Captains of Crush

I've been more of a grip guy but is now also intresting in the gymnastic training. I will try to share what I know about grippers and maybe it could help some.

In the gripper community there is very different point of views of what is a called a "close" of a gripper.

* TNS - Total No set, means that you just grab the gripper with one hand and close it.

* CCS - Credit Card Set, its the way Ironmind(that sells the CoC grippers) certifies gripper closes. Meaning that you start the close from credit card width.

* Parallel setting - You start closing the gripper from parallell.

You can also work with chokers on grippers. It's a good because you can then open up the gripper to different widths depending on your strength. I have one video where choker used on grippers can be seen:

Regarding the widths on grippers, it differs a lot and it can a big difference in how diffucult they are to close.

Thanks! Great info!

Im glad to be able contribute something back to this site.

Are you doing any direct grip-work at the moment Slizzardman? I think you have potential to develop some great grip strength if you focused. I remember reading about some thickbar work and closing(TNS) a #2 gripper, which is very rare for someone not training grip specifically.

How would you refer to simply 'setting the grip'? I can't close the #1 when I just randomly grab the gripper and squeeze it - I need to position it the right way because of the size of my hands and I have to sort of make sure that it doesn't slip but I don't do the credit card set (I close it from a fully open position). Is this also considered TNS?

PS Nice vid and good job on the #3, great soundtrack too.

Thanks Biomieg!

Yes, If you just set the gripper with your closing hand with no help from the other hand I would refer it to a TNS. If you dont use chalk yet I would advice you to try, it will give you an easier time closing grippers.

Here is a good instructional video of setting the gripper in a good position:

The video is made by Paul Knight, one of the very best when it comes to gripstrength and certified #3.5 closer.

Training just the grippers alone will lead to a plateau or an injury. If you want phenomenal grip you need to train grip, forearms, extensors and wrist strength with total body on top of that. There is a reason why the guys with the strongest grip are beasts all over not just in grip strength. Most of them have wrist strength to match their grip strength. Wrists are a weak point for me and when I focused on them, without training grip, my grip strength skyrocketed.

This is probably why gymnasts have good grip, they have a very well rounded system for grip strength the only thing neglected is extensors and the wrist pushups address this. Although if your goal is grip work some more extensors work wouldn't hurt.

EDIT: oh and of course I am a big fan of COC but I prefer not to train with them and use them more as a testing tool, at least at this point in my grip strength training. I found that I progress much better this way. I can close the number 2 although not easily definitely a max. I think ones my wrist and grip strength reach a certain level direct gripper work will become more of a focus.

So what was the requirement for crushing an apple? which COC did they find correlates with this? I can do a red not a green and the green is goal of mine.

Yes, I definitely want to add more allround hand/wrist/forearm strength work to my routine. I'll be getting one of John Brookfield's books soon. I'm not aiming to become a true beast but I wouldn't object to obtaining a slight level of beastliness compared to the average man/couch potato. A firm grip is definitely important to me in that respect.

I can't find the 'apple requirements' by the way - I ran across them during some Google-fu once but I didn't bookmark the link. But I do remember that small red apples of a certain variety were easiest (i.e., crushable if you could close #1 or #1.5 for 5 reps) and some of the green varieties were definitely the hardest.

Washington Red and Golden Delicious will often be the easiest, they are soft apples. Other varieties tend to vary, sometimes I have extreme difficulty ripping apart fujis and sometimes it happens easily. The apples I had today were challenging, and I couldn't even dent them with a one hand grip. For reference, I can close the #2 probably 7 times at the moment. Tough apple. Of course I can splinter it with a finger jab, but I've always been pretty good at that. Unfortunately that is pretty wasteful and expensive, pieces fly everywhere.

Haha we should have an apple crush a thon and put all our videos together to make one.

How would you direct the force into the apple? Would your fingers have to stay neutral, i.e. full contact between hand/fingers and apple with the fingernails parallel to the apple surface and then press inward with the whole finger? Or would you be allowed to curl in your fingertips from this position (i.e. the force is directed through a smaller surface)?

To do this for real your entire finger needs to be in contact with the apple. The force is going to be focused on the fingertips, of course, but there's no digging the fingernails in or anything like that. It is way, way harder that way.