Building Strong Hands and Healthy Hands

Maybe you want to be able to crack coconuts with your bare hands or maybe you're looking for an edge in your favorite sport or maybe you're trying to regain the use of your hands after an injury or want to reverse or stave off the aging process . . . there are handfuls of good reasons to focus on your grip strength and hand health.

Want to know more about our Captains of Crush Hand Grippers? www.captainsofcrushgrippers.com Visit our Captains of Crush Grippers website for: fact and fiction about Captains of Crush Hand Grippers and grip strength training selecting Captains of Crush Hand Grippers how to train with Captains of Crush Hand Grippers, and other grip strength training accessories . . . . . . and more!

Want to know how to have healthy, pain-free hands?

www.strongandhealthyhands.com
Visit our Strong and Healthy Hands website for:

How Do Your Hands Work?

Elements of Grip Strength
Cruise the information highway and you'll see all sorts of references to crushing grip, pinching grip, supporting grip, and the like, and by now, everyone takes these distinctions as a given. Overall, grip strength had been considered a unitary concept until 1991, when IronMind promoted the idea that grip strength had three elements: crushing, pinching, and supporting. We've since gone on to highlight open hand, extensor and wrist strength, and for each of these, you can think of training in terms of one-rep maxes and sustained efforts.

	Crushing grip Think of shaking hands; this is the most familiar element of grip.
	Pinch grip How strong is your thumb? If you have to pinch grip something, whether it's an arm or a heavy weight, the strength of your thumb is what detemrines your success or failure.
	Open hand (supporting) The hand is opened so that the fingers are not clenched and maybe only the tips of the fingers are bent.
	Extensors The opposite of crushing (squeezing), working your extensors creates muscle balance, which promotes strength and health and reduces pain.
	Wrist strength Lower-arm strength stabilizes the fingers so that maximum effort can be exerted; and it helps prevent injuries as well.

Each of these types of hand strength can be developed for:

• maximum power, such as closing the toughest Captains of Crush® Gripper you are capable of or lifting your maximum on the Rolling Thunder®, or for
• sustained effort, such as you would encounter rock climbing or on a farmer's walk

• Make your hands strong link by building your grip strength. Weak hands hold back your lifts, while a strong grip can help you scale a wall, steady your aim, hold on to the ball, or make a big deadlift.
• Strong hands can save your life---or someone else's. Is that dramatic enough for you? From adventure sports to climbing to public safety to special ops, having a strong grip is just the insurance you want--- and it's always with you, ready for deployment.
• Unlike doing squats or power cleans, for example, it's easy to train your grip---and just about anywhere. Skip the excuses and start making grip strength work a regular part of your program.
• Gip training lends itself to a huge variety of exercises, and the equipment is not overly expensive, plus much of it can be improvised. Consider how easy it is to collect some pinch grip tools, for example, compared to a barbell set or squat racks.
• Captains of Crush® Grippers are full-fledged competition-grade in quality---calibrated and universally recognized---so they take the guesswork and the limitations out of your training. Our CoC hand grippers and their grip strength training program are the fastest route to a superior grip.
• Sound hand strength training can help you recover from an injury and reverse or forestall the debilitating effects of simple aging. If you are ever injured or as you get older, the hand strength you once took for granted might now seem like the treasure it really is. Don't let this slip through your fingers.

Think we're exaggerating these things?
Consider all the activities you enjoy that depend on your hands and you will be quick to appreciate the importance of having a good grip and hands that don’t hurt—from earning a living to enjoying your free time, grip strength and hand health are of primary importance.
 

IronMind Grip-Tech™

Since we opened our doors in 1988, IronMind has led the charge in the grip world---developing new products for building hand strength, encouraging and recognizing outstanding grip strength performance, and giving importance and visibility to an area that at best had been an afterthought or a distant footnote in the strength area.

Along with our work in the grip strength world, IronMind has made parallel contributions in hand health, helping people build strong and healthy hands and prevent, reduce, or eliminate hand pain---allowing for remarkable improvements in the quality of their lives.

Strong hands, healthy hands . . . IronMind is here to help you have both because, as we see it, grip strength and hand health are just different sides of the same coin.

Crushed-to-Dust!® Grip Tools Building strong and healthy hands.

Captains of Crush® Grippers The gold standard of hand grippers

IMTUG™: The Two-Finger Utility Gripper Friendly, fun, effective training for one or two fingers at a time

IronMind Hand Health: Strong, Pain-Free Hands Hand pain, preventive training, and hand strength and health

Captains of Crush Gripper Certification—since 1991 The official mark of a world-class grip: getting certified and setting records

Red Nail™ Roster Certified list of short steel benders

Rolling Thunder® Deadlift Handle Can you beat the current record?

John Brookfield's Grip Tips Over 40 exercises for building hand strength - have a look!

For more information about how to build your grip, wrist, and forearm strength, please visit our All-About-It Resource Pages on Grip Strength, Hand Grippers, and Hand Strength.

Build a pair of strong and healthy hands: our line of Crushed-to-Dust! grip tools and Hand Health tools are available in our on-line store.