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Kettlebell My Hands are my weakest Link. How to fix that?

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As soon as you start gripping with the thumb and index finger your whole forearm and I suppose all that irradiation business just burns you out really quick. I get chinned for it all the time. (Chinned=chewed out) I keep meaning to take my CoC to the club to see what the higher belts can all do.
I did this recently. I don’t have any great insights to depart knowledge or special equipment. But kinda cool.

Vimeo
 
500 singles?

You use way more volume than I ever have on CoC in a single session.

But if I fatigue my grip too much, it fries my snatch, so I'm pretty cautious about supplemental volume.
That much volume was mainly back in 2005 when I was putting the finishing touches on my gripper strength to certify on the Ironmind #3. So that wasn't an everyday gripper session.
 
You would need to have a monstrous pinch to do that with even a guide CoC.
Well, I do that with a Chinese cheap adjustable gripper on a low setting. But if I continue to do so over the years I see no reason for it not to improve, or not to train it that way just because it lags behind the standard crush grip.
 
Well, I do that with a Chinese cheap adjustable gripper on a low setting. But if I continue to do so over the years I see no reason for it not to improve, or not to train it that way just because it lags behind the standard crush grip.
If it works it works. I was merely saying that there is an iron mind gripper more suited to that move. Or purchase a titans telegraph key from the same company.
 
As an aside, as my grip got stronger over the years, I had to have my rings resized.

And then again.

Eventually, I stopped wearing rings because of finger thickness increasing.
 
As an aside, as my grip got stronger over the years, I had to have my rings resized.

And then again.

Eventually, I stopped wearing rings because of finger thickness increasing.
Brooks Kubik wrote about that and my friend the blacksmith talked about it too. Kubik recounted 2 people deciding to go all frontiersman years ago and they stored their clothes. Years later of hard living they returned to where they stored their clothes. Obviously shirts etc didn’t fit but they couldn’t get into gloves they had stored either. Which is good news as the good lord endowed me with tiny hands.
 
Brooks Kubik wrote about that and my friend the blacksmith talked about it too. Kubik recounted 2 people deciding to go all frontiersman years ago and they stored their clothes. Years later of hard living they returned to where they stored their clothes. Obviously shirts etc didn’t fit but they couldn’t get into gloves they had stored either. Which is good news as the good lord endowed me with tiny hands.
Plus one for the BK mention
 
My grip used to be my weakest link as well. I tried to train it for years without success. Since then I've learned that I didn't know how to grip things properly: I only squeezed with my fingers instead of my palm. Now that I'm doing both, my grip strength has exploded to become one of my strongest assets. Which is what it should have been all along, considering how many of my hobbies in involve grabbing, lifting and throwing things and/or people.

Watch this video and make sure you don't have the same imbalance I did:



Matt, is one of the rare legit guys on u tube in my opinion.
 
....but not necessarily strength train with gloves on, just because one's job requires gloves.

I've been busy and only just saw this. But to explain my post and why gloves aren't always bad:

For me, yes, definitely necessary for me to strength train with gloves on. I don't use them most of the time, but it's a part of my training because I noticed it was a problem for me. When you're expected to wield an axe/sledgehammer, grab and drag a body, or pull line or hose with fire gloves on and your grip is either too much or too little because you aren't accustomed to feeling the proper pressure through the thickness of the gloves... it matters very quickly. You also need a bit more pressure with thick gloves because the tools/rope/clothing slide a bit in what would be your normal grip barehanded. For me, I either had faster grip fatigue or the tool/rope could slip because I wasn't using enough strength. It's a rare case, I know, but sometimes it's not such a bad thing to switch things up.
ROFL


I agree with you on the chalk. I don't use chalk when I work barehanded and don't tear my skin. I'm currently a massage therapist so my calluses are always soft (which I'm sure the patients appreciate). It's all about grip and movement for me- finding that "Goldilocks" zone for the given task.
 
I like keeping some of this stuff around.

 
I like keeping some of this stuff around.

I'm sure those are cool but Silly Putty works well for most of the applications and if you want it to be less pliable you can stick it in the fridge for a spell.

Slightly related, my son had carpal tunnel recently and we friggin spent a small fortune on rehab for stuff his old man had (including the putty) and could have instructed (but you know, what the hell does DAD know...)
 
I'm sure those are cool but Silly Putty works well for most of the applications and if you want it to be less pliable you can stick it in the fridge for a spell.

Slightly related, my son had carpal tunnel recently and we friggin spent a small fortune on rehab for stuff his old man had (including the putty) and could have instructed (but you know, what the hell does DAD know...)
Yes. And yes, I hear you with the family thing.. Looks like S. Putty is around $2, paid $6 or so for my blue firm putty.
 
I'm sure those are cool but Silly Putty works well for most of the applications and if you want it to be less pliable you can stick it in the fridge for a spell.

Slightly related, my son had carpal tunnel recently and we friggin spent a small fortune on rehab for stuff his old man had (including the putty) and could have instructed (but you know, what the hell does DAD know...)
A few of my family favorites on the subject:
" You aren't a doctor. "
" Do you want me to die ? "
" Are you trying to kill me ? "
 
Hello to all. I think this is the first post I write here, but I've been reading for a very long time.
I've been doing kettlebell training since 2013, training relatively intensively for the first two years and then only on and off. Since the summer of last year, however, I train intensiev again and have already achieved great success this year. While a 24kg snatch was extremely difficult for me a few years ago and I could only do one now and then, I can now implement them in a training program. Since summer I have done timless simple and then Q&D for 12 weeks. I found both programs excellent and especially Q&D was very good. At the moment I am in the seventh week of an A+A snatch program with 24kg for up to 100 and 20kg for over 100 reps.
However, I have already noticed with Q&D that my hands are the first thing to go. With the snatches, I get calluses with high reps and they interfere with my workout. Of course I have already researched here and also found many tips that have helped me. Hand care has made my hands soft again and freed them from calluses. This has also helped well with the snatches and I could increase the volume again.

The problem is that I now got my first Captains of Crush and although it is No.1 with him to fight. And while training with him, I tore my hands or skin again. This leads again to the fact that the snatches give me problems again. No matter how you turn it around, it seems to me that my hands cause me the most problems and hinder me the most during training. There must be more helpful tips on how I can get a handle on this. I would like to despair with snatches because I can't get them lifted and not because my hands are broken. I got some crossfit gloves that only cover the palm of my hand and at least they allow me to keep working out. But as soon as I switch to gloves, I immediately notice a significant deterioration of the grip or even a slightly different grip, which is already somewhat disturbing during training.

I generally have pretty soft hands. Like an angel. But there must still be a way to somehow harden them. What are your tips for this? I would be interested to know if more people struggle with their hands every workout.

P.S.: I am not a native speaker and wrote the text in German and had it translated with DeepL. I understand English very well only when writing such a long text it would cause me problems. That's why I hope that the AI translation works so well that you have the feeling to communicate with a native speaker.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
The to best ways to build grip strength and toughen up the hands is 1) Iron Mind Captain of Crush grippers which you spoke about but I would start with the trainer and do many many reps before going to the number 1. 2) Farmer Walks with dumbbells or the best if available would be strongman farmer walk implements, it is easier to get a better stride with a heavy weight. My life time best farmer walks was with 255 in each hand for 26 feet. Believe me that destroys the grip and will build many calluses.
You cannot have tough hands without calluses, part of the territory, but make sure you are not doing to much too fast, you can take that to an extremes and damage the hands to the point you have to take time off training, which would not be good!
 
A few of my family favorites on the subject:
" You aren't a doctor. "
" Do you want me to die ? "
" Are you trying to kill me ? "

My favorite response to those is:

"No, but my doctor asked if I'm a doctor."

(which I've had happen more than once when I start rattling of some anatomy and kinematics observations to an orthopedist or similar)
 
My favorite response to those is:

"No, but my doctor asked if I'm a doctor."

(which I've had happen more than once when I start rattling of some anatomy and kinematics observations to an orthopedist or similar)

Hi. When I wore gloves (very rarely), I wore gloves similar to these. They were rawhide all over the palm, thick leather on the thumb and pinky finger. I think they were made for moving hay bales. But on this review Homepage - Gloves Guide, you had more information about that. And the choice of pairs of gloves you want.
Fully agree
 
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