Jump to content

Developing A Strong Handshake


Platinumt85

Recommended Posts

Hello all. I posed this question in the section where new members introduce themselves, but I figured I'd post it as its own topic, as I didn't seem to be getting very many responses. I am fairly strong when it comes to grip feats/exercises (I can close a #2.5 coc right handed and a #2 left handed, reverse style bend 60d nails and IM blue nails in IM cordura wraps w/no rubber bands, and tear a pack of maverick playing cards), however I have only about an average handshake. Now I do remember reading in The Grip Master's Manual by John Brookfield that having a good handshake doesn't necessarily mean you have a strong grip as hand size, leverage, etc. can increase your handshaking ability, but he never expounded on whether or not increased grip strength would equal a stronger handshake, as I always seemed to think it would. So can any of you offer any advice on this subject? Perhaps exercises I can work on to give me a stronger handshake? My hands are pretty average in size, about 7.5" from wrist to middle finger tip, so will I simply always be limited by my hand size? I know his may seem like a stupid topic/question, but it aggravates me that I can do things with my grip strength that virtually no one else I personally know can do, however when I try to bear down with a good handshake they just look at me and say "is that all you've got?". Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

- Tyler Shelton

Link to comment
Share on other sites

however I have only about an average handshake

how do you measure handshake?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shake hands with different people and start knuckle bumping. Maybe you should just start high fiving or stick to crush little kids hands.

And how do you measure a hand shake? What's average? What's weak? It's all subjective.

And this has been asked before http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=42750&hl=handshake#entry609386

Edited by EJ Livesey
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone can have a solid handshake.

Having a crushing handshake is a dickhead thing to do.

Also its also about rolling the other persons knuckle to get them to hurt, and that should be reserved for someone that acts like an asshole and try's to crush your hand when you meet them.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Jvance. As for the other responses about "how do you measure a handshake?" If you honestly haven't met someone and said "he has a strong handshake" or "he has a weak handshake," I guess you've never shaken anyone's hand before. And I'm not trying to hurt anyone in a dick way, but if someone says "squeeze my hand and make it hurt," I'd like to at least be able to make them cry "uncle". Just like how most people really don't want to ever have to hit someone, but some are interested in developing punching power. Forget I brought it up. I remember now why I stopped posting on forums.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Jvance. As for the other responses about "how do you measure a handshake?" If you honestly haven't met someone and said "he has a strong handshake" or "he has a weak handshake," I guess you've never shaken anyone's hand before. And I'm not trying to hurt anyone in a dick way, but if someone says "squeeze my hand and make it hurt," I'd like to at least be able to make them cry "uncle". Just like how most people really don't want to ever have to hit someone, but some are interested in developing punching power. Forget I brought it up. I remember now why I stopped posting on forums.

Yep I've lived 33 years and have never shaken anyone's hand before. OR maybe I don't care enough to complain about some one shaking my hand too hard. Just saying. And I'm an adult, so when some one says squeeze my hand as hard as you can I laugh and call them stupid. But that's just me. Also hand shakes aren't really a topic of conversation, ever.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I get what you're trying to say bro. No one wants to train this stuff and NOT have handshake to remember. It's really not hard you squeeze, cuz the two hands usually cancel out if they're similarly sized. It's more about the hand thickness and lack of give when they squeeze back. It's a valid question man don't get discouraged.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well mr. Livesey, perhaps you shouldn't have cared enough to respond to my question either. You're right though, the adult, 33 year old thing to do was to respond with a bunch of smartass bs.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always felt after doing this stuff for awhile that my responsibility was to be careful not to squeeze too hard and just meet or barely exceed the pressure given by the other person. A lot of people have arthritis or some other type of hand pain and you can cause them pain by squeezing too hard. You can always tense your entire hand to create a firmer feeling without doing any extreme crushing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you honestly haven't met someone and said "he has a strong handshake" or "he has a weak handshake," I guess you've never shaken anyone's hand before.

I'm honestly trying to understand your point and the discussion. Are you saying that if you squeeze someone's hand as hard as you can you feel it's just average compared to what you have experienced from others? Or that you have hard time squeezing hard because of your hands and the positioning? Either way I find it strange since you are saying you can close wide set a coc 2.5. That's on average 125-130 lb of force (RGC).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I get what you're saying Odin and that's what I do as well. I go by how the other person shakes me hand. Look, let me clarify, I don't want to do this like a bully or some sort of obnoxious asshole. It's just that the guys at work now think of me as this "grip guy" and they're disappointed when they see that my handshake really isn't that strong. Also, I have run into assholes at the bar that try to crush my hand and I just don't have the ability to reciprocate. I was just wondering if there were some exercises for such things. I thought manual labor would do it, but I've been doing manual labor for over 10 years now and it really hasn't helped. I was just wondering if I was doing something wrong or could improve it, but maybe I'm just weird.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.sportsgrid.com/nfl/everyone-keeps-talking-about-adrian-petersons-unsettlingly-strong-handshake/

"What do Kenny Mayne, Skip Bayless, Colin Cowherd, and Jimmy Fallon, all have in common? Television. Ok, what else?They’re all kinda similarly shaped white dudes. Ugh. What else?They’ve all commented on the disturbing power of Adrian Peterson’s handshake. His cripplingly powerful handshake.“Anybody who’s ever shaken hands with Adrian knows he can crush your hand in a handshake,” Bayless said today on First Take.“The man has the most devastating handshake,” Kenny Manye said back in 2007.“It was so abnormally intense that I remember going home and, you know, telling people, he is not all there. It’s beyond the strong handshake,” Cowherd said this morning, pointing out that Peterson appears to enjoy the pain he inflicts with his overzealous greeting.“Adrian Peterson one day shook nine hands and literally enjoyed the pain he was creating for smaller people. I watched it.”After the news (and photos) surfaced he’d bloodied his child with a tree branch, Cowherd sounds like he may be on to something."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know what it is Evan. I guess it's like being able to deadlift 300 lbs. but not being able to pick up a 200 lb. man. For whatever reason, even as my grip strength increases and improves, it just doesn't carry over to a handshake. I was wondering if maybe the training I was doing wasn't "functional" (yes I know I'm sorry, that's a trendy term these days).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well mr. Livesey, perhaps you shouldn't have cared enough to respond to my question either. You're right though, the adult, 33 year old thing to do was to respond with a bunch of smartass bs.

Well Mr Shelton maybe you should use the search feature. Maybe you should use common sense. Or maybe you should read as much as you can, absorb all the info and not ask questions on how to make your ego bigger. Or maybe just maybe you should open a big can-o-man and grow some thick skin. Stop getting butt-sore. It's not that important. Sorry I'm not stroking your ego but no one cares about a hand shake. Close some grippers, bend some steel, pick up a blob. Then we have a thread that will go somewhere.

It also appears this is all and ego thing for you. So people will say "that guy is strong" or "that guy is scary". Practice and time. There is no short cut.

Edited by EJ Livesey
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's just that the guys at work now think of me as this "grip guy" and they're disappointed when they see that my handshake really isn't that strong. Also, I have run into assholes at the bar that try to crush my hand and I just don't have the ability to reciprocate.

it's hard for me to understand your situation, can the guys at your work or at the bar close the coc 2.5?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stay on topic here guys. I can't think of any reason for EJ or "Platinum" to address each other at this point. You guys are not going to be friends. If you feel the need, take it to PM where you can block each other. Thank you.

Platinum, cool your jets some here. You asked kind of a common question and there are multiple threads on this topic. Even if you only know how to search in Google, that will catch GripBoard threads probably including this one already. Just Google "Gripboard handshake". The first result is another thread here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll speak to you however I want. I'm not in the same universe as you? Howso? Because you can bend pieces of steel and close grippers that I can't? Now who has the ego. And that's fine, ban me. Pretty sure I'm gonna delete my account and cancel this thing anyway if this is how you treat first time posters.And yes I'm sure you have been very helpful to people, I mean, look how helpful you've been to me.

You haven't put your time in. You haven't contributed to the community. Your haven't proven yourself. That's why we aren't in the same universe. And your question has no helpful response, it's just an ego boost for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Take the drama to private message.

Keep it civil or the thread will be shut down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My theory ..... ( proved to me by me) the larger the hand the more devastating the handshake can be. Guys that wear a ring size 14, 15, 16 or larger, big boned hand are natural handshake crushers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll apologize to you, Matt, and everyone else. I just don't understand why that guy had to jump all over my case. I swear, I searched for this on google and could not find anything. Every time I looked on google, all that was brought up was muscle and fitness type articles or some type of hand grippers for sale. But yes, I have privately messaged mr. Livesey and told him I felt it best that was just stay away from one another. But anyway, forget I brought it up. Think I'll just go back to lurking again for a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You also said some pretty choice phrases toward me as well, and more name calling. But you know where I'll be and when if you wanna talk

Edited by EJ Livesey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea well I didn't feel the need to share everything that was said, since it was a "private message" and yes you're right I have nothing better to do with my time than to chase you around the country for what I can only assume you want to be a fist fight.

If you hadn't blocked me, I could tell you where I'd be and when and you could come visit me since you have all that free time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy policies.