Your longest plateau with grippers?

[AdriaanRobert96]

So as a lot of you know by now I am currently 1mm off the #3.5 with a credit card set

With that said I’ve stumbled upon one of my longest plateaus with grippers which really challenges my sanity..

I’ve gone for about 2+ months without even the slightest progression, I’ve done a total back off for a full 14 days but that didn’t help and funny enough I feel even weaker!

I’ll probably do a couple of weeks of higher rep training which worked fine last time I hit plateaued.

20 rep sets to get that blood flowing will do it

To finish this rant of me basically crying, what’s been your longest gripper pleateau and how did you go about not losing your sanity?

Edited August 12, 2023 by AdriaanRobert96

[EmilBB]

Have you tried placing the gripper higher in the palm? 

[Jermiah Merciconah]

The entirety of 2022 was a plateau for me, I think i made 5 rgc progress throughout the entire year simply by virtue of doing 1 rep maxes and heavy attempts the whole time

[AdriaanRobert96]

1 hour ago, EmilBB said:

Have you tried placing the gripper higher in the palm? 

Good point, although I have tried that and it felt a little awkward at times.

Some days it might feel good some days it feels odd

At the end of the day I think it’s just me not being ready

[slazbob]

Have you tried filed closes, or strap holds? Are you training your wrists?

you're still training your grip even when you don’t close it; think of it as lockout strength, the support areas need to step up at this level.

[AdriaanRobert96]

4 hours ago, Jermiah Merciconah said:

The entirety of 2022 was a plateau for me, I think i made 5 rgc progress throughout the entire year simply by virtue of doing 1 rep maxes and heavy attempts the whole time

Oh man I feel for you, any idea why and how would you go past it?

Just push through or maybe backing off for a while?

When I backed off from heavy grippers I went way back to a #2 and #2.5 and did 20 reps on the #2 then on the #2.5, done this for two weeks then I got my first close on the #3.5.. worth a try, high reps really rejuvenate the hands

[AdriaanRobert96]

46 minutes ago, slazbob said:

Have you tried filed closes, or strap holds? Are you training your wrists?

you're still training your grip even when you don’t close it; think of it as lockout strength, the support areas need to step up at this level.

The only filed closes I’ve done was with a filed down Vulcan sent to me by @Fist of Fury but that’s about it..

Strap holds is something I’ll have to take a look at a bit closer tbh, never done em.

Wrists is something I’ve done weekly up until 2 months ago since I wanted to back off extra work completely to be strong for my #3.5 CCS attempt.

Seems like it didn’t help, so maybe I should keep wrist work while deloading after all.

I usually use a wrist lever in all directions for 1-2 sets of 20 reps (feels super good on the wrist) and gives me a massive pump.

Never felt any benefit from going super heavy on wrist work tbh but you’re more than welcome to educate me if you know it to be otherwise..

At this point I am really open to all advice I can get

[Fist of Fury]

I think the longest time was around one year. That has happend twice for me on different levels.

Easiest way of busting through a plateau is to increase the volume in my opinion.

That is, if peaking doesn't work. It just means that your base strength isn't high enough to go further.

[AdriaanRobert96]

2 hours ago, Fist of Fury said:

I think the longest time was around one year. That has happend twice for me on different levels.

Easiest way of busting through a plateau is to increase the volume in my opinion.

That is, if peaking doesn't work. It just means that your base strength isn't high enough to go further.

So basically increase base strength through more volume you say?

[Fist of Fury]

Yes. It will give you a better chance to train with heavier grippers for higher volume as well, your recovery will be better and you will be able to do more work with harder grippers. Thus giving you a better chance to get stronger during peaking.

Are you only doing CCS training? I would suggest that you switch things up also. Don't just train one type of set. If you feel progress is hard, try another set width for a while. Maybe a 30 mm block set or something.

[AdriaanRobert96]

2 hours ago, Fist of Fury said:

Yes. It will give you a better chance to train with heavier grippers for higher volume as well, your recovery will be better and you will be able to do more work with harder grippers. Thus giving you a better chance to get stronger during peaking.

Are you only doing CCS training? I would suggest that you switch things up also. Don't just train one type of set. If you feel progress is hard, try another set width for a while. Maybe a 30 mm block set or something.

So up until now my gripper workouts looked like this using only wide set:

Band Finger Extensions: 12-15 reps

#1: 8-10 reps

#2: 3 reps

#2.5: 3 reps

Easy #3: 1-3 reps

Harder (Percieved atleast) #3: max reps, about 3 reps.

Drop down to the easy #3 and get about 5 reps aswell then maybe go back to the #2.5 and smashing another 15-20 reps.

This was about it and mostly what got me to closing the #3.5 and almost CCSing it.

I tried 30mm block sets recently and it felt super awkward, even more so with deep sets.

I might need to get used to it tho.

[Scottex92]

15 hours ago, AdriaanRobert96 said:

So up until now my gripper workouts looked like this using only wide set:

Band Finger Extensions: 12-15 reps

#1: 8-10 reps

#2: 3 reps

#2.5: 3 reps

Easy #3: 1-3 reps

Harder (Percieved atleast) #3: max reps, about 3 reps.

Drop down to the easy #3 and get about 5 reps aswell then maybe go back to the #2.5 and smashing another 15-20 reps.

This was about it and mostly what got me to closing the #3.5 and almost CCSing it.

I tried 30mm block sets recently and it felt super awkward, even more so with deep sets.

I might need to get used to it tho.

In the video you tried the CCS3.5 after doing 3 reps with the #3, I would recommend that a last warm up set would be only 1 rep. This is so that you don't lose strength on the warm ups.

The idea of upping the volume almost always works, try doing more CCS reps with the #3 while still doing attempts with the #3.5.

[Blacksmith513]

On 8/12/2023 at 2:05 PM, AdriaanRobert96 said:

So as a lot of you know by now I am currently 1mm off the #3.5 with a credit card set

With that said I’ve stumbled upon one of my longest plateaus with grippers which really challenges my sanity..

I’ve gone for about 2+ months without even the slightest progression, I’ve done a total back off for a full 14 days but that didn’t help and funny enough I feel even weaker!

I’ll probably do a couple of weeks of higher rep training which worked fine last time I hit plateaued.

20 rep sets to get that blood flowing will do it

To finish this rant of me basically crying, what’s been your longest gripper pleateau and how did you go about not losing your sanity?

With grippers i trained for close to a year and made little progress. But that was more due to me being an idiot.

I haven't trained them again  since i got serious into grip but with other lifts i've been training like my pinch. Its been sorta stagnant and hit or miss for a couple months.  Part of it has been the work i've been doing though.  I think its just the nature of the beast... Mix it up, train from a different set or whatever..  Just a different route and eventually you'll get there. 

[AdriaanRobert96]

4 hours ago, Scottex92 said:

In the video you tried the CCS3.5 after doing 3 reps with the #3, I would recommend that a last warm up set would be only 1 rep. This is so that you don't lose strength on the warm ups.

The idea of upping the volume almost always works, try doing more CCS reps with the #3 while still doing attempts with the #3.5.

Yeah that might be draining my strength indeed, with that said I have changed my workout plan to something that of what you mentioned  

[AdriaanRobert96]

31 minutes ago, Blacksmith513 said:

With grippers i trained for close to a year and made little progress. But that was more due to me being an idiot.

I haven't trained them again  since i got serious into grip but with other lifts i've been training like my pinch. Its been sorta stagnant and hit or miss for a couple months.  Part of it has been the work i've been doing though.  I think its just the nature of the beast... Mix it up, train from a different set or whatever..  Just a different route and eventually you'll get there. 

Amen to that brother, very well said about taking a different route