Update on Pull-up Master Plan and the #2 Gripper

I have blogged about grip strength before — about hand health and my quest to shut the Ironmind #2 gripper — and about my plan to master the dreaded Pull-up.  Now it’s time to fess up.   I went to the doctor today, and I’m sidelined with tendonitis.

Apparently muscles get stronger twice as fast as tendons do, and when you work your grip really hard too fast you can get tendonitis (specifically Golfer’s elbow).  The tendons just can’t keep up with the muscles.  People who work on grip strength or do lots of pulling exercises are at high risk for developing problems.  I was doing both.

Curses, foiled again.

Now its time for physical therapy to overcome the pain and get healthy.  Then I can go back at it again, with less weight and a slower approach.  I’ll post a new plan when I come up with it.

If you’re using my old plan and you’re having any pain in your elbows, particularly on the inside where that little bone sticks out, stop now, see your doctor, and rehab.  You could go past tendonitis to tendonosis, which is apparently even worse.