If you want stronger arms, you need to get stronger hands.
One of the most popular ways to train the hands is heavy duty torsion spring grippers, such as the IronMind Captain of Crush, or the BeefBuilder grippers. I have had several people ask me about the set technique used to close heavy duty torsion spring grippers. In this video I will explain the set technique I use. Please keep in mind there are several ways to set a gripper and several types of sets used in grip training and competition.
As I have wrote before in my other articles about grippers- you must learn to set the gripper in order to reap maximum reward. Setting the gripper allows you to train the close and takes hand size out of the picture.
Training grippers takes more and more of time week to week. For a long time I really didn’t care much about them, but as I learned to set I made more and more progress. Naturally, making progress makes things fun again.
The next part is having a gripper which you can get good reps in with. If you only own a #1 COC, a #2 COC, and a #3 COC you are going to struggle to make progress. I used to recommend purchasing a variety of grippers, but now I only recommend one– The Vulcan from World of Grip. It is fully adjustable through 21 levels of difficulty. I wrote up a review here- If you want to be bad ass at crushing stuff get a Vulcan.
Here you are, with new information comes new action. So get out there and crush something.
I have a number of articles explaining How to Close a Captain of Crush Gripper faster, such as this one high rep work. Make sure you take time to explore my Grip Strength and Hand Strength Article collection.
PS, what to get the best resource for building a stronger grip? Pick up Industrial Strength Grip today and make the best gains of your life with a Gym Movement Protocol powered Hand program.
Adam T Glass, Certified Captain of Crush
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Hey, Adam, quick question. I’ve developed forearm and bicep pain – I was going to say elbow, but actually my upper forearm that gets inordinately pumped, and my biceps that has a painful pulling feeling at the beginning of a curling movement. E.g the beginning and end of the first few chins (just doing singles) feels bad – this gets better during later sets – but same problem the next time. I suspect the improvement comes because I engage my lats better as i get into the movement and so take pressure off my ‘elbow’. But this might be bull.
Do you think grip/grip strength has anything to do with this? I have wondered whether I grip too hard and thus produce this problem – but maybe you have some other ideas?
things to test – relax your whole body and just do a pull up, doing a different kind of curl, doing a different kind of pull up/chin up, of which there are many.
also- no need to “engage the lats” in fact you cant stop their involvement in that movement. Simply do the movement
Thanks for the informative video Adam, I have small hands and knowing how to set the gripper properly is of immense value to me!
I made very slow progress until i worked on the set for grippers, from there it has been very fast. Learn to set and you will be closing bigger grippers
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