Anyone Else Tried Covering Gripper Handles?

[gumpster]

Just wondering if anyone has anything positive or negative to say about covering the handles of grippers. I don't wear gloves and don't have access to any chalk (never used it either). I've been working with my CoC #2 for about 6 months now and after a few weeks the thing was chewing up my pinky and ring a little also since they slide the most over the knurled handles.

Anyway, I used to work in electronics repair and figured some heat-shrink tubing would work and be inexpensive. For me, this has been a great help. I can do more attempts (still have about 3mm to go to close it) and not suffer the chewed up skin. I guess it adds a mm or so to each handle due to the thickness of the tubing so I will have to crush through the tubing when I get a legitimate close. Here's what it looks like.

[Scott Styles]

Chalk is the typical solution, but if that works for you, it works. Seems like a good idea to me.

[dunkster]

The easiest way is to just put some electrical insulation tape around the handle which is easy to take off if you choose and feels nice and smooth when your repping it. It's what Joe Kinney used. But just put it on the handle for your fingers, obviously, or it'll be like trying to crush an eel.

Edited June 23, 2007 by dunkster

[mobsterone]

Joe Kinney recommended in his video / book as much esp when doing high numbers of reps.

[TheBoneOrchard]

I like mine with deep knurling, but I gotta say that is pretty sexy looking.

[dimmers]

I've used electrical tape on the finger side of a gripper before and it definately helps if you want to do high volume or are in some pain with torn skin.

I remember reading an interview somewhere (done with one of the top grip guys) and he said that using electrical tape round one of the gripper handles really helped him progress as he could keep working out even when his hands were in bad condition, as the strength was still there in his hands it was just the pain of heavy gripper work that was stopping him doing a workout.

You might want to try using a hand cream as well (don't laugh) as this helps keep the skin supple which is very important for us grip guys, having tough, hard, dry skin is no good for heavy grip work as the skin is more likely to crack and bleed (i remember reading this tip on David Hornes website by the way) so this may be worth trying out also.

cheers!

[the j]

I just got my #1 and #2 in the mail yesterday and found that they were chewing on my pinkies, so I sliced off some of the shrink wrap from the packages they came in and wrapped it around one side. There's still a good bit of grip but it doesn't hurt nearly as badly now. I can pull it off and put it back on at any time, too. But your solution looks good too... although I'd still only want one side done.

[Cannon]

I always just put the electrical tape on my hand if something tore open. After lots of tearing and healing, there are pretty resilient calluses left over.

[pdfk20]

I say embrace the chewing of the hands, it may hurt and mess up your hands a bit, but the skin will get stronger. Knurling is a good thing anyway, if the gripper is bitting into your skin then it will stay in position better. Use some chalk if neccessary, if you have an individual spot on your hand that is prone to tearing, use a little surgical tape on that spot.

[jad]

I taped the last 1/3 or so of my #3 on the finger side, with electrical tape. I just kept eating up my pinky, apparently my hands haven't ever toughed up . It works good but check your ego at the door as I noticed it definetly decreases the reps you can get

[the j]

I just went at my new #1 and #2 with a piece of 150-ish grit sandpaper and took off the sharp edges. They grip about the same but don't hurt as badly. It's just aluminum, so go slow with the sandpaper.