Captains of Crush

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
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just ordered a set of the captains of crush grippers to help improve my girly forearms and hopefully improve my grip while doing deads. was wondering if anyone else has any advice on using them (ie. how many and how often to use them) thanks fellas

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I started using these about 5 months ago. Here’s what I learned:

  1. Warm your hands up completely before using any difficult poundage. I really screwed up a knuckle in my left hand by not cracking my knuckles and getting my hand warm first. I use a squishy bar to squeeze first, then the Trainer gripper. It takes a while for the hands to get warm.

  2. Keep the reps low.

  3. Holds and negatives worked well for me when working up to the #2.

  4. Don’t overwork it in a session.

  5. 2 times a week will produce results. 3 is probably max.

  6. Make sure you seat the “dogleg” half in your palm firmly. If you don’t understand what I’m saying, examine the grippers; there should be one part of the spring that is straighter - that’s the “dogleg” side.

  7. Using negatives or holds with a gipper one level up from your current one will help.

That’s all I got for now. Good luck!

3

The COC grippers will help with grip strength and deadlift PRs but I would not count on grip training to bring up lagging forearms. I found wrist curls, hammers and wrist extensions to be much better at training forearms than grippers.

4

thanks man when i say “just ordered” i literally mean i just went from that website to here so they should be here in 3-5 days. cant wait to get them and start using them. i got the training level the #1 for now when those become easy ill purchase the next rung up but that may not be for a while according to what i hear from other people. how many sets would you say you do per hand?

thanks for the advice

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[quote]2thepain wrote:
The COC grippers will help with grip strength and deadlift PRs but I would not count on grip training to bring up lagging forearms. I found wrist curls, hammers and wrist extensions to be much better at training forearms than grippers.[/quote]

yea this is true but my main goal in using the COC is to get a stronger grip for the deadlift…or if my girlfriend talks back…(kidding)
thanks for the advice

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yea i also recently got some of these… oddly enough the newest article on the must reads section has sample routines for these … but its directed at increasing ur chinup ability

i like low reps with them personally… when u get the grippers they come with a book that will offer a sample routine

ive also heard using them 2-3 times per week

Thibs also says (which is probably obvious) try not to do them the day before a pulling workout

7

Make sure to train them AFTER your workout as your hands will be pretty warmed up from grabbing metal for a hour+ or so. I have seen some growth in forearm from training with these grippers-You will feel it also- They will help with grip and forearm growth.

Many people on the gripboard highly recommend
Mastery of Hand Strength by John Brookfield
I have not read it but its supposed to be really good book on how to improve grip in all areas, including crush where CoC is used.

3 days a week is fine for beginner since you can injure yourself pretty fast, but more advanced grip trainers have found that sometimes high volume everyday stuff has helped them get over some sticking points.

Yeah prob just follow the beginner workout in the pamphlet they give you to start out with. As you become more comfortable you can find what works for you well as its different for everyone just like with weightlifting.

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thanks man i cant wait to get ahold of these things and give them a shot. im really hoping these will improve my deads, cleans, and snatches.

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CoC’s are great! If you’re looking to bring up your forearms, though, you need to also:

-Chin
-Deadlift
-do Heavy barbell Rows
-Farmer’s Walks/ Holds
-do Olympic Lifts

Sounds like you’re already doing most of this. I used to have girly forearms, then I started doing 50 pullups or chins in a workout (not straight- just as many as I could get in a set until I hit 50) and my forearms exploded in size.

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[quote]mr47930 wrote:
thanks man i cant wait to get ahold of these things and give them a shot. im really hoping these will improve my deads, cleans, and snatches.[/quote]

It will definitely help with those, for deads for example I used to go mixed grip most of the time since my girp was weak now after using CoC’s for a bit I can do both palms facing me-I feel this is better especially if your trying to get cleans up since this is the way you grip it-

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i use a ivanko super gipper due to the fact it seemed better value cos you can adjust it from 64 - 219 and you can add more springs fro increased resistance

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[quote]caveman101 wrote:
i use a ivanko super gipper due to the fact it seemed better value cos you can adjust it from 64 - 219 and you can add more springs fro increased resistance[/quote]

sounds like a good deal but its to late now the CoC are already on there way

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[quote]Fenris wrote:
CoC’s are great! If you’re looking to bring up your forearms, though, you need to also:

-Chin
-Deadlift
-do Heavy barbell Rows
-Farmer’s Walks/ Holds
-do Olympic Lifts

Sounds like you’re already doing most of this. I used to have girly forearms, then I started doing 50 pullups or chins in a workout (not straight- just as many as I could get in a set until I hit 50) and my forearms exploded in size.
[/quote]

sounds like a plan ill have to give that 50 pullup deal a shot sometime, im a pretty big boy though at about 230 so it might take a while

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[quote]mr47930 wrote:
i got the training level the #1 for now when those become easy ill purchase the next rung up but that may not be for a while according to what i hear from other people. how many sets would you say you do per hand?

thanks for the advice [/quote]

I do 4-5 warm-up sets including the squshy tool I have. My working sets are usually singles, and I don’t count them - I walk the line between getting in good work and avoiding injury. It’s really easy to hurt yourself doing this.

Also, I do my grip training at work (at my desk), and I usually lift at home later in the evenings so I do need some grip left for that.

Another tidbit: It took me a while to close the #2, but ultimately I didn’t need the #1.5 to do it. I do however need the #2.5. I’d recommend getting the #2 and #2,5 at the same time. Unless you’re a natural, it will be quite a while before you get to a #3.

My forearms have grown quite a bit since I started. I love this stuff.

15

I like the COC’s so don’t take this wrong…but they might not have the biggest carry over to your stated goal of improving grip for the DL. Do some research for yourself on the different aspects of grip strength (I don’t know it off the top of my head). But COC stuff is crushing strength and althouth there will be SOME carryover to the DL, its not exactly the same. Train COC nonetheless (they are great - love them), but you might want to look at other modalities to bring up your DL grip strength (weighted hangs, hangs for time, and such).

16

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
I like the COC’s so don’t take this wrong…but they might not have the biggest carry over to your stated goal of improving grip for the DL. Do some research for yourself on the different aspects of grip strength (I don’t know it off the top of my head). But COC stuff is crushing strength and althouth there will be SOME carryover to the DL, its not exactly the same. Train COC nonetheless (they are great - love them), but you might want to look at other modalities to bring up your DL grip strength (weighted hangs, hangs for time, and such).[/quote]

yea thanks this isnt the only thing that im doing to improve grip strength im also doing dumbell holds from the hex part not the handle, and a number of others. im mainly getting these because any help is worth it and it also looks fun and if i can work my way up the numbers ill be able to call my college buddies pussies for not being able to do them (its a pride thing i guess)

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[quote]HOV wrote:
mr47930 wrote:
i got the training level the #1 for now when those become easy ill purchase the next rung up but that may not be for a while according to what i hear from other people. how many sets would you say you do per hand?

thanks for the advice

I do 4-5 warm-up sets including the squshy tool I have. My working sets are usually singles, and I don’t count them - I walk the line between getting in good work and avoiding injury. It’s really easy to hurt yourself doing this.

Also, I do my grip training at work (at my desk), and I usually lift at home later in the evenings so I do need some grip left for that.

Another tidbit: It took me a while to close the #2, but ultimately I didn’t need the #1.5 to do it. I do however need the #2.5. I’d recommend getting the #2 and #2,5 at the same time. Unless you’re a natural, it will be quite a while before you get to a #3.

My forearms have grown quite a bit since I started. I love this stuff.
[/quote]

yea man i cant wait to get them and start using them. im a college student so alot of time is spent sitting at a desk so thats probably where ill use them also. from what i hear i wont be needing the higher numbers for a while but when i do ill be sure to order the next 2 higher steps at the ssame time. and yes ill most likely move up to the #2 and 2.5 thanks again man

18

i find it hard to imagine this sort of crushing grip wouldn’t have “much” carryover into things like deadlifts as someone stated

but i do sets for reps… as well as isometric holds… also i use extensors intermixed with the grip work since they are the muscle antagonist… thought about possibly doing antagonistic pairings… anyone else do this?

19

[quote]HotCarl28 wrote:
i find it hard to imagine this sort of crushing grip wouldn’t have “much” carryover into things like deadlifts as someone stated

but i do sets for reps… as well as isometric holds… also i use extensors intermixed with the grip work since they are the muscle antagonist… thought about possibly doing antagonistic pairings… anyone else do this?[/quote]

yea i thought that was kind of a bs post…but i figured he had first hand experience so who knows but i dont see how it could hurt with holding on to heavy weight while doing deads.

i will definately be doing the iso holds as for the extensors i will have to look into exactly how to do those and then ill see if its something i would want to incorporate, i dont see why i wouldnt, but on any note thanks for the advice

20

Well doing long holds on the Coc have seemed to help with dl, though I must aadmit coc got me into various grip stuff so I do lots of pinch now as well as thick bar stuff.