taekwondo911 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Hi, I have always thought that for an example if I had bought the CoC Trainer,no.1,no.1.5,no.2,no.2.5,no.3,no.3.5,no.4 and I have worked my way up and closed the number three that I would not enjoy hand grippers the way I enjoied them!!? Because my progression will be very slow and there will be only a few grippers that I will look forward to close?! dont you agree with me?? thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnus Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 (edited) No, you are officially a gripper nut, and the obsession is permanent now. Nothing you can do can make you stop or lose interest. You may find yourself walking around the house with them, taking them in the car with you, asking ordinary people to give them a try, watching the look on their face when you slam one shut that they can't barely budge, using them while you're watching TV(and sometimes forget the TV's on), etc, etc...welcome to the club Edited May 23, 2008 by Magnus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd80s Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 No, you are officially a gripper nut, and the obsession is permanent now. Nothing you can do can make you stop or lose interest. You may find yourself walking around the house with them, taking them in the car with you, asking ordinary people to give them a try, using them while you're watching TV(and sometimes forget the TV's on) etc, etc...welcome to the club HA HA HA........very true! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taekwondo911 Posted May 23, 2008 Author Share Posted May 23, 2008 No, you are officially a gripper nut, and the obsession is permanent now. Nothing you can do can make you stop or lose interest. You may find yourself walking around the house with them, taking them in the car with you, asking ordinary people to give them a try, watching the look on their face when you slam one shut that they can't barely budge, using them while you're watching TV(and sometimes forget the TV's on), etc, etc...welcome to the club You are right, Gripping is a way of life! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannon Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Hi,I have always thought that for an example if I had bought the CoC Trainer,no.1,no.1.5,no.2,no.2.5,no.3,no.3.5,no.4 and I have worked my way up and closed the number three that I would not enjoy hand grippers the way I enjoied them!!? Because my progression will be very slow and there will be only a few grippers that I will look forward to close?! dont you agree with me?? thank you I read this differently. Are you saying that it will be exciting to work up to the #3, having many PRs along the way, only to get there and find the gains come slower and you only have 2 more grippers (3.5 and 4) that seem miles away? There are cures for this too. You can seek out friends and swap grippers for a different challenge. Maybe your friend's #3 is slightly harder so there is a new PR that is an approachable goal. Or you can work on closing your other grippers with a wider set, or no set. Or, you could branch out and get some Beef Builder grippers that fill in the gaps with the CoC grippers very nice. Or, get a Vulcan Gripper and work on the small steps of progression possible with the springs. Or, work on adding reps the grippers you have closed. There is always a new goal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big nasty Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 My name is Jason Payne and I am a gripper addict ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinselbj Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I had a similar interpretation of the first post as Cannon, there are always more goals to pursue and more pleasure when on the journey. I would hate to think I would give up grippers once I get my cert. Most of my friends already think I am nuts anyway, what is another few grippers? I could have many worse addictions... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mlstrass Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 2 things came to mind after I read the post. It could take YEARS and you still might never close the #4 or other harder grippers. But most importantly if it's about the journey then you can think of ways to keep it fun and challenging. Set goals like 50 reps on a #1.5 or #2, bring your weaker hand up to the strength of your stronger one, or once you close the #3 do a maintenance type routine to keep at that level and focus your energy on other grip feats... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnus Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 That's also true...it'll take a loooong time to close the no.4, so you won't get there too fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cemery Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 My name is Jason Payne and I am a gripper addict ! Remember, grippers are a gateway drug that just lead to other addictive things. . . . . block weights, hubs, thick handle dumbells, phonebooks, card tearing, horseshoes, nails and so on. Before you know it all your credit cards will be maxed out and you'll be waiting for payday just to get your " next fix ". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumpster Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Remember, grippers are a gateway drug that just lead to other addictive things. . . . . block weights, hubs, thick handle dumbells, phonebooks, card tearing, horseshoes, nails and so on. Before you know it all your credit cards will be maxed out and you'll be waiting for payday just to get your " next fix ". Great post! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Styles Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Grippers lost appeal to me when it became evident the strength developed did not aid me in other areas. I went from barely closing a Trainer to barely closing a #2. These days I view them as a novelty to test strength on rather than a training tool. My grippers are below PR levels, but everything else is the best it's ever been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cemery Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I do feel like gripper strength carries over to thick V-bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ae_yogi Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Grippers lost appeal to me when it became evident the strength developed did not aid me in other areas. I went from barely closing a Trainer to barely closing a #2.These days I view them as a novelty to test strength on rather than a training tool. My grippers are below PR levels, but everything else is the best it's ever been. Now that I do not do manual labor anymore most of my strength training has lost any practical value. I lift and I squeeze grippers because I enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hab34buy Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 My name is Jason Payne and I am a gripper addict ! Remember, grippers are a gateway drug that just lead to other addictive things. . . . . block weights, hubs, thick handle dumbells, phonebooks, card tearing, horseshoes, nails and so on. Before you know it all your credit cards will be maxed out and you'll be waiting for payday just to get your " next fix ". Grippers are a gateway drug indeed! LOL that was a funny post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnus Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 My name is Jason Payne and I am a gripper addict ! Remember, grippers are a gateway drug that just lead to other addictive things. . . . . block weights, hubs, thick handle dumbells, phonebooks, card tearing, horseshoes, nails and so on. Before you know it all your credit cards will be maxed out and you'll be waiting for payday just to get your " next fix ". Yes, the destruction of everyday objects is also another hard chain to break Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pancake Sprawl Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Grippers lost appeal to me when it became evident the strength developed did not aid me in other areas. I went from barely closing a Trainer to barely closing a #2.These days I view them as a novelty to test strength on rather than a training tool. My grippers are below PR levels, but everything else is the best it's ever been. i don't think that's true. i think it carries over to supporting grip and thick bar. to me it's like a dumbell curl, compared to a chin up. a dumbell curl isn't really going to directly mean anything other then you can pick up a really heavy glass of beer and drink it haha, but it will carry over to a chin up which has all kinds of carry over to real life situations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Styles Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I think the curl analogy is a good one. Grippers do about as much for overall hand strength as curls do for overall upper body strength. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravisRush Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I do feel like gripper strength carries over to thick V-bar. Now do they carry over to a 1" V-bar? What carries over to that size? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teemu I Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 At the moment grippers are mostly what I do. I manage to keep everything else pretty much on the same level, so grippers can't be that bad. Despite of the principle of spesificity, strength is strength. Get significantly stronger on the grippers and it's bound to have some carryover to other areas. I don't think you could go as far as saying that grippers are not developing strength. I bet grippers have helped me with pinch and RT as well, no kidding. By the time I got my PR lifts on the blobette, my crush had just peaked and I had not done that much work on the blobette, only some to sort of just "wake up" the thumbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Styles Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Teemu, your current log has exercises that look an awful lot like direct work for the wrist and thumbs, in addition to the grippers. You built a base with other hand training before ever using the grippers. Also, you have done actual weight training (including kettlebells and heavy deadlifts if I remember correctly). I don't think attributing your excellent hand strength to current gripper training really conveys the whole picture. Keeping strength and building it are very different things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teemu I Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 (edited) Teemu, your current log has exercises that look an awful lot like direct work for the wrist and thumbs, in addition to the grippers. You built a base with other hand training before ever using the grippers. Also, you have done actual weight training (including kettlebells and heavy deadlifts if I remember correctly). I don't think attributing your excellent hand strength to current gripper training really conveys the whole picture. Keeping strength and building it are very different things.I did not want to say it like that, giving as much credit to grippers as you thought I was. Yes, I've done other stuff as well, but for longest periods of time my efforts have mostly concentrated on closing harder grippers, as that's what I'm obsessed about. I haven't done the exercises you brought up nearly that much as I' should have to really make a difference. As for building the base, that I've done in the past. I just wanted to say, perhaps not stating it as clearly as I wanted, that grippers have worked surprisingly well on maintaining all the other aspects of my grip as well. You see, one might think (and that is what I have expected as well) for numbers to actually drop down significantly on the RT and blobette while not doing much or hardly any direct work on them and doing mostly grippers (or nothing but grippers at the moment), but that has not been the case for me. I would go as far as saying, that building strength and maintaining it are not actually that much different things after all. To maintain strength, the stimulus still needs to be sufficient enough, or the strength level will come crashing down. Therefore I see grippers must have some value towards other aspects of grip as well. It can be said how the thumb doesn't get much out of it, but grippers will however build strength to any type of movement involving finger flexion through all the joint angles beeing used. I'm not attributing my current grip strength solely to gripper training, but I'm not too worried either about my other numbers, as I seem to be able to atleast maintain them and I still think my crush beeing at it's strongest would lead me to new PR's on other stuff really quickly with little direct effort. As for total body training, it's really been embarrassingly on and off-type of thing for me for the past few months, can't give any credit for maintaining the overall hand strength to that. Edited May 23, 2008 by Teemu I Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ae_yogi Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Teemu, your current log has exercises that look an awful lot like direct work for the wrist and thumbs, in addition to the grippers. You built a base with other hand training before ever using the grippers. Also, you have done actual weight training (including kettlebells and heavy deadlifts if I remember correctly). I don't think attributing your excellent hand strength to current gripper training really conveys the whole picture. Keeping strength and building it are very different things.I did not want to say it like that, giving as much credit to grippers as you thought I was. Yes, I've done other stuff as well, but for longest periods of time my efforts have mostly concentrated on closing harder grippers, as that's what I'm obessed about. I haven't done the exercises you brought up nearly that much as I' should have to really make a difference. As for building the base, that I've done in the past. I just wanted to say, perhaps not stating it as clearly as I wanted, that grippers have worked surprisingly well on maintaining all the other aspects of my grip as well. You see, one might think (and that is what I have expected as well) for numbers to actually drop down significantly on the RT and blobette while not doing much or hardly any direct work on them and doing mostly grippers (or nothing but grippers at the moemnt), but that has not been the case for me. I would go as far as saying, that building strength and maintaining it are not actually that much different things after all. To maintain strength, the stimulus still needs to be sufficient enough, or the strength level will come crashing down. Therefore I see grippers must have some value towards other aspects of grip as well. It can be said how the thumb doesn't get much out of it, but grippers will however build strength to any type of movement involving finger flexion through all the joint angles beeing used. I'm not attributing my current grip strength solely to gripper training, but I'm not too worried either about my other numbers, as I seem to be able to atleast maintain them and I still think my crush beeing at it's strongest would lead me to new PR's on other stuff really quickly with little direct effort. As for total body training, it's really been embarrassingly on and off-type of thing for me for the past few months, can't give any credit for maintaining the overall hand strength to that. I find that encouraging as I have felt that I need to train for grippers and pinch simultaniously and I find I overtrain. I think I might experiment with giving one or the other a rest for intervals and see how my progress changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Styles Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Perhaps once I develop a broader base of hand strength, I will find the grippers more valuable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number Ten Ox Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 My name is Jason Payne and I am a gripper addict ! Remember, grippers are a gateway drug that just lead to other addictive things. . . . . block weights, hubs, thick handle dumbells, phonebooks, card tearing, horseshoes, nails and so on. Before you know it all your credit cards will be maxed out and you'll be waiting for payday just to get your " next fix ". Some people have worn away patches on the back pockets of thier jeans from a can of chewing tobacco, our pockets have worn away into the shape of a gripper from carrying them in our back pocket, and rub marks on the thighs from forcing grippers closed on them. I do feel like gripper strength carries over to thick V-bar. Now do they carry over to a 1" V-bar? What carries over to that size? There are some on the board who swear that 1" V-bar carries over to grippers very, very well and use them in thier training regularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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