The teenagers are on a roll: 18-year old Ivan Cuk has just been certified on the Captains of Crush No. 3 gripper.

Cuk said he has been training on grippers since May 2019, and that when he got interested in grippers, he first ordered a Captains of Crush (CoC) No. 1.5 . . . which he “closed it out of the package, first try.”

Saying he goes to the gym 3 or 4 times a week, Cuk told IronMind, “I train grip often through pull-ups and such, but with grippers I only do them once or twice a week, sometimes taking  3 - 4 weeks break from them. I usually would do reps of a certain gripper and then try to close the 3 couple times with rest in between. Start with the Captains of Crush No. 2 for warm up and then CoC No. 2.5 for 6-10 reps depending on my central nervous system that day, then I attempt the CoC No. 3. Other days I might do some negatives with the Captains of Crush No. 3.5 and try to hold just before failure.

“I'm a student, I don't really use my hands for anything aside from working out and playing basketball.

“My interests are mainly working out, chess and video games. I always had strong hands for my size and age so I figured I would challenge myself with something like CoC grippers. I want to be able to close the Captains of Crush No. 3.5 and one day the CoC No. 4.  I recently got into nail bending, I bent all 50 IronMind Green nails and just bought 50 IronMind Blue ones, and have also trained a little bit with sandbags,” said Cuk.

Congratulations, Ivan, it’s official: you have been certified on the Captains of Crush No. 3 gripper, and in honor of Jesse Marunde, the first teenage Captains of Crush, IronMind has donated $500.00 to the Jesse Marunde Educational Trust Fund.

Here's a video of Ivan Cuk's official attempt to close a Captains of Crush (CoC) No. 3 gripper.