Training factors

[Adam Black]

The Question: How do the following factors affect your grip workout. Sleep, warm-up and food prior to session.

The Reason: I experienced a massive strength increase in my workout last night and am trying to determine the cause.

The Details: I normally get 8-9 hours of sleep a night, seldom eat before a session and warm up my hands in hot tap water for a few minutes prior to session.

I do several things in a workout, although the area in question is my max gripper triples with the #2. My workout last Sunday saw me get 9 triples with a timed 30 second pause between sets. This is the second session that I got 9 triples. I generally am able to pick up a rep or 2 every session.

Last week my in-laws were in town. I drank and ate more food than normal and got less rest. Wednesday about an hour after dinner I did my grip workout. I got 19 triples!!!

Needless to say I am ecstatic with the progress. Although a bit skeptic. I am eagerly awaiting my next session to see if the strength is still there or if it was some odd fluke. But the whole ordeal got me thinking. Thus the question above.

[mobsterone]

I'd imagine that the extra food and possibly the coffees etc at the end of the meal made all the difference.

Eating before any weight training is a trick to be learned. You should leave it long enough that you don't vomit up your last meal and yet close enough that you have energy. I'd say between 60 and 90 mins is best (depending on your digestive abilities and the meal size - keep it small).

I also like to have a strong coffee pre-training and until recently added a spoonful of creatine. I did this for both grip and normal training feeling that some don't treat the grip stuff as seriously as they should (maybe all the non COC )

Other factors include work - inc shifts, stress and so on. The longer you're in the Iron Game the more you learn whats best for you.

[Bob Lipinski]

Grip strength is very tempermental with me. I find caffeine and ephedrine effect my grip training much more than regular training- So much more that I almost always take some before serious grip sessions.

Also, doing the grippers in front of others helps quite a bit, as well as doing some sort of workout beforehand.

Any combination of the above factors can really change workout performance for me.