young'un Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 (edited) the people who know their limits and understand what it means to be strong don't usually seem to boast as much in my experience...it's always the ones who aren't strong and don't really comprehend true strength that make the big claims. i rolled around (brazilian jiu-jitsu) with a guy who wrestled in the 92 greco-roman olympic trials for one of the many eastern european nations (can't remember which one)...he ended up placing third. he also claims he's not very strong... i've never met a worse liar...even worse then the kid back in high school gym class who claimed a 500 lb bench despite the fact that he...no joke...registered 45% bodyfat on our school's little digital body fat tester (he was ~5'3 and 195 lbs). i think the eastern-european guy truly believes himself to have just slightly above average strength though, just because the people to which he compares himself are simply ridiculous. people who have never really felt themselves matched against world-class strength don't have this comparison, and therefore, strength that's a bit above average feels world class to them...be it hand strength or a test of full-body power. -jeff Edited June 3, 2004 by young'un Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Edgin Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 I too have found people who have claimed to know someone who can close the #4. I was at a party once with the grippers and had some guys try the #1. Neither one closed it but said that this guy they knew could close the #4 if he tried it. When I asked about what kind of strength training he did, they said that he ran out of room on the barbell for plates while bench pressing and actually had to use two VW motors as weights. An empty VW block weighs, what, 100lbs? Something doesn't add up here... Athletic experience or prior strength training experience has almost zero correlation to closing grippers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jad Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Athletic experience or prior strength training experience has almost zero correlation to closing grippers. Exactly. I especially enjoy the people who have ferocious handshakes due to huge thick hands and then they or a friend of theirs proceeds to tell you how they could mash your grippers because they can shake hands harder than you. My hometown is a small town in Northeast MO and they LOVE to tell grip whoppers up there. My friend swears up and down that his brother squeezed 500lbs on the dyno when they tested him at the factory he works at. Another guy I know got down right mad at me and we almost came to blows when I told him there was no way his buddy bent a quarter with his bare hands. Of course we never could set up a time for him to show me....what a shocker. The funny thing is that my brother and I are the only guys I know of that have any heavy duty grip tools or specifically train grip, so I don't know where they were coming up with this stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Hansford Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Always amazes me that these people who know someone or have an uncle or cousin that could "easily" close the #3 or #4, For some reason they can never get in touch or find them when we invite them to prove their claim? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagual Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Yeah, I think a strong handshake would be more related to the size of your hands, and your wide pinch strength Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoDa Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 My father-in-law has a tremendous handshake. One that crushes mine. His hands are quite a bit bigger than mine. I can close a #3 but he can only get a #3 to about 5/8" closed. Handshake does not directly correlate to closing grippers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIKE HALEY RILEY CLOE Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 You guys have to stop with these stories, I am running out of paper towels, I keep chocking on my coffee! Barbender, I love the Olympic medal story! This is one of the best threads (non-training) , in a long time! Great stories , Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeroman Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 My two cents: A guy who installed a corn stove for me, and was pretty big, claimed that in college when playing football used to regularly bench 700-800lbs and knew a guy that worked out with 1200lbs. He said that if he got back into lifting that he would have to start around 200lbs. He got my #2 to about 1". Karl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raziel Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 The older I get, the more I use to lift! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubthewonderscot Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Was thinking about this thread over lunch and it reminded me of a family I knew some time ago. The dad when he found out that I (a 17 year old) was into lifting weights, he told me that he used to squat in the 600 pound range. In fact he said, he once had both knee caps pop out when he went rock bottom with 650. Well, I saw that he walked ok, and was somewhat dubious, but the wife backed him up as did the kids. Then his 11 year old sun chimed in that he used to throw a baseball in the high 70's and low 80's before he hurt his elbow, and yet again the family supported him in this. It wasn't long though and I saw the dad in a pair of shorts. Strangely he was absent of any scarring that would have followed such a unfortunate mishap as a double patela rupture. The son had very poor mechanics for even an 11 year old. As it turns out the dad was molesting the daughter and abusing the mother. Lying was a way of life for the family since everyday life was unbearable. Funny side note, the dad is in fact now doing time in a state pen where I hope he gets every opportunity to do deep knee bends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meat Loaf Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 let him rot in prison. only his creator can help him. all we can do is pray for the well-being of his ex-family. that is a sad story. MEAT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 I love seeing this thread reincarnated. It's one of my favorites, because I get to hear the stories all the time. Almost without fail when I give the easiest gripper I have with me at the time to someone they fail. Then they proceed to ask for the next heavier gripper. I ask them why, if they couldn't get the easier one. They usually get semi irritated and tell me something along the line of, "You never know, I might be able to close the harder one." I nod sagely and hand them the harder gripper...and then humbly tell them they were "close" and "great job" when they come about an inch from closure. I have never seen someone close a harder gripper than the one they failed on. I know that's a no-brainer but...Of course the difference is I'm usually dealing with inmates instead of people or friends out on the street and workplace. Another very common remark heard often when one of the guys fails to close a gripper is, "I could have closed it a month ago, but I got my finger cut off." Or, "I'm sure I could close it-but I broke my hand in a fight against 3 guys who jumped me the other day...but I kicked their butts." And since I'm well known around the Jail for carrying these grippers around with me in my bag, (I have @ 11 at any time in my bag) I quite often get "challenged" by inmates, some I don't know from Adam. They'll just walk up and say, "I heard you got them grippers." I'll say yes. Then if it's an open challenge in front of 40 or so inmates-as is the case when I'm up in my usual post-they'll ask for the "biggest f***ing gripper" I have. I'll gladly, and again humbly, oblige them by giving them my #3. When they fail miserably, I'll say they might need a warmup- and then devilishly give them my Super Master or PDA .280! When they fail again I just repeat the process until they're so worn out that it's just ridiculous. I used to give the Trainer out and then if they could close that, I'd go up in increments from there...but the challenger most often asks for the biggest gripper I've got...so it's much more funny to do it the above way. I used to tell them that I knew a woman, Mary McConnaughey, who could close the #2. Apparently that is about the most demoralizing thing that can be said to most of these men. They tend to deflate-kind of like a virtual castrating. And on and on it goes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Not to brag, but I can blow out both knees with far less than 650 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubthewonderscot Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Me too Roark! Me too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danegarreau Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 BenCrush, i wish i could see the faces of those inmates when they fail on the #2 and then you tell them you know of a women who can close it. HaHaHa I was talking to a guy one time and he got onto the subject of workingout. I told him i had a pretty good deadlift. And then asked him what he deadlifted, he said that in highschool he once deadlifted 500 pounds for 23 reps, keep in mind that he is only about 190 pounds. But of course he hasn't worked out since highschool and he says he probebly couldn't do it anymore. I love showing people my grippers. They always think they have done some awesome feat of strength by moving the #1 to an inch between the handels, then i tell them that you have to get the handels to actually tough. HaHaHaHa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nils Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Athletic experience or prior strength training experience has almost zero correlation to closing grippers. That is not at all the experience that I have had. Everyone that I have tested of those that can pull 450+lbs deadlift have been able to close the #2 at once or after some minor technique training while none of my friends that don't do manual labor, strength training or grip intensive other athletic sports have even been able to close the #1. Nils Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Hansford Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 After reading this yesterday I thought about the people I might know who have a good grip, so I called some of my old rockclimbing buddies and ALL of them mashed the #1 and two of them got the #2 down to 1" they did pretty well. So far I'm the only one I know who can shut the #2 over here and thats fine by me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jad Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Just got back from UPS as I was shipping a member some nails, bolts, and a leverage bar. The UPS guys wanted to know what the stuff was for so I explained. Then the guy asks me how much I can curl and I tell him my strict and cheat poundages. Then he proceeds to tell me that his buddy, who weighs about 190 curls 185 for reps......with one hand.......and has to use a cambered curl bar because the dbs don't go up that high at his gym. After fighting back tears of laughter I just said WOW...that's pretty good. He then tells me that he wasn't always that strong and that when he first started lifting he could only curl 70's. Riiiiiiiiiight. The storymasters are lurking around every corner, be careful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom of Iowa2 Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 The beauty of it is though?For every thousand strength bullshit stories?there is one that is true. makes sorting through them worth while.finding the genuine article or a genuine freak is always interesting. On the other hand it also indicates how easily things can get exagerated and blown up........which always makes me wonder about the old time strongmen.They took plenty of photos posing in their underware or wearing leopard skin tights and roman sandles but they generally avoided photography of their feats of strength. I'd say for every 1000 ,ancient/quasi- historical ,unphotographed feat of strength the same ratio holds true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave H Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Athletic experience or prior strength training experience has almost zero correlation to closing grippers. That is not at all the experience that I have had. Everyone that I have tested of those that can pull 450+lbs deadlift have been able to close the #2 at once or after some minor technique training while none of my friends that don't do manual labor, strength training or grip intensive other athletic sports have even been able to close the #1. Nils I have a fellow training partner who deadlifts in the low 600's at 198. I showed him my grippers one day and he got hooked on them. But he still can't close the #2. He bought for himself - after playing with mine for a few days - a #1 and a #2. The #1 he trains with, but he claims that he still can't close the #2. Sixgun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcham Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 In defense of the story tellers.... if they aren't into strength training they really have no idea what the numbers mean. My wife and my friends have exagerrated things I've done without realising it... the numbers mean nothing to them.... and this is even worse when they're talking kilos Others extrapolate, also becuase of lack of knowledge about strength training, eg. my grandpa was telling a lady at a party that I could tear a deck of cards in half... she then reasoned that because her son lifts weights and has some decent size muscles, then obviously he could do it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedaykin01 Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 I had a guy that has done lots of farming and haying pick up my #1 and rep it first try. I just about S*!t myself. He just shrugged and said that it was a pretty rugged tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finnegann Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 (edited) In defense of the story tellers.... if they aren't into strength training they really have no idea what the numbers mean. This is a good point. So long as the story is about someone else, I suppose you can give the speaker the benefit of the doubt and assume that the numbers are so far outside their frame of reference that they're just a little confused. When you're dealing with a father-son tag team who are telling you first hand that they've squatted 600 pounds and thrown a low-80's fastball at the age of 11... Let's just say that we'd be awfully generous to give them the benefit of the doubt. (Incidentally, I bench 900 pounds raw... with a 4" thick bar. I don't have any photographs of that particular feat, but I'd be happy to post some of me in a leopard-skin uni.) Edited June 4, 2004 by Finnegann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcham Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 Fedaykin01... I've seen maybe 6-7 guys close the #1 first try... none of them with farming backgrounds... I think most guys who have done even a moderate amount of manual work can do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Octogen Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 I'm going to have to try this on my uncles. They grew up on a farm and both do a lot of manual work still. My father closed the #1 first time but I wouldn't bet on a #2 close. He refuses to try nail bending, claiming it to be a waste of perfectly good nails that he could build something with Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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