How'd your training go?

[hector]

at least I might finally close CoC#2 this spring

Outstanding !!!

What is your plan to increase grip strength?

[psmith]

Outstanding !!!

What is your plan to increase grip strength?

Three exclamation points reads a bit like sarcasm, which, to be clear, would be 100% appropriate. "herp derp muh lifesaving 195lb crush grip strength"

Anyway, mostly trying to do a ton of submaximal reps and limit intraset fatigue. Basically trying to apply the two big lessons of Exodus to grippers. Lots of singles across progressing to low-rep ladders.

AFAICT, nobody who's actually any good at grippers recommends this--the gripboard stickies and such are full of people saying that closing light grippers doesn't do much for max grip strength--but the last couple times I tried to get serious about grippers using the recommended routines I pissed off bits of connective tissue in my hands and lost interest. So far, I've been racking up a lot of volume (relative to previous attempts) and it's been pretty much pain-free.

[hector]

Outstanding !!!

What is your plan to increase grip strength?

Three exclamation points reads a bit like sarcasm, which, to be clear, would be 100% appropriate. "herp derp muh lifesaving 195lb crush grip strength"

Anyway, mostly trying to do a ton of submaximal reps and limit intraset fatigue. Basically trying to apply the two big lessons of Exodus to grippers. Lots of singles across progressing to low-rep ladders.

AFAICT, nobody who's actually any good at grippers recommends this--the gripboard stickies and such are full of people saying that closing light grippers doesn't do much for max grip strength--but the last couple times I tried to get serious about grippers using the recommended routines I pissed off bits of connective tissue in my hands and lost interest. So far, I've been racking up a lot of volume (relative to previous attempts) and it's been pretty much pain-free.

Not sarcasm at all! I just hyper punctuate.

I closed the 2 and have closing the 3 and certifying on my to-do list.

I agree with you and think lots of low intensity work can absolutely improve your grip strength.

[hector]

Outstanding !!!

What is your plan to increase grip strength?

Three exclamation points reads a bit like sarcasm, which, to be clear, would be 100% appropriate. "herp derp muh lifesaving 195lb crush grip strength"

Anyway, mostly trying to do a ton of submaximal reps and limit intraset fatigue. Basically trying to apply the two big lessons of Exodus to grippers. Lots of singles across progressing to low-rep ladders.

AFAICT, nobody who's actually any good at grippers recommends this--the gripboard stickies and such are full of people saying that closing light grippers doesn't do much for max grip strength--but the last couple times I tried to get serious about grippers using the recommended routines I pissed off bits of connective tissue in my hands and lost interest. So far, I've been racking up a lot of volume (relative to previous attempts) and it's been pretty much pain-free.

FYI, I have the GD-80 gripper which I consider outstanding. It's adjustable and high quality. ROM is slightly shorter than on Captains of Crush, but that's more than made up for by the adjustable weight and solid build.

[Hanley]

"herp derp muh lifesaving 195lb crush grip strength"

No way, man. Grip strength is super important. It's almost always the limiting factor when manipulating external resistances in the real world. Also essential for street fighting. #2 is solid.

[ChrisMcCarthy1979]

AFAICT, nobody who's actually any good at grippers recommends this--

Hey!

[iamsmu]

One of the more pronounced sex differences:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17186303

It's not as extreme as throwing velocity, but the difference in grip strength is huge. Here, I'll copy the abstract:

Abstract
Hand-grip strength has been identified as one limiting factor for manual lifting and carrying loads. To obtain epidemiologically relevant hand-grip strength data for pre-employment screening, we determined maximal isometric hand-grip strength in 1,654 healthy men and 533 healthy women aged 20-25 years. Moreover, to assess the potential margins for improvement in hand-grip strength of women by training, we studied 60 highly trained elite female athletes from sports known to require high hand-grip forces (judo, handball). Maximal isometric hand-grip force was recorded over 15 s using a handheld hand-grip ergometer. Biometric parameters included lean body mass (LBM) and hand dimensions. Mean maximal hand-grip strength showed the expected clear difference between men (541 N) and women (329 N). Less expected was the gender related distribution of hand-grip strength: 90% of females produced less force than 95% of males. Though female athletes were significantly stronger (444 N) than their untrained female counterparts, this value corresponded to only the 25th percentile of the male subjects. Hand-grip strength was linearly correlated with LBM. Furthermore, both relative hand-grip strength parameters (F (max)/body weight and F (max)/LBM) did not show any correlation to hand dimensions. The present findings show that the differences in hand-grip strength of men and women are larger than previously reported. An appreciable difference still remains when using lean body mass as reference. The results of female national elite athletes even indicate that the strength level attainable by extremely high training will rarely surpass the 50th percentile of untrained or not specifically trained men.

[psmith]

Good to hear that I'm on reasonably well-trod ground after all (n >= 2) with the "Montana method for grippers" approach.

FYI, I have the GD-80 gripper which I consider outstanding. It's adjustable and high quality. ROM is slightly shorter than on Captains of Crush, but that's more than made up for by the adjustable weight and solid build.

Very slick, thanks, I was thinking something to bridge the gap between #1 and #2 would be useful.

No way, man. Grip strength is super important. It's almost always the limiting factor when manipulating external resistances in the real world. Also essential for street fighting.

I've heard this before. Arm wrestling too, apparently. Will be interested to see if it pans out or if pinch/support/fat grip turns out to be more of a bottleneck.

One of the more pronounced sex differences:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17186303

tfw strength scores were statistically lower than older normative data in all millennial grip strengths

[DCP]

I have been screwing around with grippers on/off the past few months. Got this set last year
https://cannonpowerworks.com/collection ... er-set-men
"Warm-up: Heavy Grips 100
Working: GHP 2
Challenge: IronMind #1 "

I usually do warmups with the heavy grips 4x5 or 3x8 and then GHP 2 I can usually get 3-4 reps per set. Nowhere close to closing CoC1 yet.

I use the ladder approach to accumulating chins and dips right now, usually up to RPE 8ish. I am going to maybe try it as well on the GHP 2 and see what happens. I have decent downtime during the day and can fit it in multiple times a week with the gripper in my pocket.

[iamsmu]

Good to hear that I'm on reasonably well-trod ground after all (n >= 2) with the "Montana method for grippers" approach.

FYI, I have the GD-80 gripper which I consider outstanding. It's adjustable and high quality. ROM is slightly shorter than on Captains of Crush, but that's more than made up for by the adjustable weight and solid build.

Very slick, thanks, I was thinking something to bridge the gap between #1 and #2 would be useful.

The CoC 1.5 comes to mind. I have the GD-80 and all of the CoC grippers up to #2. The GD-80 sure saves space. It's solid. And it has a pretty clever design. But I don't like it as much as gripping the CoCs. The ROM feels off. (I haven't used these in a while. The use us precious forearm strength that I need for other stuff . . .) [Edit: I just found that I can now magically close the #2 with my right. Strange.]

One of the more pronounced sex differences:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17186303

tfw strength scores were statistically lower than older normative data in all millennial grip strengths

Somehow I'm not surprised.

[Dutch]

Sunday is grip for me. Just did 1.5 for 3 sets of ten @ 8 with left and 10,9,10 @8 with right. I hope I if I can do 1.5 for 12-13 @8 I can do #2 for repeated 5's@8. Part of me wonders how the rest of my body would respond to higher reps. Maybe I'll work them in in the future

[hector]

I would also add @psmith that extensor work is great. You can buy the rubber bands from Iron Mind. Or, you can buy these fat, stretchy bands with finger rings on Amazon.

The extensor work also, I think, helps prevent elbow pain from lifting.

[hector]

Sunday is grip for me. Just did 1.5 for 3 sets of ten @ 8 with left and 10,9,10 @8 with right. I hope I if I can do 1.5 for 12-13 @8 I can do #2 for repeated 5's@8. Part of me wonders how the rest of my body would respond to higher reps. Maybe I'll work them in in the future

I've started doing some pretty easy (RPE 6.5 or so) sets of double overhand deadlifts for 8 reps after my actual work sets of deadlift.

Looking forward to see if this translates to grippers.

[iamsmu]

I would also add @psmith that extensor work is great. You can buy the rubber bands from Iron Mind. Or, you can buy these fat, stretchy bands with finger rings on Amazon.

The extensor work also, I think, helps prevent elbow pain from lifting.

I'm going to try this too. So much elbow pain. . . .

[Allentown]

I should start doing CoC again. I never did close the #2. I was up to 5 sets of 11 on the #1 when I gave up.
Started messing with towel pull-ups recently, and man is that embarrassing.

[Testiclaw]

I love CoC stuff. I'm a small dude, though, so I struggle with them. My wife comes from a family of gigantic Scandinavians...I let my FIL try my CoC's and he didn't have any problem closing a 2.0 multiple times on his first try.

Granted, his hand compared to my own...

[Wilhelm]

Holy shit!

His pinky looks as big as your thumb.

[Testiclaw]

Holy shit!

His pinky looks as big as your thumb.

Yeah, it's insane. My wife is the shortest of her siblings, at 6'. Her grandmother was 6'1". Her Dad is 6'4".

I'm 5' 5.75"

[Hanley]

Avert your eyes @Nikipedia

[Les]

I messed around with the baby bench shirt. I'm pretty pumped to see what I can do in a full shirt in a meet later this year.