The year was 2004 and the month was March. I believe the day was a Thursday and that we had wings for dinner.

The only pic I can find of my buddy Rick: Rick Walker, Don Pope, and Napalm

On this awesome day in DIESEL history, Smitty and I went to Rick Walker’s place the day before the Arnold Classic. We were going in order to attend an event called Night of Strength, sponsored by Atomic Athletic. We had no idea what to expect at Night of Strength, so we hit stuff hard at Rick’s.

We didn’t realize that Night of Strength would end up being the biggest 3 hours of Grip and Bending ever known to man.

I distinctly remember the pain in my left hand from carpal bone misalignment was killing me by the end of this session. I still get this pain occasionally, but I know how to fix it now, so it doesn’t affect my training. Also, from all the wide pinching, both of my thumbs were throbbing and wanting to fall off. They were so tired I don’t think i could have hitch-hiked a ride home if my life depended on it, but it was worth it to enjoy the day with good friends and train grip hard.

We did so much Volume on this day that by the time Night of Strength rolled around the next night, I was destroyed. I distinctly remember failing miserably over and over on the Original Fatman Blob repeatedly while watch guys like Sean Dockery bust it off the floor repeatedly. It’s hard to believe it would be over 7 years until I would take a try again at the Fatman.

So here is the video. The music is by Systematic and it is called “Beginning of the End.” They had an album that came out in like 2000 or something like that. I saw them open for Cold, Stain’d and Godsmack and picked up a two-song disk with this and the song, “Dopesick” on it and played like every day for like 6 weeks.

Tim Narducci in the Captain Morghan Pose

I remember the lead singer, Tim Narducci, looked about 7 feet tall with a big bald head and played the entire set with his foot up on an amp, sort of like Captain Morgan. Dude looked so freakin big I bet he could lift the Inch Dumbbell.

Back to the video… Let’s look at some of the stuff you are going to see:

• Lots of failures on the Inch Dumbbell – horrible, embarrassing failures
• Lots of stuff with Five Tens – both loose and with a loading pin
• a little bit of Six Tens – hideous failures and loading pin lifts
• 8 Fives (I think we were the first ones to do this because at the time there was debate as to whether it was even possible)
• 37.5-lb Blob – Not sure why I put that in the video
• 50-lb Next Generation Blob – Rick and I made this thing look like a little bitch
• Two-35′s Pinch (tried doing a clean lefty – my left hand was a better pinching hand at the time, but I had epicondylitis so bad in my forearm that I just could not make the clean happen)
• Double Anvil Step-ups (each about 110 to 120-lbs)
• Windmill Lift where I anyhow’d a barbell with about 100-lbs overhead and then reached down and picked up a Blob

Most of the feats in the video are marked, but if there’s anything I missed, just leave a comment below.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

As I’ve said before, I can’t say enough how appreciative I am that so many years ago Richard Sorin had the balls enough to challenge himself to lift a dumbbell head off a broken 100-lb York Dumbbell, which he lovingly called the Blob.

After learning about this, Blob and Block Weight lifting have been the most fun types of training I have done over the course of the last almost ten years.

Block Weights

Block Weights, by definition, are any block-shaped weight that can be used for wide open hand pinch training. Here are a few types of Block Weights:

• Blobs (Fatmans, Next Gen’s, Legacy’s, Blob50′s, etc)
• Dumbbell Heads (severed, broken or cut heads of a dumbbell, especially Hex Blocks)
• Chunks (pieces of iron, steel or stone that are shaped like Blobs/Block Weights)
• Globs (dumbbell heads from globe-shaped dumbbells)
• Scale Weights (block-shaped weights with handles used in industry for calibrating scales)
• Weight Plates (somehow attached to form a solid structure, i.e. 6-tens duct taped together)
• Dumbbells (inverted and lifted by the ends)

To illustrate some of these types of Block Weights, aside from just York Blob implements, check out the following video.

My Block Weight Collection (circa Sept. 2009)

As Original-style Fatman Blobs and Next Generation Blobs become harder and harder to find, it has become much more common to see people training their wide open hand pinch with other types of Block Weights, especially Hex Blocks.

Since making the above video, I have continued to expand my Block Weight collection.

I recently expanded my collection once again, adding another half 120-lb dumbbell Hex Block. This one was sent to me by a pro wrestler named PITT from the Carolina region. You have seen PITT before. He has submitted many videos for the Diesel Grip Strength Challenge.

The new Hex Block came in this week. So I immediately attacked it and applied Napalm Theory #1 to it – MISSES ARE JUST WARM-UPS.

Half 120-lb Hex Block Lift

Here’s a funny story – PITT sent this to me in a Flat Rate Box, but he emailed me and told me that just in case the mailer box broke, he first encased the Block in an old car battery box with a note on it, saying “If found, deliver to Jedd Johnson, the guy with the coolest beard in Grip,” or something along those lines.

Sure enough, the only thing I received was the car battery box, the note, and the Block Weight. Had he not put it in the internal box with extra duct tape and the note, I might never have gotten this block weight, so make sure you do something similar if you plan on shipping anything heavy like this in the future.

I plan on continuing to expand my Blob and Block Weight collection. I am on the look-out for my own Original Style Fatman Blob, more Hexes as they come, chunks, and I also really want to start getting more Hex Head Dumbbells to pinch by the head, inverted style. I find some of these to be even tougher to Pinch Lift than some cut-off hex-head block weights.

If you get the opportunity to add Block Weights to your collection, DO IT. This type of training is beneficial for open hand grip strength, regardless of whether it is a York, Hex, or other piece.

Also, if you have any cool Block Weights in your collection, I’d love to see them. Take some pics or upload a video to YouTube and send it to me with a write-up.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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Hello DIESELS!

Blob Lifting Update for you guys.

I want to show you a huge PR that I recently accomplished and at the same time give you some more information I have found out about the Blob itself.

First the Feat – Blob Snatch

The video below is a Snatch of the Blob. This particular one is one of the Next Generation Blob variety.

For an explanation on the different types of Blobs, go here = > Summer Strong and the Blue Blob.

I actually accomplished the Snatch shown above the same exact day I did the Farmers Walk with the Blob and Inch Dumbbell. I just never got the chance to post the video.

The day I did this, I knew I would be rolling into Nationals in pretty good shape with the chance to break the record in the Two Hand Pinch again. I just didn’t anticipate the back injury, which as you can see by how graceful I am in the clip above, was feeling fine that day.

I’ve come close to doing this feat in the past but never got it strong enough to go out on a limb and really claim the feat. I am glad to have finally gotten this done though.

New Blob Information

Fellow Blob Lifter, John Eaton took a micrometer, a device used to measure the diameter and thickness of things, to his Blobs’ handles, (he owns both next Generation and Fatman Blobs) and posted some of the findings.

If you have a 50-lb Blob and if you are not sure whether it is one of the original-style Fatman Blobs or a later model, maybe these measurements can help you out.

John says on both of his Fatman Blobs the handles are 1 & 1/16″ in diameter.

John also says on his Next Generation Blobs that the handles are 1 & 1/8″ in diameter.

This goes right along with what Richard Sorin has said about the Blobs and their handles.

So, if you come across a 50-lb Blob in a possible transaction, if you can’t make a good judgment of whether it is a Fatman or a Next Gen, measuring the handles might be the factor you want to consider in making the decision.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

P.S. If you want develop Pinch Strength to lift Blobs, you might want to check out some of the training methods I employed training for the Two Hand Pinch record in Late Fall / Winter of 2009. I do more than just Two Hand Pinch training to build thumb strength in my program. Click the banner below…

Hello DIESELS!

This week there will not be a Grip Strength Challenge.

I am working on tying up loose ends for Grip Nationals which is this weekend.

Plus I will be away from Internet Service most of the weekend. We will pick back up with the Grip Strength Challenge next week!

However, that does not mean I do not have something cool for you to try.

I dug through the archives of Diesel Classic Footage and grabbed something from summer of 2003.

How I Got My First Blob

Shortly before making this video, I had bought my first Blob from Rick Walker. We had met at the Olive Garden in Horseheads, NY, and Rick, Rick’s Mom, Smitty, and I had a nice afternoon lunch, and then the Blob transaction was made. Once out to the parking lot, I fumbled around with the Blob for a bit until i finally picked it up after 3 or 4 attempts and walked several steps down the parking lot with it.

That was a great day!

A few workouts later, I brought the Blob up to the Gym in Horseheads and tried some crazy combination lifts with the Blob, one of which you will see below, along with a keg.

A few more points about the video (that I can remember)

• The Keg weighs roughly 150. We filled it with water out of a hose, but I can’t remember how we got the water in
• This was like the 4th damn try. The Blob kept slipping out of my hand.
• I was weighing like 226. I had just cut down from like 240 in order to compete in my first strongman contest in the lighter weight class so i didn’t get too badly schooled. Abs were RIPPED back then.
• Hair was highlighted. Do I lose cool points for this?
• That Song is “Tyler’s Song” by Coal Chamber. That’s one of my Top 10 Favorites. In the beginning of the Diesel Video Explosion, YouTube was not around, so we streamed all the videos off the site. Also at that time, I didn’t know how to capture the audio along with the video, so it was either bad Coal Chamber music or dead air over top of awesome strength feats.

I’ve got hundreds of more videos in the Diesel Archives. If you have been watching the site for a while and remember a Diesel Classic you’d like to see again, leave a comment below and I will try to find it and upload it for all to enjoy!

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Hello DIESELS!

As I am writing this, I am pretty stoked!

Blob (L) and Inch Dumbbell (R)

If you are on my newsletter, on the 4th of July you should have gotten a note from me on the 4th of July telling you to get out there and have an Independence Day Workout and to choose some stuff that you just plain wanted to do for the enjoyment and to celebrate the Freedom you have to do whatever the hell you want to!

I also did the same thing. I said screw it and went out and tried some stuff I have never done before in a training session here at my awesome home gym.

One of the things I tried was a Farmer’s Walk with both the Blob (Next Generation) and the Inch Dumbbell.

If you remember, at Sorinex, I couldn’t even deadlift the Inch and Blob at the same time, so I was pretty pleased to get such good results here in my drive way…

Blob and Inch Dumbbell Farmer’s Walk

As you can see, I walked them so far the first time, that I walked out of the screen on my Flip Cam. It was a total surprise to me to get this. My hands were just feeling so good! A couple days before this, I had spent a ton of time in a swimming pool, so maybe that had something to do with it. I went over to the filter return where it blows the water back into the pool from the filter cleaning unit and let it beat on my thumb pad and pinky pad – felt AWAZING.

I am really looking forward to Nationals, which are this weekend in Crooksville Ohio, this Saturday. If you are in the area and would like to watch, please leave a comment or email me. All I ask is $5 to go toward food and port-o-john expenses!

Once Nationals is over with, I plan on taking a week off of Grip Training to get rejuvenated, which is pretty much what I do each year, and is the only real Grip Training Drought I go through each year. I moderate volume and intensity throughout the year, but don’t do much along the lines of “time off” that much at all, as I have learned how to keep my training volume in check for the most part.

However, once that week of time off is over, it is right back into the swing of things with the World’s Strongest Hands Series.

World’s Strongest Hands Series II – 2011

The World’s Strongest Hands Series is organized by David Horne and there are contests going on all over the world.

I would love to have a decent sized group at each stage of the series here at my place in PA. For more information on the World’s Strongest Hands Series, check out this post I put up a while back: Grip Strength Contests – World’s Strongest Hands

Regional Grip Championship

Also as a quick addition, this year the contests I run here in PA will be part of a Regional Championship Series for the 2011-2012 Grip Sport Calendar. In addition to the 4 events pre-determined for WSH II, I will hold at least one additional event. I am not sure what name I will be going with. At first I thought of Pennsylvania’s Strongest Hands, but I may go with something a bit larger, like the East Coast Regional Grip Championship, as I know several people from Maryland and New York State may indeed be coming.

Either way, stay tuned for a lot of Grip action. I figure, if something is worth being done, it is worth being done RIGHT.

So stay tuned for more on this, and please post below if you are interested in coming!

All the best in your training.

Jedd