Hand gripper review: Captains of Crush

[Blacksmith513]

Got the Ivanko today... Its great... Its easier on the tendons than COCs.... Gonna play with this and the Vulcan for 6 monthts, then go back to the COCs.. I love how much easier it is on the hands. Think its gonna be great to build up tissue. These adjustable grippers are great for people with multiple goals... You can adjust tension slowly so you're never overworking your hands. 

[DevilErik]

8 hours ago, Blacksmith513 said:

Got the Ivanko today... Its great... Its easier on the tendons than COCs.... Gonna play with this and the Vulcan for 6 monthts, then go back to the COCs.. I love how much easier it is on the hands. Think its gonna be great to build up tissue. These adjustable grippers are great for people with multiple goals... You can adjust tension slowly so you're never overworking your hands. 

This is what I have been telling people it's easy on your recovery unlike a lot of other grippers.

You might already have it incase you don't here's the chart for it.

 

Edited December 21, 2021 by DevilErik

[Blacksmith513]

2 hours ago, DevilErik said:

This is what I have been telling people it's easy on your recovery unlike a lot of other grippers.

You might already have it incase you don't here's the chart for it.

 

yeah, i was happy to see the chart came with it... Thank you, I would not have bought it even if you didn't recommend it. 

[DevilErik]

1 minute ago, Blacksmith513 said:

yeah, i was happy to see the chart came with it... Thank you, I would not have bought it even if you didn't recommend it. 

Anytime man I am glad I could help you will not regret having this thing.

Mine didn't come with a chart so that's why I wasn't sure whether you'd be getting a chart or not.

[Terry Conjugate Iron]

On 12/21/2021 at 12:04 AM, DevilErik said:

No it's because of the shape of the gripper it feels more  natural.

Same here man there's at least 3 more grippers I want and I need some thumbscrews for my grippers.

That sucks man but a car is more important than a bunch of grip toys.

How interesting.....

I definitely want more than 3 grippers... More like 50 loool

Car fixed this morning! Was the bearing so... There might be a little cash left.... For... Grippers...

[Terry Conjugate Iron]

On 12/21/2021 at 1:14 AM, Blacksmith513 said:

Got the Ivanko today... Its great... Its easier on the tendons than COCs.... Gonna play with this and the Vulcan for 6 monthts, then go back to the COCs.. I love how much easier it is on the hands. Think its gonna be great to build up tissue. These adjustable grippers are great for people with multiple goals... You can adjust tension slowly so you're never overworking your hands. 

You guys are killing me with the adjustables! Alright FINE I'll consider getting one sheeesh

[DevilErik]

7 hours ago, Terry Conjugate Iron said:

How interesting.....

I definitely want more than 3 grippers... More like 50 loool

Car fixed this morning! Was the bearing so... There might be a little cash left.... For... Grippers...

You have to go to gripper rehab lol this is getting out of control.

[DevilErik]

7 hours ago, Terry Conjugate Iron said:

You guys are killing me with the adjustables! Alright FINE I'll consider getting one sheeesh

I really need to get the orange spring for the vulcan but there is only 1 left and I don't have the money right now.

The CROM spring is just too difficult to set so I can't really use it right now.

The vulcan was also specifically designed to work especially with the CROM spring which kinda makes me wonder why I bought it in the first place lol.

I really need to get an orange spring because SETTING SUCKS.

[Dylan]

On 12/15/2021 at 4:45 AM, DevilErik said:

Most people swear by MMS but setting hurts my finger joints even when I am doing it right.

Also it just feels like I am handicapping myself I know that the last part of the range of motion is the most difficult but no matter what I do I just can't get used to setting and the close feels awkward as well.

Also my fingerjoints were hurting for 2 days straight after setting my vulcan and for some dumb reason it also zaps my  closing strength. 

Setting grippers actually hurts my closes despite setting with the opposite hand.

I am just a special little snowflake it seems lol.

If it hurts your joints it's usually pretty good. I'm a beginner and my joints hurt for days if I go hard. I work hard enough to improve slowly but the pain that lasts a couple days gets one deeper benefits as far as I can tell. My knuckles felt like exploding November and early December.
You should definitely train that way some more. The pain isn't an injury but you can get knuckle pressure just training multiple hard sets to failure with a deload burnout up to 15 reps a set, just switching hands back and forth. Slow tempo reps on grippers followed up by some hammer work definitely will do it. I don't know how you train without knuckle pressure lol. Too long since you first started?

[DevilErik]

8 minutes ago, Dylan said:

If it hurts your joints it's usually pretty good. I'm a beginner and my joints hurt for days if I go hard. I work hard enough to improve slowly but the pain that lasts a couple days gets one deeper benefits as far as I can tell. My knuckles felt like exploding November and early December.
You should definitely train that way some more. The pain isn't an injury but you can get knuckle pressure just training multiple hard sets to failure with a deload burnout up to 15 reps a set, just switching hands back and forth. Slow tempo reps on grippers followed up by some hammer work definitely will do it. I don't know how you train without knuckle pressure lol. Too long since you first started?

Pain is never a good thing and this is not how you should train.

You are probably going to have joint damage in the future.

I am in this game for the long run I still want to be able to train grippers in 30 years.

I am not going to argue about training styles do whatever you have to do in order to reach your goals but please don't recommend these things to other people because they will destroy their hands.

I also said that the joint pain was caused by setting not by closing grippers.

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by DevilErik

[Dylan]

11 minutes ago, DevilErik said:

Pain is never a good thing and this is not how you should train.

You are probably going to have joint damage in the future.

I am in this game for the long run I still want to be able to train grippers in 30 years.

I am not going to argue about training styles do whatever you have to do in order to reach your goals but please don't recommend these things to other people because they will destroy their hands.

I also said that the join pain was caused by setting not by closing grippers.

I'm also in it for the long run but my joints feel pretty good right now and I took many sets to failure with my joints feeling that way the past month. If anything they fell better than before.
I have family with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis which can get into the joints causing arthritis (apparently). I say training this way assures I don't get it. My joints and bones have a fuller warmer feeling, less cold, since starting consistent training. I worked in the 50 - 90% range where my strength limited my ability to close the gripper and turn the hammer loaded DB. I do lots of finger extension work, 50% of the week I do 5 - 20 minutes of it at 40 - 100% intensity. That would be 30 seconds each digit maybe 1/8 of the time, 1 minute each digit 1/3 of the time, and the rest is 1.5 - 2 minutes each digit. I don't time it but I've probably had 30 minute sessions just on finger extensions sliding a weight plate against the ground back and forth, left right and in rotations.

In all likelihood the full forearm/hand/wrist work I do most days and how hard I hit the finger extensions is what contributes to both joint pressure and it's therapeutic nature.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Dylan
thought over finger extension work

[Blacksmith513]

14 minutes ago, Dylan said:

I'm also in it for the long run but my joints feel pretty good right now and I took many sets to failure with my joints feeling that way the past month. If anything they fell better than before.
I have family with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis which can get into the joints causing arthritis (apparently). I say training this way assures I don't get it. My joints and bones have a fuller warmer feeling, less cold, since starting consistent training. I worked in the 50 - 90% range where my strength limited my ability to close the gripper and turn the hammer loaded DB. I do lots of finger extension work, 50% of the week I do 5 - 20 minutes of it at 40 - 100% intensity. That would be 30 seconds each digit maybe 1/8 of the time, 1 minute each digit 1/3 of the time, and the rest is 1.5 - 2 minutes each digit. I don't time it but I've probably had 30 minute sessions just on finger extensions sliding a weight plate against the ground back and forth, left right and in rotations.

In all likelihood the full forearm/hand/wrist work I do most days and how hard I hit the finger extensions is what contributes to both joint pressure and it's therapeutic nature.

Rheumatoid sucks, my mom, aunt, grandma and her brother have it bad. I fear getting it.  But just dont over do it w/grippers... It never ends well.  Its ok to go hard for a period of time, but make sure the tissue  and tendons heal.

[DevilErik]

21 minutes ago, Dylan said:

I'm also in it for the long run but my joints feel pretty good right now and I took many sets to failure with my joints feeling that way the past month. If anything they fell better than before.
I have family with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis which can get into the joints causing arthritis (apparently). I say training this way assures I don't get it. My joints and bones have a fuller warmer feeling, less cold, since starting consistent training. I worked in the 50 - 90% range where my strength limited my ability to close the gripper and turn the hammer loaded DB. I do lots of finger extension work, 50% of the week I do 5 - 20 minutes of it at 40 - 100% intensity. That would be 30 seconds each digit maybe 1/8 of the time, 1 minute each digit 1/3 of the time, and the rest is 1.5 - 2 minutes each digit. I don't time it but I've probably had 30 minute sessions just on finger extensions sliding a weight plate against the ground back and forth, left right and in rotations.

In all likelihood the full forearm/hand/wrist work I do most days and how hard I hit the finger extensions is what contributes to both joint pressure and it's therapeutic nature.

Knuckle pain is an overuse injury.

Like I said I am not going to argue.

Do what works for you but make sure your advice doesn't hurt people.

Edited December 22, 2021 by DevilErik

[Dylan]

16 minutes ago, Blacksmith513 said:

Rheumatoid sucks, my mom, aunt, grandma and her brother have it bad. I fear getting it.  But just dont over do it w/grippers... It never ends well.  Its ok to go hard for a period of time, but make sure the tissue  and tendons heal.

As long as you do full forearm work including finger extensions you will get knuckle pressure and everything recovers much quicker too. I make sure to get a good stretch with big range of motion most reps and do slow and forced eccentrics which tend to build things up pretty quickly. When you're doing wrist rotations with a hammer to failure the eccentrics are forced generally, and resisting the gripper from opening when it's at it's most difficult position generally results in a forced eccentric.

12 minutes ago, DevilErik said:

Knuckle pain is an overuse injury.

Like I said do what works for you.

I don't believe that. Even my bones hurt the past month and a half. I only do less because of the pain and to make sure micro-tears are evenly distributed before reaching my pain tolerance. All training is pain and even knuckles can be trained. Everything in the human body and every human function can be trained and such training will always result in pain.

I don't even think micro-tears is a significant reason I stop training. It's just painful and training the next day is painful to consider beginning when you wake up in the morning. It's more subjective than 'micro-tears'.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Dylan
thought on micro-tears

[DevilErik]

Just now, Dylan said:

As long as you do full forearm work including finger extensions you will get knuckle pressure and everything recovers much quicker too. I make sure to get a good stretch with big range of motion most reps and do slow and forced eccentrics which tend to build things up pretty quickly. When you're doing wrist rotations with a hammer to failure the eccentrics are forced generally, and resisting the gripper from opening when it's at it's most difficult position generally results in a forced eccentric.

I don't believe that. Even my bones hurt the past month and a half. I only do less because of the pain and to make sure micro-tears are evenly distributed before reaching my pain tolerance. All training is pain and even knuckles can be trained. Everything in the human body and every human function can be trained and such training will always result in pain.

If you believe that keep doing what you are doing.

[Dylan]

1 minute ago, DevilErik said:

If you believe that keep doing what you are doing.

ok.

[Terry Conjugate Iron]

Wow I totally missed those last responses! Thanks for the constructive dialog guys! I also benefit the most when I use all 3 techniques. I was more disciplined the first half of 21 than the second half, meaning that I rotated TNS, CCS and MMS systematically. My grip sky rocketed doing all 3.

My hands are slightly over 8". I'm stuck literally by a few millimeters before closing my #3 and most of my 300 grippers. And it frustrates me very much. At the same time.. I know training zercher squats and all the other stuff I rotate kills my grip and forearms so I'm just taking my time and learning how to get stronger at grip alongside my powerlifting/strongman training. 

And... For some peculiar reason my left hand has gotten stronger to the point where I can close the #2.5 with both hands. Not equal to my right just yet, but I noticed I have no issues with it closing right handed grippers. While last year it was hurting me right under the base of my knuckles. Like, a lot of pain. 

I'm saying this because I'm assuming I just learned to set the gripper better? 

Who knows... I certainly don't HAHA

[Blacksmith513]

8 hours ago, Terry Conjugate Iron said:

Wow I totally missed those last responses! Thanks for the constructive dialog guys! I also benefit the most when I use all 3 techniques. I was more disciplined the first half of 21 than the second half, meaning that I rotated TNS, CCS and MMS systematically. My grip sky rocketed doing all 3.

My hands are slightly over 8". I'm stuck literally by a few millimeters before closing my #3 and most of my 300 grippers. And it frustrates me very much. At the same time.. I know training zercher squats and all the other stuff I rotate kills my grip and forearms so I'm just taking my time and learning how to get stronger at grip alongside my powerlifting/strongman training. 

And... For some peculiar reason my left hand has gotten stronger to the point where I can close the #2.5 with both hands. Not equal to my right just yet, but I noticed I have no issues with it closing right handed grippers. While last year it was hurting me right under the base of my knuckles. Like, a lot of pain. 

I'm saying this because I'm assuming I just learned to set the gripper better? 

Who knows... I certainly don't HAHA

You probably got better with technique... Like I said, when  I first got my COCS a couple years back, there where times  I could almost close the #2 early on.  Other days I struggled with the 1 or 1.5, still can't rep them. I haven't touched the 2 in a long time. But I know those times I came close where because of unknowingly using  proper technique and having very well rested hands.  But these past few months I've been using grippers again and this time training less and with proper technique..  Makes a huge difference.   Like you i'd progress a lot faster if all I focused on was grip, but I like staying generally fit, so I just inch away at things.. 

[DevilErik]

9 hours ago, Terry Conjugate Iron said:

Wow I totally missed those last responses! Thanks for the constructive dialog guys! I also benefit the most when I use all 3 techniques. I was more disciplined the first half of 21 than the second half, meaning that I rotated TNS, CCS and MMS systematically. My grip sky rocketed doing all 3.

My hands are slightly over 8". I'm stuck literally by a few millimeters before closing my #3 and most of my 300 grippers. And it frustrates me very much. At the same time.. I know training zercher squats and all the other stuff I rotate kills my grip and forearms so I'm just taking my time and learning how to get stronger at grip alongside my powerlifting/strongman training. 

And... For some peculiar reason my left hand has gotten stronger to the point where I can close the #2.5 with both hands. Not equal to my right just yet, but I noticed I have no issues with it closing right handed grippers. While last year it was hurting me right under the base of my knuckles. Like, a lot of pain. 

I'm saying this because I'm assuming I just learned to set the gripper better? 

Who knows... I certainly don't HAHA

Some people go from not being able to close a coc 1 to being able to close a 2 with just technique.

I am just the special little snowflake in the room.

Edited December 26, 2021 by DevilErik

[DevilErik]

9 hours ago, Terry Conjugate Iron said:

Wow I totally missed those last responses! Thanks for the constructive dialog guys! I also benefit the most when I use all 3 techniques. I was more disciplined the first half of 21 than the second half, meaning that I rotated TNS, CCS and MMS systematically. My grip sky rocketed doing all 3.

My hands are slightly over 8". I'm stuck literally by a few millimeters before closing my #3 and most of my 300 grippers. And it frustrates me very much. At the same time.. I know training zercher squats and all the other stuff I rotate kills my grip and forearms so I'm just taking my time and learning how to get stronger at grip alongside my powerlifting/strongman training. 

And... For some peculiar reason my left hand has gotten stronger to the point where I can close the #2.5 with both hands. Not equal to my right just yet, but I noticed I have no issues with it closing right handed grippers. While last year it was hurting me right under the base of my knuckles. Like, a lot of pain. 

I'm saying this because I'm assuming I just learned to set the gripper better? 

Who knows... I certainly don't HAHA

You just answered the question I had about 300 lbs grippers.

I was wondering how a 300 lbs gripper would compare to a coc.

I opened a topic about it but I got my answer now thanks bro!

[Terry Conjugate Iron]

5 hours ago, DevilErik said:

You just answered the question I had about 300 lbs grippers.

I was wondering how a 300 lbs gripper would compare to a coc.

I opened a topic about it but I got my answer now thanks bro!

I saw it but didn't wanna spam the whole GripBoard hahaha.... I'm on fire on here

[Terry Conjugate Iron]

5 hours ago, Blacksmith513 said:

You probably got better with technique... Like I said, when  I first got my COCS a couple years back, there where times  I could almost close the #2 early on.  Other days I struggled with the 1 or 1.5, still can't rep them. I haven't touched the 2 in a long time. But I know those times I came close where because of unknowingly using  proper technique and having very well rested hands.  But these past few months I've been using grippers again and this time training less and with proper technique..  Makes a huge difference.   Like you i'd progress a lot faster if all I focused on was grip, but I like staying generally fit, so I just inch away at things.. 

Yeah man I can totally relate! I closed my #2.5 the second time I tried it lol. Literally 4 days after I got it. And in almost a year I've managed a best of 10MMS. Don't really know if that's good progress, maybe I'm just too demanding with myself. 

Which I know I am with my strength training. I guess I should shut up and enjoy the ride? Haha.. 

Seems like you're in a similar situation. We can't have it all it seems. Yet we push for it.

[John Knowlton]

Hey Terry you should get the Ivanko super gripper.

it Will really help in your training.

[DevilErik]

Just now, John Knowlton said:

Hey Terry you should get the Ivanko super gripper.

it Will really help in your training.

It's awesome I can nearly close the highest setting I am so close but I have to be patient.

[Terry Conjugate Iron]

On 12/26/2021 at 9:27 PM, John Knowlton said:

Hey Terry you should get the Ivanko super gripper.

it Will really help in your training.

John I swear I was just talking about it with my girl. About the Baraban though. No idea where I'm gonna get the Ivanko here in Greece man.. 

Edited December 30, 2021 by Terry Conjugate Iron