What Is Your Grip History

[Vinnie]

52 minutes ago, Brian Beduhn said:

I'm just several inches from closing the Unobtanium. I can move it a millimeter or two

Never tried it but heard that is about the best anyone will do with it!

Welcome.  I started in grip at age 48. My longer summary is in the page or so before this one so I won't repeat, but I am definitely very happy to have discovered grip late rather than never.  I am 53 now.  I may have peaked a little over a year ago when I did the IM COC 3 cert, but then again, maybe I have something else left in me.  I would kind of like to work toward lifting the Inch dumbbell, which I think is about as far from my current capability as the COC 3 cert was when i found grip in the first place.  But, I am not 50 anymore!  LOL.  Anyway, welcome to the board.  It is a good community.  If you live close enough to a comp to attend one, I highly recommend it, regardless of whether you train the events.  It is low key and fun, lots to learn, decent folks to meet, no downside.  Enjoy.

[dubyagrip]

My story is that I am a cornfed country boy who worked on farms, ranches, machine shops, drilling rigs, and liked lifting weights througout my youth.  I always had huge hands so I frequently tested what I could get my fingers around and carry long before I ever knew gripsport was a thing. 

In the 2000s, I got obsessed with WSM.  I wanted to be Mariusz Pudzianowski.  I wanted to be Magnus Samuelsson.  Admiring Magnus is what led me to discovering the Captains of Crush, and around 2009-2010 I got my first grippers.  The #1 was cake, and I even closed the #2 on my first try.

I didn't know anything about training or programming with them.  Being broke and newly married, it was the last thing on my mind.  I spent the next 10 years building a family and a career in white-collar tech.  After getting back into shape and buying a home, I had some free mental energy to focus back into other interests.

I decided I wanted to close the #3 back in September, and I got certified in November.  Here we are on the last day in January, and I'm inching closer to the 3.5.

Let's go...

 

[C8Myotome]

I'm one of those people that tried to get into grip years ago and broke a plastic junk gripper and didn't know real grippers existed until very recently

Came across CoC grippers on rogue's website, was having elbow issues from benching at the time and thought it might have something to do with weak grip, the 5 piece set i got had a trainer, 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5. I closed all of them the first day and posted them to a home gym group online and someone told me closing the 2.5 was a big deal which I didn't know anything about (TNS btw). Ended up getting a 3 a bit after and by 2 months of having no idea what I was doing I was almost TNS'ing the 3 (a 147) and asked people what I was doing wrong and someone told me to try to set it so I did an awkward wide set and did my first credit card close with the 3 that day. Was on and off with grippers with trying other equipment and briefly sorting out some tendonitis, but about a year after that I closed a 167 3.5. I've done other things like lifting plate loaded dinnies my first time trying, doing hub toss/catches, hub overhead clean, getting a GHP7 and opening it up and doing 3 reps for my first cert same day, later re-certing 4 reps, did MM0, crushed to dust, always working on stuff. So I'm about a year and a half in at this point and trying to focus more directly on individual goals at a time rather than trying to do everything at once

[DrBartlebee]

Keeping this thread going.

I'm brand new to GripBoard but long time fan of grip. My dad had the classic Modell's gripper with the black handles which he used to crank on in the car all the time, but he also had the CoC trainer and the #1. He had one of John Brookfield's books and told me all about his grip feats, and IronMind certifications. He loves all things strength related, and we used to spend a lot of time watching WSM. He's really my step dad, but I consider him my father. As far as I can remember, grip and strength sports are the first converging interests we shared.

As a kid I spent a lot of time climbing the trees in our backyard. I've always liked bananas and have big ears so it seemed appropriate. Always got the most pull-ups in the elementary school fitness test, beat my friends in arm wrestling. I got the first over the door pull-up bar that came out when I was in middle school and have put thousands of reps on it. I'm not sure when I closed the #1 but it was likely some time in middle school/early high school. I got the #2 for my 16th birthday and closed it out of the package. My uncle has been doing construction his entire life and was not able to, much to his chagrin . The summer before I moved away to college I bought the 2.5, built a few janky grip implements out of wire and dowels and tried to make an effort but had no idea what I was doing so I didn't see any progress. In college I got really into calisthenics/lifting and I forgot about strict grip training for a while. 

Fast forward a few years, I got a job as a project manager with a huge healthcare IT company that I hated. I did it for two years and quit in January. I've been pretty bored with unemployment so I've been maxing out my hobbies haha, and grip has been on the list. I'm up to closing the 2.5 for three reps! Dyno is up, and I can DU 6" 1/4 CRS pretty consistently. I feel like this is my year to cert the #3 and Red Nail, so I'm going for it. I start a new job tomorrow so we'll see how I balance the new work life.

Bryce

[Jared P]

I grew up playing all sports and being extremely active daily, like most kids in the 90s. I gravitated towards basketball and baseball especially, but played around with everything - skateboarding, biking, anything that involved being outside with my brother, cousins, parents, uncles, and grandparents. A very active family.

My dad grew up logging in Idaho with his dad, and they were your typical hard working, naturally strong men. Same thing with my grandpa on my mother's side. They were cut from a different cloth. Loggers, construction workers, truck drivers, WWII veterans, etc. My dad had huge biceps and forearms and strong hands from logging, manual labor, and some weight lifting. He could always beat almost anyone in armwrestling, especially left handed. I always wanted to have biceps like my dad. Him and my uncle would always battle in armwrestling, and were closely matched. I remember them having some of the cheap foam handled grippers from the 80s and 90s laying around that we would toy around with as kids, but never thought much about it.

As a teen and young adult, I continued to play sports recreationally, do some periodic weight lifting, hiking, and running. But that was about it. I've been healthy, active, and moderately strong my entire life - slightly above average, but never took it much further than that. My biceps have always been my strongest muscle overall, but the rest of my physique was severely lacking. For all intents and purposes, I spent most of my life "skinny fat" - i.e., in relatively good shape, with some muscle, but not defined or developed. I took up an interest in bodyweight calisthenics and middle distance running in my 20s, and liked to see how fast I could get my 5k times.

Fast forward to 2018, and my dad shockingly got diagnosed with AML out of the blue - 'shockingly' being an understatement. He was only 55, and was in extremely good shape and healthy overall - he could outrun me, and played sports with me almost daily. It made no sense for him to be hit with such a disease. He passed away in 2020 at age 57 after two years of battling AML with treatments and a bone marrow transplant. The pain and shock of the loss still runs deep. No child thinks they will lose their own father at a young age, especially if their father was in extremely good health.

The loss has had a powerful effect on my brother Jacob (36 years old) and I (30 years old) in prompting us to get our lives in order and carry on the torch and legacy of our father and grandparents before us. We both agreed to start our lifelong bodybuilding / strength training journey together on December 13, 2021, and have been going strong since.

I discovered professional armwrestling from random YouTube watching sometime in late 2020, finding the videos of Devon Larratt from his WAL victories, and my brother always liked and recommended I watched the Stallone film Over the Top, which I loved and it only heightened my interest in the sport.

In mid 2021, I discovered grippers from a Devon Larratt video with Jujimufu, and then stumbled upon a Larry Wheels video wherein he tried closing a string of Captains of Crush grippers. I wanted to see what I could do, and started by ordering the CoC Trainer from Amazon in early July 2021. To my surprise and dismay, I couldn't even get the Trainer closed - my grip strength had never been worked or developed (I mostly had worked in hospitality and customer service jobs prior - since then, I've been working in manual labor). I was 5-10mm off on Day 1 out of the package. I started training with it almost daily and I got it closed about a month later. After that, the rest is history. I ordered more grippers, and now have 45 grippers in total, haha. It's a bit of an obsession. As of today April 2, 2023 - 1 year and 9 months after ordering the CoC Trainer - I'm 3-5 mm away from closing a 122 CoC 2.5.

My goals are to keep growing in strength, muscle mass, and overall health for the rest of my life - as best possible. I'd also like to expand into other grip exercises. I want to certify on the CoC 3 within two years from now absolute maximum, and eventually become one of the few that summits of the mountain of the CoC 4. My brother has the same goals, and he is on almost the exact same gripper level as me currently (123 CoC 2.5 for him), and you will likely see our names on IronMind's Who's Who Certification pages in the future - Jared and Jacob P.

Grateful to be on the Gripboard and part of the community.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Jared P

[VintageWeightsPGH]

Teenage Years: I got a pair of Valeo plastic grippers for reasons not remembered. I’d become interested in lifting weights, setup a rudimentary home gym, and just saw and bought them at a local department store. At the end of each workout, I’d do reps with them until my arms burned. Eventually into the 100s, which makes me laugh now. I watched many World Strongest Man competitions and loved strongman, but didn’t really connect the dots with some of the events and grip strength. 

Early Military Career: I did a fairly physical job early on that included maintaining survival gear, using tools, manipulating pieces and parts of things, lots of organic grip strength. The biggest dude in my shop came into work one day with some heavy grippers. From what I recall, they were each engraved on the inner portion of a handle with their weight. 100 lbs, 150 lbs, etc. He had up to 300 or so pounds. We all tried them and no one could close the hardest one. I could barely budge the second hardest, probably the 250 or 300 pounder. The guy explained to us that there were people out there that were obsessed with this stuff, this grip strength, and we all laughed at the thought. Who would care if they could close these little spring  things? That’s ridiculous! 

Post College: I started keeping a few small fitness related items in my studio apartment - a couple hex dumbbells, a cheap plastic ab wheel, and the trusty plastic grippers. I saw IronMind Captains of Crush Grippers for sale online, and they looked like they were so much better quality than my dinky little plastic grippers. I Googled a little information to figure out where to start, figured I was a pretty strong person, and ordered a #1 CoC. It arrived, and I was humbled. I wasn’t even close to closing it! And looking back, I think this was the turning point for me. That humbling moment triggered a desire to train grip. I ordered a Trainer and within a couple weeks, I could do reps with the #1 and moved on to the #1.5. My civilian and military careers continued, I met a lady that made me a better man, and we had four children. That is to say, all of that grip strength desire went by the wayside, and rightly so for the time being. 
 

Husband and Fatherhood: I setup a decent home gym in the basement of our house so I could train around my familial and professional obligations and events. I put my grippers in my top desk drawer at my civilian job and would use them occasionally on my lunch break or just forget about them for months at a time. I’d always been part time with the National Guard, and after 21 years, I retired. In place, I become obsessed with my home gym and especially the history of the weights within it. After starting to share my weights and restorations on Instagram, I was fortunate enough to become friends with several grip strength athletes. I started to mess around with DIY grip blocks, a rice bucket, and handmade wrist roller. Soon I began buying grip implements and tools to try. All these grip exercises were entertaining after training or between sets. A cool novelty. 
 

VintageWeightsPGH on Instagram and YouTube: Joe Gray, the founder and coordinator of Garage Gym Competition, asked if I’d sponsor a mini-comp. What could a fun focus be? Something people could try in their home gyms? I suggested a grip related event. About a year ago, we ran the GGC mini-comp that involved a one handed lift of anything you wanted for 30 seconds. Through this comp, I got to know some people like @stranger, Zach Mullins, and John Oka that would help me immensely in the months to come. 
 

Home Gym History Podcast: Garage Gym Experiment offered to sign me to their Garage Gym Radio podcast network to do a strength history podcast shortly after that. Home Gym History Podcast began with me acting as a sort of teacher to Jake and Adam (the guys from GGE podcast) and exploring strength history. I’d recently gotten into blobs and I researched and recorded an episode about the history of blobs. Zach told me to check out @Jedd Johnson book, Lift the Blob, and Jedd was kind enough to answer some of my questions in preparation for the episode. At this point, I hadn’t yet started having guests on the podcast. In hindsight, it would’ve been amazing to try to invite Jedd or @1stCoC onto the podcast to talk about blobs, but I was still getting used to recording and speaking on air. My confidence wasn’t there yet. In time though, I’d benefit from the kindness and generosity of Ed Coan and other guests who took a chance on me. I asked Ed about his large hands - had he ever tried grip training? He laughed and said no. Nothing beyond heavy barbell pulls. Alex G (@featsofalex on Instagram)  included me in his Brotherhood of the Traveling Paw, Nick Sanders (@skillethands on Instagram) was nice enough to allow me to virtually compete in his Skillet Hands Classic, and so many grip athletes were just open and helpful. The grip strength community very much impressed me with their passion and knowledge. Bert Sorin came on the Home Gym History Podcast, and we spoke quite a bit about grip strength. Bert’s episode is still the record holder for the longest I’ve recorded haha. Bert and I spoke for 3 hours on air and stayed on for a while longer after we stopped recording. I learned a lot!
 

Grip Board: About a month and a half ago, I decided that instead of being an afterthought or fun finisher to my training, I wanted to focus on grip strength. I gave deep thought to my personal goals and what made me happy. I love strength history. So what strength pursuit has the most historical connections? What feats of strength could a middle aged man realistically set as goals?  After a couple years of dedicated study, I believe the answer is grip strength. I want to lift a Thomas Inch dumbbell replica. I want to lift a Fatman blob. I want to close a CoC #3, deadlift a super heavy Saxon bar, and hub lift a York deep dish. Axles, handles, and Dinnie Rings. I love it, and I plan to lift it all. I reached out to several of the people I’ve become friends with for training advice, made grip a primary part of my training, and last, but not least, joined the Grip Board. Thanks for all the help! I’m especially enjoying the Grip History section! 

Edited April 9, 2023 by VintageWeightsPGH

[Douglas Carney]

Teenage Years:  For some reason I was fascinated with the wrist roller machine from the first time I saw one in junior high gym class.

According to an article I read a while ago (https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/swole-jacked-yoked-lingo) I was "skinny fat" in high school.  Lean but not much muscle.

When I was 16, one of my jobs at a fast-food restaurant (Wendy’s) was taking a mop bucket full of grease out back, lifting it up, and dumping it into a 55-gallon drum.  For me it was challenging at the time.

 

Twenties:  Many more mop buckets…but typically full of soapy water.  Also lots of stocking shelves and such.

For example, I worked at the hardware/paint department at the local Sears store and I alternated between carrying two buckets at a time (by the handles) in each hand for speed and palming paint cans by the lid because the little wire handles dug into my hands after a while.

In the Army it was whatever needed to be moved at the time…radios, weapons, boxes/crates, etc (including mop buckets).   A 50 cal machine gun comes to mind as being particularly heavy…especially with the tripod and spare barrel.

After active duty it was car parts and tires at the local Pep Boys.  It was fun to see how large a car battery I could palm or the heaviest car part with one hand.  It passed the time and occasionally inspired a little friendly competition.

 

Thirties:  Not a whole lot.  Desk job.   Brief health/fitness streak (including my first half marathon in Sept 2005) but nothing grip specific.

 

Forties:  In September 2017, I started working with a trainer that had a PT background at the advice of my orthopeadic doctor who said my back pain was the result of a weak core.  I did my first ever deadlift in November 2017 at age 47.

I bought a pair of grippers at some point because eventually my grip was a limiting factor for deadlifts and I thought they would help.  I've never used straps.

 

Fifties:  September 2021 was my first block weight purchase after watching a bunch of Jedd Johnson and Brian Shaw videos during the pandemic.   And I recently joined this forum and was added to “50# York” list.

Currently hoping to keep learning and lifting for many years to come.  There’s so much more to do in this sport.

[Jedd Johnson]

If you're still doing your podcast, I'm happy to come on. I honestly don't recall if I was on there already. I'm sorry, but I do a lot of them and can't remember if I was on yours.

Either way, we need more podcasts on grip, so keep pumping them out if you desire! 

[Douglas Carney]

14 hours ago, Jedd Johnson said:

If you're still doing your podcast, I'm happy to come on. ...

I would definitely watch that podcast, @VintageWeightsPGH and @Jedd Johnson!

[VintageWeightsPGH]

On 4/10/2023 at 4:08 PM, Jedd Johnson said:

If you're still doing your podcast, I'm happy to come on. I honestly don't recall if I was on there already. I'm sorry, but I do a lot of them and can't remember if I was on yours.

Either way, we need more podcasts on grip, so keep pumping them out if you desire! 

That’d be great. My podcast is Home Gym History Podcast on the Garage Gym Radio network. I’ll shoot you a message or email to see if we can set something up. 

[Jedd Johnson]

22 hours ago, VintageWeightsPGH said:

That’d be great. My podcast is Home Gym History Podcast on the Garage Gym Radio network. I’ll shoot you a message or email to see if we can set something up. 

Feel free to email me: jedd.diesel@gmail.com

[Jedd Johnson]

On 4/11/2023 at 7:00 AM, Douglas Carney said:

I would definitely watch that podcast, @VintageWeightsPGH and @Jedd Johnson!

Cool

[climber511]

Man there are a lot of interesting stories here - love reading about everyone and their journey!

[RITParent15]

On 1/31/2023 at 5:17 PM, dubyagrip said:

My story is that I am a cornfed country boy who worked on farms, ranches, machine shops, drilling rigs, and liked lifting weights througout my youth.  I always had huge hands so I frequently tested what I could get my fingers around and carry long before I ever knew gripsport was a thing. 

In the 2000s, I got obsessed with WSM.  I wanted to be Mariusz Pudzianowski.  I wanted to be Magnus Samuelsson.  Admiring Magnus is what led me to discovering the Captains of Crush, and around 2009-2010 I got my first grippers.  The #1 was cake, and I even closed the #2 on my first try.

I didn't know anything about training or programming with them.  Being broke and newly married, it was the last thing on my mind.  I spent the next 10 years building a family and a career in white-collar tech.  After getting back into shape and buying a home, I had some free mental energy to focus back into other interests.

I decided I wanted to close the #3 back in September, and I got certified in November.  Here we are on the last day in January, and I'm inching closer to the 3.5.

Let's go...

 

I got into WSM at the same time and, like you, loved Pudzianowski and Samuelsson.  Now though, I can't help but admire Odd Haugen and wished I had paid more attention to him during all those years.

[RITParent15]

On 1/31/2023 at 5:17 PM, dubyagrip said:

My story is that I am a cornfed country boy who worked on farms, ranches, machine shops, drilling rigs, and liked lifting weights througout my youth.  I always had huge hands so I frequently tested what I could get my fingers around and carry long before I ever knew gripsport was a thing. 

In the 2000s, I got obsessed with WSM.  I wanted to be Mariusz Pudzianowski.  I wanted to be Magnus Samuelsson.  Admiring Magnus is what led me to discovering the Captains of Crush, and around 2009-2010 I got my first grippers.  The #1 was cake, and I even closed the #2 on my first try.

I didn't know anything about training or programming with them.  Being broke and newly married, it was the last thing on my mind.  I spent the next 10 years building a family and a career in white-collar tech.  After getting back into shape and buying a home, I had some free mental energy to focus back into other interests.

I decided I wanted to close the #3 back in September, and I got certified in November.  Here we are on the last day in January, and I'm inching closer to the 3.5.

Let's go...

 

Being in Colorado, have you attended the Shaw Classic?

[dubyagrip]

1 hour ago, RITParent15 said:

Being in Colorado, have you attended the Shaw Classic?

I live 10 miles from the arena in Loveland, but I haven't been.  My fam and job keep me pretty slammed from doing things like that.  When I can get away, I maximize the opportunity.

[RITParent15]

13 hours ago, dubyagrip said:

I live 10 miles from the arena in Loveland, but I haven't been.  My fam and job keep me pretty slammed from doing things like that.  When I can get away, I maximize the opportunity.

I understand.  I travel to the Columbus, OH area frequently for business.  Although I keep planning on scheduling travel to coincide with the Arnold Strongman Classic and attending it, I still haven't made it there.

[dubyagrip]

56 minutes ago, RITParent15 said:

I understand.  I travel to the Columbus, OH area frequently for business.  Although I keep planning on scheduling travel to coincide with the Arnold Strongman Classic and attending it, I still haven't made it there.

Hoping to compete at both of these events someday.