sets and reps for grippers

[John Knowlton]

Big debate today in the gym what is best training for grippers , singles ,doubles. Sets of tens for warm-ups. Or a minimum warm-up and jump right up to goal grippers and work your way down ?

 

Any and all feedback would be very appreciative.

 

[DevilErik]

I'd say singles, doubles and triples.

When I first started training grippers I would do a warm up, a max and then 3 triples.

Now that I am more experienced I prefer singles or attempts but only with a gripper I'm a hair away from closing.

They can all work it really depends on what you prefer.

Attempts,singles,doubles and triples can all work really well.

Warm up wise I'd say a warm up that gets your CNS warmed up and prevents you from getting injured.

It all depends on the person though, I personally didn't need a warm up at all for injury prevention but I went back to doing warm ups because my strength wasn't there without a warm up I really need one to wake up my CNS.

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by DevilErik

[Cannon]

I'll be the first to offer the "no one size fits all" response. You need to experiment and find what works for you specifically. Having said that, most of the programs I have ever seen are based on lower reps per set, like definitely fewer than 10 and commonly fewer than 6.

RRBT (the RR is Radical Reps) may be an exception, however I believe even there the massive volume is accumulated from a zillion short sets, not a zillion reps per set. 

[Ivan Cuk]

What if you tried to close a 3 every single day for 1 year, would you be able to close a 3.5? 

[Nuttgens]

Just my experience and what seems to work for me but when I do too many heavy attempts or singles and doubles I seem to get stuck. Lately I have been trying to push my cobalt up to 3 reps and doing attempts on my 3.5 and I have gotten nowhere.

I find I am making the best progress when I am using a gripper around the 5 rep range and trying to add reps to it till about 8 or 10 reps then going up up grippers. It’s hard not to try and close a new goal gripper though especially when your close.

[Fist of Fury]

3 hours ago, John Knowlton said:

Big debate today in the gym what is best training for grippers , singles ,doubles. Sets of tens for warm-ups. Or a minimum warm-up and jump right up to goal grippers and work your way down ?

 

Any and all feedback would be very appreciative.

 

The best way is the way that works for you. Some people get stronger and stronger just by making a few attempts on a heavy gripper a few times per week. Other people (me included) make no gains at all from doing that. In fact I regress by doing that.

Some people make good gains just by doing a lot of volume (me included) others make no progress at all by doing that.

The truth is, you have to try and see what works for best for you.

The best way I made gains with grippers was to do a little bit of everything. And plan my workout exactly like I would do if I wanted to get better in any type of lifting. One period with higher reps, then a period with lower reps. Plus accessory work, like beyond the range, choker, negatives and speed work etc.
Exactly like I would do with any other exercise. That is also what worked for me in all exercises. Grippers was not different.
The only difference I would say is that the percentages of 1RM is a bit different with grippers. First of all it's a one handed exercise, so that changes the percentages a bit. Also the total volume can be larger when training small muscle groups like hands and forearms. So in that sense it's a bit different from training your legs. 

[Fist of Fury]

1 hour ago, Nuttgens said:

Just my experience and what seems to work for me but when I do too many heavy attempts or singles and doubles I seem to get stuck. Lately I have been trying to push my cobalt up to 3 reps and doing attempts on my 3.5 and I have gotten nowhere.

I find I am making the best progress when I am using a gripper around the 5 rep range and trying to add reps to it till about 8 or 10 reps then going up up grippers. It’s hard not to try and close a new goal gripper though especially when your close.

Yes that's because in order to be able to do a lot of heavy attempts you need a really large base strength to work from. You need to do volume so that your strength and endurance is high enough. Otherwise you will not have what it takes to do many heavy attempts. The stronger your base strength is the more attempts you can do with good result. Thus the stronger you can get.