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Joe Kinney.


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I just read once again his part in the original CoC-book. To add to the positive things listed, I would add his way to set smaller goals along the way. His suggestions how to make things more challenging just by working on the #3 are something that might be taken for granted now, but those are good ideas. I have a feeling even many of the advanced gripper guys might at times settle for just making those handles touch. That means you are not training harder but taking it easier. This is a fact I keep telling myself before each and every gripper close or attempt. It is easy to get too satisfied with yourself. I can't tell how many times I have TNS'd #3's with casual effort. Those are all wasted repetitions.

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Is "get a grip with Joe Kinney" something I should buy?

I got it and its good for seeing the equipment Joe built.
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Is "get a grip with Joe Kinney" something I should buy?

Yes.

A lot of information concerning grip training comes from the old portion of the video. It predated virtually all gripper internet forums, and was a result of pretty much just his own experimentation. Tucked away by himself in rural Tennessee, that in itself makes it all the more remarkable.

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Is "get a grip with Joe Kinney" something I should buy?


Yes.

A lot of information concerning grip training comes from the old portion of the video. It predated virtually all gripper internet forums, and was a result of pretty much just his own experimentation. Tucked away by himself in rural Tennessee, that in itself makes it all the more remarkable.


If for nothing else, by virtue of introducing negatives to gripper training, I think Joe Kinney goes into the modern day gripper training hall of fame—and that's coming from someone who thinks too many people, at least among those with ****, overuse negatives.

Joe Kinney rewrote the book on intensity when it came to gripper training and even among the guys who chose to disbelieve his accomplishments, there is no doubt that he inspired grip(per) guys to aim higher and believe they could do more than they'd previously thought was possible.
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You will not get a proper answer for this.

In the video he almost no set closes a #4 in pretty much slow motion, then starts grinding the handles together. Nor i or anybody else can tell you for sure if it is legit or not but i can say i have no set closed RB330 (about 3.75 on coc scale) and i would struggle to do what he did with a #3.

Summary - he would have had to have trained on for several years after he actually closed the gripper to get to that level. Not to mention being a massive amount ahead of anybody (including the strongest men in history) even many years later. To add to this, his training techniques are very questionable to say the least. To me personally it doesn't make enough sense to be legit.

Kim Wood has claimed numerous times (often on the IM forum) that he had several guys on his football team close the #4 with no set and no chalk. We can only assume they did all this while grip training was not even their top priority. So with this in mind, what Joe did would not have been a massive amount ahead of anyone else.

Now, take that with a grain of salt. Personally I dont believe this claim by Wood due to the following: People overall much stronger than almost all football players AND who dedicate much more time and energy to grip are not even close to no set closing #4s without chalk. I just dont see anyone, especially 20-30 years ago just casually closing #4 (and thats basically what a TNS no chalk would be for them if they did set it even moderately and used chalk) without being a Magnus Samuelsson or someone who dedicated absolutely their entire life to grip (like a kinney)

Another reason I doubt the claim is that if one football strength coach had several #4 closers, that means there must have been dozens of capable closers throughout the NFL league during those years (unless only the Bangal players were that strong- very unlikely, as they were not even a standout team to say the least). Again, football players are strong, sure, but certainly no stronger than pro armwrestlers, powerlifters, olympic athletes (lifting, shot put etc) strong men etc- but none of these have come close to shutting the #4 in the manner described.

Now that Ive gone full circle though, for those that take Wood at his word, this would put Kinney's ability much more into perspective I guess. He wouldnt be far ahead at all, but just the first recognized closers of many who had done it in private.

I would be interested to hear what people think of Wood's claim, especially Randall Strossen. Were "several" of Woods players (most of whom could not even be considered elite NFL players) making a mockery of your #4, while today, 30 years later, the strongest men in the world, much stronger than those players from the 70s-80s, still struggle with anything over the #3.5, and come no where close to TNS with no chalk of #4s with grip not even being their priority.

I wont address the Kinney issue, as most of us know its pointless until any new facts are revealed, rather than speculation.

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You will not get a proper answer for this.

In the video he almost no set closes a #4 in pretty much slow motion, then starts grinding the handles together. Nor i or anybody else can tell you for sure if it is legit or not but i can say i have no set closed RB330 (about 3.75 on coc scale) and i would struggle to do what he did with a #3.

Summary - he would have had to have trained on for several years after he actually closed the gripper to get to that level. Not to mention being a massive amount ahead of anybody (including the strongest men in history) even many years later. To add to this, his training techniques are very questionable to say the least. To me personally it doesn't make enough sense to be legit.

Kim Wood has claimed numerous times (often on the IM forum) that he had several guys on his football team close the #4 with no set and no chalk. We can only assume they did all this while grip training was not even their top priority. So with this in mind, what Joe did would not have been a massive amount ahead of anyone else.

Now, take that with a grain of salt. Personally I dont believe this claim by Wood due to the following: People overall much stronger than almost all football players AND who dedicate much more time and energy to grip are not even close to no set closing #4s without chalk. I just dont see anyone, especially 20-30 years ago just casually closing #4 (and thats basically what a TNS no chalk would be for them if they did set it even moderately and used chalk) without being a Magnus Samuelsson or someone who dedicated absolutely their entire life to grip (like a kinney)

Another reason I doubt the claim is that if one football strength coach had several #4 closers, that means there must have been dozens of capable closers throughout the NFL league during those years (unless only the Bangal players were that strong- very unlikely, as they were not even a standout team to say the least). Again, football players are strong, sure, but certainly no stronger than pro armwrestlers, powerlifters, olympic athletes (lifting, shot put etc) strong men etc- but none of these have come close to shutting the #4 in the manner described.

Now that Ive gone full circle though, for those that take Wood at his word, this would put Kinney's ability much more into perspective I guess. He wouldnt be far ahead at all, but just the first recognized closers of many who had done it in private.

I would be interested to hear what people think of Wood's claim, especially Randall Strossen. Were "several" of Woods players (most of whom could not even be considered elite NFL players) making a mockery of your #4, while today, 30 years later, the strongest men in the world, much stronger than those players from the 70s-80s, still struggle with anything over the #3.5, and come no where close to TNS with no chalk of #4s with grip not even being their priority.

I wont address the Kinney issue, as most of us know its pointless until any new facts are revealed, rather than speculation.

I thought he said his players closed the #3. I could be wrong.

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there is no doubt that he inspired grip(per) guys to aim higher and believe they could do more than they'd previously thought was possible.

For sale $18.99 + shipping/tax

Silver Who? tee

http://gripdoc.sprea...stomize/color/1

Wow, the only remaining thing of Silverback is a shirt.

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there is no doubt that he inspired grip(per) guys to aim higher and believe they could do more than they'd previously thought was possible.

For sale $18.99 + shipping/tax

Silver Who? tee

http://gripdoc.sprea...stomize/color/1

Wow, the only remaining thing of Silverback is a shirt.

I opened up a shirt shop today. This was my favorite one to make. :D

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I would be interested to hear what people think of Wood's claim, especially Randall Strossen. Were "several" of Woods players (most of whom could not even be considered elite NFL players) making a mockery of your #4, while today, 30 years later, the strongest men in the world, much stronger than those players from the 70s-80s, still struggle with anything over the #3.5, and come no where close to TNS with no chalk of #4s with grip not even being their priority.

I wont address the Kinney issue, as most of us know its pointless until any new facts are revealed, rather than speculation.

I wouldn't trust Kim Wood to much. While I do believe that he is sincere with his claims, I don't think he is competent enough to say what justifies a gripper close. Think of whenever you hand a gripper to a guy and he closes it down to parallel, thinking he just closed the gripper. I can imagine that some Bengals TNS squeezed the #4 down to parallel, while having Kim Wood thinking that it was a full close.

I'm not saying that is true. But Kim has shown alot of significant gaps of knowledge when it comes grip feats or lifting in particular. Like not knowing what constitutes as a legitimate squat. Or not knowing that unloading the inch dumbbell off a platform whilst having the dumbbell braced against the leg makes the lift significantly easier.

Edited by David_wigren
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You will not get a proper answer for this.

In the video he almost no set closes a #4 in pretty much slow motion, then starts grinding the handles together. Nor i or anybody else can tell you for sure if it is legit or not but i can say i have no set closed RB330 (about 3.75 on coc scale) and i would struggle to do what he did with a #3.

Summary - he would have had to have trained on for several years after he actually closed the gripper to get to that level. Not to mention being a massive amount ahead of anybody (including the strongest men in history) even many years later. To add to this, his training techniques are very questionable to say the least. To me personally it doesn't make enough sense to be legit.

Kim Wood has claimed numerous times (often on the IM forum) that he had several guys on his football team close the #4 with no set and no chalk. We can only assume they did all this while grip training was not even their top priority. So with this in mind, what Joe did would not have been a massive amount ahead of anyone else.

Now, take that with a grain of salt. Personally I dont believe this claim by Wood due to the following: People overall much stronger than almost all football players AND who dedicate much more time and energy to grip are not even close to no set closing #4s without chalk. I just dont see anyone, especially 20-30 years ago just casually closing #4 (and thats basically what a TNS no chalk would be for them if they did set it even moderately and used chalk) without being a Magnus Samuelsson or someone who dedicated absolutely their entire life to grip (like a kinney)

Another reason I doubt the claim is that if one football strength coach had several #4 closers, that means there must have been dozens of capable closers throughout the NFL league during those years (unless only the Bangal players were that strong- very unlikely, as they were not even a standout team to say the least). Again, football players are strong, sure, but certainly no stronger than pro armwrestlers, powerlifters, olympic athletes (lifting, shot put etc) strong men etc- but none of these have come close to shutting the #4 in the manner described.

Now that Ive gone full circle though, for those that take Wood at his word, this would put Kinney's ability much more into perspective I guess. He wouldnt be far ahead at all, but just the first recognized closers of many who had done it in private.

I would be interested to hear what people think of Wood's claim, especially Randall Strossen. Were "several" of Woods players (most of whom could not even be considered elite NFL players) making a mockery of your #4, while today, 30 years later, the strongest men in the world, much stronger than those players from the 70s-80s, still struggle with anything over the #3.5, and come no where close to TNS with no chalk of #4s with grip not even being their priority.

I wont address the Kinney issue, as most of us know its pointless until any new facts are revealed, rather than speculation.

I thought he said his players closed the #3. I could be wrong.

I remember reading it was with a #4 and the guy who TNS with said #4, everybody was shocked (going off memory because I don't want to look for that thread right now). If there was some way to prove that those players of Kim Wood really did close a #4 back then it be great knowing other people could close a #4, but there is no proof except words. But what I saw over on IronMind forum, he would also mention older #4's and 3's would be closed by his players but this was before the C.o.C. grippers were even made. I'm not saying at one point in time Kim didn't train people with only IronMind grippers, just when it comes to dealing with issues of periods of time, make sure you know for certain if it really was IronMind brand grippers or maybe something Warren Tetting (or for that matter if it wasn't someone else who) made the grippers. (Just throwing in my 2 cents on the subject of right now.)

Edited by John McCarter
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The Bengal players, based on some of the things Kim has posted, were doing lots of nongripper sophisticated grip training for decades. I have read in Dr. Ken's old newsletter collection from the 1980s (repackaged and bound in a book) of some of the work that they were doing in the 1980s. On the IronMind Forum, Wood casually mentioned their doing work on a Hammer Strength Grip Machine, which looks to be more sophisticated than any grip machine made since (definitely more expensive!). If there were guys doing all kinds of grip work for years, it would make sense that they would be able to do some impressive feats. Before I was "on the Internet", shortly after the Inch Dumbbell Replicas came out, someone mailed me a two page piece of paper from some strength forum talking about taking two of the "unliftable" dumbbells into the Bengals weight room. I specifically remember one guy could not quite "curl" it but was manhandling it. I thought I remember reading that "about half" (maybe it was "over half") the linemen could deadlift them. Again, if they were doing grip work (especially thick bar, which they were) that would not be difficult for guys that strong (and usually the tall linemen have large hands that go with the being-tall gene).

The reality is this was a group of big strong men who had been doing grip work for a long time, doing training of a type no one else was doing. Wood was an owner of Hammer Strength, and Gary Jones, son of Arthur Jones (Nautilus Inventor) was an owner and the creative force of the company. This is before Brookfield's book, before Dinosaur Training, before Joe Kinney took up grippers, before the Gripboard, etc. So it would may sense that these guys, more than any other type of athlete, would have just a teeny bit of a "leg up" on some musclehead trying some grip gadget for the first time.

Nothing wrong with being skeptical, but having a little bit of the background can't hurt.

Neither of the two San Francisco 49er Superbowl wins over the Bengals in the 1980s were easy. The Niners had some Superbowl Blowouts, but they were not against the Bengals.

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That shirt is cool. Who makes it? Is it the Silverback dude himself?

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That shirt is cool. Who makes it? Is it the Silverback dude himself?

Me bro. I opened up a shirt shop. 10 designs out right now, most avail in 3 differnet shirt types.

This was a fun shirt to make. All of them were fun to make.

Not sure if I should be talking much about the shirts here. I don't want to overstep sponsor boundaries. PM if anyone has questions.

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I got one. Thanks

I still wonder if the "guy from Connecticut" that Warren talks about is in fact silverback. Seriously, his videos showed he was from a up scale home... CT is very upscale as long as you don’t travel to Bridgeport. Warren said the "pro closer" is from Connecticut.

Its a long shot I know.

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If mark henry, brian shaw, rich williams etc cant just walk upto #4's an no set them, then i doubt any football players can either. As for kinney, to slow close/grind the gripper like that he would have to be able to close it for a good number of reps, why would he wait to certify? The only logical thing i can think of that doesnt involve it being rigged is he had a #4 that was very tough, then bought another that was very easy/was able to dominate it. Who knows but i dont think the gripper he used in his video was anywhere near average rating. It wouldnt make sense for this to be the case imo.

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