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Old Forum Grip Training W/Captain Crusher

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BenC414

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Hello,

I recently listened to Pavels Podcast with Tim Ferris. So much awesome information as I am new to Strong First.

 

I was wondering how many of you train with the Captain Crushers from Iron Mind.com. What has your experience been? Do you feel it has really helped your lifts/Kettle bell and day to day life? Thanks!
 
I have some. They're pretty good. I usually only used them for 3 weeks out of 12 as my last exercise of the day once a week and did some other type of grip work the other 9 weeks. I'm going to start using them in a GTG fashion like Pavel recommended next week.
 
Some time ago I heard someone say that the way to flex your rotator cuff was to make a tight fist.  I am pretty sure that can be traced back to Gray Cook, although the person I heard say it was not Gray Cook.  That got me to thinking that working the grip might be a way to work the rotator cuff.  Some time later I heard Pavel say that working the grip and core would make everything else stronger.

A month or so ago I ordered a set of 5 COC grippers, 3 IMTUGs to work my thumbs, and a set of bands to work the extensors.  After buying my grippers I heard Pavel's recent interview, which confirms in my mind it was good to buy the grippers.

I bought the set of five grippers because I didn't really know where I was, or how fast I would progress.  I bought the range from the Sport to 1.5.  I bought IMTUG from 1 to 3.  I can't tell you which COC I am spending most of my time on right now because it is classified, but it is more than the Sport.  I can tell you this much, by the time I am ready to buy the COC 2 my hands will be quite a bit stronger than they are now.

I feel comfortable working my thumb and first two fingers with the IMTUG 2, but the IMTUG 3 is still a bit too much.

 
 
I use Captains of Crush grippers approximetly 3 times a week and quickly started to see an increase in grip strenght. I started to look at ways to strenghten by grip because it was bottlenecking my progress in S&S with 24kg single hand swings specifically.

I now find that my increasing grip strenght is ahead of my S&S work, so grip is almost never an issue even after going up up to 32kg. Highly recommend.  

Start slow at first however because all the tiny tendons in your hands are put under a lot of stress so inflamation can become in issue. Ease into it and you should be ok.
 
certianly not trying to dismiss Pavel but i switched from gripper training to hang grip training over a year ago and have had huge success i trained grippers hard and many different ways including a gtg techqunie and they most defenitly worked but my hands, fingers and wrist were constanly sore and ache. i then switched to hang grip training first just normal two hand bar hangs now at the point i hang with one hands off my wifes silks  and one digit two hand hangs off of stairs and ledges at work i do the same 5 to 30secs multiple time throughout the day sometimes  flexed arm hangs which really seemed to beef up my brachialis. but the aches and pains stopped and my grip as takin a huge jumps i never owned the coc but i had heavy grippers and they where rated from 100 to 350 in 50 increments and i gave them to a co worker and before switching i couldnt close the 350 now i can crush it multiple times with both hands.
 
A great tool for gripper work is the Vise Gripper. It´an adjustable gripper with knurled handles. Resistances go from 45 to 360 lbs in ca. 60 increments. Pretty cool for varying intensity. They have a chart which tells you the resistances of the different settings.
 
I think Pavel's recommendation about Captains of Crush grippers is excellent.  But I might be a bit biased - I trained with them over a decade, and got pretty strong on them.  Grippers are very underrated.  Especially for their ability to increase your ability to hold onto clothing.  Useful for MMA, law enforcement, corrections, self-defense, etc.
The "What The Hell" effect is often talked about with kettlebells.  It is the same (in my experience, and the guys I've helped with their training) with grippers.
 
I had a pair of Sandow spring loaded Dumbbells. When I first started using them, my pull-ups suddenly improved by 50%. At the time, I wonder if there was a correlation or not. Sadly, as Pacel said, "it worked so good for so long I got bored with it". Lol. After listening to the Podcast and Pavel talk about grip strength, you can guarantee I'm pulling them back out and working them!
 
So Pavels recommendation is grease the groove through out the day with grippers? Might have to start again. Haven't touched my grippers in awhile. I do do a bit of thick bar work though.
 
"So Pavels recommendation is grease the groove through out the day with grippers? Might have to start again. Haven’t touched my grippers in awhile. I do do a bit of thick bar work though." -Hunter Jarvis
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Hunter, I can tell you that grease the groove is a terrific way to get stronger on grippers.  I used it extensively on 12-hour night shifts back in 2004 and early 2005 to certify on the #3.  I'd do dozens of singles (only singles) with my #3, spread over a 12-hour shift.  Sometimes I'd only get around 50 total reps.  A few really good workouts I hit into the 200 total rep range.  That was of course when I had built up to closing the #3 pretty easily by that point.  But before that, I bought a Super Master (the equivalent of a #2.5) and did a bunch of singles throughout my long shifts.  Then I slowly progressed to harder and harder grippers - until I closed my #3.

You could also do on-the-minute gripper closes with whatever your near-max gripper is.  Stop the workout when you fail to close the gripper.

I gave an IT buddy a simple workout a few days ago.  He texted me to say that he had left all his grippers at home, except for his Trainer.  He can close the #2 for about 3 reps on a strong day.  So the Trainer is pretty easy for him.  He asked if there was a workout I could recommend for him so that his hands didn't go "dumb" by not training them often enough.  I thought about it for a few minutes and then told him to try this:
Stand in front of a wall clock.  One with a second hand.  When the second hand reaches "12" - close the gripper.  Don't let it open back up though.  Hold it closed until the second hand reaches "1."  Again, don't let it open back up.  Hold it closed until the second hand reaches "2."  Repeat this pattern until you fail to close it every 5-second interval.  It gets hard pretty quick.  He loved the workout though.  In fact, he is going to start using it in at least one weekly workout from now on.
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Great thread. I have a slight problem with my CoC, in that, because of the asymmetrical nature of the gripper, it tends to sit in my left hand such that I can't 'click' the ends (as the force I'm applying is kind of 'across'). I haven't explained this very well I know but does anyone know what I mean?
 
I started training with CoC grippers late last year and my symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both arms have noticeably diminished, to the point where it's almost gone.

I can safely attribute this progress to grippers as the symptoms started dissipating around the time I introduced grippers to my training. I also noticed my gripping muscles would tighten up noticeably during gripper training, so, along with self-massage and stretching couple of nights a week, seems to have contributed to my success.

I primarily train with #trainer and #1, twice a week, 3-5x3-5 during kb squats. Anything more, eg, GTG or 3xweek or more and my fingers and hands didn't recover, which wasn't on as I work physically demanding  and grip intensive jobs.
 
RobertS,

My left hand definitely feels different than my right.  I thought i just couldn't find the right way to grip it, but maybe you are on to something.  I guess that is why they also sell left turn grippers.  Go figure.
 
"Ben E., great advice!  Have you tried GTG overcrushes with a lighter gripper?" -Pavel T.

 
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Pavel, I have definitely done the GTG overcrushes with a lighter gripper.  I consider my #3 closes that I mentioned in an earlier post to be GTG overcrushes.  Because at the time, my top-end strength was at the #3.5 gripper level.  The only thing I would change, if I had to do it over again - would be to extend the time of the overcrush.  The ones I did were usually about 2-3 seconds.  So...years later, I think it would've been more beneficial and easier on my recovery ability to go a bit lighter (maybe a #2.5) and extend the overcrush time to multiple sets of 5-8 seconds.
 
"Great thread. I have a slight problem with my CoC, in that, because of the asymmetrical nature of the gripper, it tends to sit in my left hand such that I can’t ‘click’ the ends (as the force I’m applying is kind of ‘across’). I haven’t explained this very well I know but does anyone know what I mean?" -RobertS
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I know what you mean about the "across" reference when closing grippers.  IronMind now makes the "Left-Turn Grippers" specifically to address that issue.
 
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