i just recently got my first captian of crush gripper. i got the number 1. and i am wonodering what inprovement ppl have got from these. how they trained and what they would of done diff in hind site.
I got my first awhile back (no.1) at first I couldn’t close it more than 5x’s especially on my left hand due to smashing it up several times. I got alot of good advice on how to correct this problem and now I can close it 15 times. I’ve done this in conjunction with timed bar hands at the end of my workouts (2 sets for max time). It’s a little too early to tell but I do believe it’s helping quite a bit. Simply put things that used to seem harder to hold are easier to hold. I can also do more chins.
so when and how often do u trian with them?
I’ve been training with them off and on for a few years now, finally getting serious and going to shut the #3 this year.
There are tons of different ways to train with grippers. Hand strength traiing overall has really gotten to be a popular thing in the last four or five years, lots of companies with grippers now, and a lot of good sites on the net with info on training. www.gripboard.com is a good place to start.
I train daily with mine, doing tied holds with the #1. Do five sets a day so far, just pick it up randomly throughout my day do two reps, then hold for time on the third. Start at 15 seconds, next time, 20, and add five each time. Did this for a week and didn’t pick up my #2 for that week. Was at 1/8 again on it, had lost the close. After a week of 30 sec holds on the #1, ground the #2, no problem. When I hit 60 or 70 seconds on the #1, will do the same on the #2, and when I can hit 60 seconds and 10 solid reps on it, will hit the #3.
Grip training is fun, very addictive. Also doing levering, can lever a 12lb sledge right now, want the 16 lb. lever by Christmas.
thanks for the input. i am taking the iron mind catilog to as welder and getting some of the stuff made cause its cheaper and im a poor redneck. but the wristroller like a jar is cool i think i wanna get it.
I’m doing grip, levering, and pinch gripping right now. I have a long ways to go though, I am absolutely horrible at it. I’m still trying to lever my 8# sledge.
Most people would say the place to start for information (aside from gripboard) is one of the Brookfield books off of ironmind. Usually I think they recommend to train grip as often as you can get away with.
I saw that John Woods has a new grip related site as well.
I used to train seriously with the Captains of Crush grippers. Three times per week six to eight sets each hand. I ended up closing the #2 for 6 reps. I can’t honestly say it helped me with anything other than being able to close a gripper.
Oh…It does help with handshake grip, but after a while that get’s pretty old. You know…no one will shake your hand because they know you are going to squeeze it.
They are fun, but I would recommend that you train more specific for the reasons that you want to improve your grip. In other words if you are interested in increasing your grip for Deadlifting, hand grippers are not the way to go.
But…they can be fun no question. Just don’t expect much carry over strength unless your grip is pretty pitiful to begin with.
[quote]ZEB wrote:
I used to train seriously with the Captains of Crush grippers. Three times per week six to eight sets each hand. I ended up closing the #2 for 6 reps. I can’t honestly say it helped me with anything other than being able to close a gripper.
Oh…It does help with handshake grip, but after a while that get’s pretty old. You know…no one will shake your hand because they know you are going to squeeze it.
They are fun, but I would recommend that you train more specific for the reasons that you want to improve your grip. In other words if you are interested in increasing your grip for Deadlifting, hand grippers are not the way to go.
But…they can be fun no question. Just don’t expect much carry over strength unless your grip is pretty pitiful to begin with.[/quote]
It depends on the sport! If you?re a grappler the grippers can be of great use especially with muscle-endurance, strength-speed and strength.
Below is a grip training workout that I used and have implemented with some top grapplers:
3 week Mesocycle:
Day 1: hard CNS training (strength)
Warm-up with cheap store grippers: x25reps
A) Heavy hammering: 6x8
B) Pinch grip: 4x20sec
C) C-O-C grippers Level 2: 6x4
D) C-O-C grippers Level 2 isometrics for time: 3x20sec
Day 2: light high rep training (recovery)
Warm-up with cheap store grippers: x25reps
A1) C-O-C grippers Level 1: 2x20
Day 4: off
Day 5: hard CNS training (strength-speed, speed-strength,and strength)
Warm-up with cheap store grippers: x25reps
A) Heavy hammering: 5x5 (as fast as possible)
B) Hammer juggling: 5x5 (pliometrics)
C) Pinch grip: 4x10sec (Try to develop as much force as possible)
D) C-O-C grippers Level 2: 5x3 (as fast as possible)
E) C-O-C grippers Level 2 or 3 (depending on strength level) Auto-regulating cluster:
8x1, 8 is the target number of reps, keep going until you can’t do another rep.
Day 6: light high rep training (recovery)
Warm-up with cheap store grippers: 25reps
A1) C-O-C grippers Level 1: 2x20
Day 7: off
The above is an awesome forearm strengthening program. It will help you reach your goal of closing a C-O-C level 3 gripper. It helped me!
A caution to grapplers this program may be too much work for you especially if you roll more than 3 times a week! Implement wisely.
Fat bastard barbell has some cheaper grip stuff. I would disagree that the grippers do not transcend into other things. I believe it will help with everything up in till a point. Training pinch and supporting strength are also very important. Currently I am focused on getting certified. I am closing the #3 with a deep set but under the new rules it will not count. I am doing a workout called the KTA. you train 6 days a week. It is pretty brutal. I hope to be certified by April at the latest. For over all grip strength I would make some block weights and toss them around. Also the sledge cant be beat for the wrist especially if you want to get into bending.
Patrick
[quote]BOSS wrote:
ZEB wrote:
They are fun, but I would recommend that you train more specific for the reasons that you want to improve your grip. In other words if you are interested in increasing your grip for Deadlifting, hand grippers are not the way to go.
But…they can be fun no question. Just don’t expect much carry over strength unless your grip is pretty pitiful to begin with.
It depends on the sport! If you?re a grappler the grippers can be of great use especially with muscle-endurance, strength-speed and strength.[/quote]
So, for grip strength for wall/rock climbing, would grippers help much?
[quote]BOSS wrote:
ZEB wrote:
I used to train seriously with the Captains of Crush grippers. Three times per week six to eight sets each hand. I ended up closing the #2 for 6 reps. I can’t honestly say it helped me with anything other than being able to close a gripper.
Oh…It does help with handshake grip, but after a while that get’s pretty old. You know…no one will shake your hand because they know you are going to squeeze it.
They are fun, but I would recommend that you train more specific for the reasons that you want to improve your grip. In other words if you are interested in increasing your grip for Deadlifting, hand grippers are not the way to go.
But…they can be fun no question. Just don’t expect much carry over strength unless your grip is pretty pitiful to begin with.
It depends on the sport! If you?re a grappler the grippers can be of great use especially with muscle-endurance, strength-speed and strength.[/quote]
Boss:
Thank you! I stand corrected, they in fact will help tremendously with grappling. In fact, that is the reason that I began focusing on my grip. I was involved in a grappling martial art. It did indeed help with that.
With the above post I was more focused on other exercises, such as the dead lift or pull-ups etc.
[quote]michaelv wrote:
So, for grip strength for wall/rock climbing, would grippers help much?[/quote]
If you have a weak over all grip it will help but, to be more specific, you should focus on finger strength. I have seen people get a large climbing wall piece and hang it somewhere they can do finger tip pull ups. Things like the eagle loops from Ironmind would help and 1 finger pulls.
Patrick
[quote]PGH wrote:
Fat bastard barbell has some cheaper grip stuff. I would disagree that the grippers do not transcend into other things. I believe it will help with everything up in till a point. Training pinch and supporting strength are also very important. Currently I am focused on getting certified. I am closing the #3 with a deep set but under the new rules it will not count. I am doing a workout called the KTA. you train 6 days a week. It is pretty brutal. I hope to be certified by April at the latest. For over all grip strength I would make some block weights and toss them around. Also the sledge cant be beat for the wrist especially if you want to get into bending.
Patrick[/quote]
I’m in my 4th week of KTA. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much pain, and I have calluses growing like crazy. But my hands and forearms feel thicker and stronger. And I’m only halfway done! It rocks.
Oh, and I second the gripboard for serious hand strength information.
I’m in my 4th week of KTA. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much pain, and I have calluses growing like crazy. But my hands and forearms feel thicker and stronger. And I’m only halfway done! It rocks.
Oh, and I second the gripboard for serious hand strength information.
[/quote]
It will only get harder. the Negative crushes are and strap holds open a whole new world of pain. I am just going into the back down week and I am not too soreThere is nothing like having a big callus on your palm. . The last time I did the KTA it got me to about 1/8th of an inch from closing so, I figured I would do it again. Talk about over training. I was trying to train for Strongman and do the KTA while not having much rest from the previous KTA. It was a bad Idea. This time I feel strong each work out and I will be certified very soon. I have short fingers so the credit card thing make it an extra pain but I am working on not setting the #2 each time I close it. this makes me have my fingers fully out stretched.
PGH, man you are right. Those negative crushes are a bitch and a half! I doesn’t appear that I’m quite strong enough to do strap holds consistently, so I’ve been continuing overcrushes. But still, damn. I’m glad I can rest today (Sunday). I am getting a small callus on my palm, but still mostly on my pinkies, they’re getting massive. I can’t wait until I’m done and I can see the results!
OK, guys who have done some serious grip work: What differences have you seen in hand and forearm size? Anything visible? I mean size or definition that lasts, not a temporary pump.