Captains Of Crush Hand Grippers

[Pancake Sprawl]

Hmm...not sure how to put this. I guess if your biggest concern is hardening of the skin, I would have to warn you about the knurling on heavy duty hand grippers. But I have to ask, what is your purpose for grip training? Really, because serious grip training to actually get stronger will not leave your hands silky and smooth. No offence meant, that's just the way it is.

Get yourself a Trainer and CoC #1 to begin with and let your hands toughen up. Good luck!

yeah, in fact if you do any weight training your hands will get calloused.

[DannyGrip]

I'd like to say something helpful and I really don't like to put it this way, but I don't know of anybody who has powerful yet smooth/soft hands. Your skin gets tough when you apply that kind of force. I found that even with a taped handle, the pressure you exert on the gripper is enough to cause blisters around the area that the handle pushes into. I doubt you'll make it past a #2 without toughening your hands to some extent.

I must say - I AGREE 100% !

Why would you want smooth/ soft hands when training to become a Grip Master?

With the heavy duty grippers perhaps the taped handle will not help and you will still develop some blisters.

Your skin will get used to this and you have nothing to worry about.

It's like lifting weights at first.

So many of us on here have been through this road and the skin doesn't hurt much, no need to worry.

If you'd like you can apply the Vaseline Intensive Care everynight before sleep and keep your hands smooth.

Beats the heck out of modifying the gripper and taking away the knurling that provides great leverage.

Edited May 23, 2009 by DannyGrip

[deadgame1]

I've always had calluses and rough hands so with no cooth or tact I say MAN UP BUDDY! Worried about the calluses on you're hands you should see my feet from wearing boots and working on uneven gravel train tracks!! I've seen guys wrap grippers lightly with athletic tape I think Jedd even mentioned wrapping his grippers in the lessons learned section.Either way constantly rubbing someting against you're skin no matter how soft you're going to get rough spots so If you wanna grip you're gonna get calluses so don't trip and have fun and good luck with you're grippers!!

[JAU1985]

To be fair, I don't think this person ever claimed to want to be a Grip Master, DannyGrip.

tomaarigatto, is there a specific reason you want to get COC Grippers or a reason you have used hand grippers in the first place? Bottom line is you're not going to get a strong crushing grip if you're just doing high reps with a small / weak gripper, you may build a bit of endurance but your strength will not improve.

[DannyGrip]

To be fair, I don't think this person ever claimed to want to be a Grip Master, DannyGrip.

tomaarigatto, is there a specific reason you want to get COC Grippers or a reason you have used hand grippers in the first place? Bottom line is you're not going to get a strong crushing grip if you're just doing high reps with a small / weak gripper, you may build a bit of endurance but your strength will not improve.

Yes, I assumed he wants to become a Grip Master or at least develop crushing strength he can brag about. Don't know what the big deal is about callouses. By the third workout, the hands have already adapted and toughened up to it.

The knurling actually feels great and you will end up liking the feel of it

[tomaarigatto]

Thanks all for replying.

Thanks Bullitt. I have checked the link you gave, but is there any pics for it? Are they comparable to COC?

Also my main concern about the callouses is because even with the last gripper my picky fingers got callouses in the second line closer to palm. I don't know why those areas but it's not even toughening, even though I used the gripper both ways: normal and upside down.

JAU85, the reason I wanna get COC is because I saw them on the net as the toughest grippers so wanna see how I compare to them. Not necessarily want to turn coal into diamonds

I work as a computer programmer so overall tough skin is ok, but uneven callouses all over my hand with swelling is the last thing I want.

THanks all.

[deadgame1]

As long as you take care of you're hands you shouldn't have any kind of crazy swelling or super calouses

[JAU1985]

Yep deadgame1 is right. I believe there are a few guys on the board who work with PC's for a living, Michael Whities / mwhities is one of them and he trains grip quite often and IMO has made some amazing progression in a short time. To keep from having pain in your hands all you really need to know is how to take care of your hands, reading through posts on this forum will do that for you.

My hands are sore after gripper workouts and I'm still a hair away from closing my COC#2 after training grippers for a short while with no real weight lifting experience since some months ago, I use contrast baths and just file down my callouses after the contrast bath when my skin is "wrinkly" then use vaseline intensive care with aloe, sleeping with gloves on to keep my hands warm and blood circulating in them.

If you want to get a really strong grip though, IMO you must do more than just train crushing grip. Since I started doing pinch lifts, finger walking with a sledgehammer (thanks for the video Paul!), and wrist curls with dumbbells I have noticed quite the jump in my gripper strength. To be blunt, if you're worried about tough skin on your hands training grippers, then just don't bother training grippers. Mashing endless reps and sets with weak grippers that have plastic handles is completely useless, to get strength you gotta train hard and often with resistance that gives you trouble and makes you get stronger, there is no other way around it.

[opnsysme]

Thanks for the replies.

The gripper I used was pretty hard compared to the previous one. Even most of my friends couldn't bring the handles together. But I don't know how it measures to the values of COC.

Anyone knows what those values on the grippers (80lbs, 120lbs, etc) mean? Like is it the amount of weight you can curl or lift?

As for the tough skin, I even got serious callouses with my last gripper which is why I wrapped them with tape. Otherwise it's not only toughening of the skin but also it swells very badly too. I just wanna concentrate on the squeezing power.

How about using a silicon gun to cover the handles?

Thanks.

Go here:

IronMind - COC

and scroll down and look at the info in the blue box. I don't believe there is a correlation between grip strength an weight on can lift. I only have one-arm an I can close a #2.5 (237.5). I KNOW I can lift 237.5 right now.

Michael

I don't care what you have or haven't closed/lifted the fact that you are "keepin' on" is a true inspiration. It reminds me not to take for granted what I have. You are STRONG in my book. I need to get off my lazy ass and go lift! Thanks

[tomaarigatto]

Thanks for the replies.

The gripper I used was pretty hard compared to the previous one. Even most of my friends couldn't bring the handles together. But I don't know how it measures to the values of COC.

Anyone knows what those values on the grippers (80lbs, 120lbs, etc) mean? Like is it the amount of weight you can curl or lift?

As for the tough skin, I even got serious callouses with my last gripper which is why I wrapped them with tape. Otherwise it's not only toughening of the skin but also it swells very badly too. I just wanna concentrate on the squeezing power.

How about using a silicon gun to cover the handles?

Thanks.

Go here:

IronMind - COC

and scroll down and look at the info in the blue box. I don't believe there is a correlation between grip strength an weight on can lift. I only have one-arm an I can close a #2.5 (237.5). I KNOW I can lift 237.5 right now.

Michael

I don't care what you have or haven't closed/lifted the fact that you are "keepin' on" is a true inspiration. It reminds me not to take for granted what I have. You are STRONG in my book. I need to get off my lazy ass and go lift! Thanks

Thanks man. I really want to do this stuff. I like it. Actually I just got 1 & 2 today and they look very solid. I closed #1 without any frustration but that was pretty much my limit. Obviously #2 was way tougher for me. So I plan to get 1.5 and probably trainer too so I could do more reps.

I was gonna ask you guys if I could also use these to tape the handles:

http://www6.mailordercentral.com/ironmind/...asp?number=1269

Someone here mentioned to use racket bands which I plan to buy, but wondered if the above item is better.

Thanks again all.

[JAU1985]

Don't tape the gripper handles! The knurling is what helps you, it digs into your hand and provides a grip for you to use your strength to close them! If you tape the knurling they just slide back into your palm.

[tomaarigatto]

But I have bigger hands than most people. I mean I have seen vids of people closing COC, and I thought COC was big. I can hold it without the help of my second hand. I never had problem with gripping grippers just closing it for once.

Edited June 6, 2009 by tomaarigatto

[DannyGrip]

But I have bigger hands than most people. I mean I have seen vids of people closing COC, and I thought COC was big. I can hold it without the help of my second hand. I never had problem with gripping grippers just closing it for once.

I initially told you to get the #1 and #1.5. I knew you would be able to close the #1 and most likely the #1.5 on first attempt. The #2 is pretty hard at first. Don't bother getting the trainer, there is no reason for you to do a lot of reps and trust me the Trainer is way too easy for you - it's a safe bet to say you would most likely close the Trainer 30 times on your first try.

Just train w/ the #1 for now and order the #1.5 in a few weeks.

Can you close the #1 then open up to parallel and then close it again?

If you can't then just hold the #1 shut for as long as you can.

I'm sure you will master the #1 real soon and then be ready for the #1.5.

Is the knurling really hurting you that bad? You only been doing singles so far, none of that high rep stuff.

[tomaarigatto]

Hey Danny,

Yeah you were right

#2 is hard for sure. I can close #1 only once. Because I close it with full force and then I am done. I can probably hold it for a few secs.

I just thought since I can only close #1 once, I won't be able to improve and move onto higher ones. Do you think I can improve just by using #1?

Actually knurling isn't crazy but I have 2 blisters in the lower section of my pinky fingers and for some reason they immediately peel after a few squeeze of #1. But with this kind of low numbers, it's not too bad.

Thanks.

[Kormaz]

Hey Danny,

Yeah you were right

#2 is hard for sure. I can close #1 only once. Because I close it with full force and then I am done. I can probably hold it for a few secs.

I just thought since I can only close #1 once, I won't be able to improve and move onto higher ones. Do you think I can improve just by using #1?

Actually knurling isn't crazy but I have 2 blisters in the lower section of my pinky fingers and for some reason they immediately peel after a few squeeze of #1. But with this kind of low numbers, it's not too bad.

Thanks.

Nice job closing the #1 first try, you can definately get stronger by just using the #1 but if you use the #2 for negatives your strength will increase rapidly. Keep on striving to get more reps and do things like overcrushes, holds, negatives with the #2 as above and you will see fast progress

[Zaqwer]

Hey Danny,

Yeah you were right

#2 is hard for sure. I can close #1 only once. Because I close it with full force and then I am done. I can probably hold it for a few secs.

I just thought since I can only close #1 once, I won't be able to improve and move onto higher ones. Do you think I can improve just by using #1?

Actually knurling isn't crazy but I have 2 blisters in the lower section of my pinky fingers and for some reason they immediately peel after a few squeeze of #1. But with this kind of low numbers, it's not too bad.

Thanks.

Are you closing the #1 with either hand? When i was starting out i couldn't close the #1 at all but it was the only gripper i had. I just did partial reps and in a few days i closed it right handed and went on really fast. But with my left hand wich was weaker i did barely improve at all this way. So i then bought the trainer and repped it left handed and in no time i could start closing and rep the #1 as well.

Now if i had the knowledge i have today then i might not have needed the trainer and instead done negatives with the #1. But i can say i never regret the buy since im always using the trainer for warmup and when the addiction gets to hard on rest days i can pick it up and squeeze out a couple of reps, also i use it to check how my hands are feeling to see if im ready for a workout or not.

[blueviper42]

Odds are he's not doing any sort of set, so if if he learns to set it properly I have a feeling he will be able to close it more than once and won't get blisters on his pinky as easily.

[tomaarigatto]

Thanks guys. What are overcrushes and negatives?

Yeah I closed it with either hand. After 1 close, I can't close again though.

Also how do you set properly?

Thanks again.

[JAU1985]

How to Set a Gripper:

Overcrushes are just closing the gripper so the handles touch and squeezing for as long as you can with all the strength you've got.

Negatives I believe are assisting yourself in closing a gripper you can't close yet like the #2, getting it closed with both hands or pressing against your thigh till it's closed then holding it shut for as long as you can.

Folks: Correct me if I'm wrong.

[tomaarigatto]

Thanks.

Btw I am able to do a couple reps now with #1. It seems easier.

Do you guys know how long should wait when I worked out with COC?

I try to do 1 day work, 1 day rest. Is it not enough or too much?

Also I should feel soreness in my hands and or forearms to know that it was effective?

Thanks.

[DannyGrip]

Thanks.

Btw I am able to do a couple reps now with #1. It seems easier.

Do you guys know how long should wait when I worked out with COC?

I try to do 1 day work, 1 day rest. Is it not enough or too much?

Also I should feel soreness in my hands and or forearms to know that it was effective?

Thanks.

Hey:

You're making great progress! A friend of mine in the gym got the #1 and #1.5 as per my recommendations and was only able to close the #1 once in his first workout. After 2-3 workouts, he can close the #1 for a good 6 Reps. The initial strength gains you will get are the fastest. Stick to the #1 and try and master it, once it gets easier then try the #2 or come back to order the #1.5.

As far as soreness is concerned, you should be feeling it all over your hands. Your strength will be at its best once your hands fully recover and aren't sore anymore.

Where have you been feeling the soreness so far?

[tomaarigatto]

Hey Danny,

You are right. You know this stuff for sure.

My palms seems slightly tougher. Before it mostly hurt because the metal handles was really forcing inside my hands.

So I was feeling soreness inside my palm where the back handle stand. But also in my forearm mostly, when doing alot.

What other exercises do you recommend?

I also try to close or almost close and hold, with a little help from my thighs.

Thanks again.

Edited June 12, 2009 by tomaarigatto

[DannyGrip]

Hey Danny,

You are right. You know this stuff for sure.

My palms seems slightly tougher. Before it mostly hurt because the metal handles was really forcing inside my hands.

So I was feeling soreness inside my palm where the back handle stand. But also in my forearm mostly, when doing alot.

What other exercises do you recommend?

I also try to close or almost close and hold, with a little help from my thighs.

Thanks again.

Yes, the palms is where it should be sore, that's where the muscles of the hand are located.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wrist_an...ssection-en.svg

When you do a lot of reps, your wrist is working to stabilize the gripper and the bottom of the forearm will burn from the isometric hold that the wrist flexors are being subjected to. Still the forearms get minimal work out of this and they are just burning from the duration of the work they are assisting. There are plenty of people that can close big grippers for example and still not move much weight w/ their wrists though. So aim to feel your hands slightly sore the next day after a good gripper workout, this is where you know you're making gains!

Besides repping and holding the #1 shut, there isn't much more you can do w/ it.

You can also do negatives w/ the #2 (which isn't recommended for beginners because it would be pretty tough on your hands).

Many on the board swear by negatives, I've gone all the way up to closing the #2.5 without ever doing a negative.

When I first got the grippers, I was hardly closing the #1, but was closing it more consistently few days later.

I've moved up the ladder to being able to close the #2.5 w/ the following:

Reps, Holds, and Attempts at a gripper just over what I can close (for you it would be the #1.5).

Edited June 12, 2009 by DannyGrip

[tomaarigatto]

Thanks Danny.

What are negatives? Is SND85 right with his definition? I just don't know.

Thanks.

[DannyGrip]

Thanks Danny.

What are negatives? Is SND85 right with his definition? I just don't know.

Thanks.

Negatives are when you cheat shut a gripper you cannot close unassisted either w/ your other hand or even your leg and then you let go of the other hand and try to keep it closed for as long as you can until it forces its way open. I tried it few times and I couldn't keep the gripper shut even for a second and the gripper opened up a bit where if I was holding it there I would only work that part of the close - so I feel I rather just take a gripper at my max and hold it shut for as long as I can - this has helped me more. I believe the reps have helped me a lot. Also, I never do my reps w/ FULL opening because the way grippers are designed it's the last 1.5" or so that are the hardest. I open up about Parallel - if I had to assume the distance - it would be 1.5" I think.

When I finally was able to close my #1 consistently, I put my #2 away completely and all I did was work on the #1, within a few weeks - what was few reps became 25 Reps, then one day I took out the #2 and gave it a squeeze and it was SHUT! So I think repping the #1 did get me to closing the #2. The way I got to closing the #2.5 was just doing reps on the #1.5 and doing singles w/ the #2 and holding it shut each time. I wonder if I can conquer the #3 using these methods (reps & max holds) too. I got a friend who swears by REPS, and this is all he does throughout the day for a few days in a row then he takes 2-3 days off and comes back stronger. He also closes the #2.5 and the only grippers he has are the #1 & #1.5 though. I let him try my #2 and #2.5 and he first only closed the #2, now he closed the #2.5 - that's without negatives or attempts at harder grippers, nor does he practice holding the #1.5. All he does is Reps on the #1.5.

Edited June 13, 2009 by DannyGrip