Gorilla Sports sell an aluminium hand gripper for €14.99 in six resistance levels from 100 to 350 lbs. It is the cheapest way into gripper training in Germany, and the number printed on the handle is the most misunderstood figure in the whole category.
The photos give the game away: the handles are stamped HEAVY GRIP 100 through 350. This is not a Gorilla Sports design, it is the generic Heavy Grips gripper that a dozen European retailers rebadge. That is good news, because the grip community has measured this exact model on a calibrated rig.
The product
| Price | €14.99 incl. VAT |
| Levels | 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350 lbs, or the full set |
| Handles | Knurled aluminium |
| Spring | Steel compression spring |
| Rating | 4.71 / 5 from 52 reviews |
One oddity on the page: it shows "Auf Lager" with a delivery window, while every individual lbs variant reads "ausverkauft oder nicht verfügbar". That is a Shopify variant-inventory mismatch rather than a real stock signal, so check before assuming either.
What the printed number is not
It is not the force needed to close the gripper. The grip community uses RGC, Rating of a Gripper at Close, measured on a calibrated device so that different brands can be compared at all. On that scale, the printed Heavy Grips number runs roughly double the real figure.
Measured RGC averages, from the Handgrippers.nl dataset sourced from GripBoard:
| Model | Printed | Measured RGC | Range across units | Closest CoC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HG 100 | 100 lb | 43.3 lb | 38.0 to 48.5 | Sport (41.7) |
| HG 150 | 150 lb | 60.0 lb | 55.0 to 65.0 | Trainer (59.5) |
| HG 200 | 200 lb | 89.8 lb | 81.0 to 98.1 | #1 to #1.5 |
| HG 250 | 250 lb | 108.9 lb | 82.7 to 122.1 | just under #2 (110.4) |
| HG 300 | 300 lb | 135.4 lb | 100.0 to 156.1 | #2.5 to #3 |
| HG 350 | 350 lb | 176.1 lb | 153.0 to 196.0 | #3.5 (176.8) |
The fair conclusion is not that the gripper is fake. On the RGC scale a HG 350 genuinely sits level with a Captains of Crush #3.5, which is a serious gripper. IronMind's own nominal numbers are inflated by roughly the same factor, so the two marketing scales happen to line up. What neither number is, is pounds of closing force.
This matches what my Grip Trainers Worth Buying in Europe note already found from a second, independent rig: Gods of Grip measure a CoC #3 at around 144 lb against IronMind's nominal 280. Two datasets, same conclusion, roughly half.
The real drawback: unit variance
Look at the range column, not the average. Handgrippers.nl flag it themselves: the Heavy Grips vary more between units than the Captains of Crush do.
- HG 300 was measured between 100 and 156 lb across 14 units. The same product, in the same box, spanning a CoC #2 to past a CoC #3.
- HG 250 ran 82.7 to 122.1 lb across 7 units.
- Standard deviation on the HG 300 and HG 350 is around 14 lb. The CoC #3, across 139 tested units, sits at 7.4 lb.
So you cannot log a number against it. "I closed the 250" means nothing to anyone else, and buying the next level up does not guarantee a real step up. That is what €14.99 buys you, and it is a reasonable trade if you know it going in.
Who it is for
Buy it if you want to find out whether gripper training sticks before spending real money, or you want cheap volume work at a fixed load below your top gripper. At €14.99 a level, or the full set, the downside is trivial.
Skip it if you want to track progress properly. A pre-rated gripper from Gods of Grip at around £26, or a Cannon PowerWorks unit, comes with a measured RGC number on the actual gripper you receive. Every future purchase then has a reference point, which is the thing the cheap ones cannot give you at any price.
Practical notes: the knurling is aggressive enough to bite dry hands, aluminium handles are lighter than they look, and the springs on this design are the part that fails first. None of that matters much at this price.
Alternatives
| Option | Price | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Gods of Grip Elite, pre-rated | ~£26 | You get the measured number for your unit |
| IronMind Captains of Crush | ~€30 | The reference ladder, tight unit consistency |
| Gorilla Sports full set | €14.99 | Six levels for the price of one CoC, no comparability |
My take
Worth owning for what it is: a cheap fixed load. I would buy the set rather than a single level, because the whole value is having a ladder to climb, and the individual numbers are meaningless anyway.
The lasting takeaway is the crosswalk table above. Any gripper sold with a big round lbs number on it, from any brand, is quoting a marketing scale. Halve it to get somewhere near reality, and treat the printed figure as a model name. Full field in Grip Trainers Worth Buying in Europe.
Further reading
- Gorilla Sports product page
- Handgrippers.nl gripper ratings, the RGC dataset
- Gods of Grip ratings data
- Cannon PowerWorks ratings data