Daniel Brechmann (Germany) has certified on the Captains of Crush No. 3 gripper, proving his mastery of this world standard for elite grip strength.

Brechmann told IronMind, “I teach English, German and Latin at the German equivalent of a high school. However, I’m also really into sports, such as powerlifting and bouldering, which is why I’m also a trained coach and currently teach bouldering classes and run a powerlifting club for my students at school.

"I’ve found that it really helps with general motivational aspects of school and learning, which is why I see a real benefit for my students.

"Bouldering is also, where most of my finger and grip strength seems to come from. Ever since I’ve started, I’ve also been training quite consistently with fingerboards as well as pulling strength and core."I’m really into bouldering and specific training, so I have a history of training my finger strength for the better part of a decade now. Other than that, I have been lifting weights on and off most my adult life and I enjoy road cycling.

“I train grip almost every day, varying thick bar, pinch and grippers. With the latter I tend to mix parallel set, credit card set and no set closes, performing a couple of each once or twice a week. I also like to experiment with training regimens and to set myself challenges. For instance, I lifted a 78kg Inch bell every day for 100 days straight and got up to 21 reps that way.

“These feats could only be achieved with support of members of the grip community, especially certified Captains of Crush Florian Kellersmann (CoC3 '04) whom I train with occasionally and who gave me the chance to perform a number of those feats, and also Carl-August Mertz (CoC3 '15), who gave me a lot of really useful advice. And luckily my wife and daughter are very supportive of my goals, too.

"My number 1 upcoming goal is definitely the Certification as Captain of Crush, which I wanted to do the moment I first learned about it. Further Gripper goals might eventually be certifying on the 3.5 and closing a #4, which is WAY down the road," said Brechmann.

Here's link to the video of Daniel Brechmann's official attempt to close the fearsome CoC No. 3 gripper.

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