Grip strength training

Dustin Cantrell · Apr 16, 2013

I decided I was going to have to improve my grip strength if I was ever going to be serious about getting good at action pistol shooting. I ordered a Captains of Crush grip strength trainer from forum sponsor Automatic Accuracy. I've read some people use them to improve grip strength. I ordered the "Trainer" weight. I did a couple sets of 20 reps with each hand last night and this morning. Do any of you do grip strength training with these? If so, do you have any tips?

kaiserb · Apr 16, 2013

Use a consistent grip each time. Work on sets, warming up with the trainer and working through the 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3.

Dustin Cantrell · Apr 16, 2013

kaiserb said:
Use a consistent grip each time. Work on sets, warming up with the trainer and working through the 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3.

Do you do anything else like use bands to work the muscles to extend the fingers? Should I do a couple sets each morning and evening and just keep working up?

Jeremy Moore · Apr 16, 2013

Email Matt Mink. He told me what he does last year with the Captains', but I can't remember. The main muscles in his forearms are bulging, like he has a tumor growing out of them

Airic · Apr 16, 2013

I started using the CoC grippers in Feb. Started out with the trainer then moved to using the Trainer for warm up and the #1 for "heavy sets". I saw a really good improvement using the 4 week plan from the CoC website.

Be careful with them though. I developed pain in my left wrist on the pinky finger side. The pain was pretty good when I would twist my wrist like I was opening a doorknob. I immediately stopped using the grippers and applied ice 3 times a day. I also wore a wrist brace at home to immobilize it. The pain went away in 3-4 days.

Dustin Cantrell · Apr 16, 2013

Jeremy Moore said:
Email Matt Mink. He told me what he does last year with the Captains', but I can't remember. The main muscles in his forearms are bulging, like he has a tumor growing out of them

I'll email him. Thanks.

Dustin Cantrell · Apr 16, 2013

Eric Gambill said:
I started using the CoC grippers in Feb. Started out with the trainer then moved to using the Trainer for warm up and the #1 for "heavy sets". I saw a really good improvement using the 4 week plan from the CoC website.

Be careful with them though. I developed pain in my left wrist on the pinky finger side. The pain was pretty good when I would twist my wrist like I was opening a doorknob. I immediately stopped using the grippers and applied ice 3 times a day. I also wore a wrist brace at home to immobilize it. The pain went away in 3-4 days.

That's what I'm concerned about. I've read about people developing problems from using these grippers. It seems some other exercises might be necessary to work all the muscles and not cause a problem by working up only the set of muscles built by using the grippers.

dennishoddy · Apr 16, 2013

Back in the day when racing MotoX, having to maintain a death grip on the handlebars for 20 minute moto's, I used the common spring hand exercisers from walmart. Never experienced any side effects, and would use them on my drive to and from work to help occupy the time..

hermnrob · Apr 17, 2013

Also try a Bucket of rice to help finger, hand and forearm strength. Rotate each finger in circles, move them forward and backwards, grab the rice and release with finger extension. . There are a lot of movements and grip exercises can be done to improve total hand strength. Not just a squeeze and release motion. I used it for wrestling and jujitsu.

JeddJohnson · Apr 18, 2013

Hey there everyone. I wrote an article on my grip strength website last year about strenghtening the hands for shooting firearms.

You can check it out here: http://www.dieselcrew.com/how-to-improve-grip-strength-for-shooting

I hope it helps.

Jedd

dennishoddy · Apr 18, 2013

Hey there everyone. I wrote an article on my grip strength website last year about strenghtening the hands for shooting firearms.

You can check it out here: http://www.dieselcrew.com/how-to-improve-grip-strength-for-shooting

I hope it helps.

Jedd

Nice site! Lots of good info there.

kaiserb · Apr 19, 2013

Dustin Cantrell said:
Do you do anything else like use bands to work the muscles to extend the fingers? Should I do a couple sets each morning and evening and just keep working up?

Yes I have a full set of the bands, and use it to do standard grip expansion exercises. Using the bands will help with flexibility and keep Mr. Pain away. With that said if you are not doing CoCs in sets or max reps you will probably not move up the scale very quickly.

One thing I noticed when I started crushing the 2.0 was every joint in my hand popped, like popping knuckles.