Main muscles worked
finger flexion muscles, forearms
Capsule description
crush the hand gripper’s handles together
Hand-gripper work is optional, but recommended. Gripper training will strengthen your grip and hands beyond what your general training will produce, and perhaps build forearm musculature, too. And many trainees find gripper training especially enjoyable. It can be done at home, with your own grippers.
Grippers are inexpensive—see Resources. The ones with knurled, metal handles—torsion-spring grippers—start at under 100 pounds closing strength, and go up to over 300 pounds. The ability to close a gripper of 200 pounds rating is rare. The ability to close a gripper of 300 pounds is phenomenal. Ideally, initially get a gripper under 100 pounds, and two or three with the smallest increments in resistance thereafter. You may need to use more than one manufacturer, to obtain a gradual progression in resistance.
Although different manufacturers produce torsion-spring grippers that are claimed to have the same closing strengths, the actual strength ratings may be different, because of variations in construction, and the springs. And the same manufacturer’s grippers may vary in strength from batch to batch. For example, a gripper with a rating of 140 pounds may be more like 150 pounds, for example, whereas another with a 140-pound rating may be more like 130 pounds.
Get grippers that have handles spaced no more than ten centimeters or four inches between the bottom, outside edges. Some grippers are significantly wider than this, which makes them difficult to handle, especially if you have small hands.
You may need to start with a gripper that has plastic grips, which sporting goods stores sell. This has a rating of no more than about 50 pounds. When you can do at least 20 full closes with it, with a pause on each crush, move to the lowest-strength torsion-spring gripper.
With the Ivanko super gripper, however, just one is required to produce resistances from about 50 pounds closing strength, to over 300, and the resistance can be adjusted in small, gradual increments.
Look at the spring or wire of a torsion-spring gripper. There are two sides, where each goes into a handle. One side of the spring is perfectly curved. The other side has a slight ridge in it—this is the “dogleg.” Always put the dogleg side into the thumb side of your hand, for consistency. The gripper may also be a little less difficult to close that way around.
The dogleg is shown on the right side of the left torsion-spring gripper. For the right photograph, another gripper has been turned over to show the non-dogleg side on the right.
With the gripper in your right palm, dogleg side nearest your thumb, thrust your thumb forward and position the dogleg handle at or just in front of the fold in your palm that marks the start of your thumb mound. Then set the gripper by using your left index finger and thumb to pinch the handles of the gripper just sufficiently so that you can wrap the finger tips of your right three longer fingers around the handle, with your right little finger lined up to be about half off the bottom edge of the handle. This set-up position maximizes leverage. Remove your left hand from the gripper, and put your right little finger in position. Keep all four parallel fingers touching one another—don’t spread them. The little finger isn’t long enough to go around the handle in the starting position, but will move around during the crush, and contribute then.
How much you need to pinch the handles to get into the starting position depends on the spacing of the handles, and your hand size. Avoid excessively spaced handles.
Using a gripper you can close fully, experiment to find your strongest starting position. A small change in where the gripper rests in your palm, and in how your fingers are placed on the handle, can make a significant difference in your ability to close the gripper.
Once properly set in the starting position, crush the handles together. As you crush, thrust your thumb forward, to increase its involvement. Hold the crushed position for a second or two, then return to the starting position.
When back in the starting position, pause for a moment without losing the correct set—this means not opening the gripper fully, because that would take you beyond the correct starting position—and then perform the next rep. Complete the set, and change hands. If you’re doing singles, perform just one rep, then change hands. Take a brief rest, perform another single for each hand, and so on.
If you can shut the gripper fully, you’ll hear the handles click together. During the brief pause at full closure, grind the handles together.
You may not be able to close the gripper fully, depending on its strength relative to yours. If you can’t shut the gripper, briefly hold the maximum degree of closure, then let the gripper open to the starting position. Work on increasing the degree of closure, as the weeks and months go by.
Negative reps can be helpful in gripper training, especially using a gripper that you can’t close without assistance. Push the handles together with the assistance of your other hand (and your torso), or push the gripper against your thigh as you squeeze. With the gripper shut, or as near shut as you can manage, try to crush it as the gripper opens. Don’t merely try to slow the gripper’s opening. Month to month, increase the duration of the negatives, and the degree of closure if you can’t fully close it now, even with assistance.
During all forms of gripper work, breathe freely. Don’t hold your breath.
Take it easy for the first few weeks, to condition your hands to the rigors of gripper work. If you try to rush your progress, you’ll risk injury to your finger muscles and joints, and damage to your skin.
If your hands slip on the handles, use chalk or rosin. If the knurling is overly sharp and cuts into your skin, wrap some tape around the handles, or use some emery cloth to take the edge off the knurling. Periodically, use a wire brush to clean the knurling.
Comparison of a torsion-spring hand gripper, and the Ivanko super gripper. The springs on the Ivanko unit are set in the slots of least resistance for two springs: 1 and 3—the springs can’t fit in adjacent slots.
Comparison of the springs of 70-pound and 300-pound strength torsion-spring grippers.
The Ivanko super gripper has twelve slots for positioning two springs. This yields over 100 different possible resistance settings, to cater for all levels of gripping strength, and to permit progress in small increments.
Furthermore, it has a large handle that permits you to use two hands to position the gripper while setting up for negative reps, and for sustained, single holds.
The large handle is also helpful for fine-tuning resistance. The lower your hand is on the handle—the closer your hand is to the pivot point—the harder it is to close the gripper. If, for example, you can close the gripper at one setting with your hand at the outermost position on the handle, but are unable to close it at the next setting, you can stay at the lower setting for a while longer but increase its resistance a little (but not as much as it would be at the next setting) by using a lower hand position on the handle. Build your strength a bit further at the lower setting, and then move to the next setting but with your hand in the outermost position.
You may experience slippage on the Ivanko handle, because it has a smooth finish. Slippage can be prevented by wrapping some tape with high friction around the handle.
Note the protrusion on the inside, upper rim of the Ivanko super gripper, which prevents the handle opening excessively and the springs losing their tension.
Position the outer part of the unit at or just in front of the fold in your palm that marks the start of your thumb mound. Wrap the tips of your fingers around the moving part. You may need to use your disengaged hand to help get set for the first rep of a set. Smoothly close the handle until the moving unit strikes the fixed outermost structure, hold the contact for a moment, and then smoothly release. Breathe freely. Don’t hold your breath.
When back in the starting position, pause without losing the correct set—this means not opening the gripper fully, because that would take you beyond the correct starting position—and then perform the next rep. If you’re doing singles, perform one rep, then change hands.
Release the handle gradually and smoothly after each close—for the best training effect, and to maintain the set-up of the springs. If the release is fast, the moving unit may miss the stop protrusion on the gripper that limits the range of motion. If that happens, the springs will loosen and slip out of position, and need to be re-positioned.
Take it easy for the first few weeks, to condition your hands to the rigors of gripper work. If you try to rush your progress, you’ll risk injury to your finger muscles and joints. The Ivanko unit isn’t knurled, so it doesn’t cause the skin friction that the torsion-spring grippers do.
Between training sessions, keep tension off the springs by slipping the moveable part off the stop protrusion. If the gripper is stored under tension, the springs will slacken with time.
For all hand-gripper work, keep your elbow flexed. This reduces the strain in and around the elbow compared to doing the grip work with a fully extended elbow.
Here are 40 of the possible settings of the Ivanko super gripper, arranged in order of the force required to close the gripper at those settings. Use this so that you can increase resistance in small, gradual increments. These settings and poundages are given by S. Stamp, at www.ivanko.com/products/html_stuff/gripper_info.html
The exact poundages at these settings may vary across different batches of the super gripper, and according to the condition of the springs, but the sequence will still produce the required gradual progression.
The first two numbers show the slots that the springs are positioned in to produce the resistance shown in the third number. For example, 3-1-45 means that when the springs are positioned in the third and first pairs of slots, about 45 pounds of force is required to close the handle.
Keep accurate records of the spring settings you use.
It may take months of consistent training to progress from one entry-level, torsion-spring gripper to the next, provided there’s a gradual progression of resistance across the grippers. If the jump between grippers is large, it may take over a year, or forever, to progress from one gripper to the next. With a single, inexpensive Ivanko super gripper you can progress in small increments, from little resistance, to a great deal.