BengDogg
09-01-2005, 10:13
Baraban grippers vs. Captain of crush
Most people who want to get serious about their grip training will at some point invest in some heavy duty hand grippers, not the sort you buy from you local sports store that any infant could close, we are talking about beefy coil springs and a ridiculous amount of effort to close said item,. Closing these bad boys is like doing a heavy squat for your hands, you will get calluses, you will lose skin but you will gain crushing power that will scare your mum!
There are about 3 or 4 company’s to my knowledge that make these grippers, Iron mind seem to be the market leader with their “Captain of crush” Series featuring 5 models throughout the range, starting with a trainer, then numbers 1, 2, 3 and finally the nigh on impossible number 4 that I believe only people in the world have closed at the time of writing.
The major problem with Captain of crush hand grippers in my opinion is the jump in between each gripper, the trainer is rated at 95ip (inch pounds of pressure to close it), the No.1 is 140ip, No.2 is 195ip, which is ok for progression but then the No.3 is rated at a whopping 280ip!! This is a jump that will completely stop you dead in your tracks unless you are some kind of freak! Finally the No.4 is 365ip. If you can close that you are most likely a professional strongman and part of the approximately 0.0000001% of people in the world who are capable of this crazy feat.
Now as I said before I feel that the Coc’s T, 1 & 2 are fine but what after that? Well this is where I stumbled upon Robert Barabans range of hand grippers from http://www.HandGrippers.co.uk and I’m very glad I did! These hand grippers ooze quality and have far more sensible jumps in between the each gripper, rather than being call 1, 2, 3 etc. they are just called whatever their Ip rating is so for example an 180ip gripper is just called a RB180; now their range is a bit bigger so let’s start at the start!
First off there is a 70ip, then100ip, 130ip, 160ip, 180ip, 210ip, 240ip, 260ip, 300ip, and finally 330ip. Phew quite a lot! There was also a limited run of the WT which stood for world toughest and was rated at something crazy like 700ip this was purely a collectors item.
I find Barabans gripper to have a better feel than Coc’s the knurling is better, the handles are a little wider apart when fully open which suits people with big hands better (narrow set ones are available if you have smaller donnies), the grippers feel heavier and of a higher quality and finally and the bit I feel is most important is the springs are far more consistent through the range of motion and don’t seem to squeak like my Coc's do, the Coc grippers seem to start very easy and get very hard towards the final cm or so whereas the Baraban grippers have a constant difficulty throughout the whole close, which in my opinion is important as it works your grip hard further out. One purely aesthetic note the Barabans also come in a range of finishes and materials and you can even have them engraved with a personal message by laser!
The bottom line is for me Baraban grippers are far superior to Coc’s in terms of quality and as a training tool.
Most people who want to get serious about their grip training will at some point invest in some heavy duty hand grippers, not the sort you buy from you local sports store that any infant could close, we are talking about beefy coil springs and a ridiculous amount of effort to close said item,. Closing these bad boys is like doing a heavy squat for your hands, you will get calluses, you will lose skin but you will gain crushing power that will scare your mum!
There are about 3 or 4 company’s to my knowledge that make these grippers, Iron mind seem to be the market leader with their “Captain of crush” Series featuring 5 models throughout the range, starting with a trainer, then numbers 1, 2, 3 and finally the nigh on impossible number 4 that I believe only people in the world have closed at the time of writing.
The major problem with Captain of crush hand grippers in my opinion is the jump in between each gripper, the trainer is rated at 95ip (inch pounds of pressure to close it), the No.1 is 140ip, No.2 is 195ip, which is ok for progression but then the No.3 is rated at a whopping 280ip!! This is a jump that will completely stop you dead in your tracks unless you are some kind of freak! Finally the No.4 is 365ip. If you can close that you are most likely a professional strongman and part of the approximately 0.0000001% of people in the world who are capable of this crazy feat.
Now as I said before I feel that the Coc’s T, 1 & 2 are fine but what after that? Well this is where I stumbled upon Robert Barabans range of hand grippers from http://www.HandGrippers.co.uk and I’m very glad I did! These hand grippers ooze quality and have far more sensible jumps in between the each gripper, rather than being call 1, 2, 3 etc. they are just called whatever their Ip rating is so for example an 180ip gripper is just called a RB180; now their range is a bit bigger so let’s start at the start!
First off there is a 70ip, then100ip, 130ip, 160ip, 180ip, 210ip, 240ip, 260ip, 300ip, and finally 330ip. Phew quite a lot! There was also a limited run of the WT which stood for world toughest and was rated at something crazy like 700ip this was purely a collectors item.
I find Barabans gripper to have a better feel than Coc’s the knurling is better, the handles are a little wider apart when fully open which suits people with big hands better (narrow set ones are available if you have smaller donnies), the grippers feel heavier and of a higher quality and finally and the bit I feel is most important is the springs are far more consistent through the range of motion and don’t seem to squeak like my Coc's do, the Coc grippers seem to start very easy and get very hard towards the final cm or so whereas the Baraban grippers have a constant difficulty throughout the whole close, which in my opinion is important as it works your grip hard further out. One purely aesthetic note the Barabans also come in a range of finishes and materials and you can even have them engraved with a personal message by laser!
The bottom line is for me Baraban grippers are far superior to Coc’s in terms of quality and as a training tool.