A cool feat of strength that you can do is rolling up a frying pan. If you want to learn how to do this, pick up the November issue of Men’s Fitness and check out the short “How-to” piece I put together for them, on page 24, called Roll Up a Skillet.

Like many feats of grip strength, this is one where if you learn to engage the rest of your body with Radiant Tension, you will be able to perform the feat better.

What’s Radiant Tension?

I talk about Radiant Tension in this kettlebell press article I did last fall. (Here’s the accompanying radiant tension video).

Radiant Tension is a skill. It’s not as easy as clenching your teeth and squeezing the bar as hard as you can. That’s not what it is about. You have to be able to turn it on and off as you need to.

Here’s an example with a feat you might have a bit more experience with than rolling up a frying pan…card tearing.

When ripping a deck of cards, you want to use radiant tension when starting the tear to keep the cards tight together, to get the initial tear started, and to involve the larger muscles of the torso in the feat.

However, once the tear is started, if you are too tight, it can be tough to keep the tear going. What results is you get the initial break going and then stop. The. you throw another jolt of power into it and it tears a little more, and you essentially keep starting and stopping over and over until you tear the whole way through the deck.

Through practice, however, you can understand how much Radiant Tension is necessary to grip the cards and get the torso muscles involved, and also to keep the tear going fluidly.

If you need help learning how to tear cards, no resource on the planet will give you the level of detail my Card Tearing eBook gives you. From Techniques, to Progressions, to Exercises, I’ve got everything you need to know in order to start “cutting the deck” with extreme vengeance.

In a much more standard form of lifting, such as the Bench Press, Radiant Tension can instantly increase your bench by 10 to 20 pounds by learning to manage the tension. Like I said before, it is a skill that needs to be practiced.

Often when I see it discussed in other locations, Radiant Tension is described as “squeezing the bar as hard as you can.” While a new person who has never tried to employ Radiant Tension may indeed end up putting forth that kind of exertion in order to build a connection between the mind and the body, I think squeezing at that level of intensity all the time is actually a waste of energy and at the very least an unnecessary distraction.

I actually used to “squeeze as hard as possible” on many lifts when I performed them, but after playing around with this concept in the last year or so I’ve found that I get just as good if not better results by moderating the level of exertion and changing it depending on the movement I am doing and how much radiant tension I need on that day.

For instance, on the bench, if I squeeze too hard on the bar, it feels like I have trouble lowering the bar and my shoulders end up hurting. Whereas if I just tense my hands slightly, I can begin to feel that familiar sensation of tension radiating back and forth from my core and torso out to the bar and back in, feeling more stable, stronger in the movement, and having less stress in the shoulders.

Like I’ve said a couple of times, tension is a skill that needs to be practiced. This past summer, I was training a dude named Jim who would get on the bench and the bar would be all over the place. The first day I mentioned squeezing the bar, his form improved greatly and he was able to repeat the form much more easily. Gradually we worked outward away from the torso and began using systematic pulsing of the glutes in order get even more confident with the bar, perform more reps, and pack on more muscle.

Remember, tension is a skill you can practice to help you out in all of your strength endeavors, whether you are tearing cards, bending a frying pan, or powerlifting, there’s a place for it. You just have to use it and practice it in order to make it work best for you.

Incidentally, in this issue of the magazine, on page 20, there is another short piece by Ben Bruno called, “Curl More Weight, Increase Your Strength Immediately” that pretty much covers the same principle of Radiant Tension. I will let you check the magazine out yourself to see what I mean.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Similar Posts:

• Classic Strongman Month – Week 2
• The Secret Key to Finishing a Deck of Cards – Adjustment
• Productive Variety: Why I Tear Cards
• From The Mail Bag – Card Tearing Feedback
• Card Tearing Twitter Chat TONIGHT!

Check out the results of the Classic Strongman Feats Tournament…

Week 5 Bracket Video

Ending Score Totals

David Wigren – 7 Points * WINNER – $100
Cameron Bailey / Darrin Shallman – 5 Points – * WINNERS – $50 Each
Mike Rinderle – 4 Points – * WINNER – $50 worth of Steel from SteelBenders.org
David Horne – 3 Points
Richard MacLean / Jason Steeves – 2 Points
Daniel Reinard – 1.5 Points
EJ Livesey – 1 Point
Christopher Smith – .5 Points

Winners, please send me your paypal addresses so I can get your prize payments to you!

Jedd

• Classic Strongman Feats Tournament – Week 2 Submissions
• Phone Book Tearing Submissions
• Man of Steel Winners Announced!
• Classic Strongman Month – Week 2
• Diesel Grip Challenge: Week 10

CHECKING IN!

First off, I hope all of you are safe and sound after the hurricane on the East Coast on the United States. I know some friends in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey lost some power and saw damages from the storm, so please take care!

LOVING WWE PROGRAMMING!

Second, I just want to say that if you follow WWE Wrestling, like me, you know its been an exciting few weeks with the return of Kevin Nash and the drama between him, Triple H and CM Punk. What an awesome time!

However, if you are thinking that Stephanie McMahon sent the text message to Kevin Nash to come to Summer Slam and Jack-knife Power-Bomb CM Punk, I am sorry but you are mistaken. I am going to make the call right now, that the culprit who stole Triple H’s phone and requested Nash’s punishing appearance is actually Shane McMahon, making his return to the family business…

I am obviously SPOT ON, but if you have another guess, feel free to post in the comments.

Now, for more important matters – the Classic Strongman Feat Tournament…

Many have been pondering what the final feat in the tournament could be. Watch the video below and you will find out.

Since all of the rules are clearly stated in the video, I am only posting it right now and will add more information below in a few hours.

I do freelance work as a Spanish Interpreter and I have a large project that I have to work on for the company I used to work full time for, so I will be working on that for a bit and will return to the site later on.

However, once you watch the video, if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Thanks and all the best!

JeddSimilar Posts:

• How To Make A Grip Strength Fanatic Cry
• Bi-Polar Training: Inch Dumbbell Plus Kettlebell Flip
• Diesel Grip Strength Challenge – Week 3 Submissions
• Classic Strongman Feats Tournament – Week 2 Submissions
• Phone Book Tearing Submissions

Partially torn deck of cards

Week 2 of the Classic Strongman Feats Challenge is in the books! Last week the challenge was to rip a deck of cards in half and then quarter one of the halves!

This week’s winner is Cameron Bailey.

Check out how the tournament rolled out for this past week:

Scores from This Week:

• Bailey – + 3
• Reinard – + 1.5
• David Wigren – + 1
• McLean – + 1
• Steeves – + .5
• Rinderle – + .5

Scores from Last Week:

• 1 – David Horne – 3 Points
• 2 – Mike Rinderle – 1.5 Points
• 2 – Jason Steeves – 1.5 Points
• 3 – Richard McLean – 1 Point

Standings after Two Weeks:

• Cameron Bailey / David Horne – 3 Points
• Richard McLean / Jason Steeves / Mike Rinderle – 2 Points
• Daniel Reinard
• David Wigren – 1 Point

As you can see, the standings are VERY CLOSE!

Even if you have not submitted a video yet this month, with three weeks left to go, it is not too late to start submitting!

Don’t have the hand strength to rip a deck of cards? I’ll show you how to build the hand strength to make short work of any deck standing in your way. Check out the Card Tearing eBook.

Click the image below…

Check out last week’s submissions for quartering a deck of cards!

Daniel Reinard

Richard McLean

Darrin Shallman

David Wigren

Jason Steeves

Mike Rinderle

Adam Glass

David Horne

Cameron Bailey

Next week’s challenge is Phone Book Tearing.

If you don’t know how to do this feat, then you should check out Phone Book Mass Destruction.

All the best in your training!

Jedd

• Phone Book Tearing Submissions
• Results of the Classic Strongman Feat Tournament
• Classic Strongman Month – Week 2
• Grip Strength Challenge Week 9
• Diesel Grip Feat Challenge – Week 1 Submissions

Did you see how the first week in the Classic Strongman Feats Tournament panned out? If not, here is the video:

Congrats to David on the First Round Win in this Five-Round competition!

The standings from Week 1:

• 1 – David Horne – 3 Points
• 2 – Mike Rinderle – 1.5 Points
• 2 – Jason Steeves – 1.5 Points
• 3 – Richard McLean – 1 Point

This week’s feat is Card Tearing.

According to David Horne, the earliest recorded Grip Competition was a Card Tearing contest featuring various styles of tearing a deck of cards.

After all, there are many ways to tear a deck of cards:

• Tearing a Deck in Half Vertically
• Tearing a Deck Lengthwise
• Tearing Multiple Decks in Half
• Cornering a Deck
• Quartering a Deck
• Tearing While Wearing Gloves
• And the list goes on and on

In fact all these techniques are explained in my Card Tearing eBook, and I can show you how to do all of that stuff.

Despite all of many ways to tear a deck of cards, we will focus on only two of them: Tearing a Deck in Half and then Quartering one of those Halves, as quickly as possible.

Now, there are many styles of Decks of Cards out there, and the difficulty of these different decks varies quite a bit.

With that in mind, the standard deck we are going to use this week is Bicycle Brand. If you tear a deck of Bicycles in half and then quarter one half, then you will beat anyone you face who does not complete this feat with bicycles or someone who completes it with non-Bicycles. However, if you do complete the full feat with a deck of non-Bicycle Brand cards, then you will beat someone you face who could only rip the Bicycles in half.

So, again, the Ultimate Goal here is to tear a deck of Bicycles in half and then rip one half into half again.

If you do not have access to Bicycles, just rip what you have.

Aside from this there are only a few other rules:

• The Full Tear Must be Non-Braced (no bracing the cards or the hands against your thigh or stomach
• The Deck must be a new deck, showing the plastic wrap and seal being broken on camera
• You may use chalk, but no adhesive on the fingers
• As much of the tear should be done on camera (to prevent someone potentially dropping the deck out of the screen and then picking up another doctored deck)
• Other rules will be added as they come to me – try to stick to the legitimate form of the challenge please!

I am currently on vacation and I have not had the opportunity to film a demonstration, but this will happen if/when I am able.

Otherwise, get me your video submissions by 8 PM on Saturday, August 13th, 2011.

Get to tearin’ and Get to filmin’!!!

Jedd

P.S. Thanks to the Bender’s Battlefield for donating $50 of Drill Rod!!!

P.P.S. Need to learn how to get hands tough enough to rip decks of cards in half like sheets of paper? Then get the ebook that shows you everything you need to know, SON!

• Classic Strongman Feats Tournament – Week 2 Submissions
• From The Mail Bag – Card Tearing Feedback
• The Secret Key to Finishing a Deck of Cards – Adjustment
• Card Tearing Twitter Chat TONIGHT!
• Success in Card Tearing – Barry Gibson