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

Maybe one of the best things about a grip contest is the post-contest feats of strength challenges.

It can be rare enough finding someone in your area that shares the interest in grip training that you have – it can be even more rare that the person is at or near your level and can push you.

However, I know anytime I hold or travel to a contest, I will always get the chance to try new things and challenge myself in ways I have never been before.

After Leg 3 of World’s Strongest Hands, we all got a chance to relax and try a few feats.

First off, let me go over some of the things and people you are going to see in this video:

1. Daniel Reinard – This dude is a pure friggin’ monster at Grip. He is in the light weight class (under 82.5-kg). His genetics may indeed hold him back from getting up to 250+ in the future, but if he were to focus on diet differently and change some focus in his training (he is a climber) I can see him getting up to 220 and beating us all! I the videos from Leg 3 of World’s Strongest Hands you’ll see he set a couple of world records, both on the Two Hands Pinch and the Shallow Hub Lift.

2. Mike Rinderle – This guy is just the opposite. Instead of putting weight on, Rindo is peeling it off with some wiser food choices and activity level changes. Now, he is not doing extra cardio. No, instead he is embarking on an all-out steel bending marathon of back-to-back bending days and not only bending some of the hardest horseshoes on documentation, but also various other bending feats and showing that high-level feat of strength training not only burns calories but also has the ability to improve Grip Strength. He is the only guy that had a consistent Two Hands Pinch throughout the three Legs of WSH here at my place, getting in the high 180′s each time if memory serves, and taking an extra lift on something very close to 200-lbs. He maintained this consistency regardless of the moisture conditions at each leg AND with very little specific Grip Training – remember, pretty much all this sick freak does is bend stuff.

3. John Eaton – Made the trip down from Cuyler, NY. John has some of the most naturally strong hands on the East Coast and I have no doubt would beat me in most competitions if he were more dedicated. By training more consistently, he could bring up his weaknesses. He is right with me in Grippers, which seems to be the only thing he has trained. Also, after several years in grip, he still has work to do on his technique. He increased his pinch by about 10-lbs with a simple tension trick I covered with him. Practicing little things like these could make him a force to be reckoned with in the coming Grip Season. He also was able to pull off a feat with the Fatman Blob that I still to this day can not do and it is really starting to piss me off!

4. Bob Sundin – Bob actually passed out during his last attempt on the Vulcan Gripper, the first event of the competition. This episode really had an effect on him, obviously affecting his performance on each of the three following events, but Bob did not complain at all, he just kept chugging forward with a good attitude and supporting each of us at the competition. Bob was finally able to clear the cobwebs once the feats of strength took place, and it was good to see him get involved and show some of the things he was capable of.

5. Sean Kovacic – Sean is one of my subscribers at TheGripAuthority. He is still new to the sport of grip but go some excellent experience on the events and is more knowledgeable of the strategy that goes on during a grip contest now. He also got involved a bit with the feats and said he readily enjoyed himself at the event.

6. Jim Storch – My buddy from New York State. I have trained with him dozens of times. He couldn’t stick around for the feats, but I am confident he will be able to do well if he sticks with it. He has ordered a Vulcan and is dying to find out more.

Feats of Grip Strength Videos

Blob plus Weight

The first feat we all did was a challenge that Reinard and I came up with several weeks ago on the Gripboard – a Blob Plus Weight Max Lift. We took a Next Generation Blob and added weight to it by use of small weight plates and either thin, strong rope or high quality boot strings.

I eventually won the challenge with a lift of the Blob plus 20 Pounds.

The Glob

The Glob is half of a 60-lb Globe Dumbbell. read about it here: The Diesel Glob. It has proven to be a pretty hard feat. Until Leg 3, I was the only person that has ever lifted it that I know of. Not anymore…

I was trying to do a strict side lateral, but there was quite a bit of momentum involved. This is the first time I tried lifting this after I’d already been hitting other stuff hard and it actually felt a lot easier, maybe because my hands were more limbered up.

Fatman Blob Face Lift

The Face Lift of the Fatman Blob (lifting it while turned on its side) has long evaded me, but i was able to get it pretty easy on this day…

Fatman Blob Scoop

…however one feat I still can not fathom is the Scoop. Eaton does it with ease and I can not figure it out. I must be doing something wrong. It is crazy how just a slight variation of a lift can become so much harder for one person and so much easier for another (Eaton can not Facelift the Fatman).

Fails and Trash Talking

And of course, as always it is fun to talk some serious smack to one another, pick on people when they fail and poke fun at people when they act like tough guys and then struggle with the feat they are so flamboyant about.

Grip Contests are great times. Not only for the competition, but also for the comraderie. Grip Get-togethers are much the same as well. If you guys ever get the chance to go to one, I seriously encourage you to go.

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!

Earlier this week, I posted a video of myself doing my second ever Double Inch Dumbbell Deadlift, and first one I was able to get on film. (Thanks to everyone who dropped a comment of congratulations!)

What I wanted to do was cover a few things that I have been doing to work towards developing the grip strength to do this feat after so many years of training on the Inch.

Sometimes when you work on something for years, you can get complacent, which I think I have been doing for a while, but by thinking outside the box and using some OUTLAW strategies, I am starting to see progress I am happy with.

I have really been wanting to do this feat for quite some time and last Winter I really started working my ass off to get it done. I implemented the following things on a routine basis to spend more time in the open hand position.

1. Nearly All Pull-ups on Rolling Thunders, Often with Weight Added

I generally do pull-ups every single week on my back days, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to work in more open-handed training.

Remember, the SAID principle, which is used in the Strength and Conditioning Field…

Specific
Adaptations
(to)
Imposed
Demands

What this means is your body will get better doing at what you throw at it. Since, the Inch Dumbbell is a thick bar implement, there is open hand grip strength cross-over from using RT’s for pull-ups.

Normally, I do pull-ups on RT’s in the rep-range of 8 to 12 reps, but I don’t have any of those video, so I posted this clip where I do a single with a 95-lb KB hanging from my waist.

2. Lots of Suitcase Inch Dumbbell Lifts

There are three main ways to pick up the Inch Dumbbell: Straddled with the wrist in neutral, Straddled with the wrist pronated, and Suitcase-style, positioned outside the feet. For me, Straddled + Neutral is the easiest way for me to lift the Inch, Straddled + Pronated lies in the middle and I historically STRUGGLE to even lift it.

Since a Farmer’s Walk with the Inch Dumbbell would require picking the dumbbells up in a Suitcase Position, I have been doing a lot of work lifting the Inch outside my body.

Here is a clip from video where I was just plain dominating the Suitcase Deadlift with the Inch Dumbbell.

3. Inch Dumbbell Hustle Lifts

The last thing I have been doing a lot of recently is what I call Hustles. I started doing these primarily because I wanted to develop the grip strength necessary to be able to lift the Inch in a hurry for medleys. I found very quickly that this method left my fingers and thumb MUCH more tired the next day, so I have continued doing them.

You might be asking yourself…

How Do I Apply This Information to My Training?

Most of you do not have an Inch Dumbbell Replica so you may be wondering how this can be applied to your training. Let me explain a few ways.

1. Try incorporating your goal implement or something very similar into other methods of your training. For instance, if your goal is to develop the hand strength to pinch two 45′s, you could try performing rows or shrugs while pinching something of a similar size (SAID Principle)

2. Try modifying the position from which you lift the implement. If you are working toward developing the grip strength to lift the Blob, then take note of how you usually set up to make your attempts. You can move the Blob outside of your body, like a Suitcase Deadlift, or you could change the distance you pull the implement, among other position changes.

3. Try working with a less-than-optimal set-up. Normally when I lift the Inch, I make sure to synch my grip in tight. By not doing this, it make the lift a small percentage more difficult. This can be applied to any grip strength feats, even Grippers. Don’t take the time to get the set perfect every time. Rush it a bit or even purposely leave a finger off…

These tactics have all seemed to work pretty well for me. They represent the great majority of work I have done to improve performance on the Inch.

If you want to build your own Loadable Thick Bar Handle, I can show you how to make one for about $7 or so. Just check out my On-line DVD, Home Made Strength II and I will show you how to build your own grip equipment. It will take you about 20 minutes to put together and you can be training on it this weekend.

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