While performances on the No. 3 and No. 4 Captains of Crush® grippers in recent years have reflected the ever-climbing standards in the grip strength world, crushing grip is not the only thing on the rise.

Wade Gillingham, perhaps best known for manhandling a Blob (the sawed-off end of a cast York 100-pound dumbbell), kicked off his weekend by pinch gripping three 35-pound plates: Although Gillingham didn't photograph or video the impromptu performance, it was done in front of witnesses, the plates are said to be full weight, only chalk was used, and there was no center pin holding the plates together.

Gillingham reported that he did a full deadlift with his right hand and then held the weight "for a couple of seconds." Similarly off the scales, Terry Todd recently told me that Mark Henry, the first man in the world to clean and press a replica of the Thomas Inch dumbbell, has snatched the dumbbell in training.

What's next? Is somebody going to close the No. 4 Captains of Crush® gripper with two fingers?