A Return to Steel Bending – Bending the Red Nail Reverse
lumber jack, and STEEL BENDER.
A couple weeks back, I participated in a benefit for a boy in the area to help raise money for his condition called Mason’s Hope 5K SuperHero Run/Walk.
During the show, I bent a couple of 60D Nails, and I think I struck a nerve.
No, I’m not saying I injured myself.
I think I may have re-lit a fire, deep down…
Feeling the steel bending as you pull, feeling it succumbing to your strength, peaceful destruction – it truly is an awesome feeling, and I may be addicted once again.
My first day “back at it,” I decided to test myself with one of the feats of bending strength for which I’m most well-known: Bending a Red Nail with the Reverse Technique.
At 5/16″ inches thick and 7″ long, the Red Nail is a piece of cold-rolled steel available from IronMind.
You can become a Red Nail certified bender if you successfully bend the Red Nail with the proper wraps in under 60 seconds.
Most people use what’s called the “Double Overhand” technique to certify on the Red Nail because it enables you to get a great deal of your upper body strength into the bend, and you don’t have to rely so much on grip and lower arm strength.
I didn’t bother with the Double Overhand technique.
Instead, I wanted to keep it more of a test of grip strength, so I went with the Reverse Technique.
When bending with Reverse technique in a grip contest, or when aiming for online certification lists, you have 30 seconds to acquire a 40-degree bend in the bar.
The first day I tried the bend, I didn’t take note of the time, and I quit too early, as I still had nearly 10 seconds to go.
Nevertheless, I was able to get about a 25-degree bend in about 20 seconds. You can see the video below:
Red Nail Reverse Bend Attempt 1
The second time trying this bend was a different story…
This time, I had a clock running on the wall to keep track of my time, and instead of only getting 2 hits, like my first attempt, I got 4 hits on the bar, and was able to bend it approximately 60 degrees.
Red Nail Reverse Bend Attempt 2
Yes, it’s safe to say that I’ve got a fire burning again, for steel bending.
I have no idea how far this will go.
I know I want to get my hands on more steel.
I want to wrap that steel with my suede wraps, and I want to hit it with all my power 3 or 4 times inside of 30 seconds until it buckles, folds, and succumbs to my might.
Oooohhhh, it feels so good.
If you want to feel one of the greatest feelings in the world of strength training – steel melting in your bare hands, get some light steel, get some wraps to protect your hands, and get one of my resources below that will steer you exactly where you need to go in order to be safe and successful in steel bending.
Nail Bending Ebook: The most complete steel bending reference in the world, loaded with instructional pics that show you all the major bending styles, how to wrap for high performance, and how to progress from the easiest bars around to some of the absolute hardest.
Nail Bending DVD: For those who like a more action-packed type of instruction, this DVD walks you through the wrap-up process, as well as each of the 3 big bending techniques: Double Overhand, Double Underhand, and my favorite, Reverse Bending, plus it shows you how to use strength training in order to bring up any weaknesses you might have in your technique.
All the best in your training.
Jedd
Articles You Might Also Like:
