Diesel Crew - Muscle Building, Athletic Development, Strength Training, Grip Strength » feat of strength

Dennis and Pat Perform at the Arnold

Jedd Johnson — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:56:34 +0000

Footage via amuricankb on YouTube

Above, you’ll see Dennis Rogers (who happens to be a Diesel Iron Master) and Pat Povilaitis performing prior to the Mighty Mitts competition at the Arnold Strength Expo from last weekend.

Bending Foot Position

As you watch, take note of Pat Povilaitis’ stance while he bends the short steel (30 seconds into the video). This is exactly the stance I suggest in my DVD, Nail Bending – How to Melt Steel with Your Bare Hands.

That stance enables you to generate better power into the steel as you are bending it, regardless of the wraps being used or the length of steel.

This stance is very similar to the stance used in Baseball for Power Hitting as well as Boxing / MMA for transferring punching power.

Other Feats Shown

Phone Book Tearing
Ripping Deck of Cards
Breaking Bats over the Head
Rolling Frying Pans
Twisting Horse Shoes
Hand into Cougar Trap – MUST SEE!!!

Steel Bending Technique

If you are a steel bender, the absolute biggest thing you can do to increase the level of steel you are bending is to maximize your technique. Technique is the number one thing I focused on when filming my Nail Bending DVD. Technique is almost always the reason people struggle to move up on bigger steel.

Steel Bending Strength

If you feel your technique is solid, then your next issue might be your strength. The strength needed for bending steel is different from other types of tests of strength because you must put your hands, arms, and shoulders at might different angles than, say, lifting weights, lifting stones, pulling things with ropes, etc.

I also include plenty of information on building strength for steel bending in my DVD, so check it out.

Underlying Injuries / Prevention

If your technique is golden, and you feel you are set in the strength department yet you are still having a hard time kinking steel bars or finishing nails off, then you may have an underlying issue there, as well, and I cover several things you can do for Injury Prevention and Recovery in my DVD.

Steel bending is highly technical and within each of the three categories I mention above, there are dozens of sub-categories. If you need help in figuring out what exactly is holding you back, I have dozens of articles here on the site and all over the internet, or you could just pick up my Steel Bending DVD and you will instantly get 30-days of email support so that I can help you accomplish your goals.

Pick your copy up today and start wreaking serious havoc (click on the image to the right).

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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Upcoming Feature at Diesel

Jedd Johnson — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 15:17:36 +0000

Weekly Diesel Grip Feat Challenge

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

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Bending DVD Contest

Jedd Johnson — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:34:14 +0000

Well, the long wait is almost over.

Next week, my new DVD, Nail Bending: How to Melt Steel with Your Bare Hands, will go live.

This DVD is 90 minutes of bending instruction covering Wrapping, Bending Techniques, Strength Training, and Injury Prevention.

You can basically wrap up and bend your first nail right along with me as I show you how it is done.

To launch this thing into the Stratosphere, I am holding a contest.

I want you to tell me why you want this DVD. Tell me why you should get one.

For every 50 comments I get between now and Saturday, I will draw a winner randomly to select people who will get a free copy of the DVD.

I will announce the winners on Saturday, so when you post below make sure to include your valid email address, so I can contact you.

I am also including Facebook comments on this as well, so if you want to post there, you can do so here = > Jedd’s Facebook Page.

I have helped hundreds if not thousands of people learn to bend through my articles and my ebooks. Now I want to help even more by showing them myself.

In addition to this contest, the people who get the first shot at this DVD for a special price are the ones signed up for my Bending Newsletter. To go get signed up now, click on the banner below.

If you don’t win the contest, there will be here an announcement here on the site when the DVD is LIVE.

Until then, Happy Thanksgiving, and all the best to you and your family!

JeddSimilar Posts:

5 Important Lessons for New Steel Benders by Chris Smith

Jedd Johnson — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:15:29 +0000

I’m still pretty new to the nail bending game. Before I started nail bending, I would watch loads of videos of other people bending pieces of steel, and was filled at first with disbelief and eventually fascination. That’s how it works. It draws you in. That’s why people refer to it as the addiction. There is something mystifying about taking a perfectly good piece of steel and demolishing it with your bare hands. Once you bend your first nail, there is no turning back…

There is a lot to learn when getting started though. You can’t (and shouldn’t) just pick up any piece of steel you can find and try to bend it. As a beginner, there are lots of things you need to know. The differences between pieces of steel, what to start with, how to progress and how to correctly bend are just a few of the things you need to know before even picking up your first nail. If you have never been in a gym before, you wouldn’t just walk in and try to bang out deadlifts would you? Steel bending is no different. You need to know proper intensity (what stock to use), frequency (you can’t just do hard bends every day), and technique, among other things. Here are a few of the most important things I’ve learned as a beginner in steel bending.

Get in touch with people who know what they are doing

When I first decided I wanted to learn to bend nails and steel, I had no idea where to start. Not only did I not know how to bend, I didn’t know what to bend, or where to get it! So I found as many people as I could who were already experienced steel benders. Their advice proved invaluable to me as a beginner, and still does. Without the help of people who are already bending, it’s going to be very hard, almost impossible, to get started yourself.

Learn Everything You Can

As I’ve mentioned, there is a lot of information about steel bending that you need to know before you get started. At times, the sheer amount of things to know can be overwhelming. If you aren’t purchasing a kit with a specifically laid out progression, figuring out where to start and how to progress can be difficult. Learning the differences between different types of stock, nails and bolts is key. The length, shape and manufacturing process all affect the difficulty of a bend. There are also different techniques to learn and master. Learning these things makes contact people who are already involved in steel bending that much more important.

Proper Wraps Make a Difference

A good pair of wraps can be the difference between your nail bend being a test of strength or a test of pain tolerance. Do yourself a favor and invest in a good pair of wraps from a reputable company, or find out how to make your own from someone with experience. Some of the most popular choices are leather and cordura. Keep in mind that if you want to become certified for completing certain nail bends some companies require you to use certain wraps. It’s best to gather a few different kinds and let your hands adapt to using the different materials.

Take It Slow

After you do your first bend, it’s very tempting to start bending nails and steel all the time, every day. Resist the urge! As I said, treat bending like you would any other form of training. Be smart and avoid overtraining and the injuries that walk hand-in-hand with it. It’s been said that a difficult bend taxes your body in the same way as a maximum effort lift. If you find that you are experiencing pain in your joints after bending, you’re probably doing too much, too fast. Don’t be afraid to take a few days off. Your strength will not suffer, and will most likely increase.

Technique is Everything

Just like any lift, proper technique is crucial to steel bending. When you are starting out, take extra time to learn good technique and learn it well. Even when you feel that you have learned good technique, consistently refine it. It is very easy to let your technique get sloppy as you move up to harder steel, especially if you have gotten used to bending easier pieces of stock. This is a problem I personally had. I got too comfortable bending steel that wasn’t that challenging and let my form get sloppy because of it. When I tried to move on to a more difficult piece, it wouldn’t budge. Once I took the time to really sit back and carefully reevaluate my technique, I realized that I had gotten sloppy and made the necessary corrections. As soon as I did, I was able to crush a few pieces of stock that I wasn’t able to do before. Pay attention and don’t be afraid to critique yourself. If possible, have someone who is experienced critique your form for you.

There you have it. Five things that I, as a beginner bender, have learned that have helped me immensely. Hopefully this has helped some fellow beginners, or motivated some interested individuals to get involved.

Chris Smith is the owner and head trainer of Train Better Fitness, a performance training company based in New York City offering training services to people of all fitness backgrounds. He is a certified personal trainer with the American College of Sports Medicine, martial artist and overall fitness fanatic.Similar Posts:

Halloween and the Rolling Thunder

Jedd Johnson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:56:49 +0000

I hope you’re doing great!

I just saw this on YouTube and had to post it here for everybody’s enjoyment. I think you are going to laugh your ass off. (Thanks for sending it over, Dan)

Dude, Halloween is my favorite holiday. Last weekend I walked through the haunted house the ambulance company was putting on as a fund raiser and loved every minute of it.

This weekend I have a ton of stuff planned. In the morning I have some work to do, but after that I plan on doing a scary Halloween workout right in the comfort of my own garage.

You can bet I will be hitting it hard. In fact I have a bunch of stuff written down that I am going to hit for my big weekend Grip workout.

I am going to hit grippers, pinch, and thick bar all in one day and I just might put together a highlight video.

Maybe there will even be a Halloween theme to it. Scary Grip sounds pretty cool.

Speaking of developing a scary grip, let’s take a time out for a quick tip…

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Quick Grip

Hey, here’s something to keep in mind when you are training with the Rolling Thunder. I keep seeing people make this mistake all the time.

Don’t load your hands up with too much chalk on the Rolling Thunder.

Especially when training with the old style of Rolling Thunder, too much chalk on your hands will hinder your lifts.

When using slick implements, especially plastic ones, chalk can kinda act like ball bearings in your hand and work against you…

What I like to do is just use enough chalk to keep my hands dry. Below’s a picture of about how I chalk my hands when I lift the Rolling Thunder. This is also how I chalk for tearing a deck of cards.

As you can see, it doesn’t take that much chalk to keep the hands dry. That’s all you need for a lot of implements and feats.

Keep that in mind next time you train Rolling Thunder and I think you will see some bigger lifts and scarier grip.

Once my grip workout is over this Saturday, and the video is edited, then it is time to head out for a Halloween party I have been told about.
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I love Halloween and I know a lot of you do too, so to celebrate I am running a sale on my feat of strength ebooks on Nail Bending and Card Tearing.

From the start of Friday through to Sunday morning, anybody who picks up any of the products below gets 25% off and a copy of Grip Considerations for the Bench Press, a video I did for AJ Roberts when he released his Bench Press Improvement Product, Up Your Bench.

Just click the images below to take advantage of the Halloween Specials.

Nail Bending eBook - The Most Complete Reference on Nail, Bolt, and Steel Bending in the World

When you buy the Nail Bending eBook, you’ll find out

Card Tearing eBook - Learn How to Tear Cards with Your Bare Hands

When you purchase the Card Tearing eBook you’ll learn

Home Made Strength On-line DVD – Build Strength Without Breaking the Bank

When you buy Home Made Strength, you’ll see

The Ultimate Sled Dragging Manual – Innovative Ways to Train with Out of One of the Most bBasic Implements

When you purchase Sled Dragging, you’ll see

Enjoy your weekend – Train Hard – Be Safe.

-Jedd-Similar Posts: