Do Hand Grippers Actually Work?

You know what a Hand Gripper is. Maybe you even laid your hands on one. In my childhood I surely have. I remember finding those things lying around my house because apparently every dad used to own one for some reason.

I remember as a child I could squeeze one like a hundred times. Of course at that point I didn't realise that it was one of those basic, beginner, Hand Grippers that's too weak for even for a six year old. If you remember that as well, then this question has surely crossed your mind: Do Hand Grippers actually work or are they some kind of gimmick? 

Just so you understand, the grip community is quite large, over a hundred thousand people. If these bad boys weren't effective, I doubt there would be such a large group of people focused on closing them day and night.

Hand Grippers actually work, but the key is to use the right grippers and the proper program!

Read on, and find out what "Actually work" means.

Benefits of Working With Hand Grippers:

1. Easier everyday life: If before you would be able to carry one grocery bag in each hand, hand grippers will allow you to carry three. Opening jars will become easy and monotonous, lifting furniture will no longer be trouble.
2. Increased Forearm Size: Training with Hand Grippers will lead to some forearm growth! You know who loves big forearms? Girls. Simple...
3. Healthier hands, wrists, forearms: Hand Grippers are one tool to use to forget about that office wrist pain. I've been there...
4. Helps sports/hobbies: Are you an athlete? In most sports, grip strength plays a huge part, hanging on the bar if you're a gymnast, holding the damn bat as a baseball player, holding on to the gi in jiu-jitsu trainings, you name it! I talked to gymnast friend of mine, this is what he said: "Talking from my own personal experience as a gymnast, using hand grip strengtheners significantly improved my performance as well as eliminated wrist pain during numerous gymnastics movements, such as handstands, planches, circles, flares, etc." Sounds great doesn't it? 
5. New PRs: Pulldowns, deadlifts, rows, curls, what's the one thing connecting all of those movements? The fact that you have to grab and hold that damn bar. If you have baby-fragile hands, you will drop it in an instant. On the other hand, if you can hold on to it for dear life, then it will make all the difference.  

The reason that many people whine about hand grippers not being effective is because they are not using them right. They use weak, low-quality hand grippers, irregularly, without following any proper program. If you were to curl a 10lbs dumbbell once a week, you would not grow your biceps, I mean come on... 

Now let's fix these issues and actually get your forearms growing.

First thing first, you WILL need proper grip training equipment. If we are talking balanced strength then there are two tools that are a MUST-HAVE.

 

1. Hand Grippers: You guessed it, you will need Hand Grippers to train with Hand Grippers It's simply the most important piece of equipment. You should have more than one to watch yourself progress. But even 1 is a good place to start. Our signature, high quality Gauntlet Strength Grippers will more than do the job!

2. Extensor trainer: These are the things you put on your fingers and open your hand instead of closing it. You want to balance the closing motion with these bad boys. Simply a great choice!

 

When you have invested in your first pair of Hand Grippers and a couple Extensor trainers, we are ready to train. Here are some basic tips to get you on your way. You don't want to be a newby when it comes to this!

1. Warm up your hands and wrists: All solid training involves a warm up. You want to not only train, but improve in the long-term. And the number one thing that will make a difference between being injury-full and empty is a proper warm up. Do some circles with your wrists, stretch them out, stretch your fingers, etc. Next, you should start working with a light gripper to ease into the training. When you feel your hands, wrists, and forearms are ready, you can get on with the good stuff!
2. Always use a full range of motion: You don't want to squeeze the gripper 1/4th of the way shut. Have you seen those Gym Fail videos with pathetic range of motion? If you haven't go check them out, you'll instantly know what NOT to do. Full range of motion actually means getting the gripper fully shut. It will allow you to go through both positions, where your muscles are both contracted and stretched. This is what leads to that unforgettable pump!
3. Use good form: if you want to make sure that the hand grip exercises are working correctly, you should proper form is a MUST! Form will help you avoid injury and stress the target muscles. Strength and size is what we are after right? You will make more gains training with a weaker gripper with good form, rather than with a heavy gripper with poor form.
4. Consistency, consistency, consistency: training consistently is the key to making good gains. If you are not consistent with your training, you shouldn’t be surprised when you get no results! Following a set program can greatly help you stay consistent. Below I have laid out a quick sample program to take your forearms to the next level. 

Hand Grip Strength Program

Start off with training 3x a week with a rest day in between. You can always increase the amount, but make sure that your rest is present. 

• Begin with a Warmup. Use 25% gripper that you can actually close and get those wrists working. 
• Exercise 1: 5 sets, 10 reps closing 75% of the heaviest gripper you can close
• Superset Exercise 2: 5 sets, 10 reps fully opening using extensor trainer. 
• Repeat Exercises 1-3 three times, resting 2 minutes between each circuit
• Exercise 3: 5 Sets of Goal Gripper Attempts. 
• Rest 2 minutes between each attempt
• Exercise 4: 5 Sets of Goal Gripper Holds. This means, use the tools at your disposal and manage to get the gripper shut. Then prevent it from opening up for as long as your strength allows. 

This will be a good starting point in developing your grip strength and blowing up your forearms. Now that you have all the tools available, it's time to acquire the full set. 

For people that want to get into hand grip training we have created our Grip Destruction Bundle. 

You will get

• 5x Hand Grippers (100lbs, 150lbs, 200lbs, 250lbs, 300lbs) - To move up the training ladder with. 

• 3x Crimp Trainers (Weak difficulty, Medium Difficulty, Hard Difficulty) - To forget about injury for the rest of your life!

• The #1 Grip Strength Tester - To find out to the EXACT Decimal on how you are progressing. 

• The best Hand Gripper Training Manual - To Maximize your Training Efforts. 

Go here and let me show you that this Bundle is the ULTIMATE PLACE TO START