The Crushing Addiction – Gripper Training

 

This is a guest post by Jedd Johnson, from the Diesel Crew. Jedd’s passion is Grip training, he readily competes in grip strength contests, and has produced multiple resources on building world class hand strength. He is THE Grip Authority.

In Grip Training, Crushing is the act of closing the fingers into the palm, similar to making a fist. The main way to train this form of hand strength is with Grippers.

Grippers are one of the most popular parts of the sport of Grip. Listen in on a conversation between two Grip enthusiasts and I guarantee you’ll hear something about what Gripper they are closing, what Gripper they are working on, and what they are doing in order to move up to their next goal Gripper.

People love training with Grippers, in fact some people are only involved with Grip training because they want to smash tougher and tougher grippers and get the notoriety that comes with doing so.

Grippers are popular all over the world and in my time training Grip, their popularity has only seemed to continue to grow. In case you aren’t familiar with them, let me tell you a little bit about Grippers and the ADDICTS who train with them.

HOARDERS

Most serious Grip Trainees own at least a dozen Grippers, and most will tell you that they need this many Grippers in order to effectively train and keep improving on them. Here are some reasons why:

  • They own warm-up Grippers that are only used prior to their heavy Gripper attempts. After the warm-up, they don’t even touch them
  • They have mid-range Grippers for training for repetitions when they want to grease the groove or work volume.
  • They Have upper mid-range Grippers for Holds and Over-Crushes, specific techniques for dominating Grippers.
  • They have next-level Grippers that they are working on closing and constantly testing themselves against.
  • They have HEAVY grippers that they may never close, but they use them for Negatives, which makes closing the lighter grippers even easier.
  • They have Grippers that they intentionally modify by cutting the handles partially or completely in order to make them even more difficult to squeeze.
  • And they probably even have one or two (or more) grippers that they own just for the novelty and to enhance their collection.

I’m no different. I own about 20 grippers myself. When you love training Grip like we do, you have no problem shelling out 20 to 30 dollars for a Gripper. It is more an investment in your favorite pastime, especially when you consider all of the ways Grippers can be used to develop hand strength, as shown above.

LEAD OFF EVENT

The obsession with closing the heaviest Grippers possible is not limited just to the training that we do in our gyms, basements and garages. When it comes to Grip contests, the Gripper event is usually held first so that everyone can be fresh and close the heaviest gripper possible. After all, the competitors aren’t just there to close as hard as a gripper as they can.Like a car wreck, Grip competitors want to see the havoc that other competitors can create as well.

I’ll never forget the carnage from the first contest I ever competed in back in 2003. IronMind #3 Grippers were going down with ease that day as well as Beef Builder Elites and other stout grippers that prior to that were considered practically uncloseable. Images of guys holding these scary grippers shut for 10 to 12 seconds are burnt into my brain forever.

OBSESSED AND CERTIFIABLE

Part of the allure of Grippers is without a doubt the Certifications that exist for closing them. After all, it’s cool to see your name “up in lights” and when you can get your name up on a pretty exclusive list, like the IronMind Captains of Crush list, it’s something you can really be proud of. This list is what started it all as far as Gripper certifications are concerned, but since then many more have been developed.

The Captains of Crush list is broken up into three segments. There is a list for closing the number 3, number 3.5 and number 4 Grippers. In order to certify you must contact IronMind by telephone or email and request a meeting with one of their witnesses. They will assign you a witness and send them a Gripper for you to close. You will then have to meet the witness and perform your close under IronMind certification rules.

In order to get credit for a legal close, you can set it in your hand, using the off hand to partially close it in order to get the fingers on comfortably. After pre-positioning the gripper, a credit card (also supplied by IronMind) must be passed the narrow way between the ends of the handles to show that it has not been set too deeply and then you can go for the close. Touch the handles together with a legal set and you are a certified Captain of Crush.

There are currently about 300 people certified for closing the number 3 Gripper, but after that, the numbers really drop off. Only 5 people have shut the 3.5 and only 5 have shut the #4. These two groups are EXCLUSIVE!

There’s no denying that Gripper training is the most OBSESSIVE and ADDICTING part of the sport of Grip. People have been known to take them with them to the store, to their place of work, and even to church, squeezing them in the morning, day-time, afternoon and night-time until the knurling rubs the skin raw.

But who can blame us for such behavior? It’s one of the most fun and healthy OBSESSIONS you can have.

In fact, isn’t it time for you to get started? Happy squeezing, brother!

Jedd Johnson, Certified Captain of Crush, December 2003 TheGripAuthority.com <= Join today to learn more about Grippers and how to pursue your certification.