To anybody who’s ever had a go at the Captains of Crush grippers — or any other brand of heavy duty torsion grippers, for that matter — the kinds of grippers you pick up from, say, a Dick’s sporting goods, just don’t rank.
Tonight, looking for an old pair of those retail store grippers to attach to some Lifeline cable (I wanted to make a piece of specialty exercise equipment recommended by Dennis Rogers for training steel bending; and I didn’t think I’d need super strong grippers), I found one such gripper and gave it a quick squeeze to test the resistance.
Oops. Not sure what the springs on these things are made from, but I guess you reach a point in your training where it’s best to be careful with how much pressure you exert. First squeeze yielded this ↓
I about shit myself when it snapped. Though it is pretty funny in retrospect.
If you want to train your hands, buy the good stuff. Is my new advice to you.
Umm, Jeff, should we ever meet, please don’t take offense if I pass on shaking hands.
Well I see possibilities here.
1) Fault in the material spring was made out of.
2) You had already worked the unit through so many duty cycles the metal had reached the point of critical fatigue.
3) Your training has been far more effective than you thought! And you’re ready for the Captains of Crush 4 :)
I’ve never seen one break like that.
i smell lawsuit!
*sigh*
I see 3 possibilities here…4 if you count me needing a typist!
or death threat. my sniffer is not so good.
I had a craftsmanship issue tonight. The strength of my fibula was insufficient for the force applied, and it fractured, along with a severe high ankle sprain just for good measure. I have a cankle now.
I hadn’t picked that thing up in at least 3 or 4 years. It was in a box with some cables. Honestly, I don’t think I ever used it much. I’m really not a fan of grippers. Even the CoCs — I just don’t train them much because I don’t like the way grippers feel. But I guess if I’m going to be working on bending steel, I’m going to have to deal with the soft tissue trauma all these things cause.
I just thought it was funny that it snapped like that the night after I tore that phone book. I’ve been resting this week, not doing much if any lifting. So I believe the secret to strength training is to do nothing.
I should make a DVD! Me, sitting around watching Netflix and eating pretzels. PROFIT!
Yikes. Sorry to hear that, JD. Are you in a cast? A boot? For how long?
You should buy my new DVD.
OUCH, JD!!! Exactly what “force” was being applied? Like a tree rising up to smack you while you were merely standing around on skis with gravity as your training partner?
Get better soon …
If that’s the case, I Will Fuck You Up. But I smell bullshit.
That regimen lacks alcohol, slacker.
Boot, until the MRI, and ortho surgeon consult. Rolled it so hard that the outside of fibula broke when it slammed into the concrete. I was just starting to get in shape, did a half marathon and a sprint triathlon in the last 9 days. This will set me back for at least the summer.
If anyone wants a bib to the Indianapolis Mini-marathon, or the Indianapolis, Lousville, and Chicago triathlons, let me know.
I will just have to work abs and upper body all summer, and find a way to work in card, maybe swim laps?
The alcohol — along with me singing along to Paper Lace, or Nena, or Duran Duran — is part of the DVD special features.
Darleen – the force was simply my foot coming down on the edge of the driveway while running around with e girls. It just rolled. Hard.
Sport coat, sleeves pushed halfway up the arm while sporting a baseball cap?
Dude….
If you sing 99 luftballoons, count me in.
JD, your injury has gone from serious ouch to grotesque ouch.
Kids, the toughest training your body ever gets.
Get well JD.
Amen to that, geoffb.
Damn JD, tough break. I’m sorry to hear that, and hope you heal ASAP.
I once broke my fibula, about 4 cm above it’s lower end with no ligament damage; in fact the sawbones told me the ligament bundle held it all together until I could get to the infirmary.
It healed in 5 weeks, but, you know, that was 20 years ago. And I didn’t run any marathons after it healed…
Jeff, I’m surprised to hear you suffer the soft tissue damage, as much as you grip and weight train, and swing and lift hammers. One would think that you’d have the “hands of steel!” to go with your phone-book-tearing kung-fu grip.
Maybe some leather gloves, or the kind football players use, might help.
JD
As soon as the doc gives you the “go”, do the swimming. Good not just cardio but the water resistance is a good muscle toner while the buoyancy of the water won’t put undue pressure on the healing break.
Bob —
My hands are nice and calloused, but there are spots just inside the thumbpad — that soft part of the palm — that always gets bruised. I’m going to really start training my thumbs and wrists here soon. Those are my two weakest links, comparatively. My goal is to roll up a frying pan and bend a 6″ adjustable wrench.
Bob – I broke iron that knobby part that stick out from the outside of your ankle. There is prolly a medical term for that, but knobby thing sticking out on the outside of the ankle is all that the Vicodin and muscle relaxers will allow me to come up with. Keeping my fingers crossed no ORIF will be needed, and that the ligament did not tear from the bone, which is what the MedCheck doctor suspected.
Anyone have any cardio ideas?
Darleen – swimming is something I do now, and enjoy. It is the strongest leg of my triathlon, to be sure.
OT:
Fred Thompson on the narrative in Presidential campaigns.
I hear you Jeff.
You know, as crazy as it may sound, have you tried striking hard material with your sledges? I recall you talking about striking tires, but making big rocks into little ones, or striking an anvil may help toughen up the areas you mentioned.
Oooh. The torn ligament would definitely take longer to heal JD. At least you’ll be able to swim once the cast comes off in a few weeks.
Damn, JD, that’s a tough one, similar to one of my injuries some years back. I’m always aware of that ankle now, and preferred the high-support shoes, until they disappeared from style. And cowboy boots just ain’t for runnin’.
Swimming is good for all that ails you.
Jeff, your grip should be adequate now to control one of these, one-handed. Alas, I must use two hands…
Why, you broke Dick’s gripper.
My father has broken a few of those. Like Bob said, fatigue.
Get well soon, JD. And stay away from the munchies, lest your time on the couch lead you to be mistaken for a certain guest on the Ed Show who happens to be smarter than anyone in the world. On the bright side, you might convince Presidents to change their policies based on your brilliant columns in local alt-weekly rags. Who knows? By the time you heal up, your words might be read on the floor of the Senate!
Just be vewwy, vewwy careful when executing the Manual Override.