Dmitry Volegov Certifies on the Captains of Crush No. 3.5 Gripper

[Cannon]

It is a dominating close. Impressive certification by Dmitry! 

[Jared P]

3 hours ago, Cannon said:

Possibly this was trimmed for time by IronMind, I don't think we know. IronMind clearly otherwise edits the videos for the banners, song, etc.

This was my initial thought, that IronMind may have edited the video for brevity. Which I don't think they should do, at all. Let the viewer skip the 3 minutes of trying to get the camera to focus if they so desire - don't leave anything out of the video, as it only creates suspicion. I get they are trying to make their videos more "watchable" or get better viewer retention or something, but I don't believe such edits are necessary.

If the edit was already present, or some other reason for the jump, that first video should be rejected by default. The second angle looks good though.

 

[degradated]

Looks solid to me from the other angle. The cut on the other video seemed sketchy and I feel that after seeing the incident that involved a fake 3.5 cert just several weeks earlier, myself and others have been on edge. I apologize to Dmitry for any doubts or disrespect.

[stranger]

1 hour ago, weightlifter said:

Here is view from another camera

Time code 2:10

Thanks for this! Definitely a great close! We definitely all have PTSD from the last 3.5 fiasco.

[C8Myotome]

3 hours ago, Cannon said:

This is always a weird thing for me. People do not need to look any certain way. 

If you really believe that you are not that familiar with the anatomy required for big grippers. Not that this even needed to be disproved but Tiziano was one example of this. Bones don't just move under load for no reason. It is not about how someone "looks" but rather selective muscle hypertrophy or lack thereof. But if you don't know what you're looking at I can see why it would seem that none of it matters and that all it takes to be strong is wishful thinking.

[DoctorOfCrush]

27 minutes ago, C8Myotome said:

If you really believe that you are not that familiar with the anatomy required for big grippers.

Bold statement to make to someone with a couple of decades of experience under in his belt like @Cannon, including seeing many gripsters come and go and judging countless certs. I'm not sure what your classes have been like, but I also took extensive/in-depth anatomy and physiology classes in medical school. I don't remember the one that made me an expert on the external appearance required for a certain level of force production applied to a torsion spring gripper 

[Jermiah Merciconah]

A muscle at a certain size cannot get infinitely stronger, I'm not sure why this is still up for debate, You have to get bigger to get stronger, Grip is no exception to that

[Fist of Fury]

12 hours ago, Jermiah Merciconah said:

A muscle at a certain size cannot get infinitely stronger, I'm not sure why this is still up for debate, You have to get bigger to get stronger, Grip is no exception to that

I don't think there's really been any serious debate about this. Anyone with very basic knowledge understands this. I mean even with common sense you will understand this. The elephant is the strongest land animal, so it's not quantum physics we're talking about here. It's very simple to understand.

Then there's always the internet pundits. But those people will always argue about everything, just to argue. It's probably the only way they can fill up their empty lives.

[Hubgeezer]

In terms of a needing to have a “certain look” to do extraordinary feats, I imagine the best living example of proof that it is not “necessary” is Dennis Rogers.

Dennis cannot close a Number 3 Captain of Crush. I am sorry, but I don't remember where I read that, so I cannot cite it.

i have never heard or read a bad word about Dennis from anyone: Strength-wise, or as a person, including some of the most legitimately skeptical strength and grip specialists.

It is interesting that his name does not come up more often on this forum these days.

[Climber028]

A few years ago everybody would have said Yves is too small to lift the inch dumbbell and they'd all be wrong. Size is of course a factor in strength but it definitely isn't the only factor, you can make a muscle stronger or weaker without changing its size at all this isn't even controversial. For the extreme cases like a 140lb guy closing a #4 I agree that's totally impossible, but a 3.5 for someone over 200lbs isn't exactly rare. Enough people have closed a gripper with an RGC above bodyweight for us to know it's not remotely impossible, it's just very hard

[Jared P]

I think the only debate in this topic is surrounding the "visual" appearance of such musculature or development. Not everyone has the exact same muscular development as Ivan Cuk - who visually has the 'ideal' build in his hand and forearms for crushing strength. No one would ever question his strength, because he looks like the exact type of person who could crush No. 4s. The size of his fingers, wrist, thenar and hypothenar muscles, and what I believe is the flexor digitorum profundus (I've not studied anatomy in depth, just guessing), all point to extreme crushing strength. Dubya and Derek also have similar development in their hands and forearms. Nothing shocking about their strength.

A recent example of someone who does not look like they visually have extreme crushing strength is Anton Kopylov in his recent GM150 result of 140.3 kg. His forearms and hands look relatively small. He looks like he could maybe hit 110 kg at best on the GM150. Generally the visual cues are representative of probable strength, but perhaps looks don't tell the entire story. Also, perhaps muscular hypertrophy and mass are more prevalent as a result of torsion spring gripper training than with dynamometer training.

[Fist of Fury]

On 5/4/2024 at 9:19 PM, Jared P said:

I think the only debate in this topic is surrounding the "visual" appearance of such musculature or development. Not everyone has the exact same muscular development as Ivan Cuk - who visually has the 'ideal' build in his hand and forearms for crushing strength. No one would ever question his strength, because he looks like the exact type of person who could crush No. 4s. The size of his fingers, wrist, thenar and hypothenar muscles, and what I believe is the flexor digitorum profundus (I've not studied anatomy in depth, just guessing), all point to extreme crushing strength. Dubya and Derek also have similar development in their hands and forearms. Nothing shocking about their strength.

A recent example of someone who does not look like they visually have extreme crushing strength is Anton Kopylov in his recent GM150 result of 140.3 kg. His forearms and hands look relatively small. He looks like he could maybe hit 110 kg at best on the GM150. Generally the visual cues are representative of probable strength, but perhaps looks don't tell the entire story. Also, perhaps muscular hypertrophy and mass are more prevalent as a result of torsion spring gripper training than with dynamometer training.

Crushing strength is extremely neurological. So to some extent you probably need less mass to be strong with grippers than you need for most other exercises. Like for deadlift, you will not see a small man deadlift 500 kg. He will at least have very big legs.

Hand strength is more dependant on the CNS. If you have good genetics for this you will be able to excel in this area of strength to a larger extent without having as much muscle mass.

That doesn't mean you don't need to have any mass, it just means you don't need to have as much as in other areas of strength.

When it comes to grippers it also makes a big difference if it's a wide set or narrow set and the hand size of course matters also in that case, that will determine whether it's a wide or narrow set etc. You will need more muscle to be strong with a wide set.

Edited May 6 by Fist of Fury

[martincerven]

On 5/4/2024 at 9:19 PM, Jared P said:

I think the only debate in this topic is surrounding the "visual" appearance of such musculature or development. Not everyone has the exact same muscular development as Ivan Cuk - who visually has the 'ideal' build in his hand and forearms for crushing strength. No one would ever question his strength, because he looks like the exact type of person who could crush No. 4s. The size of his fingers, wrist, thenar and hypothenar muscles, and what I believe is the flexor digitorum profundus (I've not studied anatomy in depth, just guessing), all point to extreme crushing strength. Dubya and Derek also have similar development in their hands and forearms. Nothing shocking about their strength.

A recent example of someone who does not look like they visually have extreme crushing strength is Anton Kopylov in his recent GM150 result of 140.3 kg. His forearms and hands look relatively small. He looks like he could maybe hit 110 kg at best on the GM150. Generally the visual cues are representative of probable strength, but perhaps looks don't tell the entire story. Also, perhaps muscular hypertrophy and mass are more prevalent as a result of torsion spring gripper training than with dynamometer training.

I wanted to say he's another Tiziano when I saw bodyweight 116, but it's kg also he's supposedly 205cm, these videos for sure have weird perspective...