Well, weak everything, obviously...

Flat dumb bell chest flies and standing bicep curls with 20 lb weights don't make me burn the next day (it did the first couple of times when I started working out not long ago). I had quite a bit of trouble in non-targetted muscles such as holding the weights steady in my hands while doing the chest exercises already.

I just loaded up 25 lbs, did 3/4ths of a chest fly before deciding that even with dumbbells I was afraid of dropping the thing on my head...my wrists just do not want to hold the weight. Same with bicep curls; I'm struggling more to overcome gravity in my wrists than I am in my biceps.


Any tips?? I know wrist exercises must be key here, but is there any option to continue progressing in my chest/arms in the meantime?

Handgrippers like Captains of Crush do a ton to help your grip and wrist strength, and very very quickly too. They can even make your wrists thicker.

Another exercise I used to do for the wrists was to put myself in push-up position, with feet elevated or not, depending how tired I was, but with the push-ups on my knuckles. This forces you to tense up to keep stable. If you lower yourself down, it gets harder. I'm pretty sure this played a large part in making me never get any impact wrist injuries from punching pads and bags, while lots of others did in my martial arts classes.

change your program obviously.

If you aren't doing deadlifts already, you should start. That will get your grip good and strong.

i took a kinda-ghetto martial arts class for a couple years, it was standard to do pushups on your knuckles and i always thought we just did it to look cool but really this makes a lot of sense.

Same works with push-up bars imo, aisde from the fact that they also give you a bigger range of motion.

you can do kettlebell stuff where you hold it upside down.

Do you use any Captains of Crush grippers? Do you have a fixed routine with it or do you just kind of have it sitting around and you'll do a set or two whenever you're in a mood to squeeze/crush things? Which number gripper did you start with and how did your progress go?

I have a bunch of them. I go on again off again with them. When I feel deadlifts are getting harder to hold, I start working them again.

I started with the number 1 and 2 and 3. I did negatives on the 2 and 3. I couldn't close the 1 when I got it. Then I got the trainer for warm ups and high volume work. Eventually I got a hair's breadth from closing the 2, but always managed to quit before I got there.

I also got a good program you can find on the net called KTA. I think it's like 40 bucks. It has a very successful routine set up that uses negatives and paces things very carefully. It's a really brutal routine, but the results you can get with grippers can be amazingly quick. The people who sell the KTA program also have a forum, but they are kinda spooky and butt kissing in that anti-social internet way, if you know what I mean. There is another gripper specific forum that's not quite as weird too.

Ironmind also sells some books on gripping that you might find interesting. I think most of them are now carried on Amazon too.

There's a big thread on Captains of Crush that I made in OOT a few years back. There's lots of detailed info there that you might find really useful, including stuff like contrast baths, etc.

Interesting, thanks. I actually bought the #1 last week, for anyone reading this who doesn't know, there are actually three levels of CoC gripper that are easier than the #1, and then it goes 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4. Apparently only five people have closed the #4 under official conditions, and closing the #3 is considered a major accomplishment in the category of squeezing things. For example some dude who could close the #3 was doing something ridiculous like crushing a full beer can.

Thinking my grip strength was probably slightly above average (but just slightly) I bought the #1. I can't close it, but I started off kind of close, and I'll probably get it before too long. But yeah, I was thinking of doing the same thing you did and also getting one of the easier ones to supplement. Anyway, thanks, I'll search for that old post of yours.

btw, based on the #1, and going also by the (somewhat arbitrary) poundages that they list on the site, closing the #2 seems like it would be hilariously tough, so if you ever get within that hair's breadth again, then dude put in the ten extra sessions and freaking shut that thing, it would be a feather in your cap. On the other hand internet porn might lose some of its charm.

Yeah it's really kind of ******ed that I never quite closed it. I got strong enough to get most of the way there without too much difficulty, and made some good headway on the #3, but never really practiced the critical closing portion much. And you need to practice that portion specifically to close the tougher grippers.

Re not being able to close the #1 right off the bat, most people can't.

You can probably find the OOT thread by searching for gripper discussions here in Health and Fitness too. It has been linked before. It was a pretty long and good thread.

Choke the chicken some imo

yeah I've had this thing a week now, and probably five or six of my buddies have tried it right out of the box, none of us could close it, although some of us were really close.

...but I just gave my UPS guy a crack at it, and, while holding a clunky box under his arm, he closed it like six times without even being bothered, he closed it like a styrofoam cup, either hand. I think I'm going to to buy the #2 just to see if he can do it first try.

I have had the trainer one for quite a few years. Never really used it a ton. I just started using it again. Decided to buy a sport for higher reps and also a #1. Going to give some of the grip workouts listed here a try.

http://www.musclewithattitude.com/re...e.do?id=460273

Working with them is one of the funner strength things, I think. You really can make almost obscenely fast progress.

Here's that OOT CoC thread from 2005, good work Blarg.