Do You Think Grippers Translate Into Hard Handshakes?

[lifesnotfair]

First of all, NO, I didn't start training with grippers because I felt I had a crappy handshake :P

Anyways, I've been thinking.... We all train to CLOSE the grippers, to close that last gap.. but while holding a gripper in it's closed position, or almost closed, our hands are so closed, we would never hold a human hand that small while giving a handshake. Maybe a 5 year old kid has a 2 inch wide hand.

There's a friend of mine who has the hardes handshake of all my friends.. his hand is both larger and wider than mine, not beefy, but bigger than avg. I reckon. He's strong, he closed my #1 on his 2nd or 3rd try, not knowing how to set it or anything. He can crush my hand on a handshake without too much effort... I've been training with grippers, but for the reason I stated, I don't think it will improve my chances of actually making HIM feel any pain. I just can't wrap my fingers around his hand as if I were closing a gripper with a set.

The only conslusion I get from this, is that maybe working with TNS one would improve the handshakes, as a fully open gripper is closer to a hand's width than the gripper with a 1 inch gap or less, which is were we're all at usually.

On a final note.... I wonder who would win a handshaking contest? :P

[Slider454]

in my findings..I am able to close the #3 not with a wide set though...someone at the gym seen me close it and said yea shake my hand so I can see how strong your grip is and I couldnt make his hand hurt and he cant close a #1 the fact is that the gripper is moving and gets tougher toward the end of the close...if you take your grippers 1 through 3 and have the average person try them odds are they will come close to the 1 and no where near the 2 and the 3...but they will be able to make the 3 move at least a half inch to 1 inch in my findings almost everyone that has a decent handshake will be able to move the #3 a good bit but crush no way...and the guys crushing the 3's are awesome but their handshakes are average your power in crushing comes in the last bit of the gripper I would say the last inch of the close. if you wanted a hard hand shake I would say wide pinch blocks would build a great hand shake...and of course guys with the larger hands will more than likely have a firmer handshake just cause of the size of their hands...but in my opinion wide pinchers...anyone getting the blob up easily would be able to hurt most ppl in a handshake.

[Lacknotch]

I would think working with block weights or pinching strength would more directly translate in your handshake.

Just because it is more open.

[gripuru]

First of all, NO, I didn't start training with grippers because I felt I had a crappy handshake :P

Anyways, I've been thinking.... We all train to CLOSE the grippers, to close that last gap.. but while holding a gripper in it's closed position, or almost closed, our hands are so closed, we would never hold a human hand that small while giving a handshake. Maybe a 5 year old kid has a 2 inch wide hand.

There's a friend of mine who has the hardes handshake of all my friends.. his hand is both larger and wider than mine, not beefy, but bigger than avg. I reckon. He's strong, he closed my #1 on his 2nd or 3rd try, not knowing how to set it or anything. He can crush my hand on a handshake without too much effort... I've been training with grippers, but for the reason I stated, I don't think it will improve my chances of actually making HIM feel any pain. I just can't wrap my fingers around his hand as if I were closing a gripper with a set.

The only conslusion I get from this, is that maybe working with TNS one would improve the handshakes, as a fully open gripper is closer to a hand's width than the gripper with a 1 inch gap or less, which is were we're all at usually.

On a final note.... I wonder who would win a handshaking contest? :P

That´s a good question, i also asked myself a lot this question.

A handshaking contest between who? Between all strong people or between a COC and a strong handed guy?

[lifesnotfair]

That´s a good question, i also asked myself a lot this question.

A handshaking contest between who? Between all strong people or between a COC and a strong handed guy?

Say, theoretically (because it would never happen), one of the events at those BBB contests were handshaking :P .. after the V-bar, the rolling thunder and other stuff, they start shaking hands :P ... Winner is the person who makes the other one say "stop" first, heh. It's childlish, I know, forgive me.

Yeah, pinching wide objects would probably translate more to hard handshaking. I didn't think of that

[Darco]

That´s a good question, i also asked myself a lot this question.

A handshaking contest between who? Between all strong people or between a COC and a strong handed guy?

Say, theoretically (because it would never happen), one of the events at those BBB contests were handshaking :P .. after the V-bar, the rolling thunder and other stuff, they start shaking hands :P ... Winner is the person who makes the other one say "stop" first, heh. It's childlish, I know, forgive me.

Yeah, pinching wide objects would probably translate more to hard handshaking. I didn't think of that

Yes it is childish, you are not forgiven. This is a good way to strain your fingers or severly damage your joints.

[jad]

Big hands equal harder handshakes IMO. It takes strength too but it's when you combine the strength with the huge hands that you have the legendary handshake. Dave Morton, Slim, and Rob V are all known for having a bonecrunching handshake and they all have huge hands. I can't think of anybody with under 8" hands that I've heard of having a killer handshake.

[Scott Styles]

There are threads on the board about this if you do the search.

The short of it is big thick hands give a strong handshake, due to leverage.

You can improve you hand shake with open hand work - thick bar and blockweights. The grippers, they do nothing.

There is also technique involved. Positioning of the hand during the shake allows you to get a much stronger shake, or deflect another persons strong shake. I never bothered to learn the tricks, cause I'm not interested in trying to crush someone's hands.

Handshake tests in a grip contest would be horrible. There are guys that would end up with broken bones before they would quit.

[gripuru]

Iam not a master in the subject but i have asked a lot of gripsters this type of questions and this is all i know about handshakes:

My opinion is that closing a gripper is an ability and handshakes are the true act of crushing strength.

The best combination to have a freaky handshake is: to have a large, wide, thick and heavy hand.

I think that a strength of a handshake is like the voice of a singer you can improve it by exercising it but we can´t have the greatest of handshakes if our anathomy isnt good (bones naturally thin,etc).

My brother never did a single hand workout in his life but he has a thick hand, when we do handshake´s wars he beat me and i work on my hands everyday.

Last week i went to the farm of my cousin and i shake hands with a unskilled labourer that has worked for 20 years in the farm doing all kinds of hard hand works, he shooked my hand very soft by i could felt his big and tough hand and i think he could crushed my hand easily and i can close gripper nº2.

I also think that working for a long time with your hands also helps you to developed a great handshake.

In respond to the handskaing competition i think that for what i have read: Dave Morton, Slim, Cleve Dean, Big Tony Scrivens, Mark Henry, etc.

I think Slim could beat them all at his peak.

I would also love to see what Louis Uni (Apollon) could have been capable of in handshakes.

God bless, hope this help

Edited August 15, 2006 by gripuru

[lifesnotfair]

First of all, I'm sorry if it even sounded like I was suggesting that someone should support a handshaking contest. I was just putting it that way because I'm wondering WHO of all of this strong-handed men could be king on this? I guess we'll never know, and I hope nobody gets injured in this dumb way!

And I certainly hope this kind of discussion doesn't encourage anyone who reads it to go around trying to break people's bones to prove their manliness :P

As jad said and as I was thinking, a big hand is just too important. Damn.

Anyways, in case this gets off topic: I just wanted to know if GRIPPERS translated into strong handshakes. I think everyone made clear it doesn't. Shake hands gently, gentlemen.

[lifesnotfair]

There are threads on the board about this if you do the search.

I did, and it was just like a poll to see who had strong handshakes. They never mentioned what type of excercises develop one. At least the couple of threads I read, I might have missed some!

Thanks for the input.

[BIKERICH]

When someone shakes my hand usually they shake hard sometimes because they know i workout my grip but i just give a standard handshake albeit sometimes i shake too softly in return and i wonder what they are thinking the technique to lessen the intensity of a hard squeeze is to just deepen your grip so the person is now squeezing your meaty area and curve your hand

[BIKERICH]

one of the reasons you deepen your grip is because most people squeeze your fingers and that can hurt Most times people squeeze hard on purpose because they are numbnuts!

[ObsceneJester]

I would have people ask me to shake there hand and be very surprised that I didn't crush there hand off and they say "well what are those grippers for, if not for a good hand shake"

Very sad

[superfeemiman]

I would have people ask me to shake there hand and be very surprised that I didn't crush there hand off and they say "well what are those grippers for, if not for a good hand shake"

Very sad

Your right about that. Causing people intense pain from handshake doesn't prove your strong, it proves you don't care if they get injured.

[austinslater]

I think improving your sweep would translate to a stronger handshake. Isg, inverted grippers and wide set/no set.

Austin

[lifesnotfair]

I think improving your sweep would translate to a stronger handshake. Isg, inverted grippers and wide set/no set.

Austin

Nowdays most people seem to care more (or even ONLY) about closing the gripper, so they use deep sets... even I do that,

[1stCoC]

I guess we better get working on our "no set" handshakes.lol By definition considering the 3 basic types of grip is a handshake is more of a crushing (gripper),supporting(holding a thick bar)or a pinching feat(Blob)? You tell me.......................The most important thing in a hand shake to me along with firmness is looking a person straight in the eye..THAT tells it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!RS

[Geo]

A friend of mine whos a big guy and also works with his hands through his job has a quite tough handshake and also large hands.

However One day he was over my house and he picked up some of my grippers. He asked which one was the easiest so I handed him the HG200. He put it in his big mitt and only got it about half way! I couldnt believe it . I thought he would of murdered the thing! But no he tried it several times to no avail. Just goes to show I suppose.

[Wes]

Big hands equal harder handshakes IMO. It takes strength too but it's when you combine the strength with the huge hands that you have the legendary handshake. Dave Morton, Slim, and Rob V are all known for having a bonecrunching handshake and they all have huge hands. I can't think of anybody with under 8" hands that I've heard of having a killer handshake.

Had he wanted to I think Tommy H. could of made me cry like a little girl I don't think his hands were all that big.

[maidenfan]

Anything working the hand in the "handshake" position will work well. Probably the best tool I can think of is Sorinex's "Big Squeeze" DB - a very underrated handstrength tool. Everytime I use mine I wonder why I dont use it more.

[Blackheart]

i believe that thick bar work gives a big transfer to a good handshake and as written before the wide pinch !

[BIKERICH]

I guess we better get working on our "no set" handshakes.lol By definition considering the 3 basic types of grip is a handshake is more of a crushing (gripper),supporting(holding a thick bar)or a pinching feat(Blob)? You tell me.......................The most important thing in a hand shake to me along with firmness is looking a person straight in the eye..THAT tells it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!RS

Ibelieve a thick bar like a 2 1/2in. dumbbell because you have to squeeze with your whole hand for a period of time in order to hold on to that sucker! and its a wide grip as in a handshake.

[steelbiceps]

Eye contact -- right on the mark, Richard! A smile never hurts, either. Most of us are scary/ugly enough already.

I deliberately avoid those dumb squeeze contests. I do, however, foster a hardy handshake by dynamically tensening my hand without squeezing much. That way it's hard, and if they want to squeeze, they'll feel like they're squeezing a thick rock and getting nowhere.

[quazimodo]

There are threads on the board about this if you do the search.

The short of it is big thick hands give a strong handshake, due to leverage.

You can improve you hand shake with open hand work - thick bar and blockweights. The grippers, they do nothing.

There is also technique involved. Positioning of the hand during the shake allows you to get a much stronger shake, or deflect another persons strong shake. I never bothered to learn the tricks, cause I'm not interested in trying to crush someone's hands.

Handshake tests in a grip contest would be horrible. There are guys that would end up with broken bones before they would quit.

I agree, grippers did -nothing- for my handshake. Infact, all things considered, grippers are about the least important or pronounced exercise i do for my hands. Thick bar and pinches are excellent, after starting them (yeh too late...) I can hold up against most everyone i know, from an 8 foot russian with 9" hands to a powerlifting friends with 8" hands and forearms the size of his calves (BIG!!), though i have to be fresh and on a good day to handle him... painful bastard...