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Grip Work

• You'll find a general grip overview over at wikipedia.

In this IOL thread, Clay Edgin describes how to rip a phone book, then answer questions on the technique.

Here he tells how to Train with grippers.

Over at Functional Hand Strength you'll find a bunch of articles on hand and grip strength, and a grip newsletter.

• IronMind is one great place to start for grippers and grip info.

John Brookfield has a new grip tip column over at IronMind that will surely get you motivated by aching hands -- and quick progress.

There's an active grip board forumover at Cyberpump -- you have to register to see it, but I'll tell you upfront, the bosses of grip strength await you once you log in.

There are a couple of popular gripper certifications the guys are chomping at. The most well known is Captain's of Crush over at Iron Mind, where they also sell these outstanding grippers. Another cert is Mash Monster Elite, which is coming up strong.

Grippers are also made by Heavy Sports -- here's a link to one of Clay's articles on tearing cards on their site, where you'll find the grippers. They're cheaper than the Iron Mind grippers, and reports are to expect slightly less quality. Perfect for some of us, not for others.

In the Doctor Ken photo gallery here on Iron Online, you'll find my favorite gripping and ripping photos.

• In this article at naturalstrength.com, David Gentle writes of someamazing feats of grip strength.

• UK grip man Steve Gardener discusses grip training techniques in this Dolfzine article.

• Matt Cannon lives near grip pioneer Warren Tetting and reports the following comments after meeting with him.

Warren Tetting
I met Warren at his shop yesterday and it was certainly an experience. He loves to talk training and the "good-ole-days." He's really not impressed with current state of sports, especially the strength sports. So, I got an education about the Golden Era. He speaks so passionately about these times, it's understandable why he would be nostalgic.

Grippers
We spent quite a bit of time talking grippers. I brought my CoC1, CoC2, and Heavy Gripper HG 300 just for kicks. He took a quick look at the HG 300 and was appalled by the construction. The spring is huge, .295, same as a BBE! However, the handles are mounted at least 1/4" from the spring, making it much easier. My HG 300 is barely harder than a Co C 2, and definitely easier than a BBSM. If the handles were mounted properly, it would be harder than a 3!

He was also surprised to see my Co C 1. He had not seen the polished GR 8 springs. Also, the spring is .245 which is heavier than before. Co C 1 used to be a .235 spring. So, Ironmind has quietly made the Co C 1 harder, probably to make room for the T, G, and S. We talked about Ironmind and Strossen for a while, but I was confused by the history and didn't really follow.

Big Grippers
"Warren, why the hell do you make these?" That was my question upon picking up some Super-Nova-Galaxy-Evil-Gripper thing. It was whichever gripper is the hardest one he makes. The spring looked like brains. My best effort on the gripper, with both hands, yielded no movement. "Did you say you have a BBA around here somewhere?" Apparently, some benders buy the huge grippers to practice the two-handed crush at the end of a bend. They can have them.

(If you're not familiar, Warren's hardest gripper is about 3 times as hard as an Ironmind Co C 4. Three times as hard...)

Hands
Warren grabbed my hand and says, "Lemme see here." He had me touch the middle of my palm with my thumb so he could poke my thumb pad. "Is that as hard as you can make it?" Sorry, Warren, that's it! So, my thumb pad has a long way to come. He also said my hand needs to get thicker in the palm overall. He recommended telegraph key.

Telegraph Key
I ended up buying one of these from Warren. He reiterated, "There is no substitute for building the thumb pad." Sounds like a deal. We went through how to use the thing, and it's pretty straight-forward. With the machine about waist height, hook the fingers under the bottom key and the thumb on the top key. Close your hand. It's not the presidential-hand-gesture-grip like I thought. Your fingers should be a supinated hook grip. I noticed while using the machine that my thumb would bend at the bottom of the rep. Warren said that's fine, just make sure your thumb is doing the work.

Other training
Warren recommended squats squats and squats. Specifically 20 rep squats, twice a week if possible. Also, forearm work like wrist curls and hammer curls. Never on grip days, though. Telegraph Key twice a week. Get rid of bench press and do reverse dips instead.

Warren does not have a website, but you can reach him by phone or snail mail at: Warren Tetting, C/O Thor Strength, 1063 W. 7th St., St. Paul, MN 55102. Phone: (651)-222-1889.

• This is "dogleg" of the gripper.

• Note: This photo is missing from the server

To clarify the picture, its the front and back of the same gripper. The straight leg is the dogleg.

This is a confusing part of gripper anatomy that beginners have a hard time identifying. The "dogleg" is the straight leg of the gripper in the picture. It's a byproduct of how the spring is wound. There is a consensus that the dogleg should be in your palm when closing the gripper in your right hand. The straight leg is the better leg for bracing the gripper, in other words.

For the left hand, opinions differ. Some say the dogleg should still be in your palm for maximum bracing. However, if you look closely, this reverses the direction the spring is wound. Because of this, some say the dogleg should be in your fingers on the left hand in order to create a similar experience as the right. Either way, I personally haven't noticed much of a difference. ~Matt

• Byron describes how to make your own wrist roller in this blog post.