Frustrated

[coc3]

i can go through 1 gripper workout and my hands are as stiff as a board for 4-5 days afterwards,i don't understand. i do my contrast baths, and extensor work. am i supposed to do the cont. baths every day? should i just keep going through my routine and let my hands adapt to the grip work or what. i work my crush grip once or twice a week and thickbar and pinch once a week. does anybody else go through this crap.

[diesel]

i feel your pain man. my hands, like the rest of my body, are slow to recover. i can only do a full strength gripper workout every 4-5 days and i can only bend once a week. your hands will build up a certain tolerance after a while, but whether or not they will adapt to your desires is unclear; you can try to shock them for a week or two, doing a workout every other day or something like that. i soak my hands in hot water 2-3x a day, and that seems to help my recovery. good luck.

[GoJu]

that's weird bro, the contrast baths and extensor work really help me out, I work crush with like 12 singles of neg reps and then 5 x 5 reps on the ttk currently and the above work has really helped recover to the point where I can do it back to back for like 3 days if I wanted, which I do with a weight workout in between and the day after that another grip workout.

I suggest letting your hands adjust and see where it goes or maybe see if the intensity your using in your workouts is optimal for recovery. for instance when I tried doing sever negs on the #3 even though I couldn't close the #2 I was asking for weeklong soreness, good luck!

[rying]

This may be difficult to grasp, but the #1 way to improve your recovery rate is to train more. Daily training for 2-3 weeks will be tough on you and you'll feel weak, but your body will adapt. And once it does you'll always feel strong and fully recovered on just 1-2 days of rest!

If you always rest 4-5 days between workouts, it will always take you that long to recover. You may be able to make gains this way, but your body will have no reason to increase it's recovery rate and take your strength to the next level.

For a long time, I gradually reduced my training frequency, to the point where I thought it took a week or more to recover from one workout? And it did!, but only because I was so de-conditioned by the lack of stimulus. Though I made gains for awhile, I was always sore and exhausted for days after each workout. It doesn't have to be that way...

Of course, you may be doing a ton of volume each workout. If that's the case, doing the same routine daily will just get you overtrained or hurt, so be careful.

Try the daily training for 2-3 weeks. Then go back to your previous routine and you'll feel fully recovered for each workout and beat your PR's.

At the least, do some "light" gripping on some of your off days, and you'll recover faster.

[coc3]

that makes sense, i'll try that. thanks!!

[royceman]

This may be difficult to grasp, but the #1 way to improve your recovery rate is to train more. Daily training for 2-3 weeks will be tough on you and you'll feel weak, but your body will adapt. And once it does you'll always feel strong and fully recovered on just 1-2 days of rest!

If you always rest 4-5 days between workouts, it will always take you that long to recover. You may be able to make gains this way, but your body will have no reason to increase it's recovery rate and take your strength to the next level.

For a long time, I gradually reduced my training frequency, to the point where I thought it took a week or more to recover from one workout? And it did!, but only because I was so de-conditioned by the lack of stimulus. Though I made gains for awhile, I was always sore and exhausted for days after each workout. It doesn't have to be that way...

Of course, you may be doing a ton of volume each workout. If that's the case, doing the same routine daily will just get you overtrained or hurt, so be careful.

Try the daily training for 2-3 weeks. Then go back to your previous routine and you'll feel fully recovered for each workout and beat your PR's.

At the least, do some "light" gripping on some of your off days, and you'll recover faster.

That toatally makes sense and answers a question I've had forming in my mind. For 10 years all I ever did was manuel labor including 4 years delivering paint ( loads and loads of farmers walks!! ). My hands recover really really fast, whereas my chest and shoulders take forever to recover. I thought maybe it was different muscle fibers in my forearms or something.

Thanks for that info dude.