The History Of Grip Training

[Yersinia]

so if u cant. then noone else can do it ? ..

[twig]

Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying.

[Grippster]

Grip strength goes back so damn far. It's ancient really, it's just that grippers and grip exercises alike are the modern way of training grip. Grip got stronger automatically with work in the old days. Even before the first gripper was sold to the public, there were people with enough natural strength to close a Pro, or even a WC possibly. Modern grip strength is actually embarrassingly weak.

What a load of unsubstantiated twaddle!

Work will make you much stronger than a gym. The only reason we use grippers and bars with weights is because our daily jobs don't have us working hard all the time. The gym is a substitute for work. Automechanics used to be all manual, no power tools. How often do you work on cars? I can tell you that grip strength is everything.

[Magnus]

Grip strength goes back so damn far. It's ancient really, it's just that grippers and grip exercises alike are the modern way of training grip. Grip got stronger automatically with work in the old days. Even before the first gripper was sold to the public, there were people with enough natural strength to close a Pro, or even a WC possibly. Modern grip strength is actually embarrassingly weak.

What a load of unsubstantiated twaddle!

Work will make you much stronger than a gym. The only reason we use grippers and bars with weights is because our daily jobs don't have us working hard all the time. The gym is a substitute for work. Automechanics used to be all manual, no power tools. How often do you work on cars? I can tell you that grip strength is everything.

I work on cars and bikes quite a bit, in addition to other hard physical work. None of it automatically give you the hand strength that you get from purposely training your grip. Even without pneumatics, there's no way people year ago would be able to close a Pro or WC by default. No way. Today's most premier grip-trainees haven't even attained that level (and IMO never will), and they beat the crap outta their hands far more than anybody back-then did with their daily jobs, regardless of how physical they were. They would help greatly, and create a great base, but would still require the same hard-core training way we do today. And work won't make you stronger than a gym. The gym isn't a substitute for work, it's a far step up from work. No job in the world, no matter how physical, will push you the same way you do in the gym. Magnus Samuelsson has just about the most physical occupation there is, and yet he still needs to train like a madman to maintain and push his strength. He said himself it created a great base for his strength, but work alone wouldn't be nearly enough work to get him where he is.

[andyfreeland]

The strongest man I know (6'5" 310lb welder/pipe fitter) has the strongest forearms and wrists I have ever seen, can't close the IM #2 and hardly closes the #1. He's a naturally strong mother and works in a field where he taxes his grip day in and day out. I have to agree that with grippers, it's hard to believe that any job is/has been enough to close the big grippers without training grippers specifically.

[Grippster]

I guess the stories I've heard (and the experiences I've had) were totally out of the ordinary. I have a friend (17 yrs old) who does not work out, but helps out with the building of houses. He's a skinny guy actually. He always has to carry heavy loads. He's using a hammer all the time. When he goes to help out on a job site he works hard all day. I'm embarrassed that I train with grippers and I still get owned when I shake his hand.

[vikingsrule92]

I guess the stories I've heard (and the experiences I've had) were totally out of the ordinary. I have a friend (17 yrs old) who does not work out, but helps out with the building of houses. He's a skinny guy actually. He always has to carry heavy loads. He's using a hammer all the time. When he goes to help out on a job site he works hard all day. I'm embarrassed that I train with grippers and I still get owned when I shake his hand.

Umm hand shake strength and gripper strength are WAY different. Training grippers will make your grippers stronger, that's why it's very rare to see someone close a #3 right away, even if they've done physical labour all their lives, or are pro strongmen or PLers. Grippers take technique and practice, not brute strength, taht's why I'd say it's more probable to see someone lift the Blob their first time touching it then close a #3 or higher their first time touching grippers.

[ae_yogi]

[\quote]

Work will make you much stronger than a gym. The only reason we use grippers and bars with weights is because our daily jobs don't have us working hard all the time. The gym is a substitute for work. Automechanics used to be all manual, no power tools. How often do you work on cars? I can tell you that grip strength is everything.

I have to disagree with you as well. I was a tree pruner and a landscaper for 9 yrs. I had my hands and forarms worked brutally; but it was endurance, not max strength which was developed.

Edited October 27, 2008 by ae_yogi

[wlong132003]

So are we saying the beginning of time man "trained his grip" I am looking for the person who inovated it from the beginning.

[knowledgeseaker]

So are we saying the beginning of time man "trained his grip" I am looking for the person who inovated it from the beginning.

If its a name your looking for. its quite obvious your not going to get it,no one will know the answer. there is no 1 person in history who inovated grip. Its not like stories of people training grip would be told for thousands of years. For example, I never seen my grand parents on my mothers side in my life( may they rest in peace) i was at a family reunion last year, my nephew wanted to see some grip related feats. I tore a deck of cards for him. Well my uncle was watching me and (vaguely remembered) that my grand father used to halve apples with his hands and tore thick books.

The point in my little story, i never knew he did grip related things, and he was my grandfather. Stories of strong grips are passed on to your children, they might remeber "yeah my dad used to have a strong grip, or my grand father." But it isnt something that will be passed on for generations and generations. It will be lost.

[Grippster]

I guess the stories I've heard (and the experiences I've had) were totally out of the ordinary. I have a friend (17 yrs old) who does not work out, but helps out with the building of houses. He's a skinny guy actually. He always has to carry heavy loads. He's using a hammer all the time. When he goes to help out on a job site he works hard all day. I'm embarrassed that I train with grippers and I still get owned when I shake his hand.

Umm hand shake strength and gripper strength are WAY different. Training grippers will make your grippers stronger, that's why it's very rare to see someone close a #3 right away, even if they've done physical labour all their lives, or are pro strongmen or PLers. Grippers take technique and practice, not brute strength, taht's why I'd say it's more probable to see someone lift the Blob their first time touching it then close a #3 or higher their first time touching grippers.

This totally makes sense. I know if you don't practise at something you can't just be good the first time around, so I definitely understand the logic behind your post. But when you squeeze pliers while working on cars, those are almost exactly the same muscles you use when gripping a hand grip, except that they work way more muscles groups. Take a case hardened 3/8 bolt. Secure the HEAD in a vice. Now, take a regular old pair of pliers, grab the SHAFT, which is cylindrical with no edges, and try to twist it off of the head. If one of the grip gods , pro benders, or anybody here can do that, I bow.

[abagh89]

I guess the stories I've heard (and the experiences I've had) were totally out of the ordinary. I have a friend (17 yrs old) who does not work out, but helps out with the building of houses. He's a skinny guy actually. He always has to carry heavy loads. He's using a hammer all the time. When he goes to help out on a job site he works hard all day. I'm embarrassed that I train with grippers and I still get owned when I shake his hand.

Umm hand shake strength and gripper strength are WAY different. Training grippers will make your grippers stronger, that's why it's very rare to see someone close a #3 right away, even if they've done physical labour all their lives, or are pro strongmen or PLers. Grippers take technique and practice, not brute strength, taht's why I'd say it's more probable to see someone lift the Blob their first time touching it then close a #3 or higher their first time touching grippers.

This totally makes sense. I know if you don't practise at something you can't just be good the first time around, so I definitely understand the logic behind your post. But when you squeeze pliers while working on cars, those are almost exactly the same muscles you use when gripping a hand grip, except that they work way more muscles groups. Take a case hardened 3/8 bolt. Secure the HEAD in a vice. Now, take a regular old pair of pliers, grab the SHAFT, which is cylindrical with no edges, and try to twist it off of the head. If one of the grip gods , pro benders, or anybody here can do that, I bow.

You need to train at what you want to get better at. If you want to bench press 400 lbs. You would need to bench press even though push ups would "work the same muscles" and vise versa. Same with grip, if you want to be good at grippers work out with grippers. Im not saying your friend isnt a strong guy, because he probably is.

Think of these two scenarios. Your friend stops working at his job for a month, instead for a month he does solely grippers and training on them. Or your friend continues to work and trains his grip by doing his job activities as you mentioned. Who will be stronger at the end of the month on grippers? the first scenario.

It all depends on what your trying to do.

Hand shake and grippers are different. Hand shake is about leverage (hand size) but thats another debate and i dont want to rehash an old topic(or a recent one as its going on right now on another thread ). He also built up the "base strength" from his work. but you cant confuse the two. You can be stronger then him at grippers but he could still have a stronger hand shake then you. They are different things. Look at the way you close a gripper vs when you shake someones hand.

If you want a stronger hand shake. You should pinch grip wide. Or to tell you the truth Train your handshake. If you want to swim better you swim or if you want to run faster you train by running.

it might sound silly to train your handshake. Im not talking about when being introduced to someone you give then a hard handshake. (because only A*holes do that). Im talking about someone who is a friend or relative (Who wants to train with you). you both give each other a real hard handshake.

When i see a relative/friend who also trains grip. We give each other a hard handshake as if we are trying to crush each others hand, rest a minute and repeat. Or we try to go as long as we can. That helped my handshake strength alot. Once again it all depends on what your trying to do.

Edit: oops, i just read the origional reason for this thread. sorry, its off topic.

Edited October 27, 2008 by adam baghbanbashi

[Grippster]

There's a lot of cases where I have to squeeze really hard with the pliers, or hold onto the wrench using a lot of squeezing force. Pushups and benchpress cannot be compared because the load factors are totally different. When you work with tools on vehicles, especially ones that are old or have rusty bolts, the load factor is very high.

[Autolupus]

There's a lot of cases where I have to squeeze really hard with the pliers, or hold onto the wrench using a lot of squeezing force. Pushups and benchpress cannot be compared because the load factors are totally different. When you work with tools on vehicles, especially ones that are old or have rusty bolts, the load factor is very high.

It is also isometric and not dynamic!

[Grippster]

I shouldn't be hijacking the thread with this offtopic stuff. Plus, everyone's getting annoyed so I apologize for the time wasted. But I still want to see someone tear the shaft off a 3/8 bolt.

[wlong132003]

Well Joe Roark said that pretty much it all started with Apollon and Thomas Inch he thinks. Which is what I pretty much thought to but I will keep looking. You can see what he said on the Ironhistory.com forum.

[antarath]

Roark knows what he's talking about.

Everyone interested in strength and history should sign up on the IronHistory forums.

I can spend hours reading old and new posts there

[wolfguard]

Old people of china used to train there fingers in kung fu. That's very old.

Ya, think it's a discipline (form) called eagle claw...rice plowing n stuff

I came across this when looking if there were any kung fu people on here. Eagle claw is a lot of chin na. Chin na being locks and joint manipulation. One of the huge grip strength arts is also tiger. Tiger is very external and relies on a very powerful grip. Snake and crane and panther are very very grip important to, but it is more finger strength than anything. It is also VERY internal. There was a video called "finger chan" released awhile ago on Kung Fu training. I'll be frank with you all and say some of the ideas in there are about 50% correct and the rest is to BS Americans. You will see a lot of stuff advertising Kung Fu grip training and it is a pile of BS sorry to say. Most of it is past from student to master and stays within it until they decide to teach it to students who are worth it. The reason much doesn't get out is because it takes years before a master will teach his student his grip strength. Every shaken a man's hand who has done Iron Palm for years, real iron palm. It is one of the craziest and humbling experiences you will ever have. True Chinese arts train the hand from the internal to the external. Now also a lot of grip strength from kung fu training will definitely help for grip training for contests, but it is not meant for contest training. It is a martial aspect and in all honesty a spiritual aspect.