The DGC. Wave of the future?

During a recent discussion on a grip message board, someone stated that the RGC rating system was the best way to rate grippers. I was very quick to disagree. A gripper rating system i created is what i feel is the most accurate and easiest way to rate grippers. 

I am reluctant to share this with you as i was with that message board, but due to popular demand and a peaked intrest in this state of the art system,  here it is. The DGC.

* Please note, the DGC is still in testing stages and may be tweeked for convenience and accuracy. This is just the rough explination that i explained to the message board.

To start, you will need to take a large metal pole about 12 feet in height and put it about 4 or 5 feet into the ground, the deeper the better. Duct tape the dogleg side of the gripper (you will need a lot of it, almost a roll) to the poll about a foot above the ground.

Now you are going to need a large harness, capable of ensnaring anywhere from 3-12 dogs. Once you have that, go down to the local kennel and tell them you need to borrow some of their dogs. I had to slip the guy a 20 but yours might be more generous. To ensure the most accurate measurements you will need a lot of dogs ranging in weight and size.

Weigh each dog and record the weight and then place them in a large cage with meat hanging above them, just out of their reach.

Now you will need to affix a small rope to the harness and then tie the other end really tight to a strap on the no ductaped side of the gripper. Make sure it lines up with the bottom. By now the dogs will be pretty darn hungry for that meat and you are ready to begin.

You will have to play it by ear with determining how many dogs to start with depending on which gripper you are trying to rate. I found that about 3 medium sized dogs is equivalent to about a trainer, 4 for a number 1, 6 for a number 2 and 9 for a number 3 is a good starting point. Once you determined your base amount of dogs, attach them to the harness and throw the meat so they all chase after it. If the gripper shuts too easily, gather the dogs back and exchange one of them for a smaller dog or remove one completely as needed. If the gripper does not shut you will need to add more dogs. Once you have the gripper to where it just about shuts then add up the weight of the dogs and voila, you have your rating.

On a side note, I found to get more accurate measurements by actually holding on to the dogs for a few days and just giving them water. That way by the time you are ready for testing they will have been starved and want the meat even more. You will have to weigh them right before testing if you so choose this option. Also, instilling fear into their hearts and then scaring them away from the gripper has been known to work wonders for a few buddies of mine, but I myself have never tried it because there is great chance that some of the dogs may turn on you.

Happy rating!

I got a fever

and the only prescription is more grip stuff……and cowbell. My Bank account knows this too well. Over the past few days i have made a few purchases i would like to share.

47.5 lb FatMan Blob, previously owned by Grip Master Paul Knight. I got this from another gripomaniac, Mighty Joe…thanks again Joe!. I don’t anticipate lifting this anytime soon, but someday i will.

David Hornes Wrist Developer. Going to start bending steel in a month or so and what better of a tool to get me ready for it. I ordered a white spring with it (the easiest) so i can interchange it with my vulcan for easy thumbscrew work.

IronMind Twist Yo Wrist. I actually got it last week but its worth mentioning since it is so awesome.

Beef Builder Grand Master. I don’t own a beef builder and this is between a 2.5 and a 3 hopefully. perhaps it will help be close the game on the # 3.

10 packs of cheap cards along with Jedd Johnson Card Tearing Ebook. I have always wanted to tear cards and now is the time.

2 blocks of chalk. I never used chalk in my gripper work up until last week and i went from closing the # 2 5 times, to 8 times with chalk. I hate myself for not using it earlier.

Captians of Crush Grippers book by Randall Strossen. It was only 7 bucks used and i can’t get enough grip.

Is my grip obssesion turning into a grip insanity? Nah, im just trying to get stronger.

Cheers,

Robb

The Vulcan has finally arrived.

It been a while since i posted but honestly not much has happened,  other than me getting stronger of course.

After waiting patiently (or not), my Vulcan w/ thumbscrews finally came yesterday. As promised David signed it along with a nice inspirational message.  I didn’t waste anytime with it and i was suprised that it took a while to get used to. The feel is so much different then a CoC and i actually had to set the thing to close it, which is good anyways but I am used to engulfing the Coc’s in my massive hand. 

I quickly moved up the levels from level 5 to level 9 and then I got shut down by just a hair on level 10. I think if I tried that at the beginning I would have closed it but I was quite fatigued by then. Level 10 is supposed to be equivalent to an easy Coc 2.5 and I am a hairs length from closing that one as well so it is very accurate. Perhaps I will give it a go tonight and see if I can close it once and for all.

If you don’t have a Vulcan already and you train on grippers, then what the hell are you waiting for?

Order yours here, just make sure you pay the extra for expedited shipping as Royal Mail is horrendously slow.

http://www.davidhorne-gripmaster.com/shop.html#vulcan

Since I have never tried to close a # 3 I am going to challenge my self and try to move up the Vulcan ladder until I can close the equivalent of the # 3 on the Vulcan. Once I can I will order one and hopefully I can crush it out of the box. That would be an awesome accomplishment that I know will happen one day but I am going to have to put in a ton of work. Luckily I have the Vulcan in my arsenal to help me. Train hard i will David, Train Hard i will.

Cheers,

Robb

Another #2 video

Decided to record another so i could get  a better angle.

I just realized I’ve been training for a month now. I hope to get the #2.5 before the end of February.

RB 210

All i can say is wow. I thought by getting this gripper it would be a good segway from the CoC #2 but i was wrong.

If you look up gripper variation in the dictionary, a picture of my RB210 will be there. This thing is almost as hard as the number 3 im borrowing and because of the wider spread, i would say its possibly on par with a weak 3.

I bought it from John Beatty so maybe he knew what a beast this thing was after he could’nt close it with just his ring and pinky, so he decided to get rid of it…or maybe Satan himself  forged this gripper in the pits of hell(If you ask some people, Baraban compares to Satan, but lets not get into that).

I might actually send it off to be rated because i really want to know where this thing stands or i might just send it to Timmy so he can foot stomp it a couple dozen times or so to make it easier for me.

Either way i will close it one day but for now thank god my vulcans coming so i can have something a little harder than my 2.

Cheers

My Griptube

I just started a YouTube channel to track my grip progress and to hopefully share some grip excercise that have helped me.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RobbGrip

The only video i have so far (below) is one of me closing the CoC # 2. It’s not much but its a start.

I have TNS closed it before but i wasn’t 100 percent and i was sore when i recorded this. I should have a solid close with a better angle by next week.

Cheers

The Grip Master’s Manual

The Grip Master’s Manual is the bible of the gripworld. I cannot even express the amount of strength and dexterity i have gained by following the exercises within this book. It’s also a great read, especially for the grip fanatic such as myself. If you do not own this book and are trying to increase your grip strength then I suggest you get it right away

The great thing about the exercises in this book is the simplicity. You can perform most of them by using materials you have lying around the house or if your like me you can take a dedicated trip to the hardware store just for that very purpose.

One exercise explained in the book that helped me out immensely is towel  roll ups. See the link below for an explanation by the master himself.

http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/GripTips/Hand_towel_roll_and_squeeze.html

I did this very exercise, although without a wet towel and with the bucket variation and that’s what I would recommend.

There are a lot of other excercises by John at this link.

http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/GripTips/GripTip.html

In my opinion, the bread and butter lies within the book.

The cheapest i found this book was on Amazon for $13.57. Order it with a CoC gripper and you can get free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/Grip-Masters-Manual-John-Brookfield/dp/0926888110

Cheers

Look out #3, here i come.

The almighty # 2, the gripper that separates the men from the boys(or so they say) has been defeated.  I crushed it last night, TNS style, after a fairly intense workout and boy it felt good.

 It gave me problems to begin with(nowhere near the problems the # 3 is going to give me) but it was nothing a good week of localized grip exercises couldn’t handle.

Now begins the journey for the legendary # 3.  I don’t care if it takes a year or more, this gripper is going down. Luckily I have the Vulcan coming to assist me.

Cheers.

Adjustable Grippers

The Vulcan

Once I crush this pesky CoC # 2, the next gripper I have in line is my goal gripper, the CoC # 3. That’s quite a huge difference and I really need something to fill that void. An adjustable gripper seemed the next logical choice and after reaserching, I’m kicking myself for not getting one earlier.  

I heard a lot of talk about the Invanko Super Gripper, but i looked around and read too many negative reviews. The only other major ones available were The Vulcan by David Horne and one made by Robert Baraban.  They are both roughly the same price but David is out of the UK and shipping is 30 dollars extra.  They are also both essentially the same design…a few minor differences such as knurled handles on the Baraban so I wanted to get some feedback and see if anyone had experience using the two. 

I posted a topic on http://www.gripboard.com to see if anyone could add some insight but my topic was deleted. I don’t know why, but I assume it’s because the question had been brought up before. It took me a while but i  eventually found a few posts on the ironmind forum. They all had good things to say about both grippers so I was ready to just go with the Baraban and call it a day due to the cheaper shipping.

That was until I read on that forum that Baraban stole the adjustable design from David. I don’t quite know if it was true or not but the poster had quite the story to back it up. If that is the case, then that’s wrong and I did not need much convincing after that. 

I placed an order today and got the Vulcan and the pinch grip attachment called The Thumbscrew. I also got a cool little atomgripz gripper for my keychain. All in all, it came to a little over 150 dollars with shipping, but the payoffs from these tools will be much more valuable. To top it off,  David said he would sign my Vulcan. That alone is priceless to me since he is my favorite gripmaster and an inspiration. The gripper will be an awesome addition to my growing collection.

If you never checked out David’s products and site, I highly recommend you do. Lots of cool grip devices on there. www.davidhorne-gripmaster.com

Cheers

My Name is Robb, and I’m a Gripoholic.

Baraban Gripper

I am addicted to hand grippers and just about anything grip related. It hasn’t always been this way; in fact, I am just a newbie in the world of grip. A nothing, a nobody…but that’s going to change, eventually.

 Just last month I didn’t even know that Captains of Crush or other similar heavy duty grippers existed. I thought it was all nothing but easy plastic “Department Store” grippers…boy, was I wrong. I got to the point where I could do 125 reps with my foam handled “Heavy Resistance” grippers that cost $6.99 for 2  at Wal-Mart, so I looked on the web for something harder. After reading a lot of reviews on various grippers, many people were recommending the Captain of Crush brand, so I looked them up. 

 As soon as I laid eyes on these babies, my life changed, the obsession with all things grip began. I immediately ordered the Trainer (100 pounds resistance). If you’re not familiar with these grippers the Trainer is about 3-5 times harder than most generic grippers and it’s hard to close for some men with below average grip strength. (I took it to work and out of 8 guys, only 3 closed it).  It took about a week for it to get here, which was more than expected, but I’m glad it did. For that week I immersed myself into the world of grip and spent days and nights doing nothing but reading articles, browsing forums and watching YouTube videos on these things. 

 By the time it arrived, I was pretty well versed in book smarts when it came to the art of grip, but now it was time to put it into practice. That day was December 24th, 2010. I closed the trainer about 5 times in a row right out of the package and many other times throughout the day. I couldn’t put it down, but my hands were torn to shreds and starting to bleed so I was forced to. They hurt in ways I never could imagine, but I didn’t care. I ordered the # 1 (140 pounds) that same night. 

 I continued practicing with the trainer every other day for the next week as I delved myself even further into grip lore. One thing I love about this sport is the community at your disposal. Grip greats ranging from David Horne to Jedd Johnson(So many to name) are active in the community and its awesome to get insight and tips from them, especially being a newbie. I also had no idea that there were so many heavy duty grippers out there and they have been around for all this time. I wanted to kick myself for not starting in my early Twenties (I am Twenty-Nine now). Brands like Robert Baraban and Beef Builders, so many beautiful shiny grippers, so many strengths and challanges, I had to get more, but first I wanted to see if I could close this number 1. I read somewhere that if you walked up to 10 different men on the street and had them try to close it, only 1 or 2 could do it on average. Don’t know if this is true or not but again, out of those 8 guys at my work, only 1 closed it. 

 On December 30th when it finally came, I was a little bit daunted by it. I wasn’t to sure if I could close it since my hand was still killing me from the trainer, which I could close at least 20 times, if not more by now. I opened up the package and I closed it…3 times. It was one of the best feelings in the world and fueled the fire even more. I immediately ordered the #2(195 pounds), these are all free shipping through Amazon by the way and It came only about 3 or 4 days later. I’ll cut to the chase. No one at my work could remotely come close to closing it….including me. I was by far the closest, only about a quarter inch away but my hand wasn’t fully recovered from previous workouts, so I waited a few days to try it again. 

 That day was yesterday. My hand was fully recovered thanks to various contrast baths and massages so I felt good about it. I warmed up on the Trainer, 20 reps (I won’t do more than that even though I can) 10 reps on the #1, I can do 15 max, maybe more. I picked up the # 2, squeezed as hard as I could and…still no luck, but it was about as close as I could get without touching. I couldn’t even fit the thickness of a dime between the handles if i wanted to. I can taste it so bad and I think next workout I will get it and video tape it.

So thats my grip story. Not bad for 3 weeks of grip training with no lifting or heavy labor background. Right now I’m striving for the number 3 and I don’t care if it takes 3 years to do it.(Its in the mail by the way, along with a few Robert Baraban grippers) so I really do intend on closing it. I just got the Mastery of Hand Strength by Grip Legend John Brookefield, so i will treat that like the bible, buckle down and get in it for the long haul.  Once I get the # 2 under my belt I will start training in a few other grip fields such as pinching, blob lifting and nail bending. The sky is the limit as far as I’m concerned. I will continue to post updates on my progress as well as update a bunch of other grip related things. This is dedicated to all of the other grip addicts out there, new and old, striving for that number 3 or even number 4.

Cheers