(Last Updated On: March 22, 2024)

IMTUG –

  • Name: IMTUG Thumb Gripper
  • Category: Classical Spring Hand Gripper
  • Purpose: Crush Grip
  • Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Vendors: Amazon, Temu

View Price on Amazon See Alternative on Temu (Cheaper)

  • Utility, Thumb Gripper – 7 Different Resistance Levels
  • Knurled Handles – Aggressive Handles to Toughen Palms
  • Durable – Made of Billet Aluminium & Alloy Steel

IMTUG Thumb Gripper – Review

Overview, Details & Everything Relevant You Need To Know

What Is IMTUG Utility gripper?

Overview:

IMTUG is currently one of the few grippers available that is designed to train your thumbs & pinch grip strength.

Unlike any other gripper, it’s your personal thumb trainer. If you’re looking forward to having healthier hands & also an effective grip to start lifting some seriously heavy weights along the road, having a strong thumb is a must.

IMTUG has over-sized, massive ergonomic handles to protect the palms of your hands meanwhile you focus on training your fingers individually. This is huge advantage with gripper like this one – You can train your fingers individually, which means tuning up your weaker fingers quickly & effectively like the pinkie & ring finger, including your thumb.

Whether you’re weight lifter, rock climber, wrestler or motocross driver, you need strong grip to be on top of your game.

IMTUG Utility gripper is well engineered, very high quality training device. It’s made of aircraft grade billet aluminium & alloy steel construction giving it superior performance. Made by IronMind, an industry leader since 1988.

Manufacturer also offers a 1-year warranty to their world famous spring grippers, in case you manage to break one.

What are the Pros & Cons with IMTUG?

Short, Stout & Powerful

Pros:

  • Superb Classical Gripper – Designed for superior performance, high-intensity & low-volume training to gain maximum grip strength in shortest window of time.
  • High Quality Product – It’s a professional grip training device designed for high-intensity training. It’s hand crafted with aircraft grade aluminium & alloy steel  construction.
  • Aggressive Knurled Handles – Big part of getting your grip stronger is also getting the skin of your palms stronger. CoC gripper tears up your hands to help them to get much stronger.
  • Durable – This type of gripper is completely made of metal parts to give it maximum durability – There are no plastic parts that can degrade, chemically deteriorate or break over the time.
  • Ideal Resistance Levels for All Athletes – There are eleven (7) different resistance levels to choose from, suitable from beginners to experts. There are ideal difficulty options for both men & women, younger & older generation.
  • Portable – Put one into your pocket or throw into training bag as you hit the gym. Easily portable, so you can take one on the road, or leave into your desk drawer.
  • Easy to Maintain – Consists of GR8 springs that are made of steel. They will oxidize in humid climates, to avoid rust you should wipe spring occasionally with a drop of light oil to prevent it from squeking & breaking. Knurled handles can be cleaned with a stiff nylon bristled brushes.
  • 1-Year Warranty – Your grippers will be replaced free of charge if they fail during proper use within one year of the date of purchase. To claim replacement, the gripper must be returned along with proof of purchase. Improperly used, misused, damaged or modified grippers are not warranted.

Cons:

  • Designed for Right Hand – Designed to train your right hand first & foremost. Still excellent for training both hands with slightly different feeling when training your left hand. In most cases, it’s a minor detail that most folks won’t notice at all. If you seek maximum comfort, performance & precision, for left hand training I’d recommend to use left-hand grippers, such as CoC Left-Turn, to complement a regular CoC gripper.
  • One Resistance Level Per Gripper – This is where adjustable hand grippers are more versatile. CoC is a static one-difficulty-only per gripper type of training equipment. To get the maximum out of your training progression it requires more investment from your side to access multiple grippers with different resistance levels.
Excellent Equipment

Captains of Crush - Ranking 90 out of 100

How Can You Benefit from IMTUG Utility Gripper?

Nifty Way to Build Thumb Strength

  • Power Up Your Pinch Grip Strength – IMTUG is special & unlike any other gripper in that way – It’s your personal thumb trainer. Having a strong thumb is a “gateway” if you’re aiming to lift some seriously heavy weights, to have healthier hands as well as a well-round built grip to make exercises & daily tasks easier.
  • Tune Up Your Weak Fingers Individually – It’s a huge advantage with IMTUG – You can train your fingers individually. This is an effective way to strengthen your weaker fingers like pinky & ring finger, including your thumb. Using this method you can build well-round, stronger grip effectively in less time.
  • Improve Your Finger Tendons Strength – This is one of the most important aspects of your hand health & strength: The actual hands ability to support the workload of activities & exercises you’re regularly performing. Using hand grippers helps you to gradually build tendons strength to work on more difficult exercises.
  • Build Maximum Crush Grip Strength – Squeezing objects between fingers is one of the 4 major hand movements & it’s called cruch grip – To grab an object most of the time you use this type of grip. Hand gripper is the absolute best way to quickly improve your crushing grip.
  • Improve Static Support Grip Strength – Gripper can be used when you squeeze the handles together & then hold them closed as long as you can. This is extra important exercise for you, if your main training equipment is barbell for example – Training like that allows you to hold bigger weights & for longer periods of time.
  • Build Well Conditioned Grip – One of the most important details to be on top of your sport is to have a better grip. Having an overall stronger, less fatigued grip helps you to perform your workout routines more effectively, as well as give bigger advantage in competitions.
  • Protect Hands from Injuries – Having a bit more muscle is excellent – Muscles act like cushion to protect our body. By increasing your functional strength as well as overall muscle mass grants you healthier hands & greatly protects you from possible injuries. Staying injury-free is prio #1 regardless of your sport.

Product Specifications:

  • Dimensions: 6.2×4.9×0.2″/ 15.7×12.45×0,51 cm
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces / 158 grams
  • Handles – Knurled, aluminum handles
  • Materials: Billet aluminum & alloy steel
  • Quantity – One (1) gripper
  • Resistance Levels – Seven (7)
  • Manufacturer: IronMind (USA)

IMTUG has excellent design – Like CoC, it’s precise, with no surprise geometry. It’s consistent across the board.

IMTUG grippers are powerful, short & stout, well engineered & completely built with metal parts: Steel & aircraft grade aluminium to be as durable as possible.

IMTUG grippers are very easily portable – Put one into pocket, or throw into your training bag once you’re hitting the gym.

Who Can Benefit from IMTUG Utility Grippers?

Any Athlete, Men & Women, Older & Younger

Gripper training is excellent for both, beginners & experts alike to get your grip stronger, or even stronger than it already is.

Younger or older, man or woman, casual trainee or hardcore athlete, training grip is giving you functional strength that you can use & likely use every single day. In most sports, the very first point of contact with object is literally through your
fingertips. Doesn’t matter if you’re holding a basketball, baseball bat, golf club or weightlifting barbell..

The more functional strength you have in your hands, the better the performance in your respective sport likely will be.

IMTUG Utility Grippers – What are They & How to use Them?

Personal Thumb Trainers

New PRs, healthier hands, better performance. IMTUG brings new training possibilities for grippers & grip related feats. Ever notice that your fingers differ in length & strength? IronMind did & set out to design a sharp-looking little gripper that allows you to train your fingers one or two at a time.

Unlike conventional hand grippers, it also allows you to train your thumb. Think of IMTUG as being like a tug boat – short, stout, powerful & irresistible in your grip strength & hand health training program. Use IMTUG grippers to build strong & healthy hands. It’s perfect for zeroing in on areas requiring additional strength & muscle balance.

IMTUG utility gripper is also great for prehab & injury prevention. Use it to rehab injuries or compensate for muscle overuse. Perfect for standalone training or used in conjunction with Captains of Crush & Zenith grippers.

How to Get Maximum Out of Your Gripper Training?

Strength, Conditioning & Recovery

IronMind offers 4 different types of grips along with IMTUG thumb grips that you can use for your benefit, with multiple different resistance levels to cover all your training routines, including the rehabilitation, injury-nursing part.

Being in better shape as well as mending injuries are vital parts of your hand health. Whether you’re trying to get your strength back up for your recently dislocated finger, or trying to treat repetitive strain injury like Tennis Elbow, proper gripper can be an excellent way to go.

#1 Classical Gripper
Captains of Crush - The Gold Standard of Hand Grippers

#2 Lefty Gripper
CoC Left-Turn Hand Gripper

#3 Smooth Gripper
Zenith Hand Gripper - The comfortable crush by IronMind

#4 Hand-Bands
Extend-Your-Hand bands set, by IronMind

As always, for rehab purposes & for hand health in general, having balance is key for getting much stronger in functional strength department. I recommend to pair up your gripper training with extensor training – For that task you can use rubber hand bands to work on counter-movements to balance your hand muscles.

Extend-Your-Hand Bands are excellent addition to your grip training, whether you’re using one, two or multiple different grippers in your training routine. They’re inexpensive & they keep your hands pain-free. If not sure, you can ask any qualified physio-therapeut, chiropractor or relevant doctor, they’ll all say using hand-bands is likely excellent way to go.

What Other Sources Can You Tap Into To Up Your Grip Game?

Learn How to Train Your Grip

Simply work with hand grippers & specifically specialize in them, or up your entire game by learning new exercises along with crushing grippers. Among these authors there famous names, like Tommy Heslep, who is one of only five people in the world who  have certified for IronMind’s Captains of Crush #4 Gripper. Learn it all from the experts if you like.

#1 “Captains of Crush Grippers”
"Captains of Crush Grippers: What They Are & How to Close Them", by Randall Strossen

#2 “Mastery of Hand Strength”
"Mastery of Hand Strength", by John Brookfield

#3 “Grip Strength”
"Grip Strength", by Robert Spindler & Tommy Heslep

#4 “The Grip Master’s Manual”
"The Grip Masters Manual", by John Brookfield

How to Choose the Best IMTUG Grippers for You?

Thumb – weakest – use an easier IMTUG
Pinkie & ring fingers – moderate – use a medium IMTUG
Middle & index fingers – strongest – use a tougher IMTUG

Why Should You Always Choose a High-Quality Gripper?

Consistency & Precision

It can happen, that after couple of weeks of using a cheap plastic gripper you’re going to close it like a champion. It likely gives you a feeling that you’ve progressed so much already in such a short time.

If you’re a realist you know it’s clear as day that nothing is invulnerable – If you try hard enough, you can break CoC grips as well – That usually happens only when you maintain your equipment poorly: For example, storing grips in too humid conditions, not keeping equipment clean OR on top of it, modifying or exercising improperly with your gripper.


1The reality is that cheap grippers spring will wear out quickly. It keeps getting weaker & weaker.

Meanwhile you’re getting stronger, cheap gripper spring is getting weaker. In short: They’re likely inconsistent. Inconsistency often includes their geometry: Uneven handles, spring positioning. Small but effective nuances.

2Another problem is that cheap gripper springs tend to snap easily. That’s a safety issue for you.

There’s a chance that you’ll injure yourself, especially when spring snaps in the middle of the exercise & you’ll get hit by the shards of broken spring.

IMTUG

It’s better to invest into high quality hand gripper – They are consistent across the board & there is much less chance for equipment failure. In addition being well engineered, there is no surprise geometry, so you can monitor your results more precisely. You’ll get quality, train like a professional & eliminate guess-work from your workout routines.

Thanks for Stopping By

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4 thoughts on “IMTUG Gripper – Excellent Way To Skyrocket Thumb Strength

  1. Hi Henry, quite a great review I have to admit. I fall in love with the whole concept of IMTUG Grippers, I am a cyclist and my fingers always  feel very weak during long rides. Training them using IMTUG Utility Gripper, think will solve my problem.

     But the most troublesome fingers are of my left hand, I sometimes feel the same whenever I lift heavy weights, my right hand fingers are much stronger than left  fingers.My question is, will I find IMTUG Gripper model specifically for the left hand? I would like to train with a model that will produce instant results.

    1. Stronger all-around wrists & muscle balance is likely what you seek. Having a stronger dominant side is very normal. Most folks have stronger right hand & weaker left hand, nothing new & it’s just inherent nature of our bodies. As a cyclist chances are you’re always paddling in the same stance, hands & wrists always locked into exact same position.

      To not only survive but thrive I’d say break this circle to some degree. Otherwise repetitive strain injury is bound to follow sooner or later. Usually it takes years to develop these debilitating conditions & twice as much to get rid of them.

      On the moments when you put your bike away I’d suggest working on different aspects of your hands. Wrist rollers can be both fun & quick way to add functional strength to wrists in all directions. For additional muscle balance handbands will do the trick to tip the scale towards stronger, functional & pain free hands so you can be better cyclist all around.

  2. Hello Henry,
    I am experiencing some weakness in my right-hand & finger. I fought with my younger brother. What actually happened was that we were fighting and I punched him, unfortunately for me, I hit the middle finger of my right-hand on his bone and my finger got broke.

    After suffering the pains for weeks, someone referred hand gripper to my mum. I’ve used it for several days and some of the pain I am feeling got relieved. Terrible thing to experience, still not feeling myself hundred percent yet.

    1. Ouch. Sounds like a blunt force trauma. I went through similar accident recently, crushed my pinkie against brick wall while using crowbar. So I know quite well the pain you’re feeling. If tendons & bone gets hit hard, pain typically stays for weeks, fading slowly.

      Even if pain is gone for a moment, as a first thing I’d check for ruptured tendons. Even better let a medical professional do it for you. After swelling has gone down, there’s going to be plenty of rehab ahead.

      Once you’re certain your tendons are intact & bones healed back together, I’d look forward to some light exercising. No blasting away with grippers, simple stress ball & handbands are more than enough. That helps to regain hands mobility, followed by some extra strength & endurance.

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