ZENITH GRIPPERS

[Edrik]

Does anyone actually use Zenith grippers in their training program or are they just a waste of time and money ?

Also they are more expensive than COC which is interesting.

[Glitch]

I own every Zenith except 3 and 4. My experience as a small-handed person (7 inch hands) is... mixed to say the least.

Pros: They challenge your hands differently and obviously feel completely different than any other gripper. You feel the pressure more between your thumb and index finger instead of your thumb pad directly. Also they slide A LOT, so while closing them feels smoother, the handle escapes from the position you set the gripper in after 1-2 reps. Perhaps they're good for practicing TNS closes, or just to add variability in your training program, but...

Cons: ...The cost is just too much to justify the difference / usefulness ratio. If you want to practice TNS closes, practice TNS closes with a regular gripper.

However, the lower difficulties (Agility and Trainer) may be good for rehab purposes, if you don't want to risk your skin breaking and you need very low resistance (I kid you not, the Agility difficulty feels like there is barely a spring in there). Otherwise I see little use for them in terms of training gripper strength. Not to mention they're impossible to rate because of the lack of knurling, so you're kinda playing lottery with the one you get.

TL;DR: Wanna get stronger with grippers? Don't buy Zeniths. Wanna add variability and perhaps prepare for the worst and get a few super low difficulty rehab grippers, assuming you have medium-large sized hands? Sure, why not, if you got the dough.

[slazbob]

They have a larger coil as well, which means the last two fingers are challenged more than a regular COC. 

[Fist of Fury]

It's a waste of time if your goal is to close COC grippers.

[C8Myotome]

5 hours ago, Edrik said:

Does anyone actually use Zenith grippers in their training program

No

5 hours ago, Edrik said:

or are they just a waste of time and money ?

Yes

[Fradders]

I was wondering the same, have 1 & 2 and only really use them for warming down after my main sets

[Luke Blackwell]

I've never been interested in them since my goal is to close Cocs. 

[Cannon]

20 minutes ago, Luke Blackwell said:

I've never been interested in them since my goal is to close Cocs. 

Yeah, I think the main use is active recovery or therapy. I have always found it weird that they made the Zenith 4. It takes ~180 lbs to close and that is only therapy for Carl. 

[Luke Blackwell]

5 minutes ago, Cannon said:

Yeah, I think the main use is active recovery or therapy. I have always found it weird that they made the Zenith 4. It takes ~180 lbs to close and that is only therapy for Carl. 

Just about anything is for him🤣

   I agree. I'm sure people who aren't interested in strength goals would find them very useful. 

[richcottrell]

Many years ago, a none gripboard guy showed me the CoC and Zenith hybrid grippers he had someone make for him — he  gutted one CoC and one Zenith.

they were probably both the #2.

If my memory is correct; the one he showed me was with the CoC spring and Not the larger diameter zenith spring.

considering I got an iron mind catalog today and they still have not offered something like this themselves has always surprised me.  It seemed like an obvious evolution using existing parts

i certainly would have bought some CoC/Zenith hybrids.

that all said…

i recently sold my 3 Zeniths at a real nice discount… but then again I also sold all my GHP’s the same week at a nice mark-up.

i sold the GHP’s to turn a buck, and I sold the Zeniths because I never really used them much.   They were very big in my hands due to the larger spring and the larger diameter handle.

 

Edited November 8 by richcottrell