There's no denying that when the events were announced for the upcoming World's Strongest Grip contest, a lot of jaws dropped.

Why so many card-tearing events? What in the world is a banana dumbbell press? Where are the old standbys?

IronMind® was right in there with everyone else on this, especially because we first introduced the idea of crushing, pinching and supporting grip in 1991 and this concept—now widely accepted and repeated—has been the basis of most modern grip contests.

The highly popular grip-strength format that we have dubbed "the Gillingham Grip Gauntlet" is an example of this concept at work, since it utilizes benchmark feats of strength to test each of these elements of hand strength (a No. 3 Captains of Crush® Gripper, The Blob, and a Rolling Thunder®).

As we listened to feedback from grip guys, dug a little deeper into the events themselves, and tried to have an open mind, we came to the conclusion that these events weren't as wacky as they might have sounded at first, and armed with a description of what they were, at least nobody would get a rude awakening on the day of the contest—with the events announced ahead of time, guys could train for them, and besides having fun at the contest, there would be a chance to earn a substantial amount of prize money, and since the expectation is for thousands of spectators, it seemed like a terrific opportunity for grip guys to showcase their talents.