Grippers - are they ultimately worth it?

[smaikelzas]

Hey guys, I am once again asking the age old question regarding grippers - are they worth it?

However, I want to ask some more specific questions to maybe spark a productive discussion and hear some thoughts.

1. If the goal is overall grip strength, not necessarily grippers, would you say grippers have benefits for thick bar/vertical bar/axle/saxon/pinch blocks or any other type of grip implement? 

2. CNS benefits? From my personal and other peoples' experience, grippers are one of if not the most CNS draining and CNS reliant movements in grip, would you say this could be a hindrance to other grip lifts or a benefit in a way that you could develop a better CNS connection which aids in other lifts?

 

[mcalpine1986]

Personally I think if your goal is overall grip strength that grippers should be a low priority. Thick bar, pinch and wrist work would be a much better use of training time. 

For me Grippers don't tend to have much carryover to other aspects of grip. 

If you are into BJJ, judo or a sport where you need some closed hand grip strength they will be useful for that.

Grippers are fun to train and collect(collecting can get addictive) and I think people just like the challenge of closing them.

I would say that grippers are no more CNS draining than any other grip lift if training at a high % of maximum. 

They are certainly not needed to build strong hands. 

Edited October 10, 2023 by mcalpine1986

[Fist of Fury]

1 hour ago, smaikelzas said:

Hey guys, I am once again asking the age old question regarding grippers - are they worth it?

However, I want to ask some more specific questions to maybe spark a productive discussion and hear some thoughts.

1. If the goal is overall grip strength, not necessarily grippers, would you say grippers have benefits for thick bar/vertical bar/axle/saxon/pinch blocks or any other type of grip implement? 

2. CNS benefits? From my personal and other peoples' experience, grippers are one of if not the most CNS draining and CNS reliant movements in grip, would you say this could be a hindrance to other grip lifts or a benefit in a way that you could develop a better CNS connection which aids in other lifts?

 

If you think they are worth it then they are worth it. That's all that matters. This is always the case with any hobby you might have.

1. They have benefits but if you want overall strong grip you need to train overall. It's that simple.

2. No I don't think training grippers will have a negative effect in general, however training too much of other exercises can certainly have a negative effect on grippers. But it also have positives. I recently got problems with my left shoulder from pressing and training grippers too much at the same time, so I had to choose which one to remove from the schedule. Point being, you can always overtrain. Having a smart plan and listen to your body is the key to success. But in general I wouldn't say gripper training will have a negative effect on other lifts. As long as you train smart. Then there's the positives as well, you will get a stronger grip holding on to bars of all kinds from gripper training.

Edited October 10, 2023 by Fist of Fury

[C8Myotome]

1 hour ago, smaikelzas said:

grippers - are they worth it?

Are grippers worth the money that they cost? Sure

If your goal is just general grip strength, then choosing grippers for this is like choosing a unicycle to build leg strength. There's just a higher amount of skill involved and not necessarily the transferability you're looking for...

There are people who casually use grippers, but I don't really see the point of that as you'll get just casual results at best

If you're trying to use grippers to get better at other things just keep in mind that you're not accidentaly going to get really good at grippers, to get good at them can take a ton of time investment, dedication, motor control training, you need to own a ton of different resistance grippers as well...if you're trying to get better at a vertical bar lift etc i don't see why you would put yourself through what is involved for gripper training if you don't really care about grippers.

That doesn't make grippers not worth it, but if you don't value them, there's no reason you need to use them

You may feel more mentally fatigued from them because they're the only implement which has accomodating resistance so you get a little bit of a surprise on how heavy it actually is once it increases to its full resistance

People often have the wrong view about grippers that because they're small you can just use them anywhere at any time while driving or watching tv while drinking beer or at the office etc....this is pretty much the worst way to use them and using grippers incorrectly/unstrategically is probably overall worse for your strength and recovery for your other lifts

I wouldn't bother with them unless you actually cared about becoming really good at grippers

[Alex K]

I have personally experienced massive carryover to, well, everything. Instant head start in any other grip discipline. This could vary from person to person though I believe.

But generally speaking, grippers are primarely good for training your crushing grip, so if your goal is gripper closes and maybe big numbers on the dyno, then grippers are the way to go!

Edited October 10, 2023 by Alex K

[climber511]

Grippers can be fun but for most people carry over seems to be limited.  If you don't get into "collecting" them they are relatively inexpensive - so worth it - probably so?

Edited October 10, 2023 by climber511

[dubyagrip]

If your goal is to close big grippers, yes.

I have been able to make rapid progress in both pinch grip and grippers, they don't compete for recovery or resources.  Training grippers and thickbar is a recipe for frustration, however.

I had a wrist/thumb injury that impacted my ability to train grippers for a few months, but I was able to train all out on pinch and thickbar. When I came back to grippers, I hadn't lost any strength.

Edited October 10, 2023 by dubyagrip

[Climber028]

Grippers are cool and fun for a lot of people but they are in no way necessary to build a strong grip. A thick handle, a pinch, the 6 wrist movements and some thumb work are all you need and can be done with very little equipment 

[smaikelzas]

Thanks a lot guys, been getting PRs even with grippers in the program, will try going all out on thick bar, see how it goes

[climber511]

12 minutes ago, smaikelzas said:

Thanks a lot guys, been getting PRs even with grippers in the program, will try going all out on thick bar, see how it goes

No matter what you have in your training cycle - recovery is key - the goal is "super compensation".  It's better to do one rep too few than one rep too many over the long haul.

[smaikelzas]

11 minutes ago, climber511 said:

No matter what you have in your training cycle - recovery is key - the goal is "super compensation".  It's better to do one rep too few than one rep too many over the long haul.

Oh absolutely, I learned not too long ago that more is not better, actually @dubyagrip inspired me to try very low volume high intensity and been hitting PRs 

[Vinnie]

1 hour ago, dubyagrip said:

I was able to train all out on pinch and thickbar. When I came back to grippers, I hadn't lost any strength.

Gripper expert @Chez has told me in the past that he sometimes does pinch the day before grippers because it actually helps a little.  And even though I don't train pinch much at all, I never seem to lose anything on it and have even incrementally upped my PR -- even though I generally train only grippers.  But yeah, thick bar and grippers don't seem to help each other much, at least not close in time.

[Carl Myerscough]

Depends what you are doing them for. I did grippers to chase the challenge they present. Are they necessary for hand strength no. I wouldn't say they have no carry over though, there just challenging to combine with thick bar. To do my best this year on grippers I was doing virtually nothing else heavy, in part due to injury. This allowed my grippers to get better than they ever could when I was also doing thick bar every week. All thick bar lifts are a measure of wrist strength. If you can stop the rotation and keep your fingers under the bar, you can lift it. Thus grippers alone will not improve thick bar in isolation because they are not making you better at stopping rotation. Once you combine them though with heavy standing wrist curls then you are in business. If chasing a particular cert is not your goal they are not necessary at all. A bruce lee style grip machine is likely better.

[smaikelzas]

42 minutes ago, Carl Myerscough said:

Depends what you are doing them for. I did grippers to chase the challenge they present. Are they necessary for hand strength no. I wouldn't say they have no carry over though, there just challenging to combine with thick bar. To do my best this year on grippers I was doing virtually nothing else heavy, in part due to injury. This allowed my grippers to get better than they ever could when I was also doing thick bar every week. All thick bar lifts are a measure of wrist strength. If you can stop the rotation and keep your fingers under the bar, you can lift it. Thus grippers alone will not improve thick bar in isolation because they are not making you better at stopping rotation. Once you combine them though with heavy standing wrist curls then you are in business. If chasing a particular cert is not your goal they are not necessary at all. A bruce lee style grip machine is likely better.

I was about to write to you personally on IG regarding this , thank you for the input, Carl, means a lot.

[Busa]

As everyone has mentioned grippers are needed if you want to train grippers for some I think in part it depends on strength level and frequency I have read and noticed improvements in others grip feats. However they do become addictive and most people end up having more or the wrong strengths than they really need.

[Fist of Fury]

1 hour ago, Carl Myerscough said:

Depends what you are doing them for. I did grippers to chase the challenge they present. Are they necessary for hand strength no. I wouldn't say they have no carry over though, there just challenging to combine with thick bar. To do my best this year on grippers I was doing virtually nothing else heavy, in part due to injury. This allowed my grippers to get better than they ever could when I was also doing thick bar every week. All thick bar lifts are a measure of wrist strength. If you can stop the rotation and keep your fingers under the bar, you can lift it. Thus grippers alone will not improve thick bar in isolation because they are not making you better at stopping rotation. Once you combine them though with heavy standing wrist curls then you are in business. If chasing a particular cert is not your goal they are not necessary at all. A bruce lee style grip machine is likely better.

In my experience gripper training has a lot of carryover as far as finger strength goes. And I know Laine Snook also recommends gripper training to get stronger at thick bar (but doing it wisely is the key), Nathan Holle also said he thinks they help.

Personally I have made around 10 kg of thick bar gains only by increasing my grippers by around 20 lbs RGC. Plus training biceps, which I think is another key factor for being strong in thick bar.

I have tried to train thick bar to help my grippers. That didn't not work at all though. I gained 5-7 kg on thick bar by training it but lost 30 lbs RGC on grippers and this was a very bad loss as well which I really had to work for months to even come back up where I was again. I think the only thing that destroyed my crush strength more than a lot of thick bar training was double overhand steel bending. But they are in the same boat for me.

Pinch I never really been interested in. But I know that I'm stronger at it than most people who doesn't train grip. And that was the case the first time I trained pinch as well.

What I find it to help the most with though is just everyday gym lifts like rows, deadlifts, pull-ups etc.

Edited October 10, 2023 by Fist of Fury

[Harrison]

For real life application, I can say it carries over to EMS & the ER. Thanks to lawyers we have to use restraints a whole lot less. We cannot even hold them down by their arms or legs, PI attorneys jump in. So, we often have to hold clients down by their clothes. I have noticed finger straps, hub lifts, and grippers carry over. The thing about grippers is it’s hard to push yourself to failure when you know you need your fingers and hands for work the next day. It’s hard to get an IV and do what you have to do when your fingers and hands dont want to cooperate.

[Hubgeezer]

Grippers have magical psychic benefits, they are inexpensive, and fun.

Yes, they are ultimately worth it.

Carryover? First time I touched a Rolling Thunder, I pulled 172 pounds. At the time I was only doing Hub and gripper work. I was 45 years old, and that strength had to have come from somewhere. I always presumed it came from the grippers.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Hubgeezer

[Blacksmith513]

If your goal is closing grippers then yes. 

 

I don't really train them because i'm chasing the inch and doing a ton of thick bar.  But someday. Just gotta lift the inch first.