Hand Grippers Are Easy To Use, Cheap, And Fit In The Palm Of Your Hand, But Are They Worth The Investment?
This is a subtle, but massive debate in the armwrestling community. Some armwrestling pros swear by using hand grippers to develop forearm and hand strength for the toproll armwrestling technique. Others think they are useless…or worse, downright bad for your hands and make you injury-prone!
Let’s see if hand grippers are right for your style of training!
Does The Grip Gladiators Blog Endorse Hand Grippers For Training?
As you can tell from the image above, I absolutely love hand grippers. I have nine pairs of various makes, models, strengths, builds, and grips. they are cool, easy to store, and I bring my pair(s) everywhere!
However, I actually don’t use mine in particular for armwrestling or for developing pure armwrestling strength.
For me, hand grippers are a lovely, stimulating tool that I can workover with my hands as I think, plan, train, or watch TV. Hand grippers are an in-between action item for my lifestyle. And FYI, my lifestyle might be totally different than yours — and that’s okay!
Read on as we break down hand grippers into a T-chart of pros and cons…
The Pros And Cons Of Hand Grippers For Armwrestling
The Pros Of Hand Grippers
- Easy to use and bring anywhere.
- A solid tool for incrementally growing wrist, hand, and finger strength.
- Affordable and accessible.
- Increases dexterity and hand-eye coordination.
- Good for warming up hands and keeping hands conditioned.
- Hidden Gem: Great for developing callouses!
The Cons Of Hand Grippers
- They don’t really copy any real-world movement besides clenching a fist tightly.
- There are better ways to strengthen hands, fingers, and wrists.
- Overdoing hand grippers can weaken tendons.
- Can cause tendonitis or repetitive stress injuries from overuse.
- The design might not be ergonomic (some don’t fit well in your hand).
What Do Experts Think?
Devon Larratt, one of the greatest armwrestlers ever, doesn’t think hand grippers are useful for armwrestling because they don’t train a specific movement and there are a plethora of other, better tools out there. The top armwrestlers mostly use dynamometers and hand grippers as fun ways to show off grip strength to fans — but most think they don’t have a ton of utility at the table.
Should You Use Grippers?
Honestly, if you like the look, feel, and hand pump you get from using them, why not? There is nothing wrong with adding hand grippers and various other stress-ball-esque tools into your routine if you feel like you benefit. Plus, they make for awesome Grip Strength TikToks that you can share with friends and the armwrestling community. And, if you don’t like hand grippers, you can always blast out a few armwrestling pronated hammer curls.
Overall, I enjoy hand grippers because they occupy my moving mind. You should try to get whatever edge you can in armwrestling. They can’t hurt. Hand grippers just might tip you over the top!