Thursday 7 February 2013

Gear review: Grip trainers - Origin vs Scramble

Today I shall be reviewing two similar products by two different companies. The Origin "OrangaHangs" (sweet name) and the Scramble grip trainer (Come on guys you can do better than that). Firstly I would like to say that this in an unbiased review. Yes I was sponsored by Scramble in the  past but that shall have no baring on this review, favourably or unfavourably. Also neither company has asked me to review these. I just am.



So to begin. Both are these products are of very simple concept. They are pieces of gi like material that can be attached to a number of different pieces of equipment (barbells, pull up bars, kettle bells, cable, etc). They are used to work your grip, specifically your hand and finger strength as to strengthen it for when you next grab someones lapel or sleeve. The concept has been around for a while (I saw some primitive versions of these from a company that I cant remember back in 2006). As far as i'm aware I would say that the Orangahangs are probably the most popular and well known having been around a while before the scramble ones, but while the concept is the same the actual design of the two are very different. The differences between the two -


Design


The OrangaHangs are comprised or a two piece design; the body of the gripper, where you hold on to in various way, and a loop that attaches the body to a thick metal ring. You can either feed the loop through its self around a bar or simply use the metal ring and attach that to a clip (or tie shit on it, or whatever you can come up with). The Scramble trainers on the other hand are constructed of a single piece of material comprising of the body and a hole on top that you use to feed the body through to attach it to stuff. I feel that in terms of versatility the OrangaHangs take this. The metal ring allows almost endless attachment possibilites that can be very quickly and easy changed. The scramble trainers need to be put on something with some length to it (barbell, kettlebell, pull up bar) whereas the OrangaHangs can be clipped onto loading pins, chain, bands, etc, etc which just the addition of a carabiner clip.

Orangahangs



Scramble grip trainers

Material

The Orangahangs are made of a significantly thicker material than the Scramble trainers. This has both positives and negatives. I've trained with both and found the scramble ones a lot better for using a sleeve grip (grabbing the bottom and curling it around the tip of your fingers) and pistol grips, I found this slightly less practical with the OrangaHangs considering the thickness of the material. However I found the OrangaHands far better for rolling into a tube and holding like a wrist as the thickness meant when rolled up they had a lot more mass to them than the Scrambles. They were equal when it came to holding the sides in a lapel style grip. Id probably give the edge in feel to the Scrambles as pistol grips and sleeve grips are both pretty useful things to train.



Looks

Who gives a shit how they look?



Price

Without shipping, a pair of Orangahangs cost $49 (£31) and a pair of the Scramble trainers cost £20 ($31) (Crazy coincidence..). So the Scramble ones are a bit cheaper.



The most important one - STRENGTH


Ok. Time for a bit of a story. I first got the OrangaHang trainers a few years ago. I loved them, im a huge fan of grip strength and love any grip related toys. I excited got them out, did some pull ups, played around etc etc. I finished my workout by doing an exercise where we attached the pair together and I held one side and the Goat held the other, we pulled until someone let go (kinda a tug-of-war). It got competitive. We pulled and I herd a small tear, I got excited (I like to break shit). So I pulled harder and bam we tore them. I took a pic and put it on facebook. The owner of Origin found it and contacted me. In all fairness, the service was excellent, I didnt even have him on facebook so I dont know how he found me (come to think of it, its actaully quite worrying... anyway..) and organised for a replacement pair to be sent. I was appreciative as I did like them, I received the replacement pair and I kinda forgot about them. Fast forward a bit and my sponsors at the time scramble release their own grip trainer and I get sent a pair. I play with them, I like them. Fast forward a bit more (im not longer sponsored by scramble at this point) and im at home working out and I remember I have the Orangahangs, I wanna train some grip so I open the packet (hadn't been used since I got the replacements) and I hang them on some hooks in my garage to do some pull ups on, I grab each side with a lapel grip, lift myself up and *chhhhhh* I hear a bit of a tear. Im confused, I tug hard on one and bam the thing rips straight off. Confused at the ease at which them came off I grab the other one. Boom, its off as well.


That night I took the one remaining OrganaHang I had to the academy (was the unripped one from the first pair I had) and proceeded to make the following video.






As I mention in the video I believe that there are a new model of the OrangaHangs, if so then I would be more than happy to test them and see if they are stronger. 
When I first looked at the Scramble trainers I thought they they were very thing and would easily break, compared to the ruggedness of the OrangaHangs. As you can see when looped through correctly they were shockingly strong (the hard you pull the stronger they get). I thought that if I wanted to break them then pulling apart the center loop would rip them easy as shit. And I was blown away by how strong they were in that regard. 


In conclusion, if I was offered either of these I would take the Scrambles. I can't have shit breaking on me. 

Ape out. 









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