Malice's Grip Training Ver. 2.0

[Geralt]

Hey Russ,

You're doing good, keep it up! I like your posts! Seems like we're going equally to a CCS. At this point I can (when still fresh in the training session) perform

one or two strapholds with 2.5 kg with my #3. I experience that my problem is not the setting of the gripper with CCS, but the momentum that the CC takes away.

I'm struggling with the last part of the close, particularly halfway after parallel (don't know how to describe it better) when doing a CCS. I'm trying full closes

with the Vulcan. Problem is that I have to choose between strapholds or choked gripper, because my strength flows away very quick when training with the bigger gripper in one session.So I have to pick my closes wisely. Also at this point my hands need at least four days rest. So it's two sessions at max per week.

What kind of arm injury did you experience by the way? Oh, and I experienced that washing my hands a few minutes in hot water before the training session is a good start for a warm up and makes my hands less sore afterwards. I read that somewhere and it works for me.

Russ, I hope you can reach your goal soon.

[Malice]

Thanks Geralt! I hurt my left forearm at WSH a few weeks ago. I was on my last attempt with the Wrist Developer and it slipped out of my right hand and tweaked something in my left forearm since it was still holding it tight. It's been feeling pretty good but some positions still bring a shock of pain so I'm going to keep taking it easy for a bit longer.

The warm water thing prior to warm ups sounds like a decent idea. I kinda sorta do that although not by design. 99% of my gripper workouts are done at night at work and my hands are in and out of hot water for most of the night and I'm constantly using my hands so they stay nice and warmed up and loose the whole time. On the rare occassion I do grippers at home I definitely have to spend more time warming them up before getting into the meat of the workout.

CCS will come shortly. When I get to that point I spend most of my time using the next level up gripper and doing heavy negatives and my CCS usually comes along pretty quickly. For some reason I changed things up this time and CCS progress has slowed way down but I'm going to go back to what's always worked in the past. Usually CCS domination happens about 2 weeks after MMS but not this time and I'm sure it's due to the change in the routine.

Keep pluggin' along and make the #3 a stepping stone rather than "the" goal. I just got my lifetime goal gripper from Wade, it's a BB World Class. Having that as a goal gripper pretty much assures I'll never feel satisfied with any gripper I close

[Malice]

9/6/10

#3(MMS)-5x1-3 closes. The first 2 attempts I missed due to being out of the groove, the other 3 closes were very solid and fairly easy.

#3(MMS)-left-5x1-no closes but again within 3/8". I'm very happy with this since it was close and no pain in left arm.

#3.5(choked 1")-5x1-no closes but all within 3/16" or less. Very happy with this!

I wasn't planning on using the #3 righty any more but was working on getting some good video on a #3 close. I have the day off work so my hands aren't as warm as usual for grippers since I haven't been working so the first couple attempts were near misses/unsure closes. Once I got in the groove it closed fairly easy though.

[Forever]

9/6/10

#3(MMS)-5x1-3 closes. The first 2 attempts I missed due to being out of the groove, the other 3 closes were very solid and fairly easy.

#3(MMS)-left-5x1-no closes but again within 3/8". I'm very happy with this since it was close and no pain in left arm.

#3.5(choked 1")-5x1-no closes but all within 3/16" or less. Very happy with this!

I wasn't planning on using the #3 righty any more but was working on getting some good video on a #3 close. I have the day off work so my hands aren't as warm as usual for grippers since I haven't been working so the first couple attempts were near misses/unsure closes. Once I got in the groove it closed fairly easy though.

Good job and keep going on that #3

[Malice]

9/7/10

Blob50-weight is how much is on the deloader

25x1

20x1

15x1

12.5x2 (only got about a foot of air each hand, no full deadlift)

I'm disappointed in this baseline since it's 4.5 lbs. more on the deloader than my PR but I haven't worked it in a couple months other than negatives a half dozen times so I guess it's to be expected. It's just more motivation to dominate this thing. I'm going to try switching blob workouts to the morning of gripper workouts. I'll do blob before work, grippers during work at night and try RT when I get home from work before bed. I don't know how that'll work but I'll keep switching things up until I figure it out. I'll also start doing TTK for all my thumb work instead of the pony clamp. Heavy negatives with TTK should help boost thumb strength quite a bit.

[Malice]

9/8/10

Blob50-weight is what I have on the deloader

25x1

20x1

15x1

12.5x1(only got a foot of air)

17.5x2-did 5 second holds

Grippers

#3(MMS)left-10x1-no full closes but all were below 3/8"

MM1 replica(MMS)right-10x1-no full closes but all were less than 5/16" with two just under 3/16"

All in all this was a very good grip day! I didn't get any lower on Blob50 but all pulls felt stronger than yesterday. The 5 second holds felt really good too. I'm very happy with grippers tonight! My left is coming back nicely and getting that close to closing the MM1 replica was completely unexpected. The only down side is that I'd planned to do RT when I got home from work but my hands are smoked so that's not going to happen. Instead of doing blob, grippers and RT 3x a week I may have to do blob and RT only twice a week each or blob twice and RT once. Time to experiment and figure out how to get it all in.

[Malice]

9/10/10

I tried to do a Blob50 workout this morning but my hands had no strength at all. I couldn't even get a full lift with 20 lbs. on the deloader so I called it a day on that. Then I decided to try RT and that felt a lot better. I actually managed a PR so that's good. I got 160 lbs. (this was the face value of the plates only) which totaled 167 lbs. and change when I put the whole apparatus on the scale. Unfortunately, my hands were still very weak at work and grippers were a no-go. Hopefully I can get a good gripper workout in tomorrow to make up for it.

Rolling Thunder

125x1

135x1

145x1

155x1

160x1(PR)

140x9®10(L)-these were reps with only enough time between to reposition my hand on the handle.

[Malice]

No grippers this weekend after all. My forearms are actually a little stiff and sore from repping the RT

[OTTOEMEZZO]

Congrats on your recent MM0 certification! Great job and a big accomplishment.

[Malice]

Congrats on your recent MM0 certification! Great job and a big accomplishment.

Thanks brother!!

[Malice]

9/12/10

Today was a rest day so I didn't do any grip work but I did buy some stuff from Home Depot to make something to start training 2hp. It's basically a 2x6 with another 1/4" piece screwed to it to make closer to the width of the Euro device we used in Tucson for WSH. It has a hook on the bottom that I hang my loading pin from. Just to see if it works I managed to pull 125 lbs. on it with no chalk or anything so it'll work good enough for now. If I can find out the diameter of the Euro 2hp device I'll cut a radius into the top

I'm tired of being a one trick pony with only being half way decent on grippers for a newb and absolutely suck at everything else. I have some HUGE goals for next year and I'm sure everyone will think I'm as nuts about them as they did when I said I'm going to certify on the #3 in less than 9 months

[Malice]

9/13/10

Grippers

#3(MMS)left-10x1-no full closes but all were less than 5/16" and a couple were less than 3/16"

MM1 replica(MMS)right-10x1-no full closes but all less than 5/16" with a few less than 1/4"

I'm very happy with this workout especially considering the issues and excitement that happened half way through. I'm VERY happy with how well my left is coming along. I'm thinking the MM1 replica might be closed next week with the #3 lefty not far behind.

I did my first 5 sets at work and at lunch I went to go get something to eat and there was a noise I wasn't happy with coming from the passenger side front of my car so I decided to leave early since I didn't have anything to do anyway and had the wife follow me home at about 15 mph. When I got home I was getting the jack out of the trunk to take off the wheel and see what the problem was and the neighbors car went up in flames So the whole neighborhood spent the next hour or so out watching the fire dept. put the fire out. I guess my car issues aren't so bad after all

Anyway, when I got done with the car I decided to finish the workout since my hands were pretty well warmed up from working on it and happily my strength didn't fall off much if any at all.

[Joefrey]

This is a Hollywood movie !!

Nice workouts. You've made great progress !

[Malice]

This is a Hollywood movie !!

The only thing missing was the huge explosion to fling people back 20 feet through the air

[Malice]

Here's my 3 year old daughter Megan standing in front of the neighbor's car that burned up last night. I guess Sunfire was the perfect name for this car

[Cannon]

Wow. That car is really burning rubber now.

Good workout. I envy anyone keeping their right and left close.

[Malice]

9/14/10

Blob50

22.5x1

20x1

15x1

12.5x0(couple inches of air again)

17.5x2-10 second holds

Grippers-did band expansions and pony clamp for thumb with each set of grippers

#3(choked to 3/4")left-10x1-no closes

#3.5(choked to 1")right-10x1-3 closes! Hopefully the choker will come off next week for MMS work from then on

After the workout my hands were smoked but having closed the 3.5 a few times choked I wanted to see where I am with it both MMS and CCS since I'll hopefully start working with it MMS next week. I managed to get below parallel MMS and was about 1" or a little wider CCS.

All in all a pretty decent workout. I'm still a little disappointed with blob being where it is but it'll get better. The rest day tomorrow will be real nice cuz the hands are pretty smoked from blob and heavy grippers in one day.

[Forever]

9/14/10

Blob50

22.5x1

20x1

15x1

12.5x0(couple inches of air again)

17.5x2-10 second holds

Grippers-did band expansions and pony clamp for thumb with each set of grippers

#3(choked to 3/4")left-10x1-no closes

#3.5(choked to 1")right-10x1-3 closes! Hopefully the choker will come off next week for MMS work from then on

After the workout my hands were smoked but having closed the 3.5 a few times choked I wanted to see where I am with it both MMS and CCS since I'll hopefully start working with it MMS next week. I managed to get below parallel MMS and was about 1" or a little wider CCS.

All in all a pretty decent workout. I'm still a little disappointed with blob being where it is but it'll get better. The rest day tomorrow will be real nice cuz the hands are pretty smoked from blob and heavy grippers in one day.

Good strong workout here

[Malice]

I was looking back at my progress and noticed something interesting. It took me 3 months and 3 days to go from the 2 to the 2.5 and it only took 7 weeks to go from the 2.5 to the 3. I think the main difference was that between the 2 and 2.5 I had several in between grippers that I used and between the 2.5 and 3 I didn't. I think the in between grippers are great for seeing progress in smaller gains and for keeping motivation high but they may have actually hindered my overall progress a little. I say this because once I closed the 2.5 I just grabbed the 3 and started using it and and progressed almost twice as fast. That seals my decision to just exclusively start using the 3.5 this week with the right hand. I'll still give the MM1 replica a squeeze periodically just to see my progress with it but all training will be with the 3.5. Once I can close the 3.5 MMS at will I'll choke the #4 to 3/4" and use that for my choker work

I contacted Ironmind today about setting up my #3 cert attempt in November at the WSH contest in Tucson so we'll see what they say. I'd like to be able to dominate my 3.5 from a bit wider than MMS by then so that's another reason to start using it exclusively. I think it's doable since it's about 2 months from now and I'm able to close it to less than parallel MMS right now.

Besides, on Easter I took the 1.5 (which I was barely closing) to the families house and nobody else in the family could close it. I'm looking forward to seeing their faces when I smash the 3.5 at will then hand it to them to try

[Forever]

I was looking back at my progress and noticed something interesting. It took me 3 months and 3 days to go from the 2 to the 2.5 and it only took 7 weeks to go from the 2.5 to the 3. I think the main difference was that between the 2 and 2.5 I had several in between grippers that I used and between the 2.5 and 3 I didn't. I think the in between grippers are great for seeing progress in smaller gains and for keeping motivation high but they may have actually hindered my overall progress a little. I say this because once I closed the 2.5 I just grabbed the 3 and started using it and and progressed almost twice as fast. That seals my decision to just exclusively start using the 3.5 this week with the right hand. I'll still give the MM1 replica a squeeze periodically just to see my progress with it but all training will be with the 3.5. Once I can close the 3.5 MMS at will I'll choke the #4 to 3/4" and use that for my choker work

I contacted Ironmind today about setting up my #3 cert attempt in November at the WSH contest in Tucson so we'll see what they say. I'd like to be able to dominate my 3.5 from a bit wider than MMS by then so that's another reason to start using it exclusively. I think it's doable since it's about 2 months from now and I'm able to close it to less than parallel MMS right now.

Besides, on Easter I took the 1.5 (which I was barely closing) to the families house and nobody else in the family could close it. I'm looking forward to seeing their faces when I smash the 3.5 at will then hand it to them to try

Great idea with the choker work and props for contacting IM to push you further on the way to the #3 cert Good luck on that

[Malice]

9/16/10

Grippers-supersetted with band expansions and pony clamp

MM1 replica(MMS)left-10x1-no closes but all less than 5/16"!!

#3.5(MMS)-10x1-no closes but all less than 3/8"!!!

I'm very, Very, VEry, VERy, VERY glad I decided to take the choker off the 3.5 and use the MM1 replica for my left! I did a lot better with both than I could have ever anticipated! My hands felt good and strong all night and still felt so good after the workout that I wanted to continue. I had to put the grippers in the car to remove the temptation

If the strength gains continue with the left the way they have lately it's likely that I'll be able to close my certification gripper left and right on cert day. That was always the goal before I injured my left arm and had to stop training it for a while.

[Malice]

9/17/10

Grippers

MM1 replica(MMS)left-8x1-no closes but all less than 5/16" and several at or under 1/4"

#3.5(MMS)right-8x1-no closes but all less than 3/8" with a couple at about 1/4"

Hands were a little stronger for the most part which is almost always the case when doing grippers 2 days in a row but the skin on the palm of my left hand was real tender after a few sets so I stopped early. My forearms were also getting a little achy.

Rolling Thunder

142x15

142x16

I'm trying something new based on a recomendation from IROC. I stopped the first set at 15 and repped as many as I could on the second set. I think next time I'll shoot for 20 on the first set and max reps on the second set. When I can hit 20 reps on the first set I'll up the weight a little bit. I really like hitting reps on RT. My forearms are SWOLL right now! Thanks for the advise Todd

[Geralt]

Damn Russ, with that date in mind, you've also set the deadline for me since we seem to be going at the same rate at this point.

Good that you can train both open hand strength with the RT and also progress in crushing strength, especially because you do both in the same week. I know it would kill me on the grippers. But that's what works for you! I also threw the chokers in the corner and mostly do

#3 for measuring progress and train with my Vulcan on #3.5 setting. Where you do much more gripwork per week, my last training session

with grippers was monday 13 september, my next one will be tomorrow (19th). Did deadlifts halfway the week, so i'm very curious what tomorrow's session will do. Keep up the good work!

[Malice]

Went to Dave's house today to get some work in for WSH. We mainly did 2hp and messed around a little with Wrist Developer. I showed Dave some technique with RT and he did worked up to a max of 144 lbs. Pretty good for a first pull. I didn't do much of anything other than 2hp due to my hands and forearms being still a little tight from Friday's workout. I didn't bother to keep track of anything I did on WD cuz I kept it so light.

9/19/10

2hp-did 5 second holds

55x2(the implement we used is 55 lbs.)

105x2

115x2

125x2

Didn't go heavy or do much but it felt good anyway.

[MANTHOS]

Great job so far Russ! Keep up the hard work!