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Developing A Strong Handshake


Platinumt85

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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.

^^^ this

In my experience this is practically all that matters.

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I've been a member of different forums for the past 4-5 years (mostly rehab related) and I gotta say that the first impression is quite often wrong. I have nothing but good things to say about EJ, I don't know much about you but I bet if you stick around you 'll fit right in, that is if grip training is your passion.

About the topic, maybe zcor is right. Hand size/mass can be more of a factor for a handshake to feel dominant vs crushing grip strength. But who knows, I'm pretty confident that I can hurt an average person if I wanted to with my handshake but I'd never do something like that, even if one asks me to try.

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We gotta be more inclusive to newcomers. Not all of us know how to use all the search features or what's been chalked up a million times.

If we want the community to grow we gotta do better here. This isn't the military, there isn't a rank structure. This is a forum of people with the same passion but varying levels of strength and accomplishment. Lets not forget where we came from. :)

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Tense hand, feel applied pressure, reciprocate, done. Not much else to say.

Block weights if you want wide hand strength.

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It actually boggles my mind that you can close a 2.5 and not solidly come out on top of every handshake with average people. I have no trouble dealing with peoples' handshakes, and cannot yet CCS a 2.5. Do you only do MMS grippers or something?

Edited by avasatu
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I don't think grippers have much carryover to any other facet of grip besides just closing grippers.

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Grippers has a lot of carryover to handshakes and to many other aspects of grip. Atleast it has for me.

If you can close a #2.5 and have a weak handshake then you probably doing something very wrong or the guys you're shaking hands with are strong, stronger than you think!

But why bother really? Start armwrestling instead. That is actually a sport that everyone can do anytime.

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Quick pop quiz question.

Does anybody know why the handshake originated? And what it represented?

I think it started in Greece as a way of showing that you didn't have a weapon.

Now its just a good way to spread germs around.

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Lol, I remember Stallone's Dredd movie whereas people in the future cirkle around their hands and just say 'mild greetings' .

I figure this is where the powerball could come in handy haha

I think having a strong handsize is very much a case of having big,thick and meaty hands. Some of my buddies have pretty hard hands but can't close a #1. Squeezing in a stiff hand makes me feel I am not giving a hard handshake. But then again, I never wanted to do that. Sometimes in my work a guy who is amped up tends to give me harder handshake when I politely give a hand to sart a conversation. I brace my hands in that case because I expect someone to squeeze hard. I try not to give hard handshakes because it also gives other people the feeling I need to prove myself. No idea how other people experience my handshakes haha

I think Tns work should help your handshake and open hand work probably even better.so basically all round gripwork heh

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My 2cents: I've met some of the strongest grip guys around including our current NAGS champ Jedd, two of the strongest benders of all time EJ and JT, Chez arguably one of the strongest mofos to touch a gripper. Ive also met other world class athletes (trained with Valery Fedorenko). Ive also trained with some of the deadliest martial artist NYC has ever seen. They all have one thing in common, a gentle and friendly handshake. There is nothing to prove other than youre a jerk with an overly aggressive handshake.

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As previously mentioned by some members, don't be discouraged by your question. Your probably just curious that's all. When I was young I thought about this and probably asked too. It's not a rule to contribute to the forum but it is better to do for the things you love. I am sure you will love grip in time. But her you are a starter and no starter will contribute immediately.

Back to your question, what is your handsize? This is the most important thing. One of my friends has a very strong bone crushing handshake (not that he crushes but it FEELS that way) because his hands are wide, long around 9 inches and he has thick bones. Weird thing he can close only a CoC #1 and after showing him how to set he did a CoC 1.5. He can barely lift 2 25's to his knees. Not full deadlift. So only because he has a big hand it feels he has a very strong crush because of leverage and so on.

Second, leave just grippers go train everything. Thick bar, pinch, block weights, grip machine. Go lift weights for strength like barbell presses and you will get thicker hands a bit.

Also, when I used to do heavy bending in IM pads the next day my hands feels solid. When I shake hands with people they say wow strong crush and I feel they have weaker hand shake but I NEVER squeezed really. Then again they are normal desk job people who don't train but you get the point.

I also remember long ago when I got my RT the first time I trained on it and if I remember correctly I trained up to 60kg and mostly it was thumbless with a bent wrist. For the next week I had a very strong handshake and then again I wasn't squeezing at all. Just normal shake with minimal squeeze but the other person can feel strong shake then again if I squeezed it would've been different.

Last year I met Juha Harju and he has one of the strongest grip of this planet. When I met him it was his "weak" time as he was sick while taking antibiotics and he didn't train from couple of weeks. When I shaked hands with him again he didn't squeeze but I could really feel the awesome crush power in his hands (he has almost average hands, not huge by any means) and it felt like shaking hands with a rock NOT KIDDING. I can only imagine if he squeezed hard what would've happened. When couple of my friends hanged out with us and shaked hands with him they were all surprised and later laughingly telling me dude I don't wanna fight this guy and woe to the man fighting him haha. They are right. Juha besides being exceptionally grip strong he is also very strong overall.

Finally, Clay Edgin a CoC 4 closer shared a story here (you can search it). Clay could close a 4, lift the Inch, the blob, 2 45's, bend the Red and the big grade 5 bolt which he was the first hence called the Edgin bolt. In AOBS dinner he had a battle/war with Slim the hammer man in handshake. It wasn't childish. No one said childish. Anyways they did it for fun. No one "won" the battle and Slim was around 70 years old back then. But then again Slim was lifting sledge hammers all his life and has hige hands. Clay was very young but averaged size hands.

So you can analyze what I wrote and if you have any question please be free to ask.

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As was said, large/thick hands go along way in determining what a handshake feels like.

My hands are stronger than my Dad's hands, but he is 67 years old. My wrist is 8", his wrist is around 9.5", my hand is 8" long, his are slightly longer and I'm not sure what size ring he wears but what will go on his pinkie easily slips onto my thumb. It's kind of like grabbing a christmas ham with bratwurst sewed to it. Unless you have hydraulic fluid running through you instead of blood you're not crushing his hand.

That said nothing pisses me off more than the goobers that are hand crushers and it usually has nothing to do with strength, they're just goobers.

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Not Sure the search feature works. I had to go through google to find posts about MM0 before I asked Aaron about it. Some people here just have this dickish forum tude and its quite obnoxious.We are all here to better ourselves and everyone has different grip related goals and budgets.

A strong handshake to me is a good thing. If you look a guy or girl in the eye and provide a strong firm handshake, that speaks volumes. Most people use that as an indication of what type of person you are. Much like some folk won't friend others because their dog loses his over certain people

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The closest movement I think helps develop the Dead Fish handshake is training with a gripper with your hand in the same plane as it would be in a handshake. You will not need a big gripper to start with. A Trainer will be good enough. Place your hand with the gripper inverted out front of you in a handshake approach position. Then squeeze. You can put a rehab squeeze ball between the handles for a more beefy feel. no need to try and close it. Just mash the handles down slow and smooth an inch and hold it for 8

Edited by zcor
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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

We have very similar hand sizes and gripper close/crush strength. (Mine are 7 3/8" ... my best CCS would be around an easy #2.5, or low 120s. Best MMS is around 138) My handshake used to be very weak before I started training grip. But, throughout the past decade of grippers, bending, and pinch, my handshake has gone from a weakness to a "strength." I used to worry about having "average-sized hands," and what effect this would have on my progress. But years of hard work have made this irrelevant. I have seen consistent progress from year-to-year, but it hasn't been easy.

But, like others have said, I wouldn't worry about trying to "crush" someone's hand. If someone is testing you like that, I'd laugh it off. Or politely explain to them that, due to the nature of your training, your grip will never be close to 100%. Me personally, my hands are in a constant-state-of-pain from bending, grippers etc. And I always have grippers with me (car, work, beach :) ), so there has always been people wanting to try to close the grippers and/or shake/crush my hand. At this, I will let someone try a gripper and maybe even close a few. Sometimes I will comply with a handshake request, but if my hands are hurting, I will tell them this. There are always exceptions to this, though.

Bending in thin wraps does wonders for the hands too!

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Listen, if your this worried about it then I recommend specializing.

Treat it like arm wrestling...find another dude with a diminutive hand shake to lock up with and just practice crushing each others hands on Saturday nights.

I'd be willing to bet you'll make more progress like this than any other approach...maybe keep a log of it...for posterity.

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Thank you to all of those who tried to be helpful and understood where I was coming from. I never thought this would be so misinterpreted or chastised/belittled by so many people. First of all, as I stated, I am not a bully, nor am I a sadist who wants to hurt people. In my mind it's not that much different from wanting to learn a martial art- most people who take martial arts classes don't really want to hurt anyone, but they have that ability if need be. Also, I guess not a lot of people actually read the new member introduction topic because as I stated, and will re-state, I am not new to grip training and I am not young. I am 30 and ordered my first COC grippers from Ironmind in 2000 when I was about 15. I got out of grip training for a long time but got back into it at the end of 2013. I just thought it was a legitimate question to ask, but apparently most of you would rather have me asking how deep I should set my grippers when training or what style wraps work best for double overhand bending. I'm sure those questions have already been asked too, but I doubt I would have gotten quite as many sarcastic answers as I have on this topic. But it's ok, as I've seen how some of you, even some considered the "more respected" members, treat new members. I doubt I'll be posting anymore, except on the "wanted" and "selling" sub-forums, which is the main reason I joined anyway. I'd hate to ask another "stupid question that has been asked before." I have been thoroughly reminded of why I quit posting on message boards in the first place, some 15 years ago. I don't need this bullcrap in my life. To those who understood, thanks. To the others, keep in mind that being strong or good at certain feats of strength does not mean you have good character. That is all. Later.

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I also posted this pic for another handshake thread. Don't offer your hand with your fingers all stacked tidy like you're going to slap your lady's butt.

Spread your fingers so when you wrap up in the hand shake it's more like you're grabbing your lady's butt. You'll have a more advantageous position to firm up during the shake.

gallery_9552_555_239643.jpg

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I also posted this pic for another handshake thread. Don't offer your hand with your fingers all stacked tidy like you're going to slap your lady's butt.

Spread your fingers so when you wrap up in the hand shake it's more like you're grabbing your lady's butt. You'll have a more advantageous position to firm up during the shake.

gallery_9552_555_239643.jpg

This is one of the best posts I've seen on the board since I've been here. :grin:

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If you don't lock your thumb crease into theirs, you may have a bad time as well. This usually means, if you're encountering a squeeze idiot, you'll have to be fast to lock in your hand.

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I hate when people quickly grab the fingers and crush down. That is a negative vibe for sure, definitely a d-bag move.

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