Mikael Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I want to know more about what happens when you train ONLY the hands. Someone said you can't make progress beyond a certain point if you don't train your entire body. Is it really true? If it is, what kind of training do I need to do? Heavy weight training? Or can I do as I had planned, bodyweight training? The most interesting would be if there are any persons here that only train the hands and how far you have been able to reach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lukeallard Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I have only been training my hands using the cocs. When I first started I couldn't close the Trainer. No I can just close the #2 - took over a year to get this far though. My plan is now to start training the body with high rep squats and chin-ups etc. It is generally agreed (I believe) that the average trainee cannot process too far beyond the #2 without some other training. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judoboy Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I have only been training my hands using the cocs. When I first started I couldn't close the Trainer. No I can just close the #2 - took over a year to get this far though.My plan is now to start training the body with high rep squats and chin-ups etc. It is generally agreed (I believe) that the average trainee cannot process too far beyond the #2 without some other training. grippers are just one aspect of hand strength, but i see grip training as a supplement to overall strength. its no good having killer hands, if you can't do a single chin. we are different and it depends on goals i suppose. high rep squats are brilliant for adding beef. super squats by Randall Strossen is an excellent book. super squatting changed me physically, but without doubt made me mentally tougher (or maybe just mental) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anson Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 You are limiting yourself if you only train hands, you need your largest muscles to become powerful and this will transfer to the hands. If you plan on only doing bodyweight movements you should progress up to the most effective ones: variations of chin ups, one legged squats, and hand stand pushups on paralletts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yersinia Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 hm. i do mostly grippers and bending. some weight training but not much.. too lazy gonna start doing some bodyweight training i guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearcat 74 Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Huge mistake only training grip. As others have said you are limiting yourself. I have been guilty of not training everything hard enough, I have been working on getting stronger, doing less grip, and my grip strength is going up due to less training/more rest and the fact that I am getting stronger as a whole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Styles Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Now this, I'm pretty well versed in... I am very consistent in my grip workouts. Generally 2-3 a week for 30-45 minutes. I even do hand health work on my off days. However, my strength training workouts tend to suck. I miss them, I don't lift very heavy, I don't progress much. This has been the case for years. The best grip lifts I've done are a #2 close, blue nail bend, pinch 2 25s, lift 32.5lb blob, 220 double overhand axle deadlift, 165 v-bar, 24 kilo bottoms up kettlebell press, tear easy deck of cards, tear easy phone book. Contrast that with a best ever bench of 5x145, squat of 1x165, and deadlift of 1x225. I've competed at 3 grip contests. I came in dead last at every single one of them. At 2 of them, I was beaten by a strong 15 year old that lifts weights but doesn't even really train grip. There were a number of guys that just lift weights and don't do much grip work that did far better than me. My grip strength is MUCH greater than it was before I did any grip training. I struggled with the trainer when I started, and I failed to bend the white nail. But, guys who have gotten strong all over can show up on day one and beat all my bests. I'm doing this for fun, so I don't mind too much, but just training the hands is definitely limiting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Autolupus Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Scott, are your # for the bench, squat, deadlift lbs or kgs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Styles Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Pounds. Boy, if they were kilograms, I'd be really happy with them. That's part of why I think it's funny when I see the numbers others compare the grip feats to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
climber511 Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Strong overall body equals strong all over and often very strong hands with no specific training. Strong hands equals well - strong hands. I don't believe it's possible to reach anywhere near your potential sitting on your butt squeezing grippers or just doing hand and forearm work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaverickBU Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I have no experience training only grip, but I've been lifting heavy for a while without focusing on grip (up until about 3 months ago). Although its far from easy, I think the weight training background has made it much less difficult for me to progress through the early stages of serious grip training than it would be if I hadn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Autolupus Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Cheers Scott, my best bench is 110kg, squat 165kg and deadlift 200kg. You can see why I asked. Don't feel too bad now. Just bought the coc#2.5 and 3, having just started to rep the #2(although today my hands feel as weak as kittens ) Rest em up and then back at it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stew2 Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 If you want to keep up in grip with things like Vbar weights reaching close to 400 and climbing for someone to only train hands is going to falol short or if they possibly can hit a weight like that they'll end up with a back brace. So a big definitely on all around strength training for grip training to increase.Not much good to be able to hold 300#s on a oly bar if you can't pick it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I was guilty of this in the beginning and still was pretty strong, but I started doing a lot better when I got stronger all over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifesnotfair Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Feats that involve lifting big weights DO have that problem. For example, these guys two-hand pinching 200lbs, or lifting 200+ on the Rolling Thunder..... I will never get there training just grip, or it'd take me DECADES, since my max deadlift right now is... well, dunno, but I'm doing 215lbs x 6 .... hehe, so yeah, how can I pinch or lift in thickbar (with one hand) that weight?? No way. However, things like a GRIPPER, that weights like 1 pound, some newbies might believe that by only training grip, you'll eventually close a #3 or a BBE or whatever, but I agree with what's been said, a weak guy who only trains grip will have much more troubles reaching those high levels of gripper closings. If you look at the guys here that have progressed the fastests, they're strong fellas... maybe they couldn't close the #2 first try, but it took them only a couple of months to close the #3. No way a weak guy is gonna get there fast. Maybe he gets there, but NOT fast at all, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Styles Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I have yet to manage to develop my grip strength to a point that my overall body strength prevents me from performing a grip feat. It's as if my body won't let my hands get stronger than what the rest of me can support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubgeezer Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 (edited) I am 52. I started "grip" at 44. I only trained grip until 49. I added other things slowly. Grippers, best grip only............2.6 Grippers, after.........................2.9 Rolling Thunder, grip only........180 Rolling Thunder, after..............209 IM Hub, grip only......................65 IM Hub, after............................74 Axle pull, grip only, N/A, afraid, and never deadlifted more than 200 Axle, after, d/o in competition...325 Vbar, before, same as above, afraid....N/A Vbar, after, age 52 in competition... 321 I did grip only for years. The "after" were all things done after age 50. I can only imagine the results for someone younger. The biggest mistake I made was wasting many hours overdoing grip crap, while neglecting health and the rest of the body. My situation was unique, in that I presumed I was over the hill and only grip would respond at the older age. It was a dumb presumption. Hubgeezer Edited February 23, 2007 by Hubgeezer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
climber511 Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I think Mike (Hubgeezer) just said it all. His documented experience shows the benefits of an overall strong healthy training program. It also proves that age, while it is certainly a factor, it's not as big a deal as many think in the development of your body. Sure he might have done better if he started sooner but starting at an age when most just "watch", he competes and holds his own with the kids. His experience with adding overall training should be a lesson for all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubgeezer Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I think Mike (Hubgeezer) just said it all. His documented experience shows the benefits of an overall strong healthy training program. It also proves that age, while it is certainly a factor, it's not as big a deal as many think in the development of your body. Sure he might have done better if he started sooner but starting at an age when most just "watch", he competes and holds his own with the kids. His experience with adding overall training should be a lesson for all. Usually one has to pay people to say these kinds of things about them. Thanks Chris! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoC#3 Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 I would suggest doing some workouts to get the body stronger overall. Your grip will get stronger with the rest of your body. Exercises i would suggest are squats, bench press, overhead pressing and deadlifts. Some awkward object lifting is also an option, assuming a decent level of conditioning. There are many ways of getting the body stronger - not just barbells and dumbells though. If you haven't got gym access think what you could do with just say a 100lb sandbag. 6 weeks playing with it (clean and press, bearhugs, even curls) and you will get much stronger. Your grip will also improve. Basically my point is if you are doing grip, do something to get the rest of the body stronger. It doesn't really matter what IMO but compound lifts are the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikael Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 (edited) Everyone seem to agree that training the whole body is important if I want to get the highest results. I accept that, but I don't really understand how it works. How can training my legs make me stronger in my hands? Does the body have some kind of mysterious "whole body concept"? I read somewhere that Joe Kinney taught us that doing squats (or some kind of leg training) would give us stronger grips. Maybe it's increased HGH levels when we train the whole body that's the answer to my question? Edited February 27, 2007 by Mikael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Styles Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 The best answer is probably - it just does. It's been proven over and over. If I were to guess, I'd say: 1. Major compound lifts put the body in a hormonal state that will promote greater intensity on the grip work as well as greater recovery from training. 2. The additional energy expended results in you eating and sleeping more 3. Major compound lifts result in direct training for you supporting grip, which provides a foundation for developing other aspects of the grip. Supporting grip otherwise tends to be neglected in grip training. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRabich Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 I been working grip with a guy at my gym, he's a member here too. He never really did any powerlifting or olympic lifting, yet he can close a gripper that I cannot (it's the BB that's harder than my IM#2, which I can close). He also beat me on IM pin vertical lift (the pin is my, he never lifted before), he pulled 145 to my 140. Not that my lifts are impressive by standards of this board 275 bp, 355 sq 295 fsq 475 dl 205 power clean 175 shoulder press, still I'd think it be enough to beat someone who doesn't lift, but not necessarily. Nevertheless most #3 closers have some kind of strength competitions. I think bottom line strictly doing grip work will make you strong enough to impress your friends, but to be world class you need to be strong all around Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Styles Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Just grip will make you strong enough to impress your friends. With the right tricks and some training, many of the "classic" feats aren't really all that great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRabich Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Scott what deck of cards did you rip? I practice a bit, I could do about 30 cards as we speak, it used to be 2 o3 decks for a dollar at 99 cent store, now they got expensive a dollar a pack, so I cannot get the volume in to tear a whole deck. Also great site, you made good contribution to the grip game, far beyond your gripping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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