World's Strongest Hand's
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| PaulSavage |  | World's Strongest Hand's | 05-08-2013 @ 18:32 |
Member 2775, 6927 posts | After competing in the worlds strongest hands competition (a world wide grip sports competition, contested over several different countries/locations on standardized equipment) two days ago i have decided to log my training on here leading up to next years contest. Hopefully people can learn something on how to improve there grip if they are struggling with it, but also learn about grip sport. For those that don't know grip sports is testing the hands and wrist in various ways to determine the person with the highest overall strength in grip. Much like with strongman competition, powerlifting, weightlifting etc just because you are good in one test, does not automatically mean you will be good in another. This is what makes the grip sport so fun, there is always a ton of different things to work on, things to improve, and lots of different ways to train and progress. With so many different tests and events, it would be very difficult to go through them all, but the main tests in the sport of grip are.. CRUSH - This is mainly done on hand grippers with many many brands selling these days. Crush grip can also be done using a 'grip machine', which you may find at a gym near you. Historically, a hand dynamometer has often been the sole test of 'strength' in almost all fitness tests, this is another way to test crush grip strength. PINCH - Pinch grip can be done using weight plates gripping with the smooth sides out, and can be contested using one or two hands by putting a pipe/bar through the plates/setup and attaching extra weight. Another test of pinch is 'rafter' grip, with some of the best pound for pound grip athletes doing pull ups on wooden rafters with added weight. SUPPORT - The support grip is the grip you use on a barbell or dumbbell in the gym, or farmers walk in strongman contest. In grip sports this is usually tested with a one hand deadlift, one hand lift, or a farmers walk hold. THICKBAR - Thickbar has seen a recent spur of growth with various 'axle' bars being used in crossfit gyms around the world and in fact being used in the games themselves. They are also popular with mixed martial artists and strongman competitors. New products such as 'fat gripz' and 'manus gripz' have proved very popular with peoples quest for more functional strength. In grip sport, thickbar is usually contested with axle, rolling thunder or the David Hornes 'adjustable thickbar' setup, which caters for different hand sizes. The world famous 'thomas inch dumbbell' is a lift of elite thickbar strength. WRIST - The wrist is tested in several different ways with levering in all directions, usually done using a sledge hammer, or bending of short metal bars. Also included are general wrist curls / reverse wrist curls. Wrist curling can also be done using a weight plate. These are the top 5 tests you will find in contests, other regular events include hub lifting, vertical bar lifting, anvil lifting, and tearing of phone books or playing cards. Now that this has been explained, on to my training and the recent worlds strongest hands contest. I had another grip goal in mind that ended up i could not pursue just yet, so it was at this point i decided to do the contest, however this only left me with about 3 weeks to train for it, having no previous training on 75% of the equipment and only twice on the other test. Knowing this i was only hoping for top 10 but managed to place 4th and very nearly 3rd, even with some costly errors. My aim is to win this contest next year and will be training hard for this goal. There are other big contests in grip nowadays, mainly the Arnold sports festival 'mighty mitts' competition, fit expo events and the European championships, but this is the only true world championships in grip, also with real grip events that fully test the athlete. The more showy contests often favor the larger handed athlete with the advantage going to them on most tests. With worlds strongest hands it's an even playing field, where the test is purely grip strength and not how big your hands are. My other big goal for next year is to certify the world renowned 'captains of crush' hand gripper in it's hardest form, the #4. This is a gripper that has never been certified under the new, and much harder rules. The last person to certify the gripper was former worlds strongest man Magnus Samuelson back in 2006 before the rule change. The former rule was you were allowed to wrap your fingers around the handles, helping so with your other hand, till a 1 inch gap was between the handles before you close the gripper with one hand. This was done so that hand size was taken out of the equation, however people were abusing the rule, trying to 'set' the gripper deeper than the one inch gap. Also, a torsion spring gripper has some variation in difficulty, meaning a #3 or #4 is not always the same resistance as another #3 or #4, the poundage ratings are simply an average, so people were then finding the easier grippers to certify the grippers. This all changed with the new rules, which made for a credit card width grip (just over 2 inch) before commencing the crush, and every time on a brand new gripper straight out the package. This also has to be done with a certified judge representing ironmind, so all in all it's a high level event. Certifying the #4 under these rules would be the biggest feat in the sports history, and even one of the toughest strength feats accomplished to date. This is a big goal and requires a lot of effort and hard work. So far i have been 1/16th of an inch away from closing a new #4 gripper using the credit card and am confident that i can make it happen in time. | ||
| PaulSavage | | ... | 05-08-2013 @ 18:33 |
Member 2775, 6927 posts | On to today's training. Obviously sore and beat up from the contest only 2 days back but wanted to get some work in before i go on holiday. I have been crazy hungry since the contest, eating 11 meals yesterday including 3 high calorie pizzas. It seems nothing can stop my hunger, I'm hungry 5-10 minutes after eating every time! (121.9kg bodyweight last weigh in at wsh) one legged box squats to 3 sets 6 reps each leg half penny (test of thumb strength) to 14.0kg for a double then 12-15 singles paused push ups off a plate 3 sets of 10 reps hub lifting with bodypower 15kg wide grip plate for many deadlifts then a set of 5 high pulls each hand PB Romanian deadlift/shrug combo with 50kg disk for 2 sets of 6 reps You will find a bunch of info on some of the lifts I'm doing by searching for David Horne's world of grip equipment on youtube or google, this will mainly be items in his 'grip tops' range, which includes the half penny and many others. I will also be putting videos up on my savagegrip youtube channel. Already on it is some grip training including #4 close old rules, new rules #3.5 close, 220kg overhand grip axle deadlift and 6 10lb one hand plate pinch for reps recently added (performed between events of worlds strongest hands). | ||
| Lewisg | | ... | 05-08-2013 @ 18:38 |
Leeeeeewwissssss !!! Member 1011, 1803 posts SQ 250, BP 170, DL 312.5732.5 kgs @ 95kgs UnEq | Will follow this with interest, i like grip strength and have done a grip comp in the past, really enjoyed it. | ||
| fong | | ... | 05-08-2013 @ 18:52 |
 really really interesting Member 3474, 2816 posts SQ 170, BP 120, DL 260550.0 kgs @ 100kgs UnEq | awesome, i look forward to more updates | ||
| PaulSavage | | ... | 05-08-2013 @ 18:52 |
Member 2775, 6927 posts | Lewisg said:Will follow this with interest, i like grip strength and have done a grip comp in the past, really enjoyed it. Much like with strongman, there is so much comradery with grip sport, every body helps everybody no questions asked and it's a great group feeling at the contests. So far i have done mainly strongman contests but grip sports is where I'm at now. As said, it's a ton of fun! | ||
| PaulSavage | | ... | 05-08-2013 @ 18:56 |
Member 2775, 6927 posts | fong said:awesome, i look forward to more updates Will try my best to film the weekly graft and post regular videos. | ||
| nails | | ... | 05-08-2013 @ 19:34 |
 my wood got all bloody Member 1001, 5711 posts SQ 240, BP 160, DL 272.5672.5 kgs @ 102.5kgs UnEq | Excellent, I'll be following with interest. I very really wanted to come along to this but life stood in my way. | ||
| AKBC | | ... | 05-08-2013 @ 20:45 |
 Kettlebells RULE !!! Member 3699, 407 posts | Good stuff, a 3.5 CoC close is immense! Good luck with your goals. | ||
| Wayne_Cowdrey | | ... | 06-08-2013 @ 18:50 |
 Still got a little bit of strength Member 400, 22044 posts | Good luck with it all. I love grip stuff, but I'm too lazy and lack the time to train it. What are your PBs on regular gym lifts? Strict press and front squat numbers would interest me the most  | ||
| Ramsay777 | | ... | 06-08-2013 @ 19:14 |
 Member 3942, 1107 posts SQ 200, BP 160, DL 315675.0 kgs @ 102kgs UnEq | I'm really looking forward to seeing this journal progress! Good luck man, I will be following. | ||
| PaulSavage | | ... | 07-08-2013 @ 00:48 |
Member 2775, 6927 posts | Post Edited: 07.08.2013 @ 00:50 AM by PaulSavage Cheers gents. Should be good fun leading up to next year My best powerlifts are 280kg deadlift, 240kg squat (no wraps) and 160kg bench press. I'm not really 'gym' strong as yet was always weak in deadlift events competing in strongman. Would like to get a clean 300kg beltless deadlift before I'm 30 but that's a big ask. August 6th 2013 got another session in before holiday tomorrow.. grippers to coc #3 double tns (not challenging) hornetop (anvil) to 76.2kg then about 4-5inch off with 83.3kg (above the world record) stub lift to 16.75kg hub to 20kg high pull on shallow and 20kg on 15kg bodypower plate (+5kg weight on the disk) Up and down, seems the hornetop is good one for me but stub lift needs work. Of course these results will be higher when fresh. These are new lifts to me. | ||
| JackRevans | | ... | 07-08-2013 @ 00:54 |
 'There was also a sausage in my mouth.' Member 2477, 16481 posts SQ 190, BP 130, DL 235555.0 kgs @ 83kgs UnEq | Cool! I could learn a thing or two from this | ||
| PaulSavage | | ... | 07-08-2013 @ 00:57 |
Member 2775, 6927 posts | |||
| PaulSavage | | ... | 07-08-2013 @ 00:58 |
Member 2775, 6927 posts | |||
| slimsim | | ... | 07-08-2013 @ 01:05 |
My asshole is not watertight. Member 2926, 6050 posts SQ 217.5, BP 107.5, DL 225550.0 kgs @ 86kgs UnEq | Really interesting reading about the various types of work done. I always thought ALL grip events suited larger handed athletes. How do they manage to level the playing field at WSH? Cheers Si | ||
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