That may seem like an odd title when so many people spend all their time with new training plans and the hottest supplements to add muscle to their frame. But what can I say? I’m unconventional.

My goal is performance, that is what I can lift, rather then looking bigger. Although I’m tall I’m not a very big guy. At 6’2″ I tip the scales at about 185 right now. The biggest I’ve ever been was just over 190. Since a lot of what I do is bodyweight training adding mass doesn’t really help with those goals. Thus I choose to stay small. But I also like to lift heavy stuff.

It’s because of my size that I commonly hear the phrase, “You don’t look strong.”

But what does strength have to do with looks? For the average person the appearance of muscles means strength, but that’s only a piece of the puzzle if you want to become truly strong. In fact it’s not even near the top of the list of necessary things. And just because someone is muscular doesn’t necessarily mean they’re very strong either.

How do you get stronger without adding lots of muscle? There’s a few ways.

A muscle can learn to contract harder without the cells being any more in number or size.

Use your mind to access more of the strength you already have.

And the main method I want to talk about today. The muscles are just one of the things that are used in lifting. Sure they get the spotlight and all the publicity, but for the super strong you’ll want to focus elsewhere. I’m talking about the tendons, ligaments and bones themselves. Supports and partials are two ways to train them.

Supports

Did you know that famous strongman Louis Cyr (whom a movie is being made about right now) back lifted more than 4000 lbs? If you don’t know what the back lift is, its a support where a platform is placed across the back. The legs and arms are straightened to lift the weight only about an inch or so. This was also a favorite of Steve Justa. This position is sometimes held or just done quickly.

Louis Cyr Back Lifting

Think about this for a second. If you tried to support that weight what would happen? I don’t know about you but it’s likely my bones would break under such a load. Perhaps your femur my snap or more than likely a joint would give out. Yet in working up to this feat Cyr was able to handle massive weights. I’m not sure if this made his bones any thicker in dimension but certainly denser and stronger.

There are several old-time lifts called supports because you support the weight rather then lifting it. Though often in order to hold a support you need to do a lift to get it in place which requires a short range lift. Here’s a list of a few of them besides the back lift:

Leg press support (like in a leg press machine but just supporting the weight. Some of the old-time strongmen would support a plan of wood on their legs which people would sit on while they laid on their backs)

Overhead support (This was a favorite of John Grimek and it is said he worked up to supported 1000lbs in this position. They would support a barbell from chains hanging off the rafters and then lift it up into the support position.)

Standing support (Think of the top position of a squat with the barbell across the shoulders. Just try this with a heavy weight and whatever you’re use to squatting will feel very light in comparison.)

Wrestler’s bridge support (This is a personal favorite of mine as a neck strengthener. Get in the wrestler’s bridge position and lift a barbell or have someone sit on you to add resistance.)

There’s many more possibilities. You could do a one arm overhead support or a zercher squat support. Use your creativity.

Anton Riha is shown here supporting 1400 lbs in quite the standing support.

The bones are much stronger at supporting weight then the muscles are in lifting, especially through a full range of motion. Which brings me to the next subject…

Partials

Partials get their name from doing a partial range of motion instead of the full range done in most lifts. Depending on what range of motion you work these in, you’ll typically be stronger than the full range.

These are also great for people engaged in any sport or martial art. How many sports involve even parallel squats? Very few. Instead you can get stronger just in the top quarter range of motion which will translate over to more speed, bigger jumps, etc.

(As a side note the full range of a lift is quite arbitrary in some cases. A full range deadlift is only about half the available range of motions for the muscles involved. For a true full range of motion you’d have to be on a platform with your arms going down much lower than shin level.)

Look, full ranges of motion are great. I highly advise you to do them. But if that’s all you do then you’re missing out on some of the best training possible to strengthen your connective tissues and bones. If you only ever lift the comparably light weights that you need to for full ranges then you’re not going to build these areas to as great of a degree as you possibly could.

You can work different partials like a quarter, half or three quarter squat. You can make even smaller jumps doing progressive distance training. There are many benefits and different ways to use partials.

One of the simplest in my opinion is working the top quarter range of motion like in this rack pull here, a recent PR for myself. You can not only use really heavy weights but partials tend to be even safer than full ranges of motion.

This can be done with any exercise though they’re typically done with the big compound movements like squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press and sometimes rows.

Supports will not add muscle because the only work they’re doing is to support keeping the bones in place. I suppose for a completely untrained individual they’d get that effect, but not for your average trainer.

With partials it will depend on how you train them. More reps and volume could add muscle. But if you do them in my preferred way, working at high intensity, you’ll get stronger but without much size.

All of these lifts will strengthen your bones, tendons and ligaments. You don’t need to do them all. Just pick one or a few to start with. As with everything you’ll want to build up to this slowly. Don’t’ go too far too fast as you body may not be ready for it. But you may surprise yourself in a short time just how much you can handle.

For more information check out my newest book Deceptive Strength available here. Right now you can grab it along with a bunch of bonuses.

-Logan Christopher-

Adjustable Crescent Wrench Bent by Hand,
Braced on Thigh (Pittsburgh Brand)

For more than a year, I have been trying off and on to bend a wrench. I must have tried about 10 different wrenches! I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be able to pull off this feat. I was getting pretty frustrated!!!

My constant efforts to bend a Wrench and then looking at it and seeing it was straighter than before I tried bending it reminded me that when we put together our Braced Bending DVD, I made sure that my partner, Mike Rinderle, covered the sections showing how to bend the wrenches, because I couldn’t even wobble them, let alone bend them into a U shape like he could.

This past week, I decided I was going to give it another shot. It had been several months since I tried, but I was feeling good and decided to give it a whirl.

I was pumped when i gave it the initial effort and felt it give a bit. I continued to give it all I had and little by little I was progressing in the bend.

Unfortunately, I only had 6 minutes left on my camera, and at one point, probably abut 8 minutes into the bend, I noticed the little red light was off.

So, I went through and deleted a couple minutes of other stuff off the camera and finished the bend.

Since the “officialness” of the video was gone once the camera went off, I went ahead and did some editing of the video to make it a bit shorter.

Also, the first thing you’re going to see is me showing the bent wrench. Something pretty cool happened that I wasn’t aware of, although it is possible that it happens every time you bend a wrench like this.

You’ll see what I mean when you start the video.

Lessons Learned from Wrench bending

I learned a few things from bending this wrench that I want to pass on to all of you in case wrench bending is something you are going to try.

1) Get Your Wraps Tight

I should have already known this from my years of nail bending, but I failed to remember it. All I did was wrap the suede around the ends of the wrench and go. As a result, they were shifting on me during the bend. Had I tightened them like a “Motorcycle Throttle” like Mike Rinderle says, and if I’d put some rubber bands on there, I think it would have been easier.

2) Keep the Steel Hot

When you bend something, the steel heats up and it gets a bit easier to bend. But if you mess around and take too much time between shots on the wrench or if you take too much time catching your breath, the steel cools down and it makes your job tougher. The problem with the poor wrap-job contributed to my slowness in working through the wrench.

3) This Stuff is Hard

Sometimes, I think that I should just be able to blow through every feat just because I have been doing this stuff so long. Seeing other people blow through wrenches, makes me think I should just be able to easily dominate them even more. However, those other guys who make short work of braced feats can do that because they have worked their asses off to be that good. Neither you, nor I, should expect to dominate feats like this if we aren’t honing our skills. I want to get better at it, which means I need to do it more.

And if I am going to do it more, I need to get me some more Wrenches!!!

If you want to try your hand at Wrench bending or other braced strongman feats, check out our DVD on Braced Bending.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

When Will You Die: Host, Jake Porway and Jedd after doing some Frying Pan work

Set your DVR’s and VCR’s to record Nat Geo at 10 PM tomorrow night – Monday April 22.

That’s right, I am asking you to tear yourself away from the final hour of Monday Night Raw tomorrow night.

Maybe you’re wondering why…

Many of you remember from last September the Top Secret Grip Trip that I took to California.

This show is what that trip (and my second trip in December) were both for.

The Show is called “The Numbers Game” and the episode is called “When Will You Die.”

I have not seen the show, so I am not sure how it was edited all together. All I know is that I took two separate trips out there last Fall and Winter and bent about two dozen horseshoes, frying pans, nails and other pieces of steel.

Plus I ripped a whole pile of phone books and decks of cards, so they have plenty of footage to go through – HA HA!

It was a great time, I had a lot of fun, and I hope it carries over well to the show.

Also, feel free to post something on Facebook or another social network. Sometimes, with a “crazy” sport like Grip or doing Feats of Strength, it is good to get it in front of your friends’ and family’s eyes when it is on mainstream media like this, to show them that you are not the only “crazy” one out there.

Thanks everyone, for all the support, and all the best in your training.

Jedd

Ahead of everything else, I want to wish a Happy Easter to all my Diesel Friends out there.

Thank you for being a part of my life.

It is my pleasure to share my training knowledge, experiences, and PR’s with all of you.

Today I have a Highlight video for you from yesterday’s session. Check it out below:

Grip Training Highlights: 3/30/13

JT was running the table yesterday. He hit so many huge lifts yesterday he said this afterwards, “PR’s and Baselines were on sale today, so I decided to pick a few up.”

Naturally, the clip above only has about 25% off what went down yesterday. Sometimes, when the lifts are cooking, you just don’t take time to turn the camera on.

One of my big lifts resulted in a huge chunk of my thumb getting ripped off. Check it out below.

Hey, when you are training to do lifts that were never meant to be done, sometimes things like this happen.

But, I can assure you, “The PR was worth the PRice.”

It’ll grow back.

Before I go, I want to leave you with one more thing.

Today is Easter, signifying the miracle of the return of the savior from the dead. It is also Spring time, signifying a new season of growth and life.

If your workouts have been down lately, then use this time of year as a time to start turning things around and get some more momentum going.

In a way, it’s just like being reborn, with a new opportunity to grow and gain momentum.

Momentum is so important with training. Once you get just a little bit going, it can carry over into many workouts and before you know it, you are on a roll again.

Start your roll today.

Even if you have a bunch of Easter stuff going on, you can still find something to do to get that momentum going again.

Don’t wait until tomorrow. Do it today.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Check out More Training Clips and Instructional Videos at My Youtube Channel:

Christian Bale – American Psycho – 2000

Christian Bale is my favorite actor.

Ever since the movie, American Psycho, which came out in 2000, this has been true.

But of the last 10 years or so, my favorite movie with him in it is The Prestige. In this movie, Bale plays a magician who has an on-going rivalry with another magician. They are constantly trying to one-up each other, and both of them pay dearly for their desire to be seen as “the best.”

At the very beginning of the movie, we learn that each magic trick consist of 3 parts, or acts: (1) the Pledge, (2) the Turn, and (3) the Prestige.

In case you missed it, at the end the narration goes: “You’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.”

Grip is no different than magic.

In developing a truly mighty grip, there are three parts, each building upon the other like the sequence of a magician’s magic trick. They are the Lift, the Hold and the Control.

Lift – This is the foundation of a strong grip. You are breaking something from of the ground and trying to bring it to lockout. Many times, it is something cumbersome, such as a Block Weight, or something unruly, such as a thick handled dumbbell. With Grippers, you are trying to squeeze the handles together.

Hold – The second part is more intense. It involves displaying the endurance to keep something off the ground, whether by holding the implement for time, such as a Farmer’s Hold, or over-crushing the handles of the gripper.

Control – But it is not enough just to lift something off the ground. The true skill is to dominate something and make it do whatever it is you want it to. Like in the post directly below where I go beyond Blob lifting, Control is a demonstration of all-out domination of the implement, pulling beyond normal deadlift ranges and making it succumb to your will.

All too often trainees forget about the aspect of Control. They stay within their comfort zone, within the parameters of regular “lifting” and “squeezing” in their training, and do not go far enough.

This is why I say “Control” is the forgotten aspect of Grip Training.

Control is what you need to fully apply the grip strength you build to the movements and sports you play.

As an example, you can have a strong grip and hold onto Farmer’s Implements that are loaded to incredible weights, but if you don’t have control, all you will be able to do is stand there and hold them. You won’t be able to walk with them because you won’t be able to handle their mass as they swing, sway and shift each time you take a stride.

I recently set out to attain a feat that is based entirely on the element of Control – Lifting a Giant Anvil to Shoulder Height.

In the lore of oldtime strength, there is a story of George Jowett cleaning to his shoulder a giant anvil. There is confusion about the validity of this feat, as the story changes depending upon who you ask, but that is not important to this article.

What is important is developing the strength to perform such a feat.

I decided to try this feat recently, using my 112-lb Anvil. Here is my first, of curely many, attempts…

Anvil Lift to Shoulder Height Attempt

I have been told, and I agree, that the term “Clean” is not correct for the movement I am attempting. A true Clean starts in front of your shins and moves upwards with no swing, as I am performing. With that, going forward I will not use the term “Clean” to describe this lift until I can actually do it without the swing. For now, it will be called the Anvil Lift to Shoulder Height.

It is important to remember that having ultimate grip strength means to be able to not only lift, and hold something, but to exhibit complete control over it, so that it follows your command and it moves in complete obedience to your will.

And to get this Control, you must be willing to go further in your training.

If you don’t take the next step, then in the pursuit of Control, “You’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.”

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Grip Training Resources:

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