GripMaster

[die Bullen]

Recently my son's trumpet teacher said that he should work on finger strength so I ordered a GripMaster finger exerciser for him. Then I got to thinking that maybe this wouldn't be a bad thing to start using myself. I went back and forth quite a bit as to what tension to buy- initially I was going to get medium tension but in the end I got the light tension (blue). I'm glad I did.

It arrived yesterday and I was really surprised when I started using it myself at how difficult the light tension unit was for me to work, making me realize that the strength in my fingers is nowhere near where it needs to be. From now on I will keep it close, gradually increasing reps and frequency as time goes on.

Anyone else using these?

dB

[zontar]

I've tried them--found they didn't really do much for me.
They may work better for trumpet though.

I used to use the hand grip/wrist things

But whatever you use--use they wisely so you don't pull or stretch anything or otherwise injure yourself.

[die Bullen]

I've seen the one you mentioned, although what I like about the GripMaster is the ability to work each finger individually.

But you are right that you have to be careful not to overdo it and hurt yourself

[zontar]

The individual finger ones (Which is what I knew you meant)--may help more with co-ordination...
But both help with strength.
Just make sure you are giving business to a physiotherapist or chiropractor, etc because of it.

[die Bullen]

Well the key is start out slowly and use a lower tension

[itsallintheblues]

Ive been wanting to buy one for years but Im afraid it will make my fingers stronger and wear out my frets with the new found strength.

[die Bullen]

Ive been wanting to buy one for years but Im afraid it will make my fingers stronger and wear out my frets with the new found strength.

I seriously doubt that would be a problem! They are pretty cheap tooo they are only like $10 on Amazon.

I wanted to use it to erase some of the bad habits of compensating weak fingers by cheating with how you fret. You know most of us do that from time to time.

[zontar]

I seriously doubt that would be a problem! They are pretty cheap tooo they are only like $10 on Amazon.

I wanted to use it to erase some of the bad habits of compensating weak fingers by cheating with how you fret. You know most of us do that from time to time.

I have no weak fingers on my fretting hand.
I had a period where I used heavy strings when I was learning hammer ons & pull offs--and the hand/wrist thing I mentioned above.
I use my fourth finger all the time--probably more than my second finger, which I use a lot too...
I can bend with each of them on their own--mostly I use my third finger--because that's the finger that's in the place of the note I want to bend.
And using other fingers to help with the bend is not cheating...

But I do know of what you speak--I did teach guitar for several years.

[die Bullen]

Glad you have it all covered then!

[die Bullen]

Anyone else tried these out?