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What,why and who got you into grip?


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On 11/10/2017 at 11:45 PM, climber511 said:

When – why – how – and who got me into Grip?

 

 

 

I started lifting in 1959 and the routines of the day always included Wrist Curls and Reverse Wrist Curls.  Probably around 1962? I found a picture in S&H that my grandfather and I built - it was a hand gripper out of wood that utilized the barbell as the resistance.  First edition “Gripper” thus became a part of my training routine.  I worked up to some respectable weight on the wrist curls for a skinny HS kid.  I guess I never really quit - it was just like doing bench or curls - it was a part of what I did - started a very long time before I ever heard of the Grip Board.

 

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Wow that’s a pretty cool and economical grip device! May just have to build it! 

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On 11/11/2017 at 11:41 AM, Vinnie said:

I was always a good casual arm wrestler for my small size (5-6, 170 pounds plus minus ten pounds depending on the year), and I'd beat much bigger guys.  But arm wrestling opportunities are rare for a middle aged lawyer in NYC so I was kind of missing it.  On a lark, I went to an arm wrestling competition a couple of years ago (and did miserably because I have no strategy, just decent strength).  At the meet I saw some COC grippers that were part of a prize (and maybe Ironmind was a sponsor as well).  People there were talking about training with grippers to be better at arm wrestling, and an arm wrestling pro there gave me a quick lesson and said I had a good grip and should do grip training.  So I ordered the COC "strong man" set (1, 1.5, 2) and right off the bat with my dominant right hand I was able to close the 1.5 easily and almost the 2.  For a little guy on his first try, not bad, and then I closed the 2 after a couple of weeks of casual practice.  I then bought the 2.5 and the 3, and after about six more months I closed the 2.5 but got some tendinitis and stopped for a few months and lost the ability to do the 2.5.  Now, almost two years after I first discovered grippers, I finally discovered this group and it has reignited my interest.  I would really like to close the 3, before I am 50 in April 2019.  So I started training again and now I can close my 2.5 for one rep again and I also got a ghp 6 that I can close for just barely two reps, as it seems a little easier than my 2.5 (might be a harder 2.5 or an easier ghp6 as I think the 6 is usually a shade harder than the 2.5).

I am very interested in staying closer to grip than I was before, maybe to try some variety like pinch and steel bending too, but definitely shooting for the number 3.

cheers to all and happy vets day!

vinnie 

There is a group in NY that trains pretty regularly.

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21 minutes ago, JHenze646 said:

There is a group in NY that trains pretty regularly.

I heard there is a guy in that group who is decent with grippers 😜

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3 hours ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

You really are a jack of all trades big John Studd!!

Lol I get bored easily... Right now, it's all about having fun training, not overdoing it!

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50 minutes ago, Chez said:

I heard there is a guy in that group who is decent with grippers 😜

Funny, I haven't heard about anything about that. @Chez do you happen to know his name? Is he on this board? 🔥😈

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32 minutes ago, JHenze646 said:

Funny, I haven't heard about anything about that. @Chez do you happen to know his name? Is he on this board? 🔥😈

All I know is he's a big sweaty bastard 

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22 hours ago, JHenze646 said:

There is a group in NY that trains pretty regularly.

Grippers training seems kind of quick to be getting together to do it -- do they get chips and beer too? ;)  

But seriously, if it's near me and they don't mind sharing some wisdom with a newbie, I'd stop in and pick their brains a bit.

 

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1 minute ago, Vinnie said:

Grippers training seems kind of quick to be getting together to do it -- do they get chips and beer too? ;)  

But seriously, if it's near me and they don't mind sharing some wisdom with a newbie, I'd stop in and pick their brains a bit.

 

we train all aspects of grip. We meet on Saturdays at 3pm in Astoria Queens. and alcohol is always involved :). Reach out to  @Anton.Torrella    

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3 hours ago, Vinnie said:

Grippers training seems kind of quick to be getting together to do it -- do they get chips and beer too? ;)  

But seriously, if it's near me and they don't mind sharing some wisdom with a newbie, I'd stop in and pick their brains a bit.

 

Yea absolutely you should come down if you're free one saturday - as chez said, around 3pm and we train everything grip-wise and no one stays thirsty - I'll even grab some chips for you too - be glad to introduce you to steel bending and pinching if you're interested - where do you live? @Jose Cabrera @Anthony C.

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Thanks, that would be great, and I'd be happy to bring the chips for all since I was the one who brought it up.  I'm in Floral Park, Nassau side, so it's not right there but not too far.  I've never tried bending but it sounds like I should try it, and as for pinching, I am not even sure what that is -- is that like the blob thing I sometimes read about on some of these boards?   My wife is already mortified at my interest in grippers so it would be great to add fuel to that fire lol.

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4 hours ago, Vinnie said:

Thanks, that would be great, and I'd be happy to bring the chips for all since I was the one who brought it up.  I'm in Floral Park, Nassau side, so it's not right there but not too far.  I've never tried bending but it sounds like I should try it, and as for pinching, I am not even sure what that is -- is that like the blob thing I sometimes read about on some of these boards?   My wife is already mortified at my interest in grippers so it would be great to add fuel to that fire lol.

Why is she mortified by grippers? She doesn’t appreciate a man that can crush hands to dust with his grip?

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She thinks I'm too geeky for that stuff.  She likes that I went to Harvard and that I'm a lawyer, but she does not like that I have strong forearms and like arm wrestling.  She's still getting over that my name is Vinnie.

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3 minutes ago, Vinnie said:

She thinks I'm too geeky for that stuff.  She likes that I went to Harvard and that I'm a lawyer, but she does not like that I have strong forearms and like arm wrestling.  She's still getting over that my name is Vinnie.

She doesn’t like strong men? Wow that’s a first. Haven’t met a woman yet that has had an aversion to strength. At least you know she loves you for more than your ability  to squeeze objects to smithereens with your bare hands! Ha!

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7 hours ago, Vinnie said:

She thinks I'm too geeky for that stuff.  She likes that I went to Harvard and that I'm a lawyer, but she does not like that I have strong forearms and like arm wrestling.  She's still getting over that my name is Vinnie.

Yeah many women can be like that. I understand.

7 hours ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

She doesn’t like strong men? Wow that’s a first. Haven’t met a woman yet that has had an aversion to strength. At least you know she loves you for more than your ability  to squeeze objects to smithereens with your bare hands! Ha!

Yep bro it happens. I met many women from all over the world and many many don't like strong men and want normal husband. Says he is insecure and wanna be strong so he can resolve things in violence instead of using his brains (and yes I don't agree). Other can understand that you can have a great career and be STRONG at the same time and tamed (no violence at all).

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And on why I started grip it is in my profile question two

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2 hours ago, Alawadhi said:

Yeah many women can be like that. I understand.

Yep bro it happens. I met many women from all over the world and many many don't like strong men and want normal husband. Says he is insecure and wanna be strong so he can resolve things in violence instead of using his brains (and yes I don't agree). Other can understand that you can have a great career and be STRONG at the same time and tamed (no violence at all).

Wow I’ve never had that experience! All women seem to appreciate and value my strength. My wife thinks I go overboard.... but it is a love of mine that I cannot and will not give up. It is in my blood from an early age.

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25 minutes ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

Wow I’ve never had that experience! All women seem to appreciate and value my strength. My wife thinks I go overboard.... but it is a love of mine that I cannot and will not give up. It is in my blood from an early age.

Yeah man I know how it feels. Strength and power should be there (at least for me).

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43 minutes ago, Alawadhi said:

Yeah man I know how it feels. Strength and power should be there (at least for me).

It separates the men from the boys. It’s a primitive feeling. I fee that if I am weak then I am not living up to the potential that God gave me with a healthy body. A balance of spiritual and physics health

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Rehab from some nagging finger injuries. Had some heavy grips and could only close the 200 if there was electrical tape on the finger side, did some research on grippers to figure out why.

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3 hours ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

Wow I’ve never had that experience! All women seem to appreciate and value my strength. My wife thinks I go overboard.... but it is a love of mine that I cannot and will not give up. It is in my blood from an early age.

Well she does appreciate and value it when she wants me to do something she can't do, but only as a practical thing.  She just doesn't like machismo, or any kind of alpha male behavior at all.  She doesn't try to stop me, she just has absolutely no interest in hearing about me wanting to close a 3.  None!  And I told her I was gonna try nail bending and she grimaced and sighed.  No big.

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2 hours ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

It separates the men from the boys. It’s a primitive feeling. I fee that if I am weak then I am not living up to the potential that God gave me with a healthy body. A balance of spiritual and physics health

I think for me I have always been defensive about being small because all the men in my family tend to be six foot, 200 and I'm smaller because of cancer treatments during puberty.  Also I was always an intellectual and that got me pushed around a bit in junior high school - until I worked out and beat most of the bigger guys in arm wrestles.  They could still take me in a fight if they had wanted to, but they respected me for beefing up and stopped bothering me, so there were no fights.  So I think I see strength as my "(F) you" to cancer.  And I'm not strong like a lot of you guys, but definitely above average and way above average for a middle aged cancer survivor desk jockey.  I am a little inactive though and meeting you guys on here is inspiring me to do a little better.  Thanks for that.

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10 minutes ago, Vinnie said:

I think for me I have always been defensive about being small because all the men in my family tend to be six foot, 200 and I'm smaller because of cancer treatments during puberty.  Also I was always an intellectual and that got me pushed around a bit in junior high school - until I worked out and beat most of the bigger guys in arm wrestles.  They could still take me in a fight if they had wanted to, but they respected me for beefing up and stopped bothering me, so there were no fights.  So I think I see strength as my "(F) you" to cancer.  And I'm not strong like a lot of you guys, but definitely above average and way above average for a middle aged cancer survivor desk jockey.  I am a little inactive though and meeting you guys on here is inspiring me to do a little better.  Thanks for that.

There you go brother! All great reasons! Being strong is a great thing! Nobody claims someone insecure for wanting to be the best at golf or basketball or a good anything else..... why strength? I think it’s people are lazy to attempt or don’t understand how much easier all tasks become when we improve our bodies! Sad!

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Joseph - it reminds me of the time about ten years ago when we replaced my kitchen refrigerator.  It is full sized and nestled in a very tight spot around a corner and almost impossible to see how to get it in.  So when the three large delivery guys came to remove the old and put in the exact same size new, they said, nope, can't be done.  But it was there already!  I said hey, they didn't build the house around the refrigerator, someone put it there (before I moved in).  They said sorry Charlie.  My mom was there at the time, she was 65 and I was 38.  My mom and I removed the old fridge just the two of us and without damaging the walls.  We called and told the company and they sent the three big guys back to put the new one in its place.  They looked at my mom and me and the fridge outside and they just had no choice, but it took three of them and they damaged my walls doing it.  Even though I was pretty annoyed I got a great life story out of it and my mom felt pretty special too.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎11‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 10:33 AM, Chez said:

we train all aspects of grip. We meet on Saturdays at 3pm in Astoria Queens. and alcohol is always involved :). Reach out to  @Anton.Torrella    

Chez - I think Anton reached out to me before I even had a chance to get to him, but in any event, thanks for the suggestion!  I attended last Saturday and they are a great group of guys who taught me a lot.  I even closed my first COC 3!  It was a light one and I couldn't repeat a second time with rest, so I've got a ways to go before I'd try for a COC cert, but it was a thrill I didn't expect to have that day.  Hope to meet you at the next one I am able to attend.  They speak highly of you.  Cheers!

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June 1965.. .i was 17 years old... My father major josh travis the third (1st marine infantry division Korea)  was conducting a morning parade after cold showers..and a 7 mile run on the ranch... . He stood in front of me as my brothers,  johhny boy,  and  joe bob travis stood trembling in the cold..  "you gonna shake your hand like a damn sissy "?.. He questioned me... "no" I spluttered.. "no what" he screamed... "no sir" I barked back.... 

 

With that started with handgrips.... I wasnt gonna be anyones damn sissy...  got me some old style grips from old man johnsons store... Walked 9 miles to get em and back too. .. Damn things closed quicker than a nuns dress zipper..... So major travis the second made me some homemade ones right there in our back yard. . . Took em with me to nam.. They didnt come back... Nothing much did... I was right there when saigon fell...we woulda won the war but somebody wouldnt let us. ... I served peacetime in south korea and the Phillipines... A lot of fun. . Grenada... Those commies we kicked their ass .. The first gulf war i was training.  .... Im 68 now living in hillboro oregon  ive been working on these little critters for a while now...my strength aint what it used to be... I close the #2 coc but the 2.5 is a long way off...  I stick to one workout a week... Make sure i have me some ribs, eggs, bacon, potatoes on the day i train

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