Elbow Pain can ruin your workout. When elbow pain gets in the way of your training like this, it can be hard to see the results that you want from your workout. To avoid elbow pain in my training, there are several handles that I use INSTEAD of doing them on the actual Pull-up Bar. This video shows you the handles I use to reduce elbow pain and make my Pull-ups virtually pain free.

Here are links to buy the devices shown in the video for pain free Pull-up training, as well

The Back Bull: I love this thing. It goes onto the bar easy and allows for both a near-overhand or near-underhand position, depending on which muscles you want to emphasize.

Perfect Pull-ups: Unfortunately, I can no longer find Perfect Pull-ups for sale. However, there is a tool out there called Stamina Rotating Handles that look very similar. What’s nice about these is that they allow for a bit wider grip.

Grapple Grips: To my surprise, I can not find these handles anymore either. That’s a shame because these handles could be used for Dumbbell Rows and Cable Rows, as well. A similar device you might want to try is the Grandfather Clocks from Rogue Fitness

Metolius Rock Rings: These tools are made for training the hands for the demands of climbing, but with the way they swivel while hanging from a bar, the make Pull-ups much more comfortable for the elbows.

All of these handles are very effective at reducing the pain you feel when doing Pull-ups and Chin-ups. If your back training seems to be suffering due to elbow pain, then give one of these a try and see if they can be effective at reducing elbow pain from Pull-ups as much as they have been for me.

Any questions on these tools, feel free to ask via the comments section below, email, or message.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

I recently released a new tee-shirt: Crushin’ Grippers Like It’s My Job.

These shirts are printed by a friend I’ve recently met, named Bob Marean.

These are not screen-printed shirts, and are not direct-to-garment.

The process actually involves first printing the design to a sheet of paper using special ink, then placing the sheet on top of of the shirt, and inside a special heated press for about 20 seconds.

The shirts are done in less than 2 minutes.

Below are the colors that are available.

                              Blizzard                                     Steel Grey

                              Terra                                                Yellow

Order Below

Crushin’ Grippers Steel Grey

Steel Gray Small $19.99 USDSteel Gray Medium $19.99 USDSteel Gray Large $19.99 USDSteel Gray XL $19.99 USDSteel Gray 2X $20.99 USDSteel Gray 3X $20.99 USD

Crushin’ Grippers Yellow

Yellow Small $19.99 USDYellow Medium $19.99 USDYellow Large $19.99 USDYellow XL $19.99 USDYellow 2X $20.99 USDYellow 3X $20.99 USD

Crushin’ Grippers Light Blue

Light Blue Small $19.99 USDLight Blue Medium $19.99 USDLight Blue Large $19.99 USDLight Blue XL $19.99 USDLight Blue 2X $20.99 USDLight Blue 3X $20.99 USD

Crushin’ Grippers Terra

Terra Small $19.99 USDTerra Medium $19.99 USDTerra Large $19.99 USDTerra XL $19.99 USDTerra 2X $20.99 USDTerra 3X $20.99 USD

Most Tee-Shirts ship within a day. They can take longer if they are out of stock. Getting a shirt back in stock only takes a few days though. Please feel free to email with any questions: jedd dot diesel at gmail dot com.

Thanks, and all the best in your training.

Jedd

      

The Next Grip Strength Competition will take place on February 7th, and I am designing it to be very welcoming to new competitors.

Grip Hogs Day

Silver Bullet Hold

DATE: February 7th, 2015
ENTRY FORM: Grip Hogs Day

EVENTS:
Silver Bullet Hold
Two Hands Pinch
Two Hand Axle Deadlift
Pickaxe Lift
Bull Ring Lift

WEIGH-IN: Any time after 8:00am (scale will be spot-calibrated)
WEIGHT CLASSES: Your lifts will be logged per North American Grip Sport’s weight class system (59k, 66k, 74k, 83k, 93k, 105k, 120k, 120k+)

DIVISIONS: Beginner / Experienced / Expert
Places will be figured based on experience level…examples:

**Beginners – Very limited grip experience

**Experienced – 2 or more grip contests

**Expert – Seasoned Veterans

SIGN-IN: 9:00am
RULES: 9:30am
START: 10:00am

LOCATION: Jedd Johnson’s Garage Gym
EMAIL FOR DIRECTIONS: jedd dot diesel at gmail dot com

ENTRY FEE: $20. POSSIBLE THROW-IN FOR PIZZA AFTERWARDS
DEADLINE: February 1st – Paying on contest day, add $10, unless otherwise notified.
Events subject to change without notice
Events order subject to change without notice

MAKE ALL CHECKS/ MONEY ORDERS PAYABLE TO: JEDD JOHNSON

MAIL ENTRY FORM AND FEE TO:
JEDD JOHNSON
PO BOX 806
WYALUSING, PA 18853

HOTELS
Available upon request. Please contact me.

AIRPORTS (all three are about the same distance from Wyalusing, 1.5 hrs)
Scranton/Wilkes Barre PA
Binghampton NY
Elmira NY

Event Explanations & Demonstrations

Silver Bullet
The IronMind Silver Bullet is placed between the handles of a #3 gripper. The #2 can be used by women and if the athlete can not get a proper attempt on the #3.

Two Hands Pinch
The adjustable pinch device is used, with steel outside plates and rubber inserts. It is adjustable from 12 to 64mm. With a two-hand, overhand grip, the athlete lifts the device until the loading pipe contacts a cross-bar 16.5 inches high, and then must return the implement to the floor without losing grip on it.

Two Hand Axle
A 1.9-inch thick barbell, called and Axle, is gripped with two hands in an overhand grip. The athlete must lift the axle to lockout. Once the referee gives the down signal, he must lower it back to the ground without losing his grip.

Pickaxe to Front (Max Weight)
The Pickaxe device is loaded at the front and gripped at the end. It must be lifted so the front crosses the height of 30 inches, without a steel shot falling off. The steel shot prevents excessive tilt. The Pickaxe can be lowered with two hands.

The Bull Ring
The Bull RIng is a brand new event testing extensor strength. The hand is placed palm-down inside the ring, contacting only the underside of the lifting surface, and at no time can come in contact with the V-shaped supports on the underside. The athlete must lift the Bull Ring to lockout, get a good call from the ref, and the return it to the floor without losing grip on the implement.

I hope to see you on February 7th. It’s gonna be a great time.

Jedd

Increase Your Two Hands Pinch
Order Your Copy of Napalm Pinch TODAY

I Love Strength.

I love training for it. I love testing it. I love displaying it.

I’ve aligned everything in my workouts to help me build more strength.

My obsession with strength has led me to turning even the lifts that you wouldn’t normally consider “strength lifts” into legitimate tests of strength and intestinal fortitude.

One such example is the Triceps Rope Pushdown. Generally an exercise used to pump up the triceps and make them grow, I’ve found it can also be used to test the strength throughout much of the upper body.

I don’t bother staying super strict with this. My arms move, I engage my lats, and there is a bit of throw in there, but I don’t care.

The objective is to move so much weight on this old-school cable machine of mine, that I hope to cause a failure in the device somewhere, so that the weight crashes down, cracking the concrete floor, and bits and pieces of shrapnel shoot out everywhere.

I hit this lift and variations of it countless times during the month of October, throughout the Yoketober program. But most of that work was for high volume to build mass. I decided I wanted to see just how heavy I could go.

During most of my Yoketober workouts, I was in the 75lb to 90lb area on this lift. It wasn’t until last week that I finally decide to go after triple digits, working all the way up to 125.

Build Strong Triceps: Heavy Triceps Rope Push-dwons

In the video above, I get 5 reps. That means it’s time to go up in weight, brotherrrr.

Also, take note, I don’t count the first one, where I throw it down to the bottom position. A little decorum, please.

It may seem crazy to do this, but to me it’s not.

I like ramping up the intensity, and I enjoy turning things like this into tests of strength.

What’s awesome is that since my Push-down is plate loadable, there’s really no limit as to how much weight I can use, whereas on most Push-down machines at commercial gyms, you’re limited to the weight stack, and I can usually stack those with no problem.

I will continue to hit these Heavy Push-downs until the weight I use totally destroys my machine, or until I shred the sleeves open on the awesome 3/4 length sleeve tee shirt I wear in the video.

Here’s to you causing serious damage this year as well.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Want to Build a Massive Yoke?
Then Check Out YOKETOBER Below

Each year, I go back through all of the uploads I have put on YouTube to see which ones were the most popular, based on views, and post them on the site at the end of the year.

Every year I do this, someone writes in asking “How did I miss this one?” or “Thanks for re-posting that, because I didn’t see it the first tie around,” so I am going to continue the tradition this year as well.

As always, I invite you to subscribe to my channel and set up email notifications so that when I upload a new video, you instantly get a message and you can watch it.

Also, I hope you will hit the “Like” or “Thumbs up” button when you view my videos. This is the rating system that YouTube uses and by hitting this button, it will help my channel grow. Thank you so much for helping me out in this regard.

As you watch the videos, please feel free to go to the video and leave a comment, if you have any questions. I log all of the questions I get for the weekly show I do called “Cooking with Napalm.”

And now, let’s begin the countdown…

Top 20 Videos of 2014

20. #Yoketober Workout #1 – 873 Views

Yoketober took place during October, 2014. This program laid out an entire month of training here the Yoke, the traps, upper back, shoulders, and triceps, was trained in some fashion. I enjoyed this month greatly, and want to do something like this again. If you want to build your Yoke, you can still pick up Yoketober here: Yoketober – Build a Scary Yoke.

19. Grip Monster Challenge: IronMind Hub Lift – 888 Views

At the beginning of the year, Juha Harju of Finland, ran several rounds of GripMonster Challenges, and one of them was the IronMind Hub Lift. In this video, my partners, Luke Raymond and Dan Ely, and myself push one another to get some big lifts on the Hub.

18. Giant Goblet Squat – 200lb Kettlebell – Massive Upper Back Strength – 894 Views

Earlier this year, I borrowed a 200-lb Kettlebell from my friend Robbie. I uploaded a few different videos that featured this Kettlebell, and in this one, we attempt a Goblet Squat with it. Dan Ely, by far, got the best one out of us. This thing is freaky huge but a heck of a lot of fun to train with!

17. Pain Free Barbell Hip Thrusts – The Special Device I Use – 985 Views

One of my primary goals this year was to build bigger stronger legs. After years of avoiding leg training, I decided I’d have enough of being called “Chicken Legs” and “Light Bulb.” One of the lifts I began doing this year religiously was the Barbell Hip Thrust. However, I got sick of the pain of the barbell digging into my body really quick, so I began using my Saxon Bar instead. I have since graduated to a bigger Saxon Bar with a larger loading surface, so I don’t have to worry about plates falling off the sleeves or binding everything together using JumpStretch Bands.

16. Trying the Derek Poundstone 100 Rep Empty Barbell Curl Challenge – 1008 Views

I was introduced to the Poundstone Curl Challenge by my friend, Jason Steeves. At first, I thought this challenge was absolutely absurd, but tried it anyway. Then, after failing several times to come anywhere near 100-reps, I decided I would really try to focus on this. I have since succeeded in hitting 100-reps in the unloaded barbell as well as with an additional 5lbs of weight added. It really is a fun challenge and a good way to finish off an intense arm training session.

15. Upper Body Muscle Workout with Barbell and Dumbbells: Chest, Shoulders, Biceps – 1166 Views

In the Winter of 2014, it was so stinking cold in the garage, that I had enough and said, “Let’s Go to the Edge,” which is a pretty darned good gym in Towanda, PA owned by a friend of mine, Scott Wilcox. Luke and I went there for at least 2 or maybe 3 workouts during the Winter and we introduced Grip Training to some of the members, and watched a couple of them end up manhandling #2.5 grippers and even put a hurting on light #3’s. Here’s the highlights from one of those trips to the Edge.

14. Card Tearing: Ripping a Deck in Half and Then Quarters – 1208 Views

One day in the late Spring/early Summer, out of nowhere I got the urge to rip some cards, so I went and grabbed the first deck I could find and tried to quarter it. I got the first half, but my hands were cooked and couldn’t finish off the second half into quarters.

If you ever thought it would be cool to learn card tearing you were right. It is cool and lots of fun, and my Card Tearing eBook shows you exactly how to learn this awesome feat of strength.

13. 80lb Strict Dumbbell Curl – For 2 REPS Per Arm! – 1248 Views

I love all forms of curls. I don’t care what kind they are. One of my ultimate goals in training is to build 20″ arms cold, and another is to curl 100-lb dumbbells. I am getting closer, as in the video below I am able to knock out 2 reps per arm with 80’s.

12. Back Training with the Back Bull – 1296 Views

I’ve had the Back Bull in my equipment arsenal for several years and I love it. My Friday training partner, Mark, and I use it quite often throughout the year, mainly for Pull-ups. I did a video this year showing some of the ways I like to use the Back Bull, as well as why I think it is so awesome.

If you like the Back Bull, and want to learn more about it, check it out here: The Back Bull

11. How to Build Arm Size and Strength: Negative Preacher Curls – 1317 Views

During #AugustOfArms, I hit #31DaysOfArms and was very happy with the arm size increases I saw. One of the things I did throughout the month was mix up the types of contractions I was doing, so not only was I blowing up the volume with lots of isotonic work, but I also did isometric and eccentric-emphasized training, like I show below.

Are You Training to Lift the Blob?
Get the Ebook That Shows Exactly How to Train for This Famous Feat of Strength:
Lift the Blob: Even If You Have Small Hands

10. Get Super Strong Hands – High Volume Blob Training – Open Hand Strength Density – 1304 Views

At the beginning of the year, there were several cool challenges going on, especially the Grip Monster Challenges. These included Dips Plus Weight, Wall Curls, and several grip challenges like the one below – 50lb Blob to 50cm Platform for Max Repetitions. I ended up winning this challenge, eventually knocking out 20 repetitions with a 50-lb Blob.

9. Build Big Arms and Strong Wrists with Scale Weight Curls – 1527 Views

Throughout #AugustOfArms, I was trying to challenge myself to hit as many variations of arm work as possible, and one of them that I did several times was the Scale Weight Curl. I liked this one because not only did it make the biceps work hard, but it also hit the wrist with authority as well, and any time you can kill two birds with one stone with a lift, I am ALL ABOUT IT, BROTHER.

8. Build a Big Back – Sally Pull-up Challenge – 1812 Views

Since I began training wrestlers from my alma mater, I have always been looking for new ways to challenge them in order to make them better and stronger, both physically and mentally. One of the wrestlers showed me Sally Push-ups and we gave that a try. Once I saw how much they liked it, I knew we had to apply it to some other lifts as well, and one of them was Sally Pull-ups.

7. Poundstone 100 Rep Challenge – New PR – WOOOH! – 1823 Views

This is the second Poundstone Challenge video on the countdown, and it might be my “craziest” video I put up all year. I got into a different frame of mind for this video, and it resulted in a much better performance on the challenge than I had attained before that point.

6. Heavy Dumbbell Curls +/- 80×3 – Big Strong Biceps Training – 1941

I think my viewers like watching Dumbbell Curl videos as much as I love producing. That sounds like a match made in heaven to me! In the #6 video, I curl 80’s for a set of 3. I think I can probably do even more than this now, as recently my loading has been based on much heavier weights with lower volume, compared to lighter weights with higher volume through most of the summer.

5. Giant Kettlebell Swings – 200lb – 2 Hands and One – 1941 Views

People love watching GIGANTIC KETTLEBELLS getting lifted. This is the second video on the countdown of this monstrous 200-lb Kettlebell.

4. Leaning Press: Overhead Lifting WITHOUT Back Pain – 2105 Views

Back pain is something I’ve dealt with ever since my Freshman year in High School. It was a daily struggle of mine through most of the 2000’s. These days though, I’ve managed to reduce my number of Back Pain Episodes greatly. However, when I do hurt my back, I’ve found several work-arounds that allow me to still get my training in. This is one of them:

3. Grip Monster Challenge – Dip Plus Weight: Jedd Johnson 404.9lbs – 2460 Views

Here’s one of the Grip Monster Challenges that didn’t actually have to do with Grip Strength. This is the Weighted Dip. I believe I came in 2nd or 3rd place in this lift. Great times. I certainly think Heavy Weighted Dips are a great training method, although constantly testing your 1RM all the time isn’t completely necessary.

2. Pain Free Pull-ups | Build Your Back | No Elbow Pain – 3568

Pull-ups are a great back builder. Unfortunately, if I do too many of them on a regular Pull-up Bar, I often start feeling pain in my wrists, elbows and shoulders. That doesn’t mean I don’t do them though. This video shows a whole bunch of variations I like to use. This also marks the second video where the Back Bull makes an appearance.

1. Lifting the 200-lb Kettlebell – 7325 Views

And now it’s time for my most popular video of the year, based on views. With more than 7,000 views this year alone, it’s yet another video featuring the Giant 200-lb Kettlebell.

WOOOH – there it is, brotherrrr – the Top 20 Countdown of 2014’s top videos is complete!

Thank you for watching, rating, and sharing my videos this year. I truly appreciate your support.

Make sure you are signed up for email updates, so you know when knew videos and blog posts come out on the site.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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