Our home gym has a small but respectable collection of grip tools. A few Iron Mind Captains of Crush grippers, an Iron Mind Rolling Thunder revolving deadlift handle, pinch-gripping block and 15″ loading pin, and my favorite, the Ivanko Super Gripper. While all of them have their place, if I could only keep one it would be the Ivanko.
The biggest advantage of the Ivanko over spring grippers is the ability to adjust the resistance from about 45 up to 345 pounds in over 50 steps. This exceeds the range of the first nine Captains of Crush grippers, from the 60 pound Sport to the 322 pound number 3.5. Only the Captains of Crush number 4 is harder to close than the Ivanko at it’s hardest setting, requiring a massive 365 pounds of force. This should be of little practical concern to most people, however, since only five people have ever officially closed the number 4
The Ivanko Super Gripper’s handle geometry provides a more optimal range of motion for all the fingers than spring grippers which pivot on the side of and close to the index finger (and the handle length helps when assisting little grip enthusiasts in their workouts).
While not as compact or portable as other spring grippers, the Ivanko still fits easily in a gym bag, and since it is made of aluminum it won’t rust. At around $30, it also costs far less than the number of spring grippers you would have to buy for less than 1/5th the resistance levels. For more money some companies sell a variation with a knurled grip attachment with a feel similar to Captains of Crush grippers, but I’ve never had any problem with slipping on the one I have.
The grip and forearm muscles receive considerable work during compound pulling movements, but if you want the strongest grip possible I recommend incorporating direct grip work in your workouts. If you do, make sure to always perform grip exercises at the end of your workout so fatigue doesn’t limit your ability to grip during other exercises.
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Hi Drew, I thought you might find this link useful …it contains a list of resistance levels for each spring setting on the Super Gripper. If you already have it then probably your readers will find it useful.
http://www.cutleryscience.com/reviews/ivanko_gripper.html
hey Drew, can you tell us how you incorporate your own grip training into your HIT routines, and your rep range for the ivanko?
Dan Beitzel
Dan,
I only perform a few exercises for grip and forearm development – wrist curls, wrist extension and gripping. I use the same rep range for these as I do with the rest of the body. Unless you are training to perform a specific grip-strength challenge, in which case specific work needs to be performed, it is unnecessary to perform a wide variety of exercises to improve grip and forearm strength. Wrist curls and extensions and gripping pretty much hit it all.
Hi Drew,
I have just ordered an Ivanko Super Gripper and it should be with me in the next few days.
Please can you give me some advice advice on how to structure a grip routine?
How many reps and sets? What frequency of training?
I basically bought the Supper Gripper as my grip is very close to becoming the limiting factor on my deadlift.
I was also thinking of doing some static barbell holds as well. Any thoughts on those?
AC,
For general improvement in grip strength, all you need is one hard set of dynamic or static gripping at the end of your regular workouts. Unless you’re training to perform specific feats of grip strength (tearing phone books, bending nails, misc pinch gripping, etc.), it’s best to keep it simple. I’ve found a repetition range of five to eight with a 3/3 cadence works well for me for most exercises, however some people will do better with higher or lower reps. Start with the same rep range and cadence you’re using for other upper body exercises and adjust from there if necessary.
For static holds, rather than one long hold I recommend doing several shorter Max Contraction style reps:
Set the pins inside a power rack so the bar is just below arms length when standing upright, and load the bar starting with approximately 10% more than you deadlift. You may require more, but it’s best to start conservatively and add more weight if necessary. Keeping your chest high, shoulders back, and back straight, bend your knees and hips slightly and take a full, overhand grip on the bar. Grip the bar as hard as you can, and straighten up, raising the bar off the pins. This is the same as performing the last inch or two of the deadlift. If the weight is heavy enough, you should only be able to hold on for about 5 or 6 seconds. That is one “rep”. Rest a few seconds, reset your grip, and repeat.
Drew:
I know this is a pretty old thread but I have a question about wrist curls and reverse wrist curls. When performing these exercises what grip do you recommend? A thumbs-around-the-bar grip or the “false” grip? Does it matter in the long run?
Thank you.
Chris Brown
A regular grip is required for reverse wrist curls, but depending on the equipment you can use a regular or thumbless grip for curls. I’ll cover this more in a future article.
Thank you Drew, I look forward to the article.! Also, I like the new format of the site. it is much easier for me to access older articles when i want to review something.
Chris
Chris,
Thanks. This is just a starting point, though. The layout, menu and overall organization of material is going to change a bit over the next few weeks.
Drew:
I am interested in seeing how far I can get in closing the Captains of Crush hand grippers. My initial thoughts are to treat closing the CoC as a skill/performance task. So I’d have one workout per week addressing total body strength and conditioning along with one or two days of working on singles with the CoC.
In this way the program would allow for overall strengthening along with specific skill practice in separate sessions. The skill practices would have me practicing the specific skills of closing the grippers for a one rep max.
I’ve read that Arthur Jones had a group of high school students who competed in Olympic Lifting/odd lift contests during the 1970s. I’m guessing Jones had the kids training in a way similar to what I’ve described above. HIT sessions along with specific skill practices. One of the considerations must be how to incorporate skill practices in events where strength is also a factor and the impact on recovery. I recently read an interview with Dr. Ellington Darden on setting up a powerlifting program and it seemed to follow a similar protocol. Dr. Darden advised one overall HIT session per week along with one powerlifting specific session (using triples instead of maximum singles).
I would be interested in your thoughts on this type of program as a starting point.
Thanks and keep up the great work.
Chris
Chris,
What you are referring to is probably the DeLand High School powerlifting team coached by Bill Bradford using negative-only training. All they did was two weekly workouts of one set of each of the competitive lifts, for six to eight negative-only reps.
For powerlifting I would advise the same as Dr. Darden, but if you want to get stronger in the Captains of Crush grippers you don’t need to perform separate skill training, just include them in your regular workouts. There is so little skill involved no additional practice would be necessary, and if you are getting stronger in your workouts your max strength will improve proportionally.
Thanks so much for your response Drew. That makes sense.
Have you ever run into HIT FOOT exercises? I have a bit of trouble wrapping my mind around how I would accomplish that, and yet weak foot muscles can cause trouble with pain, walking, etc. The usual advice is to walk barefoot, squinch up toes on a towel, etc. Have been doing HIT using a BBS/Superslow style workout and have gotten great results with, frankly, minimum work. Got to love it. Would love to strengthen up my feet the same way.
Doc Jim
Hey Jim,
If someone wanted to do this I think the most practical and effective approach would be timed static contractions flexing the toes against the ground, like you’re trying to grip the ground with your toes.
Where do I buy one in 2020? It seems the original is no longer available but there are similar construction “copies” being sold eg on Amazon the Dometool Super Gripper (with 6 springs!?) for $43….not exactly cheap! Are they worth it or is there something else better now?
I recently bought an Ivanko Super Gripper clone on Amazon called a Pitbull Super Vise Gripper and compared it to my original. It is identical to my Ivanko Super Gripper except for the color and the addition of torsion-spring gripper style knurled grips, and a third spring. I have not tried the other clones, but they all appear to be almost exact copies.
Despite costing more than the original Ivanko Super Gripper, these are still a good value for the price, especially when compared to torsion-spring grippers which only provide a single level of resistance.