Captains of Crush gripper challenge

[Martin]

Any gripping activity strengthens the wrists and forearms as well however the grippers are obviously best suited to training the hands. There are other devices for wrists and forearms. Not to mention good old fashioned wrist curls with a barbell.

[Blarg]

I read someone saying that his wrist thickened about half an inch, and the wrist has no muscle, so that must have come from the combined effect of his tendons getting thicker at the wrist. I'm sure that means your wrist gets much stronger.

As to forearms, I'm only working on the #1, which is a little beyond my ability, as is common for people into training on these grippers hardcore, and I can definitely feel it going up my forearms, in both the muscles and tendons.

You can feel it in your forearms a little bit if you twist your hand off a perfectly even plane with your forearms on even the cheapo store-bought plastic grippers, or if you use them for a ton of repetitions, but on these much harder grippers you can feel it a lot sooner. Closing these things is HARD.

Luckily, my looking around the web has shown me that there are a handful of different quality manufacturers now making these super-tough grippers, with all different ranges, so you can easily find a gripper challenging enough for you whether you're freakishly strong or weak or anything in between. For instance, the Captains of Crush grippers go at 60, 80, 100, 140, 195, 285, and 365 pounds of pressure to close, and different manufacturers make ones that vary between those setpoints too, each maker varying by 10 or 20 pounds from the next guy. So you're well covered for your particular strength no matter what it is.

And if you check out places like Ironmind.com, you'll see there are all kinds of different devices made to train grip around -- and there are ones that Ironmind doesn't have, too. This whole thing is way bigger than I had thought possible -- closing these grippers and doing various other feats of hand strength are actually becomoing a sport. Anyway, no matter how you are thinking of working your hands, forearms, and wrists and how strong or weak you are, there are devices of some sort to address every little aspect of it. And the field isn't all that full of hype, either -- the stuff you can buy is actually really productive, and much of it is fairly cheap.

[Subfallen]

Mine haven't come in yet, but I'm eagerly awaiting.

[Blarg]

Cool. If you got the Captains of Crush type, you'll be getting an Ironmind catalogue with it too, which is pretty cool to look through. They've got all kinds of cool handwork pieces there besides grippers.

I ordered more grippers 'n' stuff too, and I'm expecting it to come in tomorrow, and another order maybe next week.

[nef]

I've had the "T" and the "1" for about five years now. I tried the two once at a gym and it was a joke I wasn't even close so I never ordered it. I haven't touch the grippers in several years. Because of this post I just tried the 1 and I could only get it right handed. I think I'll start messing around with these again. Thanks.

Ironmind rules. I have the headstraps from there, and Im going to get the squat belt.

[Stuey]

[ QUOTE ]
Mine haven't come in yet, but I'm eagerly awaiting.

[/ QUOTE ]

I live in the hills it might be a week yet. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Mine haven't come in yet, but I'm eagerly awaiting.

[/ QUOTE ]

I live in the hills it might be a week yet. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

My first shipment took me a little over a week. Hopefully it won't take too long for you. I know how ya must feel -- I go up the walls waiting for deliveries.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
I've had the "T" and the "1" for about five years now. I tried the two once at a gym and it was a joke I wasn't even close so I never ordered it. I haven't touch the grippers in several years. Because of this post I just tried the 1 and I could only get it right handed. I think I'll start messing around with these again. Thanks.

Ironmind rules. I have the headstraps from there, and Im going to get the squat belt.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah they seem like a cool company. Their catalogue is a lot of fun to look through.

Well, if you can do the #1, you're ahead of me. I'm not there yet, and my left hand is completely shamed by the #1. It's hard to imagine that some guys close those like they were flicking a lighter closed. Cool that you're going to get into it. Maybe we can all keep each other going. Let's see what happens!

I'm going to start working my thumbs with the weighted Bodybar I got, too, as well as use it for leverage work, like people do with sledgehammers. None of that will interfere with my gripper work, which is the aspect of grip work I'll be concentrating on for a long time.

[Blarg]

Well, I got in another package of grippers, along with rubber bands to extend my fingers and thumb inside for extensor work, and a hard to explain add-on "helper" for grips to make them harder(helps cover the 55 or more pound gap between gripper levels).

The two grippers I got were a trainer, and a #2. I'm presently trying to close the #1, goal-wise.

The trainer has pointed out how weak my final portion of the movement is. It takes 100 lbs. to close, and is much easier to close on the "sweep," or the long portion of the close until you get to a narrow gap, than the #1 is, but feels the same in the last 1/8 inch! It's obvious that the final 1/8 inch is just a weakness in part of my range of motion, and I'll have to really concentrate on fixing that. Oh well.

My hands are still sore from yesterday's work-out, so I don't want to get carried away on these things, but I did give the #2 a squeeze(195 lbs to close). I can't even get the gripper handles to parallel! Oh well, it's my "long term" challenge, and the #1 is my short-term one.

The rubber bands feel very nice on the extensors!

After I get done boiling some eggs, I'm going to pour the water into a cooler, add some more water to make the temperature bearable, and soak my aching mitts.

[Martin]

Dunno if I mentioned it on the training forum yet, but try choking the gripper down with a hose clamp so you can work that last piece. KTA will more than likely get you sorted out with it though.