What is a Block Weight?

To my knowledge, the term “Block Weight” was first coined by John Brookfield to describe a single head of a dumbbell. However, any block-shaped device you can get your hand on can be used as a Block Weight and can be used to build fantastic grip strength.

Types of Block Weights

Blobs
There are many type of Blobs…

• Fatman Blob: Original Style York Blob
• Blue Blob: Slightly different shaped Blob between Original Style and Next Generation
• Next Generation Blob: Still narrower version of York Blobs
• Legacy Blob: Current version of Blobs being sold at York Barbell
• Blob 50: Replicas of Blobs produced in the mid 2000′s by Gordon Vizecki. Excellent accurate representations of the Blob simulated

Hex Heads
These are heads from dumbbells that have been cut off or have broken off. Despirte all the attention Blob-like implements are given, Hex Blocks will do just as much for you in the way of building grip strength.

Inverted Dumbbells
These are intact dumbbells that are stood up on one head and then lifted by the elevated head. This form of training is rarely talked about, but is extremely beneficial.

Scale Weights
Fairly rare, scale are used for scale calibration purposes and must meet strict weight requirements in industry, and so they carry a hefty price tag. The great thing about scale weights is they offer multiple gripping positions and surfaces, and can be used for building other grip strength disciplines, such as supporting, crushing, and hybrid grip movements.

Slabs / Chunks
These are just about everything else that resembles a block weight, but most likely did not serve a purpose for lifting or strength training beforehand. For instance, slabs and chunks might be stubs from other industrial purposes that were left over from other projects.

As you can see, there are many types of Block Weights, but there is actually one more type of Block Weight that I have in my collection that I have not given as much time here on the site. It is called the Fatman Clone.

Fatman Clone

The Fatman Clone is a replica block weight which was made by casting a mold of an original Fatman Blob. These were first produced at the end of 2008 and I obtained mine at the beginning of 2009. Chris Bowman had a small number of them made, but since then they have not been made again, because of the price to produce them. I am actually not even sure how many of the Clones were produced. I do know that Dave Thornton got one, and I believe Chris still has one in his possession. They are a very rare piece of equipment, indeed.

Clone Statistics

Weight
While the Fatman Clone was made from a cast of a Fatman, they have proven to often be larger than Fatman Blobs. My Clone weighs 59-lb on my bathroom scale, heavier than any Fatman I have ever heard of.

Shape
Also, the one that Dave Thornton has ended up having a large bulge in it, making it very tough to lift by the top and its texture on the bottom makes it easier to lift. The Shape of mine is reasonable though.

In fact, the Clone I have is much more difficult to lift than any other York Blob or Blob 50 I have attempted. It is so difficult that it has been nearly a year since I last lifted it.

You see, sometimes, when you train for feats of Grip Strength, you are not able to do them all of the time. You might have a good day where you can lift something over and over, and then it can be months before you can do it again. You might put several weeks in on a particular goal, accomplish it, and then move on to another goal and not come back to the previous one for a while. This is what happened to me with the Clone the last time – my focus changed to something else and I did not spend much time trying to lift the Clone.

Lifting the Fatman Clone

So I pulled out the Fatman Clone a few nights ago after a long, slow, struggle of a workout.

I tried three times with the right and three times with the left to lift the Clone, but my best was hopping it off the ground a couple of inches.

After trying several times to get it but not having any luck, I shut off the heater, put most of my stuff away, and went out to the car to turn off the satellite radio.

All of a sudden, I felt like I had one more shot in me. I was like my gut was trying to be Mickey in Rocky 5, and telling me to get back up you son of a bitch, meaning to go back in there and give it one more shot before heading back upstairs and calling it a night.

So I came back inside, threw my trusty blue carhart jacket on that I call Mister PR, and gave it a try.

I have been watching a lot of late 80′s and early 90′s WWF wrestling lately, and one of the latest tapes had Jimmy Snuka, where he wore boots for a while and barked into the crowd, so I started doing something similar, as you will see in the video below.

I guess what this all means is that sometimes you have just one more good attempt in the tank. If it feels like it, trust your gut and go after it!

If I would have listened to my head that was telling me to stop and call it a night instead of my gut that was saying I had one more left, I would have have lifted this giant hunk of iron.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

       

Similar Posts:

• Grip Strength Training – Block Weight Lifting
• DIfference Between Blob Types
• 39 Reps with the 50-lb Blob
• Misses are Just Warm-ups – Part Two
• The Simplest Form of Block Weight Training

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

Similar Posts:

• Making Hard Feats Look Easy – The Inch Dumbbell
• Bi-Polar Training: Inch Dumbbell Plus Kettlebell Flip
• Home Made Equipment to Help Lift the Inch Dumbbell
• Most Popular Videos of 2011 – Part 2
• This Week’s Challenge – Sledge Hammer Deadlift

Hello Diesels!

Several months ago, I put up a post here about having the right mindset for success in strength training, called Misses are Just Warm-ups. Go here to read it => Mindset of a Strength Training Warrior.

In that post I talk about why you can’t just give up if you fail to do something or miss a lift. You have to keep trying several times, because sometimes you’re only a few attempts away from success.

Success in Strength Training is based on many things, but one of the most important things is right inside your head.

And no, I am not talking about the brain as a part of the central nervous system, I am talking about the little conversations you have in your head before and after you attempt something.

What you tell yourself inside that little head of yours can have a profound effect on what you are capable of doing.

If you stroll up to a lift and say, “Man, I’m not sure if I can do this today,” I can just about guarantee you that you will not be successful at it.

Ray-Zor…Ray-Zor

Fatman Blob (Original Style Blob)

    
Second Generation Blob

    
Fatman Blob Clone

In that original post, I tried to lift the Fatman Blob Clone after several months of not touching it. It is very wide, slick, and had gathered some rust, so I knew it wouldn’t be like lifting one of my smaller, rougher, second generation York Blobs, but I was still able to lift it like 4 or 5 times right-handed, even after several failed attempts, because I approached that feat with the proper mindset.

Remember, some people consider the York Blob Clones impossible to lift, just because they’ve never seen anyone lift them. I actually think more people would be lifting them simply if there were more of them around and if a couple more people broke them off the ground.

Speaking of impossible feats, anybody remember Roger Bannister? He’s the first 4-minute mile dude.

Before he motored his ass around a track four times in less than four minutes, scientists thought that your heart would explode and your legs would fall off at the hip joint if you tried to break the four-minute mile mark.

Then Roger Bannister stepped up to the plate (damn right, a baseball reference) and lifted his figurative Fatman Clone and then people all over the world started making the 4-minute mile their outright bitch.

Quote that I love from this clip: “Bannister, a superb technician, has suffered some criticism in the past for adopting his own rather unorthodox training methods, but they’re paying dividends now…”

Now, let me ask you this. Do you think Roger Bannister had thoughts like these swirling through his head while at the starting line…?

• Oh man, nobody’s ever done this before…
• Oh boy, I don’t know if I can do this
• Oh, might know, it’s windy today – now I have that going against me
• Maybe my unorthodox training methods won’t pay off after all
• I don’t think anybody here thinks I can do this…

Hell no! None of that crap was going through his head.

He was focused. He had a strategy. He was a freaking Diesel-Powered Savage!

If you want to be successful in a lift, you need to go about it like Roger Bannister. You need prepare wisely, you need to start out at a solid pace and when it counts most, you need to finish strong.

If you miss or if you fail, don’t let that crap bother you – don’t let it get in your head.

Especially when it comes to Grip Training, you can not stop trying to lift something if you don’t get it the first time.

Oh, you missed that Gripper close? So what – your hands are better warmed up now. Get it next time.

Oh, you missed again? Readjust your hand placement and go again.

Oh, you missed again? Go squeeze a harder gripper and then come back to it and try it again (thanks, Paul Knight)

Whatever you do, don’t just give up after you miss. Misses are Just Warm-ups.

I can’t tell you how many people have written or called me since the first Misses are Just Warm-ups post that I put up telling me how big of a difference this simple concept has made in their training.

It really is all about mentality, and recently this proved to be true in my own training like never before.

As you know, I seriously messed up both middle fingers in the middle of February. I could do almost no Grip Training during this time without serious burning pain. Hell, I couldn’t even turn a door knob without serious pain, so I had to modify a lot of my training.

I won’t lie, I was afraid of what would happen to my numbers due to this lay-off.

But after this session that I filmed recently, I am not nearly as worried about it as I was before…

Pinching Two-45′s, for me, is a feat that I often struggle with. I normally have to train on it several times over the course of a couple of weeks in order to be able to pinch them. Even when my Two Hand Pinch is solid, I might not be able to do Two 45′s. So to be able to do it after not doing any static pinch training at or near this thickness made me extremely happy…

And as you’ll see, just because I didn’t get it the first time with both hands, I kept going until I got it.

MISSES ARE JUST WARM-UPS. Live it, Diesels.

Jedd

• Diesel Mindset – Misses are Just Warm-ups
• DIfference Between Blob Types
• First Blobs. Now Globs? WTF???
• Grip Strength Training – Block Weight Lifting
• Grip Training: The Fatman Clone Block Weight

Card Tearing

I’ve been thinking of ways to make the Diesel Crew site more interactive, and I think I have come up with a cool way to do it.

Starting next week, we will have the Weekly Diesel Grip Feat Challenge. Here’s how it will work:

1. Every Sunday, I will post a video of a Grip Strength Feat of some sort. It could be anything from Pinching, to Support, to Crushing, to Wrist Strength, or anything else in Grip.

2. You will then have until the following Friday to upload a video of yourself performing the Feat.

3. In the video, you must say your name and state the Feat you are doing for the Weekly Diesel Grip Strength Challenge, Something like this: “I’m Conway Martin, and this is my video for the 5-10′s Pinch Lift for The Weekly Diesel Grip Challenge at DieselCrew.com.” Then you just hit the feat on film!

4. You must then hit me with an email with the link to the video. I must receive the email with the video link no later than 8PM EST on the Friday of the challenge.

5. I will post all of the videos that have been submitted here on the Diesel site. My goal will be to post all of the videos I receive by Saturday at 8PM, EST.

6. Viewers at the Diesel site will leave comments, deciding who has the best video and who should win a prize. Voting will continue until Sunday at 8PM, EST.

7. Whoever is voted “Best Video” for the Weekly Grip Strength Challenge, will receive a special limited edition Diesel prize. What is it exactly? You’ll have to take part in order to find out!

8. Videos can not contain anything that may be offensive to Diesel readers. Getting pumped up is fine, but you WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED if you use racial, ethnic, sexual slurs and things like this. We do reserve the right to disallow a video if we deem it inappropriate.

500-lb Axle Deadlift (Photo – Kevin Cronin)

I think this is going to be a very fun and interactive feature here at the Diesel Crew site. I look forward to seeing all of your videos.

            Two Hands Pinch

By the way, I’m not wasting any time getting started. The first Weekly Grip Strength Challenge will be posted here on the site on Sunday afternoon, January 2nd, 2011.

So get your chalk, and get ready to do some serious Grip Training in 2011.

Remember, the first challenge will be here this Sunday – don’t miss it!

If you have questions, please leave a comment below.

All the best in your training!

Jedd

Similar Posts:

• Diesel Grip Strength Challenge – Week 7 Winner and Week 8 Feat
• Week 4′s Winner and Week 5′s Feat
• Sledge Hammer Finger Walking
• Build Sick Strong Thumbs – Diesel Grip Challenge Week 13
• Grip Strength Challenge – Week 11 – Towel Pull-ups

Diesels,

Several of the Gripaholics that were going to be here today had to cancel out, so there is no live stream today, but we are in the process of scheduling more group training sessions soon, so please stay tuned.

In the meantime, here is a quick video of the last time we got together when Mike Rinderle lifted the 50-lb Blob for his first time and when I had a go at number 4 gripper, coming pretty close to finishing it off.

If you don’t know what the Blob is, here is a post that will tell you all about it: The 50-lb York Blob.

I wanted to let you all know a few of the things I have going on…

This week I will have guest posts popping up all over the internet. I sent a guest post over to my buddy Joe Hashey on Grip Training Pitfalls for Strength Coaches and Athletes. Believe it or not, the way you train grip for athletics is different from the way you train for doing feats of strength and for competing in grip contests. I’ll go over that for you at Joe’s site, Synergy-Athletics.com.

Also, I am working on a guest post for the Art of Manliness on Feats of Strength that build huge amounts of muscle. If you go to that board at all, look for that coming up soon.

I have plenty of other stuff in the works as well. I shot a ton of video yesterday, have lots of other stuff that I am sitting on, and have a whole sheet full of stuff that I haven’t even done yet. It’ll all be coming your way in time.

Also, some time this week, I am going for the Mash Monster Gripper Level 3 Certification. I was supposed to do that during today’s live stream, but won’t be able to now, at least not with a group of dudes cheering me on. I will have to go at this one solo! Wish me luck.

Diesels, with Thanksgiving coming up, I may not be posting much this week. I am lucky and have a huge family and have tons of Thanksgiving Festivities this coming week. While it gets in my way of doing website stuff, I am still very thankful to have so many people in my life that I love and that love me. I hope this coming week, you remember how lucky you are and tell your family how much you love them like I will be doing.

I also want to let everyone know something that happened within my family a couple weeks ago. My sister was heading to North Carolina for the weekend to visit one of our cousins. She was in the right hand lane of travel on a big highway and a giant tractor trailer was entering from a ramp beside her.

She could not get over to the left lane to let the truck enter, but the trucker did not yield. The giant truck smashed into my sisters little car, propelling it forward and spinning it around 180 degrees. The turck and my sister hit the brakes and now my sister’s car was actually facing the grill of the tractor trailer, being pushed backwards down the highway to a screeching halt.

To top this all off, once the two vehicles came to stop, the tractor trailer driver simply backed up a little bit and then drove off as if nothing had happened.

I guess the lesson learned here is on these on-ramps, you never know how the driver is going to act. Will they yield? Will they speed up? Will they get in front of you? Will they hit you? Who knows – so be prepare for anything and keep yourself safe. Move to the left when you can and get the heck out of the way!

Luckily, my sister and her boyfriend walked away from this mess without even a scratch on them, but they were very scared and shocked that the driver did not even have the decency to check and see if they were alright. It could have been a lot worse and because she got out of it unhurt, I am truly Thankful.

So I encourage each of you reading to count your blessings this week. If you have any stories you’d like to share with us here at the Diesel Community feel free.

All the best in your training this week. Remember, the show still goes on the week of Thanksgiving my friends!

-Jedd-

Similar Posts:

• Current Training and Upcoming Plans
• DIfference Between Blob Types
• Double Blob Farmers Walk
• How To Make A Grip Strength Fanatic Cry
• Making Hard Feats Look Easy – The Inch Dumbbell