*NEW* from IRON MIND

"The Mid-level Hand Grippers You've Been Asking For"

Dear Friend,

Thousands of years ago, Milo of Croton, the greatest athlete of antiquity, lifted a calf each day as part of his training. As the calf grew, so did Milo's strength, and the concept of progressive resistance was born. No matter what kind of training you do, you must follow Milo's lead and add resistance little-by-little. With a barbell this is easy, add a few washers and you are in business. With hand grippers though, it's a different story... you'll need a range of them if you want to train effectively. Almost two decades ago Iron Mind revived the graduated hand grippers with their Captains of Crush line. Back in the early days, there were but three: #1 (140 lbs.), #2 (195 lbs), and #3 (280 lbs.). Closing the #3, of course, being one of the most respected bench mark grip feats. A few years later Iron Mind rolled out The Trainer gripper (100 lbs.)for gripsters looking for a good warmup or a little easier jump from the store-bought variety. Then a few years after that the #4 (365 lbs.) was introduced as a sort of a joke but to date seven men have climbed that mountain. Next up, the lil' guys hit the scene The Guide(60 lbs.) and The Sport (80 lbs.)... Our suggestions: In the next section, we are going to make some gripper choice suggestions for various types of people. Before we begin, please keep a few things in mind: 1. We have found that to train with the hand grippers effectively, it is best to have at least three hand grippers at your command; one that you can close easily for a number of reps; one that you can close for a moderate amount of reps and one that you can just barely close or can’t quite close yet. Having a selection of grippers to work with will provide great variety in your program. (We have heard reports of someone who bought several hand grippers (not from us, thank goodness) who opened them up one by one. He tried them in order and immediately asked for a refund for the ones he could already close. Hmmm. That is the kind of attitude that will never allow someone to get strong hands.) 2. In case you're wondering, strength developed in most other types of training does not "carry over" to gripper training and vise versa. For example, just because you can deadlift a lot of weight doesn't mean that you will automatically be able to shut the #2 or #3. It is going to take specific training with grippers to get good at them. The whole point of having hand grippers is to use them as a training tool...a tool that will allow you to gradually build up your hand strength levels. Develop the strength so you can apply it effectively in a particular sport or activity. Skill work, however, can only come with practice of that activity. 3. If you have been active with your hands or have been training for several years, chances are you will have the strength to close the #1 gripper at least once. For training purposes we recommend starting with a gripper one level below the one you can close at least one time. Again, the key concept to remember here is "training"...It is very difficult to train progressively with a hand gripper that you can only close once, this is why it is a good idea to have more than one level of gripper to train with. (Just about every serious grip trainer ends up getting a full "set" eventually.) It is important to have as many training options as possible. If you have never used hand grippers or trained your hands before: We recommend getting the Guide, Sport and Trainer. The lighter grippers are simply a better choice when starting out, especially for those with little or no experience. With these hand grippers, you will be able to develop your technique as well as use them for high-rep skin “toughening” training which is especially important for rock climbers where tough skin is very valuable. For many years, grip maniacs were screaming for more stepping stones - grippers in between the current strengths... and now it's a reality!

Introducing Three new members of the Iron Mind gripper Family: