Building Strong Hands
If you are looking to develop strong hands you found the right site. Grip training could be done by anyone, no matter how young or old you are. A hand gripper will easily fit in your pocket, so you can train anywhere and anytime you wish. There are many different aspects to grip training. The Pinch where you pick up an object like the Blob (a Blob is half of a Hex or York dumbell, and can weigh as little as 20 lbs. and as much as 50lb), a 2 x 4, a thick handled dumbbell, and hold it for periods of time. Pinch Grip builds up total hand strength. Training pinch grip will build up your thumb strength which is very important if you want to develop a crushing pair of mitts. Bending builds, hand strength, body strength and most importantly wrist strength. You need to have extremely strong wrists to have strong hands. Bending could be done with nails, bolts, horseshoes steel bars anything you can find that will bend. Crush Grip is where you crush an object with the strength of your fingers and your hand. This is the really fun aspect of grip training, because this is where you train with grippers. Some people have developed their Crush grip to the point where they can crush a potato, or a can of soda with just one hand. Can you imagine yourself ever doing that? With dedication and hard work you too can excel in the field of grip strength.
Heavy Duty Gripper
The gripper is closed by crushing the handles together until they touch, if the hadles dont touch you cant say that you closed the gripper. To completely "own" a gripper you should be able to do three to six reps with it, once you can do that move on to a tougher gripper. The difficulty of a gripper is determined by the distance between the gripper handles and the diameter of the spring.
There is a variety of handgrippers on the market that come in various tensions.
- Captains of Crush 60-lb Guide, 80-lb Sport, 100- lb Trainer, 140- lb COC No. 1, COC No. 1.5, 195- lb COC No. 2,
COC No. 2.5, 280- lb COC No. 3, COC No. 3.5, 365- lb COC No.4
Certification on the No. 3 or No. 4 Captains of Crush Gripper is the most recognized and saught after title in the grip world.
- Heavy Grips 100- lb, 150- lb, 200- lb, 250- lb, 300- lb, 350- lb.
there are also a limited edition 400- lb and 500- lb
- RB handgrippers 70- lb, 100- lb, 130- lb, 160- lb, 180- lb, 210- lb, 240- lb, 260- lb, 300- lb, 330- lb, 365- lb
Robert Baraban is known for making high quality grippers, he also makes Narrow gripers( narrower
handle spread) which allows a "no - set" for the smaller handed individual.
- Beef Builder handgrippers
Beginner 110- lb, Advanced 130- lb, Super Advanced 165- lb, Master 190- lb,
Super Master 235- lb, Grand Master 250-lb, Elite 300- lb, Super Elite 340- lb,
Grand Elite 365- lb, Pro 450- lb, World Class 535- lb, Galaxy 595- lb, Super Galaxy 870- lb
Blob, Block Weight
A typical block weight can range from 20 to 50 pounds. If you want to have bulletproof thumbs and extremely stong hands you need to add a few block weights into your grip collection. Block weights = hand strength, there is so much that you can do with a Block weight, Tosses, Farmers walks, Passes around your body, Clean and press, Curls and lifts by the face.
Pony Clamp
Builds thumb strength like no other, if you have the money I would suggest getting a pinch machine but a simple pony clamp will work just as well.
Bending
7" 1/4" Aluminum Gutter Spike 100 lb.
6" 3/16" Ironmind White nail 120 lb.
5" 3/16" Ironmind Green nail 160 lb.
6" 1/4" Timber Tie 190 lb.
7" 1/4" Ironmind Yellow nail 210 lb.
6 1/2" 1/4" Ironmind Yellow ( cut ) 230 lb.
6" 1/4 Ironmind Yellow ( cut ) 260 lb.
6" 1/4" Ironmind Blue nail 260 lb.
6" 1/4" 60D's ----- lb.
5" 1/4" Ironmind Yellow ( cut ) 345 lb.
6" 1/4" Grade - 5 355 lb.
7" 5/16" Ironmind RED nail 383 lb.
"The slaying of Goliath" if you can bend a Red Nail you are strong..really, really strong.
Fat Bastard Barbell - RED nail and beyond!
7" 5/16" Bastard
6.5" 5/16" Big Bastard
6" 5/16" Huge Bastard
5.5" 5/16" Grand Bastard
5" 5/16" Magnificent Bastard
4.5" 5/16" Insane Bastard
7" 3/8" King of All Bastards
7" 7/16" Mother of All Bastards
The Famous Inch Dumbell
Weight 172 pounds 2.38" thick handle
Thomas Inch was a well known strongman in England and was lifting the Thomas Inch Dumbell overhead, when other stronman couldnt even get it off the floor. The 2.38" handle makes it very difficult for people with averege hands, even if you have a powerfull grip large hands make a big difference in lifting" the Inch" off the floor. I suggest buying a thick handle dumbell which you can load with standard plates to see how much you can get off the floor. If you use a hook grip more weight can be lifted, but its gonna be a while till you get used to the pain of using the hook grip. Thick handled dumbells can be lifted out in front, just like a regular deadlift but only using one hand ( this is actually the method I prefer) the bar between the legs and last but not least with the bar by your side to the left or right of you. Now imagine what kind of grip strength you need to have to get "the Inch" off the ground.