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Mastery of Hand Strength
Mastery of Hand Strength is the book on grip strength - the one that every grip guy in the last 10 years has read, probably at least twice. John Brookfield was the second man in the world to officially close the fearsome No. 3 Captains of Crush Gripper and the first to officially bend the IronMind Red Nail, and he has inspired and educated countless people who have gone on to excel in these areas. If strong hands and mighty wrists appeal to you, it's your starting point for a world-class grip. 120 pp.
- GenresFitness
105 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 24, 2025
Brookfield is one of the strongest people in the world when it comes to grip, forearm, and hand strength, and this book is basically a book on that. Forearm training is beginning to come back into fashion, and this book from the 90s feels way ahead of its time. It has a lot of niche exercises that are rarely used today for training forearms.
But parts of it also feel dated, for instance it says that there's very little chance of finding a kettlebell to buy, and that was the case in the early 90s, but today kettlebells have exploded and you can pick them up at your local Walmart easily and cheaply. So his chapter on making your own kettlebells feels extremely dated.
It's also sponsored by the company Ironmind, and it's clear that they worked their way into the text by getting him to mainly recommend their products, and not any competitor's products. So you should be aware of that before reading that at times it can feel like an ad for Ironmind's grip training products. But most of it consists of things you can do at home or build yourself, so it's not just an infomercial.
Overall there's very few books like it out there, so despite its limitations its the best of its kind. It has all kinds of history and facts that are of interest to grip strength enthusiasts, for instance, I didn't know that dentists used to pull teeth with their bare hands at one time, rather than using tools the way they do today.
There's also a nice chapter on what feats of grip strength are faked or exaggerated for TV and not actually possible. For instance, squeezing a can (either a classic aluminum can, like Popeye squeezing a can of spinach to open it) or a closed soda can (like Coca-Cola) and bursting it open just with the strength of your grip is not physically possible, he explains how he tried driving trucks on those things and they still did not open just from compressive force alone. He also explains how bending pennies in the UK, but not in the US, is possible by hand (because the material used to make coins there was a lot easier to bend, and because they are wider, and thinner coins than we have in the US). so overall it's full of interesting factoids like those, those types of random interesting facts alone made it worth reading to me. 4/5
But parts of it also feel dated, for instance it says that there's very little chance of finding a kettlebell to buy, and that was the case in the early 90s, but today kettlebells have exploded and you can pick them up at your local Walmart easily and cheaply. So his chapter on making your own kettlebells feels extremely dated.
It's also sponsored by the company Ironmind, and it's clear that they worked their way into the text by getting him to mainly recommend their products, and not any competitor's products. So you should be aware of that before reading that at times it can feel like an ad for Ironmind's grip training products. But most of it consists of things you can do at home or build yourself, so it's not just an infomercial.
Overall there's very few books like it out there, so despite its limitations its the best of its kind. It has all kinds of history and facts that are of interest to grip strength enthusiasts, for instance, I didn't know that dentists used to pull teeth with their bare hands at one time, rather than using tools the way they do today.
There's also a nice chapter on what feats of grip strength are faked or exaggerated for TV and not actually possible. For instance, squeezing a can (either a classic aluminum can, like Popeye squeezing a can of spinach to open it) or a closed soda can (like Coca-Cola) and bursting it open just with the strength of your grip is not physically possible, he explains how he tried driving trucks on those things and they still did not open just from compressive force alone. He also explains how bending pennies in the UK, but not in the US, is possible by hand (because the material used to make coins there was a lot easier to bend, and because they are wider, and thinner coins than we have in the US). so overall it's full of interesting factoids like those, those types of random interesting facts alone made it worth reading to me. 4/5
February 2, 2011
An older book, but a good one. If you have ever wanted stronger hands, for any reason (or no reason at all), there is plenty of good info in here. Aside from a few out-of-date comments (Kettlebells aren't the rare antique Brookfield describes), this one is very solid. Obviously great for combat athletes, martial artists, and other similar folks, but good for just about anyone who works with their hands a lot.
January 18, 2010
Lots of wacky exercises. Not exactly a great read. I guess I could have predicted that.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews