Ok, I've been doing pinch grips once a week (not with much weight as I've only just started and can't handle much yet), and usually everything is fine with them. However, I sometimes find I get a sharp pain from my right thumb just from holding them (it starts immediately). I think it's where the side of my thumb's knuckle is pushing against the plate. It makes my thumb start to go numb and I simply cannot hold on to the plates. The more I try to hold on the worse the pain gets. Has anyone else had this problem? Any ideas? Am I doing something horribly wrong? Cheers.
Get a Titan's telegraph key from www.ironmind.com or a cheaper knockoff brand. It's great for working your pinch grip or doing therapy on a hand injury. Carnal Salvation knows what other good brands there are for grip strength, maybe he'd be kind enough to tell you where to get the best deal. All my grip stuff was purchased back when Ironmind pretty much monopolized the grip strength industry (so I paid too much $$$).
are you over training it?...i had some pain a while back whilst pinch gripping some plates, but the pain ended when i backed off a little bit, and THAT'S when i started seeing strength gains, i don't know if this is the answer but it's worth a shot if you haven't tried it already
You may need to work the extensors in your thumb. Also, in your case you may actually need to train with MORE volume so your hands can get used to the workload. Personally I've tried everything from training 2 hours a day/7 days a week to one hour a day/once a week. Obviously the workload was a little too high training 2 hours/7days a week but interestingly I found that the once a week training caused MORE injuries. I know it sounds stupid but look at it this way, say you take a week or two off from the weight room and then you come back and train hard, more than likely you get pretty fucking sore the next day. With grip training I find this even more evident because your hands go through a de-training phase after a couple of days. Train smart but remember your hands are different from the rest of your body. Still, take what I say with a grain of salt, I am by no means a grip expert but this is what I've learned through my own experience. I recommend taking a week off and then slowly working up your training workload to the point where you can handle low volume/high frequency training and see how you fair.
Cheers for the replies guys. I don't think it's anything to do with the weight though (10kg ~22lbs btw) as it's not a pain in the muscle at all. I actually get it at other times when I grab stuff, rarely though. It happens immediately as the side of my thumb touches the plate. Could it be a nerve getting trapped or something?
