Alex's grip log - journey from the start

[mcalpine1986]

6 hours ago, Alexander Koss said:

Thanks! Indeed it is

I got a nice warm up squeezing the 2.5 lightly, not all the way to a close. Also did some MMS setting (not closing) with the 2.5 just to get the hands ready for the heavy stuff  

Cool. The 2.5 is still a heavy gripper. 

I love german beers. Germany brews the best beer in the world.

I in particular love Weissbiers. 

[Alex K]

4 hours ago, mcalpine1986 said:

Cool. The 2.5 is still a heavy gripper. 

I love german beers. Germany brews the best beer in the world.

I in particular love Weissbiers. 

Oh yeah, it’s everywhere here in Germany

Freshly brewed beer is awesome here 

[Alex K]

Last workout report:

After returning home I decided to hit some gym work and grippers this Monday, which probably was a bit too much, but still:

• Attempted my GHP8 MMS, felt okay but a bit harder than last time

At this point I realised I wasn't in the right place physically to attempt anything epic, so that's what I did:

• Lots of GHP7 and CoC#3 closes from MMS or wide set throughout the whole day
• Some negatives/forced closes with the SG Cobalt

Today I trained some biceps and forearms at the gym, so my grip feels really sore. I am still planning to do a workout tomorrow, but only if I feel recovered enough from todays training. 

The next big milestone I have in mind is the GHP8, but until that happens there's still the GHP7 and CoC#3 CCS to be done  I guess when I get the GHP8 confidently I'll enter the queue for the MM1!

[Alex K]

Today's gripper session:

After some thought I decided to hit grippers today regardless of yesterdays workout, and it turned out to be a good idea!

Starters: I attempted the GHP7 CCS, but due to a slightly misplaced set I got very close, but didn't get it shut all the way. Nevertheless, despite the set, the attempt was pretty decent, so I went on with the workout, and here's how it turned out:

 Finisher (continued): Did plenty of wide set/mms reps with both hands and the CoC#2.5 and #2.

All in all, very decent workout. The CoC#3 has finally been closed from a GHP block set... twice! I enjoyed the rep work a lot, might focus on it slightly more in future workouts

Edited September 2, 2021 by Alexander Koss

[Alex K]

Working gripper set update:

As mentioned earlier, I have updated my working gripper collection a bit, taking out and adding a few grippers. Here's what it currently looks like:

Here is the full list of the grippers from the picture above with their rating on my setup, and converted into CPW:

• CoC#1.5: 40kg (90lbs CPW)
• CoC#2: 47.5kg (107lbs CPW)
• CoC#2.5: 56.5kg (127lbs CPW)
• GHP7: 64kg (144lbs CPW)
• CoC#3: 67kg (151lbs CPW)
• SG Cobalt: 72kg (162lbs CPW)
• GHP8: 74.5kg (168lbs CPW)
• CoC#3.5: 77kg (173lbs CPW)
• --- Last gap to bridge here ---
• SG Tungsten: 85.5kg (192lbs CPW)
• GHP9: 89.5kg (201lbs CPW)

As you can notice, there's just one real gap left to bridge, and that would be something in the 180-182 lbs CPW range. As for this gap, I only have one gripper in mind: The Standard Titanium. That's because I enjoy keeping my gripper collection diverse (no repeating grippers of different resistances), and because I really enjoy Standard Grippers, they're awesome.

The main changes regarding my setup are:

• Removed the CoC#1 since it's too light for working sets. Now it rests around my desk and I squeeze it sometimes for fun
• Modified my GHP8 to 168lbs CPW to fill the gap between the SG Cobalt and the CoC#3.5. Before it was about 13lbs harder. Funnily enough, that's the gap I need to cover now, but the place is reserved for the SG Titanium
• Modified and added my GHP9 at 201lbs CPW, making it a slightly more achievable target from a pre-set someday. Before it was a crazy 217lbs CPW.

Edited September 11, 2021 by Alexander Koss

[mcalpine1986]

22 hours ago, Alexander Koss said:

Working gripper set update:

As mentioned earlier, I have updated my working gripper collection a bit, taking out and adding a few grippers. Here's what it currently looks like:

Here is the full list of the grippers from the picture above with their rating on my setup, and converted into CPW:

• CoC#1.5: 40kg (90lbs CPW)
• CoC#2: 47.5kg (107lbs CPW)
• CoC#2.5: 56.5kg (127lbs CPW)
• GHP7: 64kg (144lbs CPW)
• CoC#3: 67kg (151lbs CPW)
• SG Cobalt: 72kg (162lbs CPW)
• GHP8: 74.5kg (168lbs CPW)
• CoC#3.5: 77kg (173lbs CPW)
• --- Last gap to bridge here ---
• SG Tungsten: 85.5kg (192lbs CPW)
• GHP9: 89.5kg (201lbs CPW)

As you can notice, there's just one real gap left to bridge, and that would be something in the 180-182 lbs CPW range. As for this gap, I only have one gripper in mind: The Standard Titanium. That's because I enjoy keeping my gripper collection diverse (no repeating grippers of different resistances), and because I really enjoy Standard Grippers, they're awesome.

The main changes regarding my setup are:

• Removed the CoC#1 since it's too light for working sets. Now it rests around my desk and I squeeze it sometimes for fun
• Removed the Russian gripper (Naval Ranks Count Admiral which is at about 156lbs CPW) simply because I didn't like the feel of it. The handles/knurling are really great and on point, but the spring ramps up in a weird way, I guess due to the smaller inner winding diameter of the spring, high handle mount and/or the material of the spring. It's a good quality gripper, no doubt about that, but my hand doesn't enjoy it as much as SGs, CoCs or GHPs. The resistance is also just 5lbs above my CoC#3. Since I can close the SG Cobalt, which is 11lbs above the 3, it's not that useful anymore. 
• Modified my GHP8 to 168lbs CPW to fill the gap between the SG Cobalt and the CoC#3.5. Before it was about 13lbs harder. Funnily enough, that's the gap I need to cover now, but the place is reserved for the SG Titanium
• Modified and added my GHP9 at 201lbs CPW, making it a slightly more achievable target from a pre-set someday. Before it was a crazy 217lbs CPW.

Brilliant collection and detailed write up on your grippers. Im sure you will find a SG Titanium in that range. Standard grippers seem very consistant in their ratings, more so than other brands. 

Im glad you rate CPWs SG grippers well. I have just ordered a SG platinum RGC 119lbs to bridge the gap between my GHP 5 - RGC 113lbs and coc 2.5 RGC 126lbs. 

What do you mean by modified your GHP 8 and 9? How did you lower the ratings?

[Alex K]

8 hours ago, mcalpine1986 said:

Brilliant collection and detailed write up on your grippers. Im sure you will find a SG Titanium in that range. Standard grippers seem very consistant in their ratings, more so than other brands. 

Im glad you rate CPWs SG grippers well. I have just ordered a SG platinum RGC 119lbs to bridge the gap between my GHP 5 - RGC 113lbs and coc 2.5 RGC 126lbs. 

What do you mean by modified your GHP 8 and 9? How did you lower the ratings?

Thank you very much!

Regarding the modification of the GHPs, it's extremely simple, although the science behind it is quite interesting! 

In my earlier days I noticed that grippers lose resistance over time, which happens due to spring relaxation after using them for a bit. This process can be sped up by putting the gripper in a choker using some hose clamps, but only to a certain extent. GHPs are especially resistant to this: if kept at room temperature, they take days to lose a single KG of resistance, it's quite astonishing. And the second KG takes longer than the first and so on. At some point they reach a limit. (Some Chinese grippers can lose 5-6kg in a few hours, just as a small comparison). 

There's a cool property about metals and that's how temperature affects relaxation and creep strain. Even a small elevation of temperature can speed up the process dramatically (which I also saw in my experiments). As odd as it might sound, all I did was put the grippers in a choker and put the spring over a candle, to heat it up a bit, maybe above boiling temperatures of water, so not even close to temperatures that melt anything. Nothing crazy like blowtorches or extreme heat  this sort of extremely speeds up everything, and the gripper loses resistance quite easily, even GHPs do. At some point a limit is reached, where either the temperature or the resistance has to be increased, but that wasn't troubling for me, since I didn't want my GHP8 to turn into a CoC#3 and so on. All I wanted was for the resistances to drop to a level where they would fill my gaps, also keeping them fair so that at some point I could do the GHP Gripper challenge and not feel ashamed of myself for using a GHP8 that's 140RGC or something  (Many people do use extremely modified grippers though, one very very tired GHP9 was circulating from person to person in Russia at some point  the gripper is still tough as hell, but definitely way below a typical GHP9)

To sum it up, my 2 GHPs went from "very hard" to "average/below average" resistances by using this extremely simple method.

[insane.warrior]

I literally see Joe Kinney siiting on the floor in the dark room with a CoC #4, hose clamp and a candle

 

Someone did a research (JK "investigation") recently by heating up the spring and calibrating gripper before and after - the result was the same.

So the hose clamp should have been used along with the heat!

 

JK case is still not resolved, OMG

Edited September 4, 2021 by insane.warrior

[Alex K]

1 hour ago, insane.warrior said:

I literally see Joe Kinney siiting on the floor in the dark room with a CoC #4, hose clamp and a candle

 

Someone did a research (JK "investigation") recently by heating up the spring and calibrating gripper before and after - the result was the same.

So the hose clamp should have been used along with the heat!

 

JK case is still not resolved, OMG

Someday I might just go ahead and see this as a challenge and create the worlds first (or maybe second if you know what I mean ) CoC#4 rated at around CoC#2-2.5 level. And the truth is, it’s pretty easy! Here are the two ways to do it and not have trouble proving it’s “pretty thick” and a real 4 :

1. Hose clamp + heat at around 40% melting temperature (at this Temperature the gripper has no limits on how narrow it can get), which would be at like 615 Celsius. The aluminium of the handles would get pretty darn close to melting (but not quite), and the glue would probably die, but hey, anything for science

2. Give the inside and outside of the spring winding some good filing, but subtle and not noticeable (basically making the spring cross section oval shaped). If done correctly, that alone could be enough for the gripper to lose most of its resistance (literally turning a 4 into a 2) due to the crazy dependence of gripper resistance from the spring diameter. The outer thickness of the spring would stay the same, so the pretty-thick-coin check would work out.  

I don’t have that many tools 
(blowtorches and filers) + I love grippers and don’t like torturing them, so that project feels still a bit too brutal to me at this point in time

That’s all just science talk though, not to start another Kinney debate massacre here! 

[mcalpine1986]

14 hours ago, Alexander Koss said:

Thank you very much!

Regarding the modification of the GHPs, it's extremely simple, although the science behind it is quite interesting! 

In my earlier days I noticed that grippers lose resistance over time, which happens due to spring relaxation after using them for a bit. This process can be sped up by putting the gripper in a choker using some hose clamps, but only to a certain extent. GHPs are especially resistant to this: if kept at room temperature, they take days to lose a single KG of resistance, it's quite astonishing. And the second KG takes longer than the first and so on. At some point they reach a limit. (Some Chinese grippers can lose 5-6kg in a few hours, just as a small comparison). 

There's a cool property about metals and that's how temperature affects relaxation and creep strain. Even a small elevation of temperature can speed up the process dramatically (which I also saw in my experiments). As odd as it might sound, all I did was put the grippers in a choker and put the spring over a candle, to heat it up a bit, maybe above boiling temperatures of water, so not even close to temperatures that melt anything. Nothing crazy like blowtorches or extreme heat  this sort of extremely speeds up everything, and the gripper loses resistance quite easily, even GHPs do. At some point a limit is reached, where either the temperature or the resistance has to be increased, but that wasn't troubling for me, since I didn't want my GHP8 to turn into a CoC#3 and so on. All I wanted was for the resistances to drop to a level where they would fill my gaps, also keeping them fair so that at some point I could do the GHP Gripper challenge and not feel ashamed of myself for using a GHP8 that's 140RGC or something  (Many people do use extremely modified grippers though, one very very tired GHP9 was circulating from person to person in Russia at some point  the gripper is still tough as hell, but definitely way below a typical GHP9)

To sum it up, my 2 GHPs went from "very hard" to "average/below average" resistances by using this extremely simple method.

That is very interesting. Ive never heard of anyone doing such a thing. 

How do you know the exact poundage of them now though? Have you build a RGC device to rate them? 

[Alex K]

1 hour ago, mcalpine1986 said:

That is very interesting. Ive never heard of anyone doing such a thing. 

How do you know the exact poundage of them now though? Have you build a RGC device to rate them? 

Yeah!  I have built my own device, which I use for accurate ratings, I also wrote about it in my first post. Since I‘ve also received grippers from CPW I have derived a conversion which would be roughly CPW=My Rating*1.02  

[mcalpine1986]

51 minutes ago, Alexander Koss said:

Yeah!  I have built my own device, which I use for accurate ratings, I also wrote about it in my first post. Since I‘ve also received grippers from CPW I have derived a conversion which would be roughly CPW=My Rating*1.02  

Very cool. I shall have a look at your first post. 

[Alex K]

Today's gripper session:

Had a great gripper workout today, making some more progress on my closes! 

Warmed up with a few closes with my CoC #1.5, #2 and #2.5.

This must be my longest video, there were just too many nice sets, closes and attempts to exclude any :

Almost the whole workout got on the video: The only thing I did off camera today was a finisher set with the CoC#2 with each hand. 

The MM1 is looking like a better idea with each workout! All that's left to do is work towards the GHP8 close, to be 200% sure the MM1's going down even on a weaker day. Patience is key. 

Now it's time to recover for the next workout 

Edited September 5, 2021 by Alexander Koss

[mcalpine1986]

17 hours ago, Alexander Koss said:

Today's gripper session:

Had a great gripper workout today, making some more progress on my closes! 

Warmed up with a few closes with my CoC #1.5, #2 and #2.5.

This must be my longest video, there were just too many nice sets, closes and attempts to exclude any :

Almost the whole workout got on the video: The only thing I did off camera today was a finisher set with the CoC#2 with each hand. 

The MM1 is looking like a better idea with each workout! All that's left to do is work towards the GHP8 close, to be 200% sure the MM1's going down even on a weaker day. Patience is key. 

Now it's time to recover for the next workout 

Excellent session. Your setting technique looks very good. 

You will get the MM1 no doubt. All in good time though like you said, best to be so strong you could dominate it any day of the week. 

Edited September 6, 2021 by mcalpine1986

[Alex K]

Today's workout highlights:

Since I'm currently preoccupied with uni work, I'll narrow workouts down to highlights for now, just showing the best bits of the workouts

Today I mainly did some heavy attempts and closes, with the attempt on the GHP8 (168 CPW) being the heaviest:

The attempt felt great. Last time I tried closing the GHP8 it felt so much harder. Progress seems steady, going to work towards closing this gripper for now

I am also switching to 3 day breaks between sessions just because recovery seems pretty much optimal with this resting period, and it is especially well compatible with my gym training which is every other day (so I can always do grippers exclusively on rest days from the gym and focus on them 100%)

[Alex K]

Working gripper set update:

After some careful thought I have decided to bridge the gap between my CoC#3.5 (173CPW) and my SG Tungsten (192CPW, rated by Cannon) in 2 steps: A gripper at 178CPW and another one at around 185CPW. Bridging this gap would probably be pretty tough with just one gripper between 173 and 192 (especially considering that I'm currently battling at the high 160s )

Right away I decided to check the CPW store, and there it was, a 178 pre-rated SG Titanium. Got it right away. The shipping to Germany of almost 30$ is tough, but honestly, it's 100% worth it. Standard Grippers are just that good.

Regarding the 185-rated gripper, I think I won't have to worry about filling this gap for quite some time, since there's so much more strength to gain until such a gripper will be necessary  

Another new addition to the collection is a brand new oversized washer for pre-sets, wider than the two I currently own. Mine are at 40mm and 43mm inner diameter, this one will be at 46mm. This will enable me to work with the 3.5, GHP8 and other grippers from a wider pre-set position, and generally work at all with grippers above that level, since the 43mm washer doesn't fit on the thicker springs.

[Bigfoot Grip]

Very impressive gripper training Alex. Are you doing general strength workouts at a gym in conjunction with the gripper training or do you only train grippers and nothing else? 

[Alex K]

1 minute ago, Bigfoot Grip said:

Very impressive gripper training Alex. Are you doing general strength workouts at a gym in conjunction with the gripper training or do you only train grippers and nothing else? 

Thanks a lot man! At the gym I mainly do regular strength training in a pretty simple split of Chest+Triceps, Back+Biceps/Forearms and Legs+Shoulders every other day, so 3-4 times a week. I rarely squat or deadlift, and if so, only with pretty light weights (just out of precaution for my back). I love going heavy on bench(looking to reach some decent numbers), all kinds of back pulls, biceps, triceps and some other movements/muscle groups.

[Bigfoot Grip]

11 minutes ago, Alexander Koss said:

Thanks a lot man! At the gym I mainly do regular strength training in a pretty simple split of Chest+Triceps, Back+Biceps/Forearms and Legs+Shoulders every other day, so 3-4 times a week. I rarely squat or deadlift, and if so, only with pretty light weights (just out of precaution for my back). I love going heavy on bench(looking to reach some decent numbers), all kinds of back pulls, biceps, triceps and some other movements/muscle groups.

Thanks for sharing your training methods! Sounds like a great routine you follow, looking forward to seeing you slam that GHP 8 shut!

[Alex K]

Today's gripper squeeze report:

So I am still in the epically intense phase of studying now, which limits my time spent recording stuff, but training has to go on

Starters: various warm up sets starting from the CoC#1 all the way to the #2.5, all from a MMS.

Yesterday I had a killer back/arms workout with a lot of grip-intense stuff in it. So today felt really hard, especially setting grippers. I think I'll have to think around this problem somehow, adjusting my gym work so that I can still do grippers at roughly the same level every time.

Working sets:

• GHP8 MMS attempt, very similar to last time
• Left: pre-set Naval Ranks Count Admiral close. It's somewhat above my CoC#3 at around 156lbs CPW. I posted a while back that I would be taking it out of my set, but I changed my mind a lot, I'm really liking the feel of it now
• Another GHP8 MMS attempt, and here's where things started to happen somewhat oddly. I literally couldn't move it. It felt so weird, like if I had done like 8 heavy attempts with that hand before (which I have not). I guess the intense forearm workout limits how much energy you have for grippers the next day.
• Both left and right did some pre-set work with CoC#3 or above.

I decided to not go 100% today, since all I had available to me felt like 85%. I don't like it when things like that happen unexplainably, it scares me regarding future certs etc., but luckily the lack of strength today is fairly easily explainable by the training yesterday. Literally all of it was grip-intense.

I think I'll take a few days to recover again, keep away from working grip at the gym, and smash some more grippers! The GHP8 has to get shut! 

Off topic, but still, here's a pic of my small "monster gripper" collection :

[stranger]

26 minutes ago, Alexander Koss said:

 

Off topic, but still, here's a pic of my small "monster gripper" collection :

That BB WC looks gorgeous!

[Bigfoot Grip]

The spread on the GHP 10 looks massive lol. Since I got into grip that was one of the grippers I always asked myself I wonder if anyone will cert the GHP 10 with a set block 

[Alex K]

9 hours ago, Bigfoot Grip said:

The spread on the GHP 10 looks massive lol. Since I got into grip that was one of the grippers I always asked myself I wonder if anyone will cert the GHP 10 with a set block 

I honestly don‘t think it‘s possible with such a GHP10. Maybe with a very very tormented GHP10 that sits just above 100kgs it could be possible  

[Alex K]

Today's gripper training:

Did a quick workout today, squeezing some grippers:

• Warming up with some light grippers
• CoC#2.5 for a few MMS closes to finish warming up
• A decent GHP8 MMS attempt, pinkie slipped though, so it had to be cut short
• MMS closes/attempts on the SG Cobalt, Naval Ranks Count Admiral with the right
• CoC#3 and GHP7 MMS closes/attempts with the left
• Finishing up with loads of MMS closes on the #2.5 and the #2

Generally feeling a bit weak these days, probably due to being extremely occupied with university work, and not really in the focus somehow due to that. I also might switch my routine around a little bit, focusing on slightly higher reps rather than only heavy attempts. Next workout I will probably go for some rep work with the #3

I also noticed that switching the routine around is the best way to go. My current state reminds me of the time when I was trying to get the SG Cobalt. The more I attempted the further away I got, until I let it go for a few rounds to do other stuff. When I got back to it, I was finally able to close the SG Cobalt.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Alexander Koss

[Alex K]

Not really a workout report, but rather a "funny gripper-related story" report:

So yesterday I finished my exams and had a few friends over, it was another friends birthday. Before that we had some pizza in the city at around 7PM. At home we just sat around, had a fun time. When everyone was about to leave at probably 2:30AM, I decided to give everyone a shot at grippers. Some closed the CoC#1 (I have an ultra-weak one), some got the CoC#2 to parallel. When attempting the #3 (151lbs), they bet me that there's no way it can be closed. 

Since it was literally night time, and I hadn't eaten in a good 6 hours or so, and we had 1-2 drinks, I thought it wouldn't really work out, but I still decided to give it a go. And I closed it easily and did 5-6 clicks with it, which surprised me way more than everyone else. By my logic it was literally the most horrible time to do grippers, but somehow I was stronger than I typically was when "everything was perfect". When everyone was gone I picked the #3 up again and decided to close it from a (very) wide set, pretty close or at credit card width just for fun, and I closed it once again, very easily.

Now I have absolutely no explanation for this, but I am trying to figure it out, because my workouts have been suboptimal lately. It just felt like my forearm muscles were at 100% for some reason. Could it have been the pizza eaten 6 hours prior? Maybe I train too quickly after my meals (1-2h) and should wait for a longer time period? Do you guys know by any chance how to max out for a gripper workout the best way?