My Beginning With Grippers, And A Question

[kuurakarahka]

I recently got myself four grippers from the US (I live in Finland), and some of you might still remember the exhilaration upon getting to squeeze your first own gripper - I surely was entangled in that feeling! Anyway, I got Tetting's grippers T2, T4, T6 and T7. In the retrospect of actually knowing how much these differences in rating actually mean, I think I should've just gotten all the grippers from T2 to T7. Now I have these huge jumps to deal with. Oh well, that T7 will go down one day.

It's been a month since I got them, and training has followed the easy/medium/hard-template, training thrice a week. First I couldn't close the T2 with either hand, but noticed it was a technique issue, since I didn't really have a clue how to have the gripper in my hand. I learned eventually, and my best so far is six full closes with T2, and up to parallel with T4.

I also do a bunch of other grip- and wrist-focused stuff, such as pinching, levering and bending, and also kettlebelling, which can be rather intense on the grip support-wise. So, now I have the problem of fitting gripper training into my schedule. I have kept my gripper workouts low in volume, because this unexpected stress is likely rather hard on my fingers.

How do you do it? Do you downsize the other aspects of grip'n wrist while going for crushing grip, and then rotate again in the next cycle, putting the crushing grip in a maintenance mode? Grippers seem to interfere with pinching and levering (front especially) affects bending.

[ae_yogi]

I have made slow but steady progress training pinch and grip on seperate days every week.

[Jacobs86]

I have made slow but steady progress training pinch and grip on seperate days every week.

Ditto. I train (crush) grip once a week, and pinch grip once a week. Thats it. It works for me.

But I suggest starting off gently, build up some general strength, then play around with different routines - find what works for you.

[kuurakarahka]

Thanks for the advice!

I must admit I have the habit of cramming my schedule too full, so I end up progressing either very little in one aspect or not at all in every aspect. Higher frequency would probably be alright if I didn't train anything else but gripping in its various forms, but as it is now, it gets a good deal of work.

For levering/bending and pinching I've had easy/medium/hard days, where I've adjusted the intensity and volume. It has worked for pinching, but it seems counterproductive to do both levering and bending, and now the crushing grip training would interfere with pinching. Besides, it is difficult to adjust the load with grippers when there's only one gripper you can close.

I think I'll go with two-week cycles for levering and bending so that I can focus better on them individually, training twice a week with focus on high volume on one day and high intensity on the other. Pinching and gripping separate days a week sounds good, too, so I'll have a go at it. The easy day in my program seemed kind of redundant, so I've just been toying around on that day, lightly, of course. Usually playing with the sledgehammer provides a refreshing effect.

[foxyj75]

I like to do my grippers either at the tail end of a bending session, or in between sets of squats on leg day. I find that I am much stronger on grippers when I have squatted beforehand.

[Cannon]

I recently got myself four grippers from the US (I live in Finland), and some of you might still remember the exhilaration upon getting to squeeze your first own gripper - I surely was entangled in that feeling! Anyway, I got Tetting's grippers T2, T4, T6 and T7. In the retrospect of actually knowing how much these differences in rating actually mean, I think I should've just gotten all the grippers from T2 to T7. Now I have these huge jumps to deal with. Oh well, that T7 will go down one day.

Okay, here you go:

Step 1: Buy a #4.

Step 2: Close it.

Ha, just kidding. You're in good company. Your Finnish brothers are strong!