Necro post
So I took txdpd's advice (and wtturn's elsewhere) and avoided the CoC's after starting this thread, instead I just focused on building strength. For the last few years I've been lifting very regularly, mostly under the guidance of a good trainer. I also took up gymnastics and was doing that up to 4x a week. Then, last year around this time, I dislocated my strong-side shoulder and tore my labrum. Surgery and rehab brought me to New Year's. Then, I broke my weak-side wrist. For the past few months I've been rehabbing that. The only time I got to see a therapist for the wrist (a few months ago), they measured my crush grip at 116 lbs strong side and 90 lbs weak side. The strong side number matches up with my memory and journal from around the time of this thread. They gave me a plastic gripper, some theraband, and told me to buy a powerball. I got the NSD Titan and have been working with that and the plastic gripper since then. After the pandemic started, I got a set of rings for my pullup bar, since I haven't been able to return to gymnastics since my injury.
Discouraged that my measured crush grip didn't seem to have improved, I decided I'd probably give the CoC a shot. Now that the plastic gripper has gotten easy, I bought a set. The 0.5 through 2 arrived today, and I'm waiting on the G through T. My plan is to start with the G and work up very slowly. Nonetheless, when I got the 0.5 through 2 today, I couldn't help but give them a shot. I was shocked. Right out the gate I closed the 1 with each hand. After a couple of failed attempts, I'm pretty sure I closed the 1.5 strong side, and I got extremely close weak side. I tried the 1.5 again strong side to confirm but failed, tapped out. I haven't tried the 2, and I'm satisfied for now to quit while I'm ahead....my weak-side wrist was already bitching a little after each attempt.
I definitely think there's a bit of technique involved, particularly for the last little bit. I had one or two failed reps on the 0.5 out the gate, but after being totally sure I closed the 1 (and having warmed up properly) I went back to the 0.5 and closed it. I find the positioning techniques described in this video help
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pJcRDSqOIs, but I'm not setting them at all, I'm starting completely open, and I can close the 1 right after picking up the gripper and grabbing naturally with some sticking out the bottom. So, I don't know, maybe I'm "cheating" a little by moving low on the gripper, maybe the ones I got are a little weaker, or maybe something was off in my technique 3 years ago, but hand on metal today...it does seem to me like getting stronger over the last few years has made a difference.
Thanks again to everyone who chimed in and the various people I've gotten advice from on PF about strength training!