Recovery Questions.or How You Stay Injury Free

[Cunny]

I hope this question gets noticed in this forum.

But how do you look after your fingers,arms,tendons,wrists or any other body part affected by grip training.

I know that the extensiors (sp?) should be worked to prevent injuries when training on COC's.But what do you do to aid recovery/prevent injury after your main grip work ...say after bending or pinch grip work, card tearing.

How do you work this into your routine and how serious do you take these preventitive measures?

I seem to have weak wrists.

Also do even some of the big guys get sore wrists after using a computer mouse for a long time?

[Patrik_F]

Put on some warm mittens while you sleep at night! Best there is for me!

[Matt Van Weele]

Cunny I think it has to do with how often you train. Maybe you need to cut back a little. I think alot of guys forget that it takes a while to build up too alot of volume that some guys use. Maybe this is not your case though.

[bender]

1). Higher calorie diet. You won't recover very fast while limiting your food intake. Drink plenty of milk and eat right, and keep your meals well rounded. Trying to get fit or lose fat will keep you catabolic, limiting hand recovery.

2). Warm mittens to bed. Circulation in the hands generaly sucks. Mittens make it uncomparably better, relieving pain and stiffness.

3). Train the extensors and "scissor type muscles". They may not make you stronger, but they will prevent injury and speed recovery.

4). Don't over train. Doing stupid stuff for ego is the best way to hurt your self. Train within your limits, and know what you can do. Training at 100% every day is guarenteed to hurt something. Volume may be key, but you've got to work up to it after your base strength increases.

5). Sand Grabbing. Opening and closing the hand in a bucket of sand for high reps is a great way to completely flush out the hand.

6). For bending: slege play. The twisting motion with the sledge hammer will tighten up the wrist and elbow, allowing you to bend pain and worry free.

7). Train all aspects of grip. Don't get lopsided or leave weak links in your hand.

[Jedd Johnson]

Can't mention how important contrast bathing has been for me in recovery and injury prevention.

I do many of the things that bender introduced. Also I would like to mention something the Diesel Crew has discovered recently: thick bar pressing work.

Thick bar pressing is much easier on my palm and wrist, mostly I think because the weight of the bar is spread out over a greater distance of the hand. My hands have felt great the last few weeks after incorporating this into my training.

Your wrists hurt, you say? Avoid heavy supination exercises, especially straight bar curls. This can be very stressful on the wrist and forearm.

If I think of anymore that I really like, I will come back and let you know.

-Napalm Jedd-

[Matt Van Weele]

Jedd I have read in some old Dr. Ken articles that thick bar pressing movements work the muscles better because you can't get a good groove with such a big bar. Do you find this to be true?

[austinslater]

Jedd-I found the same to be true for me, I love pressing with a 2-3" bar. My hands and wrists feel a ton better.

Matt-For me as a powerlifter I need technique, but from a strength standpoint the thicker bars are more of a strength movement and I seem to feel like Dr. Ken says; just using pure strength to muscle it up. Im planning on doing these in the offseason. They also seem to help my injured shoulder not sure why. But anyways enough ramblin, I recoment thick bar presses!

[Matt Van Weele]

Dr. Ken also said something about it stimulating muscle more because the nerve endings in the finger tips are being activated also. I'm not sure if that is totally correct but it was something like that.

[ianders1]

CONTRAST BATHS

I may be a newbie to the board, but I'm no stranger to hand pain. Contrast baths are probably the single best recovery method for hand pain, especially when combined with a paint brush. Let me explain (assuming both hands are bad):

1. Get yourself 2 buckets, or as I've found, the split bucket/tool holder you can find at Target and other department & Automotive places. It's the one designed to hold all of you soaps, sponges, waxes, etc. when you wash your car.

2. Fill one side/bucket 3/4 full with scalding hot water, as hot as you can stand, but not so hot it will burn you.

3. Fill the other side 1/4 full of ice (any more and you won't be able to handle it) and fill it with cold water until it's 3/4 full.

ALWAYS start with hot, ALWAYS end with cold.

5. Start with your right hand (doesn't matter, but remember which one you start with) in the hot water. Leave it in there for 3-5 mins.

6. After 3-5 mins. remove that hand and put it in the cold water (this will really hurt) and leave for as long as you can stand it, up to 5 mins.

7. While that hand is in the cold, you can start the other hand in the hot water.

8. After 3-5 mins, rotate hands.

9. Do this 2-4 times, making sure to end each hand in the cold bath.

10. Immediately after finishing, use a large 4-6" paint brush to stimulate the nerve endings. Simply brush the surface of one hand at a time, using just enough pressure to feel the bristles.

The first time you do the contrast baths, the cold water can be extremely painful, and if you don't get used to it, simply reduce the amount of ice.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

-Ian

[Cunny]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm gonna try the wax thing that was posted the other day when I find all the stuff.

Does anyone use the Ironmind Dexterity balls if so are they any good.

Mr brookfield recommends them on his website.

[ianders1]

RE: Contrast Baths

I forgot to mention the great thing with the car wash tool carrier is that to switch hands/baths, you just grab that handle in the middle and flip it around.

[Hulk]

Bump about the warm mittens, I'd say I wear mine 2/3's of the day only when I'm at school or working out are they off.My little secret is that I wear 'liners' under the mittens (very thin/skin tight gloves kinda look like the gloves michael jackson would wear around lol) but anyways, sometimes when your around the house doing somrthing you can be burdened by big bulky mitts so I just wear the liners which still do a pretty good job of keeping my hands warm and when I'm done with the job I juist slip the mitts back on over 'em (helps alot when I have to type, I'm very prone to typo's when wearing mittens.)

Contrast Baths are great too, a little tip I got reading around the boards, I do a long cycle of baths after every grip session in very large bowls with with some epson salts. And before every workout I do a quick cycle under the faucet to get the hands loosened up a bit.

I to both recovery methods