting me hurt.  

Time, patience, time, and more patience.

[Rick Walker]

Jumping into anything too quick is going to hinder performance.  If you can't squat 100lbs, trying to do 200 is going to kill you.

On the other hand-some pain is to be expected.  Kinney spoke of his joints being so sore that he needed horse ointments on them constantly.  Pain is good, but if it doesnt go away-maybe you should back off a little.

Active rest is best-

Rick Walker :hehe

[Guest mikebyoung]

Like Rick says above, "active rest is best". This approach works for me. I use Power-Putty to work my hands on my off days and right after my workouts. I also put elastics around my fingers and open and close them.

I hope this helps some, but if the pain is sharp and isn't going away...maybe the Doctor's isnt such a bad idea. You did say before you had a previous injury?

 Good luck,

         Mike

[Sybersnott]

You know, out of all the newbies coming on this forum - they immediately want to jump right in and do lots of grip training without breaking in slowly.  Then they can't figure out WHY their hands hurt so much, and what is the cause of it.

Break into grip training SLOWLY.  Please.  Too many reps, too many sets, too much weight = disaster.  Get a feel for the grippers; time will come and go, but be consistant.  You're looking for a overnight solution when it takes months to years to get really good.  It took me TWO YEARS just to train to close the IM #3!!  Are you willing to invest that kind of time and patience??

I wish you the best of luck.  We are here to help you, and some of the greatest talent in the world when it comes to hand strength and grip training is RIGHT HERE on this forum!  So take it easy, and go slow (for now).  

[Guest]

I'm not all too sure how I am meant to move any slower than I did. I got store grippers at about Christmas and used them regularly, and had been doing sets of 25kg strapholds 3 times a week before I could get my hands onto the CoC grippers. Then I did a small workout with them using only the trainer, waited 4 days without closing em once more, and tried the heavy workout. I understand that the CoCs are a fair bit stronger than the K-Mart grippers I had, but its not as though I jumped straight in without any grip training and I didn't feel as though the "heavy" workout was all that much for me. Because of this I am concerned that I may have done something wrong and that I better see a doctor. From now on I will take things more slowly, but what do you call slow? I thought I was moving at a snail's pace as it was.

[Guest 115-1005574997]

I hear what your saying but i don’t think your listening either.  If you are only doing grippers you may have built up muscle imbalances that are now causing you pain.  if you have caused damage through over use on the grippers (25k strap holds 3 times a week!!! and you wonder why you are in pain!!!) then using grippers will cause even more damage.  Do you do sports that use your hands and lower arms (grappling, wrestling etc).  Has massage and stretching helped relieve the pain (if your not doing it then why not....too much trouble?  well you cant expect results if your not prepared to put some effort, determination and sacrifice in).

[Guest]

First of all I apologise to all of you for my arrogance, but I get a little edgy when suffering an injury. Now I think about it my hand has suffered a #### of a lot of injuries over the years, so I should be taking it even slower than any normal person. The last couple of days I have noticed a huge improvement however, after toying with an old plastic gripper. I found hidden meaning in syber's post. I picked up the gripper and squeezed it very SLOWLY. No pain. I speed up, it hurts, the slower the better. After 2 days of doing that frequently my hand is starting to feel about 85%, and getting better. Can someone please tell me how slowly I am meant to start tho, cos I'm pretty lost.

[Sybersnott]

When I mean, "slow" - I mean no (or almost no) pain.

Take a day off from the grippers.  It won't kill you.  Then when you do pick them up, DON'T go mashing it all over the place!!!  SLOW.... kinda like squeezing a lemon.  Reps can wait, and an injury will heal if you let it.  So let it.

I oughta know.  I came back from an injury, not knowing if I could squeeze a gripper again or not.  I took it slow.  Don't let eagerness ruin you.  DO YOUR TIME.  I HATE people who want overnight success with the grippers, then can't understand why they get so much pain from them in the beginning.

That's what I mean.  (And thanks for reading between the lines).

[Guest regular guy]

Sounds like you just need to train a bit less and let the injuries heal. Most of us have fallen victim to the "hey, this feels pretty good, let's add 20 pounds" syndrome. When I stopped trying for personal records once a week, my injuries healed and haven't returned. Oh, and don't let anyone get you down by branding you a ''newbie''. In my opinion, namecalling has no place when giving advice.