Diesel Crew - Muscle Building, Athletic Development, Strength Training, Grip Strength » grip

World’s Strongest Hands Series

Jedd Johnson — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:19:14 +0000

As you all know, I compete in as many Grip Strength Competitions as my schedule allows.

I am a competitor and I love testing myself.

David Horne, a Grip Legend and Pioneer, from Stafford, England, is promoting the World’s Strongest Hands Series, which is a series of four legs of competition. There is a winner each leg and there will be an overall winner as well.

With this post, I am hoping to put some information out there to increase awareness of this competition, and hopefully to bring in new competitors.

This series is an EXCELLENT way for you to break into Grip competition. I would like nothing more than to have a dozen new Grip Competitors come to my facility for the next leg and see how this stuff works.

This past weekend, I had two new Grip Competitors sign up and compete at Leg 2, EJ Livesey and Mike Pachulski. Both of these guys are from The Grip Authority and loved the competition. Both off them wrote me emails immediately upon getting home after the event about how much they enjoyed themselves.

I know so many more people would love to try a Grip Comp, and with only 3 events to train and a minimal entry fee of $15, there is very little time or monetary risk involved. So, what I would like to do is go over some information about the WSH Series, and extend an invite for all to come try it out.

Here are the events:

Two Hands Pinch

World Record, BABY!

You’ve all seen my videos of both training for the pinch, and my World Record lift last December. I have loved this lift since I first tried it back in 2003. Pinching is my favorite Grip Discipline and thus I train it the most. Those two factors are probably why I have been near the top of the Pinch list for the last 5 years…

Wrist Developer

Wrist Developer

The Wrist Developer is a steel apparatus that is used to test wrist and forearm strength. Although it does not isolate those two aspects, they are the limiting factors. The spring can be moved up and down the bars using the variety of notches, making it very good for gradually increasing the difficulty. Wrist Strength has held me back for years, so I am taking this one very seriously. After all, you can’t maximize your hand strength without a solid, stable and strong wrist.

Vulcan Gripper

Vulcan Gripper

The Vulcan Gripper was designed to replicate the sweep of the old Iron Man Grippers which came out in the 1950′s I believe. The Vulcan also has the two bars with notches so that the spring can be moved around in order to modify the resistance. Crush is also something that holds me back in my placings at Grip contests. What I love about the Vulcan is that there is no knurling, so I can train it almost every day without my skin being in agony. This has always been the thing that has kept me from really ramping up the volume – sore skin.

I don’t feel that irritating skin pain with this Gripper, and what’s great is that the design of this Gripper is close enough to the Captains of Crush and Beef Builder Grippers, that one can train on the Vulcan and still ahve good carryover and results on the torsion spring counterparts. For instance, My best Gripper close in the last two years with a parallel set has been a 179-lb rated gripper. At GGC after working with the Vulcan consistently for 4 or 5 weeks, I closed a 182-lb rated gripper!

Now, to buy all of this equipment from David Horne is going to cost you, especially since it is coming from Europe. So what I am going to do below is offer up suggestions on how you can train for the competition without having the equipment and still be prepared for the platform on “game day.”

Training for the Two Hands Pinch

Two Hands Pinch Apparatus

The easiest way to prepare for this event is with a pair of 35′s or 45-lb plates placed together smooth-sides-out with a pipe run through the center hole. Plates are then added to the pipe to increase the weight.

You will probably want to put spin collars or some other type of spacer between the pinching plates and the loading plates, because otherwise your fingers will hit the loading plates and disturb your grip on the apparatus.

The actual Two Hands Pinch set-up is adjustable for different hand sizes. The outside gripping plates are made of steel and the internal plates are made out of rubber. This is not a complex set-up at all to replicate. You simply need to get two pieces of steel plating cut into the shape of a circle and get a center hole put directly into the center of the plates. This is where you will run the pipe through in order to add more weight.

For the rubber inserts, you can go to WalMart or KMart and get rubber anti-fatigue matting and cut them up into the circle shape with the holes cut out of the center.

You would not believe how much difference a few millimeters makes on this lift. Too thin and you put too much stress on your fingers, causing them to bend when you lift. Too thick, and the thing wants to pop out of your hand on every pull. Just right and it feels like your hands are suction cups, ready to defy gravity, brother!

Training for the Wrist Developer

The purpose of the Wrist Developer is to test wrist and forearm strength. When hitting an attempt on this device, you actually involve the entire upper body and I even feel it in the glutes on a max attempt.

Reverse Style Bending

Because of the large amount of muscles and joints involved in this movement, I can’t just point to one individual movement in order to prepare for this event. I think reverse style bending is one way to start. This way you get that extended effort feeling of the near-isometric action that accompanies an attempt on the WD. The WD’s handles are a bit longer than most short bends however, so that has to be taken into consideration.

Pulling the Mace Down

Another movement that is somewhat similar to the WD is Mace Swinging, especially the pull back to the order position. The short-coming there is that Mace Swinging is done rapidly with a great deal of concentric movement and the WD is a high-tension, short movement. The feeling can probably be better replicated by using a lighter mace, a sledgehammer, or other leverage tool, covering the same distance with similar joint angles.

The bottom line is the WD is a tough one to replicate without the actual equipment. Going in without touching the apparatus in training, I would suggest to prepare for the contest using a variety of different forearm, wrist and elbow strengthening movements, varying the load in order to increase the tension, while also working isometrics and near-isometrics, because that is essentially what you are doing with the Wrist Developer.

Training for the Vulcan Gripper

If you’ve got skills as a welder, you can probably design a mock-up of the device. I do not have those skills, so I have never been able to go that route. However, like I said before, the C.O.C. grippers and other options for torsion spring grippers are nearly identical.

Vulcan Block Set

The important detail to keep in mind for Gripper training, especially for the WSH Series is the set. For these competitions, in order to make sure everyone closes the handles together from a legal position, a 20-mm block has to be slid between the handles prior to closing. This prevents a deep cheat set from counting as a legal close. If you don’t have a Vulcan, just train the block set with your COC’s or whatever types of Grippers you own.

COC Block Set

However, using a block set of this nature requires more energy and coordination in order to close the gripper. You’ve got to train this set in your workouts in order to be ready for it on competition day. Just setting it to parallel and then pausing before closing it is not good enough. You’ve got to feel what it’s like to fumble around with your off-hand while holding the gripper at parallel or greater isometrically. It’s quite different.

Vulcan Death Gripper

Incidentally, Death Grip has come out with a version of the Vulcan Gripper made by Death Grip Brand Hand and Wrist Strengtheners that I can put you in contact with. Just hit me with an email and I will send you the information. There is no website at this point.

Upcoming Contests

As I said earlier on, my purpose of this post is to increase the awareness of Grip Sport itself and encourage people to try out a competition. If you are in the New England, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia area (is there a word for all these states???), you are in driving range for the competition here at my place. When I have people coming in from the outer reaches of this territory, I start the contests an hour later to give people a better chance of getting here safely. However, if you are nowhere near any of these places, Legs for the WSH Series are taking place all over the nation.

Here are the names of the promoters and the cities they are holding contests, in case you would like to try out a competition.

Eric Milfeld – DFW, Texas
Aaron Corcorran – Tucson, Arizona
Adam Glass – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Dave Thornton – Three Rivers, Michigan
Chris Rice – Crooksville, Ohio
Andrew Durniat – Wooster Ohio

If these areas are closer to you than my place, I can put you in contact with them in order to get signed up for an event or possibly to even arrange a training session with the equipment. Getting this equipment in your hands so you know how it feels and compares with your work-around equipment is half the battle.

The Dates of the next two legs are:

Leg 3 – Saturday 16 October, 2010
Leg 4 – Saturday 13 November, 2010

I hope to continue to bring you even more information that you can use to your advantage. I love the sport and hope to help it grow. Any help you can give me is appreciated.

Jedd

P.S. If you’d like to see these events in action, I loaded them all to my YouTube Channel. Just go to my channel and the first one will play, then it will give you a link to follow at the end to get the next video. There are 6 videos and they are all about 3 minutes apiece or so => Grip Contest Footage

Killer Weekend Strongman Workout

Jedd Johnson — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 03:07:12 +0000

This past Friday I got a call on my cell phone around 9 PM. It was Rick Walker, who has written many of the articles we have in our strength and conditioning articles section.
CHECK OUT THE REST OF THIS KILLER POST AFTER THE JUMP
“What are you doing tomorrow?” he says.

“Nothing’s planned buddy,” I said.

“You want some company?” he said.

“Oh hell yeah!” I told him.

If you don’t know Rick, he is the first person I am aware of to ever hold a grip contest East of Ohio, and he did so in September 2003. It was that contest that got me interested in pursuing competitive Grip strength.

Over the years, Rick and I have gotten together for some awesome workouts. Each one was several hours long and consisted of everything from Strongman training, to Powerlifting, to Grip Feats and Steel Bending. These workouts are always intense and we always push one another to keep going and hit PR’s.

These types of workouts are awesome, and I encourage anyone who loves to lift to attend workouts of this kind. If you are used to working out alone, when you get together with other dudes with similar training styles, you can really have a lot of fun and set new PR’s.

One advantage of these special group training sessions is that you can get a spot from one another, which in and of itself can lead to bigger numbers if you are used to training solo.

Another benefit of working out with special occasion training partners is that they might be able to see something in your technique that you are not able to pick up on or your normal training partner isn’t seeing. Rick was able to show me something with my sumo deadlift technique that made my lift feel much better for me.

Finally, these sessions can just simply make you push yourself harder because you want to put up as big of numbers as you can with the other guys. Your heart starts pumping, the adrenaline gets going, and you end up doing stuff that can even surprise you.

If you have the opportunity to attend or set one of the sessions up, I encourage you to do so, because you will not regret it. You will have a great time! And that is what it is all about. Your workouts should give you enjoyment.

So, this is what Rick and I got up to yesterday. You’ll see this workout had everything but the kitchen sink in it:

1. Deadlifts - I got 515 Double Overhand after not deadlifting for about a month. Got 520 to my knees before right hand grip slipped. Rick got 605 matching his best pull since focusing on his next lifting comp.

2. Overhead Press (Log) – I got 280 on my second try, matching my best since 2005. Rick couldn’t get comfortable under the log, having not used one since about 2005.

3. Muscle-ups – I thought for sure with Rick there I’d get one. Tried 5 or 6 times, but just couldn’t get up there to catch myself above the bar.

4. Farmers Walk – Implements weigh 174 lbs. We did four trips down and back about 200 feet total maybe. Rick did his with a massive dark brown beard that looked like it had something metallic sticking out of it. It looked like something left over from the Roswell crash. I told him if he dyed it white he would look like a lawn gnome.

5. Tire Flip (780lbs) – Been about a year since I flipped this tire. Worked up to a slow set of 3. Rick had trouble keeping his footing under the tire but managed 3 good sets of 1. This was great being able to flip this so easy without practicing for a year or so.

6. Prowler – Pushed up hill using the vertical handles and pushed back down using the bottom horizontal handle for as far as we could go, then switching to the top handle. Two sets each. It was during the Prowler work that i realized Rick had taken at least two and maybe three breaks to urinate, while I still hadn’t gone, so I must have had some dehydration going. We just kept going

7. Thick Bar Lifts – Picked up the bell and tried to hold it off for 3 sets of 6 each hand. My hands were so wasted from the farmers and tire I could not get the Inch off the ground one handed. Also worked on the Slater Loadable, weight 127. After this round, my forearms were totally brutalized.

8. Club Pendulums – I love this movement. The Demolition Club is so big that it is full body movement but it still kicks your forearms’ asses. Used the 89.5-lb Demolition Club for Pendulums. I hit sets of 6. Rick had never done this but managed to master the movement and end on a good one before we went upstairs and proceed to devour mass quantities of beef and various salads.

I put together a highlight video of yesterday’s workout. If you double click on the video, it will take you to YouTube and if you can give it a thumbs up, I’d really appreciate it. Also, feel free to leave a comment either here on the site or over at YouTube.

Here you go:

Look for a follow-up video sometime soon, as Rick says next time I need to come to his place and that it is going to be “Walker Rules” this time around.

Keep up the great work with your training.

-Jedd-

Freaky Forearm Training for Baseball

Jedd Johnson — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 17:13:22 +0000

Bat speed, long ball power, and bat control are three aspects of batting over which you can have better command with increased forearm strength.

In order to train your forearms to turn them into bat thrashing and ball flattening power generators, you’ve got to hit them from a variety of angles.

CHECK OUT THIS KILLER POST AFTER THE JUMP
Finishing your workout with a few sets of wrist curls just isn’t going to cut it anymore. You’ve got to hit the wrists and forearms from all directions to develop the most size and strength.

Main movement patterns of the wrists and forearms.

Wrist Flexion – Bending the wrist resulting in a decrease of angle; moving the palm of the hand toward the front of the forearm

Wrist Extension – Straightening the joint resulting in an increase of angle; moving the back of the hand toward the back of the forearm

Ulnar Deviation – Medial movement toward the midline of the body; moving the little finger side of the hand toward the medial side of the forearm

Radial Deviation – Lateral movement away from the midline of the body; moving the thumb side of the hand toward the lateral side of the forearm

Pronation – Internal rotation of the forearm resulting in the palm moving posteriorly, or down

Supination – External rotation of the forearm resulting in the palm moving anteriorly, or up

Elbow Flexion – Bending the joint resulting in a decrease of angle; bringing forearm toward upper arm

KILLER FOREARM CIRCUIT

One way to barrage the forearms from all angles is to string together several exercises and rip through the whole series all at once. This gives you a serious pump and will build your forearms up fast.

This is a series I like to use every couple of weeks to pump my forearms full of blood. This leads to a flush of blood and nutrients that helps with recovery and aids in rebuilding the microtrauma that goes on from high volume workgrip training.

For this circuit, I used the following equipment:

Pronation/Supination with the Stronger Grip Leverage Ball

Pinch Block Wrist Curls (Flexion)

EZ Bar Wrist Extensions

Sledge Weaver Kick Backs (Ulnar Deviation)

Leverage Bar Circles (Radial Deviation)

EZ Bar Reverse Curls (Elbow Flexion)

Go through that circuit 2 or 3 times. Shoot for finishing up each circuit in 3 minutes or less.

Now, let me know what you think about that stash and burns, brother!

Thanks and all the best in your training,

-Jedd-

P.S. If you are looking for the number one resource in the world for building grip and forearm strength for baseball, then you have to check this out:

Forearm Training for Baseball < = = Free video on Grip Strength for Baseball.

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3 Ways to Use Towels for a Monster Grip

Jedd Johnson — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:23:14 +0000

Do you dedicate time to training your grip?

If you are not including Grip Strength training in your program in a variety of forms, you’re are making a mistake and holding yourself or your athletes back.

Not training the grip specifically will lead to weak hands and that will lead to slipped tackles, dropped passes, missed rebounds and missed deadlifts, among other things.

You need to train your grip regularly, in some way. One way to do that is by dedicating time to performing specialized grip movements such as plate pinches, thick wrist roller lifts, and gripper training.

These forms of grip training are great and will certainly lead to a strong set of wrists, hands, fingers, and thumbs.

However, there are draw backs to doing specialized grip lifts. One of the main draw backs is that many coaches and athletes do not have much specialized grip equipment, due to their cost. Unless you know how to make your own strength training equipment, this difficulty can be a hard one to overcome.

Another thing about performing specialized grip training movements is that it can eat up precious time. When time is limited, it can be tough to work the grip stuff in without sacrificing the other core components that should be in your program for building strength, power and speed.

Because everyone’s time is limited, it is important to work toward making grip a part of the other lifts you do during the workout. When you combine grip with your full body training, this is called integration.

I would like to point to an implement that you most likely already have and that you can use in order to incorporate grip integrations into your routine. This item is cheap, resilient, and versatile, and it works great in combination with your kettlebells.

Towels for Grip Training

Towels are great for building grip strength. Because they can be folded and molded into so many different positions, towels can be used in conjunction with other implements you are probably already using. This enables to train your grip not isolation, but rather integration: the entire body is being worked but the grip remains one of the limiting factors in the movement.

Here are 3 ways to use towels in your training to emphasize the grip component of a given lift.

Wrapping

Towels can be wrapped around the handle of a kettlebell or barbell, instantly making the lift more difficult and putting an increased emphasis on grip strength for that lift. Kettlebells, barbells, and dumbbells are great for incorporating the wrapping method with towels.

Towel Wrapped Around a Handle

Wrapping the towel causes the handle to increase in size, making it tougher to hold onto. With the towel in this position, the main type of grip strength being trained is support grip, stressing the fingers the most.

Looping

The towel can also be looped around an implement, changing the way the grip is oriented during the movement. While still stressing the fingers, there is also an angle change for the wrist.

Towel Looped Around Kettlebell Handle

Depending on the thickness of the towel, you can end up with a variety of material sizes. For instance, if using a relatively new, and high quality towel, the gripping area can become very thick. Smaller towels will be thinner in your grip.

Also, if using a very short towel with the looping technique, you can end up with a very small gripping surface. This can result in a very challenging lift, isolating two or three fingers, and bringing about the need to squeeze the towel extremely hard.

Draping

The draping method is a little bit different. While the other two implements change the size, form and rigidity of the gripping surface, the draping method’s purpose is elimination of friction. By covering the gripping surface with a towel, the slickness of the implement is increased dramatically.

I dare you to try these quick grip lifts out. The Kettlebell in the pictures above is 95-pounder and it is pretty freakin’ tough to perform swings using these towel wrapping techniques. Make sure when you do them you are standing far away from any mirrors. The last thing you want to do is start out the New Year with 7 years of bad luck.

Speaking of the New Year, I will be coming out with something very soon that is going to help you accomplish all of your GRIP GOALS in 2010.

I’m tired of hearing people tell me that they are spinning their wheels in the gym and not getting anywhere, so I developed something that I think is going to make a huge difference.

I can’t tell you exactly what it is right now – I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag just yet – but let’s just say that it is BIG.

I will have more information for you soon enough. I have been working on it all Christmas weekend and am putting the finishing touches on it.

Check back this week for the big announcement.

In the mean time, all the best in your training,

-Jedd-

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