Road to Captain of Crush 3 certification

**wicked1992** · 06-18-2011, 03:51 PM

I completed my first week of the GTG Captain of Crush Cycle. I've done 3 reps of the #2 gripper GTG from Monday through Friday. I will repeat this next week. This is my planned cycle.

Week 1:
GTG 3 reps Coc 2 mon-fri

Week 2:
same as week 1

Week 3:
GTG 4 reps Coc 2 mon-fri

Week 4:
same as week 3

Week 5:
GTG 5 reps Coc 2 mon-fri

Week 6:
same as week 5

Week 7:
GTG 1 reps Coc 2.5 mon-fri

Week 8:
GTG 2 reps Coc 2.5 mon-fri

Week 9:
GTG 3 reps Coc 2.5 mon-fri

Week 10:
Coc #3 attempt/certification

hope this goes out to plan

**zephed56** · 06-19-2011, 12:42 PM

Grippers 5 days a week without any injuries? How long did you take to work up to this volume?

Good luck.

**wicked1992** · 06-19-2011, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by zephed56

Grippers 5 days a week without any injuries? How long did you take to work up to this volume?

Good luck.

i've been doing this since don't really remember how now but I've been doing GTG every other day with the same rule of thumb for almost a year. wanted to change it up

**wicked1992** · 07-02-2011, 06:53 AM

week 4 of this routine is next. I just completed 3 weeks so far and it got hard towards the end of week 3. I might do a deload week this week 4 with 1-3 reps GTG with Coc 1.5 gripper to heal forearms and then maybe jump to week 7 for week 5.

**JMM1993** · 07-02-2011, 07:20 AM

Originally Posted by wicked1992

week 4 of this routine is next. I just completed 3 weeks so far and it got hard towards the end of week 3. I might do a deload week this week 4 with 1-3 reps GTG with Coc 1.5 gripper to heal forearms and then maybe jump to week 7 for week 5.

good luck OP! a friend of mine broke my knuckle a few months ago (long story short, we were drunk) and i can't even close the #1's now. hopefully it gets better, i'd like to get back into repping these bad boys out.

**wicked1992** · 07-02-2011, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by JMM1993

good luck OP! a friend of mine broke my knuckle a few months ago (long story short, we were drunk) and i can't even close the #1's now. hopefully it gets better, i'd like to get back into repping these bad boys out.

thanks and these grippers are the best!! i'm sure you will rep them out in no time. if you can close the #2 then you already have a strong grip. i'm shooting for the #3 certification

**wicked1992** · 07-19-2011, 04:32 PM

update

week 5 and 6: GTG Coc 2 5 reps mon-fri

**sixpaq** · 07-19-2011, 06:03 PM

what are you even talking about? Why do you think this deserves its own thread

**wicked1992** · 07-20-2011, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by sixpaq

what are you even talking about? Why do you think this deserves its own thread

i'm talking about Captain of Crush Grippers from Ironmind, which are the golden standard of grip strength. Not many people train these so I thought I should keep a log for this. Closing the #3 gripper gets you a certification for closing it since it is an accomplishment. Closing the #4 is the biggest accomplishment since it is the hardest gripper and less than 10 people in the world are certified. You should look them up

**wicked1992** · 07-31-2011, 07:50 AM

week 7 got harder at the end to close the 2.5. week 8 will be another backoff week so I can go back to closing the singles easier.

**DCSpartan** · 07-31-2011, 09:17 AM

awesome progress so far . . . clsoing #2 is an accomplishement in itself! but as you work your grip more and more you may want go every other day. Plus look at some assistance exercises - towel pullups are awesome. Plus soak your hands in ice water. Let us know when you close #3

**wicked1992** · 08-01-2011, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by DCSpartan

awesome progress so far . . . clsoing #2 is an accomplishement in itself! but as you work your grip more and more you may want go every other day. Plus look at some assistance exercises - towel pullups are awesome. Plus soak your hands in ice water. Let us know when you close #3

thanks!!! right now I'm doing a deload week with the #2 gripper for GTG singles. When I close #3, I'll make a video

**CookAndrewB** · 08-01-2011, 02:29 PM

familiar with grippers, but unfamiliar with the "GTG" you keep referring to. What is it?

Best of luck with your training. I'm slow and steady on my grippers, but I seem to be able to hit a lot of reps on my "working" gripper before I get consistant with my goal gripper. For instance, I was probably hitting 15+ reps on a 1.5 before I could sit down at any point in time and close a #2 (both hands. I was probably consistant with righty a good 3 months before I got there with lefty). Right now I'm at roughly 5-6 reps on a #2, and there are days I can't close a #2.5 at all. I figure that I'll be consistent with a #2.5 once I can close the #2 10+ times, and won't start getting close on a #3 until I can mash the #2.5 for 5+ reps. There is a BIG jump in tension between a #2.5 and a #3, and I can really feel it when I try to set the gripper.

**wicked1992** · 08-03-2011, 12:20 PM

GTG is "Grease the Groove" and it involves daily practice of a certain exercise. Pavel Tsatsouline made up this approach. Very effective for strength with little mass. I am currently GTGing #2 mon, wed, fri to deload and next week I'll go back to 2.5 for singles.

**CookAndrewB** · 08-03-2011, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by wicked1992

GTG is "Grease the Groove" and it involves daily practice of a certain exercise. Pavel Tsatsouline made up this approach. Very effective for strength with little mass. I am currently GTGing #2 mon, wed, fri to deload and next week I'll go back to 2.5 for singles.

Oh, ok. Sorry, little brain hiccup there. I am well aware of what grease the groove is, but for some reason I was looking at your posting and thinking "Grip The... What the hell?"

Ok, so a couple questions I have then:

In Pavel's GTG example, with his father-in-law and the pullups. The protocol was to do a pullup every time he went to the basement. Never set up as a set number of reps in a day, but rather spread out over the course of a day. Single (x2, x3... etc) reps done far short of failure, intended to establish a routine movement pattern. I'm not sure I understand how you are setting this up. So, are you hitting 2 reps every time you walk into the kitchen, or 2 reps for the entire day? Pavel's GTG works because it allows for (potentially) a lot of volume with little recovery impact because it is so spread out. Care to explain your setup further?

**wicked1992** · 08-03-2011, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by CookAndrewB

Oh, ok. Sorry, little brain hiccup there. I am well aware of what grease the groove is, but for some reason I was looking at your posting and thinking "Grip The... What the hell?"

Ok, so a couple questions I have then:

In Pavel's GTG example, with his father-in-law and the pullups. The protocol was to do a pullup every time he went to the basement. Never set up as a set number of reps in a day, but rather spread out over the course of a day. Single (x2, x3... etc) reps done far short of failure, intended to establish a routine movement pattern. I'm not sure I understand how you are setting this up. So, are you hitting 2 reps every time you walk into the kitchen, or 2 reps for the entire day? Pavel's GTG works because it allows for (potentially) a lot of volume with little recovery impact because it is so spread out. Care to explain your setup further?

currently with the grippers I carry them with me and rule of thumb is at least 3 times a day, a set every hour, 1-5 reps, do until it gets hard and do as much volume as possible, do without fatigue, good way to get practice with heavy weight, good for daily volume

**CookAndrewB** · 08-03-2011, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by wicked1992

currently with the grippers I carry them with me and rule of thumb is at least 3 times a day, a set every hour, 1-5 reps, do until it gets hard and do as much volume as possible, do without fatigue, good way to get practice with heavy weight, good for daily volume

Any recovery issues? Do you do anything to aid with recovery? How long did it take you to build up to that?

/R

**wicked1992** · 08-03-2011, 06:00 PM

Originally Posted by CookAndrewB

Any recovery issues? Do you do anything to aid with recovery? How long did it take you to build up to that?

/R

once it gets hard I just deload with a lighter load. To build up to the #2, I GTGed #1 and then #1.5. I had pretty good grip strength in the beginning from doing pullups weighing 210. I closed #1 first try and almost closed #1.5. Building up to #2 to me was noob gains. I was on #2 for a while until I got the 2.5. Now I'm trying to transition from 2.5 to 3.

**wicked1992** · 08-19-2011, 04:44 PM

update

Week 8
GTG 2.5 1 rep mon, wed, fri
*was able to do this successfully, might move up to 2 reps next week

**wicked1992** · 08-27-2011, 04:11 PM

Week 9
GTGed 2.5 2 reps mon, wed, fri

monday was a pretty good start. and then it got harder on wednesday to close. friday got a little better. I try as much as I can, but I still use the same rule of thumb: 3+ times a day at least an hour in between. When a set gets hard, I wait longer to complete my next set. I'm going to repeat this week next week so it can be a better week.

**wicked1992** · 09-06-2011, 03:52 PM

Week 10

Deload: 2.5 for a single GTG style on mon, wed, fri

**hammerfelt** · 09-06-2011, 06:06 PM

Cool log!

Is there any sort of ratio between gripper strength and dead lift grip strength?

In case you are unaware Starting Strength has a gripper mania forum: http://startingstrength.com/resource...play.php?f=130

**wicked1992** · 09-07-2011, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by hammerfelt

Cool log!

Is there any sort of ratio between gripper strength and dead lift grip strength?

In case you are unaware Starting Strength has a gripper mania forum: http://startingstrength.com/resource...play.php?f=130

Holy crap there is a gripper site? feels good that I'm not the only one who finds the thrill of grippers, Ironmind Captain of Crush Grippers per say because they are the golden standard of crush grip strength. sounds good will check out and post in the future. I don't know the exact ratio, but I can say that doing about 10 max pullups at 210 bw has helped me close the number 1 gripper and the building up to the number 2 has helped my grip a lot back when I had a 450 deadlift. Now I can close 2.5 for reps (2 reps workout) and even building up to that helped me hold 635 without any problems and helps me when I do up to 500+ for reps. I use chalk and mixed grip but grippers were my best investment when it came to building forearms and grip strength. before I even did pullups and trained grippers, forearms were chicken and grip strength was lacking.

**wicked1992** · 09-21-2011, 06:36 PM

Week 11
GTG 3 reps 2.5, mon was bad, gave up on wed and took rest of week off. muscles weren't up to it

Week 12
GTG 3 reps 2.5 mon, wed, fri
*better and making sure I do bare minimum so I can give ample resting time. but I mainly do between 4-6 times a day

**wicked1992** · 10-03-2011, 02:12 PM

Week 13
GTG 2.5 4 reps mon, wed, fri
*weren't that good and gave up fri so will back off week 14

Week 14
GTG 2 1 rep mon, wed, fri

**wicked1992** · 10-15-2011, 04:12 PM

Week 15
GTG 2.5 3 reps right hand and 2 reps left hand mon, wed, fri
*only GTGed twice a day this week

**wicked1992** · 10-31-2011, 06:49 PM

Week 16
same as week 15 but these were sh***y reps

Week 17
GTG 2.5 2 reps with right hand and 1 rep with left hand

seems like progress is halting and going down. any pointers?

**wicked1992** · 11-04-2011, 05:16 PM

Week 18

GTG 2.5 2 reps right hand and 1 rep left hand mon, wed, fri

**RockCrab** · 11-04-2011, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by wicked1992

Week 18

GTG 2.5 2 reps right hand and 1 rep left hand mon, wed, fri

Subbed. Your gonna get this! Keep fighting!

**Farley1324** · 11-04-2011, 09:32 PM

Logs really should be put in the journals section, you know.

That said, I really should try to grease the groove with mine. I don't remember the last time I picked one up. I've closed the #2 (no set, just pick up and go) but it's been quite awhile

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