Are you looking for ways to improve your performance with grippers? Do you want to certify on the Captains of Crush, or finish higher at Grip Contests? Then, you should check out my Gripper Training Instructional Video.
Here is a review of the DVD, from Bill Long.
Thanks to Bill for his outstanding review.
When I designed this DVD, I wanted to make it very detailed so that you could literally follow along with the video improve your technique. Everyone has certain portions of gripper technique we need to improve.
Here are some common areas of opportunity that I often coach people on in their gripper training technique:
Gripper Placement
Where you place the gripper in your hand is very important. If you get this part of it wrong, then it has the potential to throw off everything else involved in closing the gripper. Closing big grippers is just as much about technique as is having a smooth jump shot in basketball or having a sweet homerun cut in baseball.
Thumb Training
Believe it or not, the thumb is also very important with grippers. The thumb acts as a base or foundation during the gripper close. Many of the guys closing the big grippers have big, meaty thumb pads which helps keep the gripper in position. But those with thinner hands can close big grippers, if you use your thumb properly, which is something I cover in detail in the video.
Last Two Fingers
Recently, I have read comments, messages, and emails from people discussing how much success they are seeing in their gripper training by putting more focus on training their last two fingers which help finish off the sweep of the gripper handles. Tools are sold to help train these fingers specifically, but I also show a couple of drills we have used in the past for last two finger training. One of them, you can make for about $5. The other one uses block weights. Both are easy to implement in your training without having to move a bunch of stuff around in your training week or having to play around with your volume. Most people will be able to just plug them into what they are already doing.
Mindset / Visualization
Right before you squeeze a gripper, do you think, “Man I hope i close this,” or even worse, “I probably won’t get this, but I will try anyway?” If so, I have some Mindset training at the end of the video that will really help you out.
Grippers are by far the most popular form of grip strength. Grippers are not only used by grip enthusiasts, but also strongman competitors, football players, track and field throwers, and the list goes on. With CRUSH, all of them can take their gripper training to another level.
And remember, Grip Training is multi-beneficial. Not only do you improve your hand strength for better performance on the field, but you also improve your hand strength for the rest of your training, and when you improve your numbers in the rest of your training, that will increase your sporting performance even more.
If you’re going to train with grippers, invest in something that will show you how to do it the right way for the maximum benefit.
Today, I received the official announcement from David Horne on the 2012 Worlds Strongest Hands Series, the 3rd annual installment. Below is the information regarding specifics of the contest.
Information on 2012 Worlds Strongest Hands
Date: Saturday 18 August, 2012
The 2012 WSH is a one-leg event this year. In 2010, it was 4 legs, and in 2011 it was 3 legs, but with the proximity to the Worlds Strongest Hands Gathering and other scheduling issues, it was decided to make it a one-leg event only.
Events:
1. One Hand Vulcan Gripper (V2) – 20mm block close
2. Wrist Developer
3. Adjustable Thick Bar (one hand) – GripTopz
4. Stub Lift (one hand) – GripTopz
Classes: Open, Women’s and 93k class.
We recently added a variety of weight classes to the world grip sport rankings for the men. In past years, the split between the men’s class happened at the 82.5-kg mark, but this year, the divider will take place at 93-kg.
Venue: All around the world.
I will be holding my leg in Wyalusing, PA. As more locations in North America are confirmed, I will do my best to post them here. For sure, there will be one venue in Wooster, Ohio, and in past years there have been venues to compete in Minnesota, Michigan, and Arizona. I ahve also been told that there might be a competing venue in New England.
Entrance fee: £20 GBP ($32 dollars, 25 euro)
Trophies: There will be trophies for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each class.
Rules: Video to follow
All of the individual contests within Worlds Strongest Hands take place on the very same day. However, some countries participate earlier than others due to their location on the globe. In order to allow no unfair advantages, results are not shared between promoters. All results are sent to David Horne for tabulation and then he puts out the results after the contest.
As I receive more information, I will post it here on this thread.
Additional Information on Worlds Strongest Hands
I get a lot of questions about Worlds Strongest Hands from people who want to know more about the event and the equipment used in the competition, so I want to put them here as they come in, to make this a good post to reference.
I know some questions are more common than others, so I will go ahead and put them down right now, but if you have additional questions, post them in the comments section and I will add them in and update the post.
What is the Vulcan or V2 Gripper?
This is a large, steel gripper, sold by David Horne / World of Grip, with a straight coil spring, that can be adjusted across various strength levels. The gripper is used similarly to a Torsion Spring Gripper, first setting it, then swiping a 30-mm block, and finally closing the handles of the Gripper together.
It was originally called the Vulcan Gripper, but the design was re-worked for a cleaner look and the spread between the handles was increased, so the ones that are sold now are called V2, as in Vulcan 2 or Version 2.
What is the Wrist Developer?
Wrist Developer
This is another steel device that is manufactured by David Horne / World of Grip, with a mobile straight coil spring that can be adjusted for various strength levels.
What is a 20-mm Setting Block?
Think of the 20-mm as a gauge that is used with Grippers. For instance, the gauge in the Two Hands Pinch is a horizontal bar that is set at 16.5 inches in height that must be touched with the loading bar of the Euro Pinch Device. In Grippers, we use the setting block to make sure everyone is being judged with the same set width. So, the athlete is allowed to set the handles, and then he/she must pass the 20-mm block between the handles to show a legal set depth. This effectively takes hand size limitations out of the equation with Gripper Contests, because everyone is permitted to get an advantageous set, by pre-positioning the handles with the off-hand, then they pass the block through, and then they make the attempt at the close.
What are the Grip Topz?
The Grip Topz are another series of Griplements from David Horne / World of Grip. They are all used with the same base, which serves as the loading pin for weights. Then, on top of the loading pin base, attachments are hooked and gripped by the competitor. There are many different Grip Topz attachments that test a variety of hand strength disciplines. They are very handy for accomplishing a wide range of Grip Training challenges and goals.
The Grip Topz events utilize the same gauge that is used in the Euro Pinch Two Hands Pinch Lift event, which is set at 16.5 inches.
What is the Adjustable Thick Bar?
The Adjustable Thick Bar is a new item in the Grip Topz series, which is a thick bar handle. It is has multiple thick handles that will be used based upon the hand size of the competitor. This event tests Open Hand Strength on a round device. So it is not pure support strength (static finger strength), but rather a hybrid challenge combining support and thumb strength.
David Horne has a video demonstrating this lift:
What is the Stub Lift?
The Stub Lift is one of the items from the first Grip Topz series which was used in last year’s Worlds Strongest Hands 2011. The Stub Lift is a steel bar which juts out of a flat steel plate, which you must grip with your index finger and thumb and try to lift. This event tests Key Pinch, and surprisingly enough hits the wrist a bit as well.
As time allows, I will shoot some videos showing the various pieces of equipment in action, so that you can see them and understand them even better.
How to Buy Vulcan V2′s & Wrist Developers:
Many people have written in asking about when I would be getting more Vulcan V2′s, Wrist Developers, etc.
Now that the contest is announced and the events are official, I would like to know who is interested in getting a Vulcan V2 or Wrist Developer. Please leave a comment below or email me.
Wrist Developer Training Info: I released a DVD on how to train with the Wrist Developer in February. It has gotten lots of good feedback.
From: Frank Deluca: “Jedd – I watched the vid today and it is awesome. This is one of your best instructional videos in my opinion and I have bought many of yours. Nice job.”
From: Karl M. Skjelvik: “Great stuff, Jedd. I learned a lot on technique and different ways to train with the WD. Tomorrow is a training day, and I’m gonna try it out.”
If you want to kick ass in World’s Strongest Hands in the Wrist Developer, or if you simply want to improve how you perform on the WD in your own training, then this is the DVD for you – pick it up today by clicking the image below.
Again, if you need any other information, please leave a comment below, or feel free to email me or hit me up through Facebook or Twitter.
All the best in your training,
Jedd
Crank Your Wrist Strength Up a Notch with the Wrist Developer DVD
As I posted yesterday, Mighty Mitts was an absolute honor for me to be a part of and it is truly a pinnacle of the sport of grip. Being up on that stage, in front of all those people performing, when they could have done ANYTHING with their time, but they hung around to watch us – it was my honor to put on a show for them, and that is exactly what I aimed to do.
As you’ll see in many of my videos, I tried to engage the crowd by pumping my arms and circling my hands to get them going a bit. And the fact that the Day 2 events were much more my specialty gave me increased confidence that I could do well and prove that I deserved to be there.
Day 2 Events
Medley
The Medley is an event that is commonly held in Grip contests. Because I knew the challenge items that would be in the medley, I only trained them a few times. Primarily, I worked on the Hub Deadlift, Circus Dumbbell (I trained using a similar device) and the Anvil High-Pull, but I only hit them a couple of times because I was mostly focused on bringing up my thick bar strength.
The Basic Rules
The way the Medley was set up, there were 9 challenge items, each listed below in order.
We had 2 minutes to complete all the challenges.
The main difference between this and other Medleys I have competed in was that once you went past one of the challenge items, you could not go back. You could try as many times as you wanted to lift the item, but returning was not permitted.
This gave the event a very interesting twist because in other competitions, we have always been able to go back and try items again, although very, very rarely are you able to successfully lift something upon going back. So this increased the strategic level of the event, and made it very cool.
Also, the time would stop once you finished the final challenge, the Phone Book Tear. If there were ties, the leader would be the person who finished the phone book first. This also made things very interesting and in the end played a huge role in my scoring.
You might know, the three challenge items I trained on the most, (Hubs, Circus Bell, and Anvil) I ended up failing on in the actual event.
Here is a rundown of each of the challenge items and how I did on them.
1. Circus Dumbbell (Miss) – This is one of the challenge items that I worked intently on during my Medley item training days, because I recognized it as a weakness. Richard Sorin announced it to be in the Medley very early on, and I knew that in the past I had never lifted it, so I put the time in on my very thick 4-inch loadable handle. The handle of the Circus Dumbbell was very well knurled, so slickness was no excuse. I just simply could not maintain my grip on the handle as I tried to pull it to the height of the platform. Looking back, I might have been able to pull it a bit higher had I braced the rear head of the dumbbell against my forearm, however, it never crossed my mind to give it a try.
2. 100-lb Pinch – This was a one-handed pinch lift to a full deadlift. Normally, a 100-lb pinch on plates or on the Euro would be a fairly challenging lift, but this plate had a rather prominent indented rim around the outside of the plate, making it much easier to lift. As a result, I think everyone was able to lift this item, meaning I was unable to make up any points by lifting it myself – drat!
3. Globed Leverage Bar / Weaver Stick Lift - This was an interesting piece. The handle was oval-shaped, similar to a sledge hammer, so you had to make sure that you got your grip on it right or else it would try to wobble out of your grip. The weight was in the neighborhood of 13- to 15-lbs I believe. You had to either deadlift it parallel to the ground or you could stand upright and lever it strictly to the parallel position. Either way, handle had to be kept right near your thigh or it would not count. I think everybody got this one too. Drat – no points against these beasts!
4. Hub Lift – This was done on a rather slick 45-lb York Barbell Plate with the characteristic sloping flange, which makes gripping it much more difficult than today’s more common tube-shaped hub designs. The dial grip was permitted instead of just the claw grip, which was good because I am not sure I would have been able to break that plate off the ground by the hub using the standard grip. I ended up pulling the plate up to nearly the height of the loading platform, but for some reason every time I tried changing directions and moving it toward or over top of the platform, it would slip right out of my hand. The platforms were a bit higher than normal, but I actually like a higher platform because it requires more endurance and skill in the loading process. The height was not the issue – my strength on hubs was. I could have really used the point for the hub lift, as it would have put me into sole ownership of first place in the event when all was said and done.
5. Fatman Style Blobs – Two Fatman Blobs had to be loaded on top of the same platform as the hub and same height as the Circus Bell. I had no fear going into this one, as my Blobs are off the charts right now. In prep for MM, I was able to lift Josh Dale’s Fatman with no warm-up, something I have never been able to do. The way this challenge was scored is you had to do one with your left hand and one with your right, and if you did both of them simultaneously, you would get a bonus point. I was the only one in the body of competitors who got both at the same time, although some did get both separately. So I was able to pick up a valuable extra point.
6. Anvil – Next was an Anvil that naturally weighed around 170-lbs and also had a chain wrapped around it for extra weight. In warm-ups, I tested this piece and the horn felt like sand paper, so I was feeling golden to rock this one with no problem. Once I got to it and hit like 5 tries between my left and right hands and it still wasn’t on the platform yet, I was getting pissed, but maintained my cool. Another item that I prepared for hard, felt good on in warm-ups yet failed to load to the 8- or 10-inch platform. And also, mor emuch needed points down the drain. Undaunted, I continued to the next apparatus.
7. Sorinex G-Rex - The G-Rex was loaded with four 45-lb plates and the objective was to grip the handle with both hands and squeeze it until the two handles met, at which point a light would illuminate on the device. I was actually intimidated by this because the fully opened spread on the G-Rex is pretty damn wide, but to my enjoyment, once I got my firngers all the way on there, it came up pretty easily and with a little fishing around at the top I was able to light all three lights. In this case, three red lights was a good thing!
8. Millstone – Richard Sorin feels this Millstone is liftable, but I think in order to accomplish it, it will take some specific training to do so. In my estimation, the stone is about 5 inches thick and in the neighborhood of 120-lbs (just estimates), so it is a very large and heavy object to pinch with one hand. A two-hand lift has been done by many, including my good friend, Chris Rice, who did so in 2006 and got an awesome picture of it, to boot. I gave it a pull with at least my right hand, and maybe my left, but I did not waste a lot of time because when I spun around to check out the time that was left, I was under 30 seconds of time to go before I was done, so I scooted ahead to the last item.
9. Phone Book – The last item in the line was the phone book, more or less 1200-pages, supplied by Nick Rosendaul. It is just hard to believe how many people had a hand in making this contest a success. Awesome! I can usually finish a phone book like this in about 5 seconds, but in this case it took me a bit longer because I don’t normally tear a phone book after lifting and trying to lift so many other things, so I was a bit spent, but finished it before the time limit expired and let out a big scream of excitement to the crowd, which many returned back to me.
Since I knew I was close on many of the items, I took extra time in order to take a couple of extra attempts on things like the Hub and the Anvil, but what this ended up doing is hurting me a bit because in the end I had 7 points for the event, and so did Tex Henderson, but since he made his way to and through the phone book quicker than I did, he grabbed first place points. I am not sure how much first place in this event would have helped me since I finished so poorly on day one, but it would have been cool to make some bigger jumps up the standings.
Here is the video of me going through the Medley.
Medley
I have tons more video clips of the other competitors’ medley runs up on my YouTube channel. I words them all similarly, so I am hoping they show up once that video ends. But just in case, I have also put together a playlist of all the videos I have uploaded from Mighty Mitts 2012. <= Click that link to view the playlist.
If I got the chance to speak on the Mike, I wanted to make sure to work in there some words of recognition and appreciation to the Sorins and their crew for all that they had done, and I got my chance after the Medley. Here is my little nod to them.
Shout Out to Sorinex’s Crew
Wrist Roller
The last event of the contest was the Wrist Roller. These guys really out-did themselves with the Wrist Roller this year, making it both a challenging lift for the contestants, and also a pretty visually appealing lift for the audience as well. A strap was connected to the wrist roller, and a series of weights including chain and other odd objects were lifted upwards, getting heavier and heavier as the distance increased. Thankfully, for safety’s sake, they thought to make the wrist roller a ratcheting device so that if your grip slipped, it didn’t all just roll backwards on you. The perfect balance between function, look, and challenge, if you ask me.
This sucker got really heavy on me towards the end and I had to get crazy near the end of the run. I just shut my eyes and kept digging hard, and even ended up going further and longer than I had to. I was so focused on completed the wrist roller that I could not hear Bert saying I was done and I could not see Cyborg tapping on the device telling me I was done.
While I don’t have all my stats, points, etc., I do know that I finished 7th, and I was damn happy to climb out of the cellar, after a dismal day 1.
DIESELS, I can’t tell you how awesome of an experience the entire Arnold / Mighty Mitts weekend was. It was truly an honor to be a part of it and it was a spectacle to behold. I still have tons of video to upload and once I get caught up, I am going to post a video right below here of the crowd surrounding the stage – what an awesome site to witness – literally hundreds of people gathered around for a Grip Contest – AWESOME!
When I think back to a year ago and realize that I was “suffering” from the worst finger injuries I ever had, wondering if I would ever be able to return to form, I am truly thankful to have gotten this opportunity one more time.
Thanks for your support, and all the best in your training.
Jedd
Learn the basics and advanced techniques of Phone Book Tearing with Phone Book Mass Destruction. Click the banner below:
Preparing the Hands for Battle with the Inch Dumbbells (Photo: Bill Piche)
For my 2nd time in the last 3 years, I made the trip to Columbus Ohio and the Arnold Classic in order to compete in Mighty Mitts. Mighty Mitts was organized and held by Richard and Bert Sorin.
I can’t say enough about how well these gentleman, their company, and their crew supported us competitors this year. It was unbelievable. I felt like royalty. I can’t really put into words how nice everyone was.
Mighty Mitts is a huge opportunity for Grip Sport. The platform of the Arnold Classic and the chance to get events in front of so many people is amazing, and I hope it brings more people into the sport. I truly appreciate everything that Sorinex has done to help Grip grow.
Never a dull moment in my Grip life, the trip to Mighty Mitts started out an interesting one. I spent about 30 minutes on Wednesday cleaning out unnecessary junk, removing the baby seat, and loading it with everything I needed for the trip. All the while I was blasting the coolest Johnny Cash DVD that I bought recently at Dollar General, so it was an awesome time.
Unfortunately, I must have had the doors open, lights on, and music blaring for a little too long because when I tried to start up to get on the road, the battery was dead. Just my luck.
I called my fiancee and she came home from work to give me a jump start. While I was waiting for her, I figured I’d take a moment to check and fill the fluids, so I raised the hood up and got that done. I noticed there was some rust on the clamp-thing that holds the hood down, so I also grabbed some WD-40 and sprayed that to try to keep it moving right.
When I tried to clean of the excess oil, I activated the clamp and it closed down. I went back inside the vehicle and pulled the release to open it back up again, and I thought I saw it working, so I thought I was in good shape. Unfortunately, I was mistaken and after jumping my battery, I went to close the hood back down and I think I damaged the clamp-thing.
Unable to close the hood down, I was forced to move everything out of my car and into the fiancee’s car, forgetting my car charger, ibuprofen, and a bunch of other stuff that I had thrown into a plastic shopping bag (dramatic foreshadowing here)
Eventually I got on the road and 8 hours later, I was in Columbus and on the shuttle bus to go meet Arnold.
Yes, I said meet Arnold - the man himself. We actually got to site in a press-conference type of scenario and Arnold addressed us and the Strongman Crew. It was a crazy opportunity. I got a bunch of pics and there was even a big photo taken of our entire group with Arnold. Totally blew me away.
The next thing we did was check out the equipment and go over the rules for the Mighty Mitts events at the actual event center. It was good to see everything and get to put my hands on it to see how it felt and to have an idea of the difficulty. We were able to ask questions about the rules and then we were back to the hotel for nice dinner in the restaurant.
Left: Me with “The Iron Tamer” Dave Whitley. Right: Me with Mike “The Machine” Bruce
During dinner, I got to meet guys like Dave Whitley and Dennis Rogers again and even met Mike “The Machine” Bruce for the first time.
Day 1 Events
I knew going in that Day 1 was going to be the harder of the two days for me. With both of the events being thick bar, my nemesis, my work was cut out for me. At this point, I knew I had trained as absolutely hard as possible for these events and began focusing all of my thoughts on successful attempts.
Double Inch Dumbbell Farmer’s Walk
In my training, I had worked up to taking several steps with two Inch Dumbbells, but these were dumbbells with rather rough handles on them. Whenever I tried picking up my slicker-handled Inch, it gave me problems. In fact, I was only able to deadlift my slicker Inch dumbbell one time. That was several weeks prior to the contest, so at the time I thought I was seeing some gains, but it wasn’t meant to be as I failed to lift them on the Mighty Mitts stage.
I put a tremendous amount of effort into this event. Some would say that it was all a waste, since in 2010 I was not able to deadlift them either, but I don’t see it that way, exactly, because during the time I worked so hard on the inches, my Axle numbers improved greatly. I have some plans in mind for modifying my training in order to get some better results on the Inch Dumbbell, after speaking with my Mighty Mitts roommate, Chad Woodall, so I am looking ahead, and not looking back.
Sorinex Monster Bell Deadlift
Squeezing as hard as I could and my eyes are nearly popping out. (Photo: Sorinex Facebook Page)
The Sorinex Monster Bell is a 500-lb Axle Bar. The handle region is well knurled over the majority of the gripping surface, which helps with the grip a bit, but the sheer weight of 500-lbs combined with the fact that the globe heads of the dumbbell act very similarly to the Inch Dumbbell made the event very challenging for me.
Although this year I felt I had much better control of the Monster Bell, I still did not complete any full repetitions. Whereas two years ago, as soon as I began lifting up on the barbell it seemed to pop right out of my hand, this year, I was able to pull it to my knee height before dropping it to the floor again.
As you can see in the video above, I tried primarily the sumo stance, as this is the stance I used in training. I did try one repetition with the conventional stance, but that did not go so well, so I went back to the sumo position in order to try to muster up enough strength for a full repetition. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t meant to be.
At the end of Day 1, I found myself at the very bottom of the standings, with a lot of work ahead of me and a great distance to overcome in order to reach the leaders.
I was so upset, that even thought I had just met Mike Bruce, I slapped a sleeper on him and put him down for the count.
There’s no extinguishing the power of Napalm’s Sleeper Hold
In truth, the image above was staged by Mike himself and I was not upset either. Although I would have been happier with better performances on the day’s events, I knew that the Day 2 events were my events, and I looked forward to the challenge.
Stay tuned, because Part II will be up as soon as I can get it finished.
All the best in your training,
Jedd
Discover EVERYTHING You Need to Know about Gripper Training with my Definitive Gripper Training DVD, CRUSH: Total Gripper Domination.
The IronMind Axle is the thick bar implement sold by IronMind Enterprises. It is just under 2-inches in diameter. The Deadlift on the IronMind Axle was an event in contests quite frequently up until 2011.
Past Training History with the Axle
My memory is a bit foggy as to the Exact years but I am going to try to pin them down. I believe it was 2008 when I set my all-time high-water mark in the Axle Deadlift with (I think) 396-lbs. So close to 400-lbs, yet so far away, and I just kept drifting further from that point. In 2009, I lifted 394 at the beginning of the year and then at the end of the year could only manage the high 380′s.
I was slowly but surely getting worse and worse at this lift for no good reason whatsoever.
As I mentioned, the lift took a back-seat to other events through much of 2010 and 2011, at least in the contests I attended.
Then, out of nowhere, something crazy happened. I lifted 408-lbs on the IronMind Axle, and uploaded the video last week.
IronMind Axle 408-lbs
As you can see, the weight shot up off the ground and got past my knees and once I felt that, I knew it was all over. Knee height is usually like my point-of-no-return, in that if I can get it to my knees, I can usually finish the repetition.
A lot of people over the years have watched me struggle with thick bar lifting in contests, despite my large hands, so when they saw me accomplish this mark, many asked me what I changed in order to be able to accomplish this.
Progress on the Axle
Here are some of the things I have been doing to which I credit my Axle Deadlift progress.
Thick Bar Training Frequency
With my selection for the Mighty Mitts competition at the Arnold Classic this year, I knew I would have to face the incredible Sorinex Monster Bar, which is a 500-lb Axle with globe-like heads. Due to my lower back injuries, I have not done a great deal of deadlifts from the floor in the last 6 months, so i knew I had to start doing some more.
I chose to work with the sumo deadlift style because I find although I can lift less weight this way, it seems to be better for my back. I also chose it for its shorter lift stroke and its emphasis on the hips, which I am weak on.
I am also continuing my steadfast work on the Inch Dumbbell. My progress in that has been continuous, although never fast enough for my liking. Regardless, my confidence is growing as I continue to work hard on it.
The Big Change
Many of you are aware that I hold a record in the Two Hands Pinch in Grip Sport. You also know that I chased that damn record for nearly 5 years before finally attaining it. In order to get it, I had to change my way of thinking and the way I trained for it…
Looking back on my historical thick bar training, especially my Axle training, there was a common recurring thread: load on the weight, do a single, load on more weight, do a single, add more weight and fail and keep on trying for a single, all the while failing in the upper weights.
Probably no less than 50 times over the last 5 years I have followed that same pattern where all I did was add a few pounds to the Axle per attempt, do a single and then add some more and try another single. While on one hand, you could probably count the number of times in the lat 5 years that I worked lower intensities for more reps and different tempos.
Insanity, as they say, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. So why should I continue doing the same stuff I had always done and all of a sudden expect my numbers to go up? I decided I would no longer work any singles. All my work sets would be done with the objective of hitting triples and my PR’s would be based around them, ONLY.
I started this new approach to the Axle on 12/31/11 and by the first week in February, I had already broken the 400-lb barrier.
This of course, is not all I have been doing.
Specialized Thick Bar Auxiliary Work
I knew that if I wanted to see progress in my Thick Bar Training, that I needed to mold it to look more like what I was doing for Two Hands Pinch. With that, I chose some auxiliary thick bar work that would mimic the auxiliary work that I have done routinely for the last couple of years in my Two Hands Pinch training.
Now, as much as I would love to put this all down here on this site, I am not going to. In order to see what all I have been doing, to get this recent explosion in thick bar strength, you need to join me at my Grip Training Instructional site, TheGripAuthority.com.
The entry that I am working on there at the TGA site involves exactly what I have been doing. I filmed an entire workout – plus I show you exactly how to set up everything. Here is what is included:
Axle Work Sets: You will see every work set that I do, as I nearly set yet another PR! Plus I explain exactly why I choose the loading that I do, technique, and tracking too.
Auxiliary Lift 1: In this portion, I show a slight modification I use on the axle, modifying the lift slightly to make it more difficult
Auxiliary Lift 2: This is a pre-exhaustion technique I have been using to strengthen the thumb in order to reinforce the open hand position of the axle deadlift.
Auxiliary Lift 3: I show an awesome piece of home made grip equipment that goes further in strengthening the hand specifically for thick bar lifts such as the axle and the Inch Dumbbell.
This has all worked very well for me, and I can’t wait to get it out there for my TGA subscribers to see how it works for them as well.
I’d love to work with you too. I’ve worked with lots of people over the years and I strive to help them all with their particular goals. Join TGA today for just $7 and you can see for yourself.
