Diesel Crew - Muscle Building, Athletic Development, Strength Training, Grip Strength » how to improve grip strength

Turn Back the Clock – Diesel Card Tearing 2003

Jedd Johnson — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:41:03 +0000

If this is your first trip to the Diesel Crew website, WELCOME. Here at our site you will find some of the greatest free information on how to get strong, fit and muscular!. Before you go, I have a question for YOU at the bottom!

As you peruse the site, you will see countless free articles that Smitty and I have written to help you out. These articles are at no cost because we love providing good solid training information. To check out our articles, click on the MEDIA toolbar above. In addition to the hundreds of articles and posts that we have put up, you’ll also find numerous articles and posts from guest authors who have wanted to help you out as well.

Another thing that you will find is a ton of great free video clips. When we develop new exercise variations, we post them. When we perform cool feats of strength, we post them. Keep coming back to see our videos and subscribe to our YouTube Channels.

Speaking of videos,we were one of the first strength training teams to put out videos on the internet. Back before YouTube was taking the internet by storm, we were editing videos and putting them to hard core metal head banging music, and streaming them off our site.

In fact, we used to get so much traffic and so many visitors downloading our videos, we had to upgrade our bandwidth settings with our providers multiple times! Luckily, these days we don’t need to host locally anymore and there are places like YouTube and Revver to help us out…

Every so often I’d like to turn back the clock and show you one of the classic Diesel Crew videos from back in the day. It’s hard to believe how far we’ve come, but it’ll also show you how long we’ve been doing what we love – providing you with great information and enjoyable entertainment.

So without further ado, let’s take a trip back in time about 6 years.

I took a temporary position working from noon until 9:30 at the plant which enabled me to workout every single day in the morning This was great because I could roll out of bed, go to the gym and hit a hard workout completely fresh, when I was completely fully rested.

First Strongman Competition – Farmer’s Hold for Time

I was training for my first strongman contest and had no specific equipment, no knowledge of the sport, and no idea how to train for it.

Grip Contest – Two Hands Pinch Event

I was also training for my first grip contest and had just learned how to tear a deck of cards in half.

I had just gotten done with a lower body workout where I trained Back Squats, Front Squats and Heavy Zercher Lifts, when I figured it would be a good time to deload my lumbar spine by hanging upside down with the gravity boots and had just recently gotten.

Hanging upside down letting the blood rush to my head in order to deload my spine seemed like it would be a little boring, so I decided to do something else while I hung there…

Please pardon me for the crappy quality of this clip. I made it on a very old and primitive video editing software. But I can ensure you that the graininess of the clip will not take away from the coolness of this strength feat!

That was like one of the first 5 videos I ever posted on the net. If you want to see more of them, check out my YouTube Channel.

So – QUESTION FOR YOU – if you’ve been coming to the Diesel Crew site for a while, is there a video you’d like to see featured on the site in a periodic Turn Back the Clock segment? If so post below in the comments and we may just be able to dig it out for you!

Thanks and all the best in your training,

-Jedd-Similar Posts:

Gripper Drop Sets

Jedd Johnson — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:07:11 +0000

I hope you had as much fun on Independence Day as I did.

Let me tell you a quick story about what I did yesterday.

My family always gets together on the 4th of July to play lawn games. Over the years, we have played bean bags, horse shoes, even ladder golf, but this year we played something different – Kan Jam!

For several hours yesterday afternoon I played Kan Jam. Kan Jam is a game where you throw a big yellow frisbee disk at black cylinder (the Kan) for points.

Sounds pretty stupid, but it’s a ton of fun.

The cylinder reminds me of one of those flat plastic sleds I used to sled on when I was a kid back in the 80′s, rolled into a cylinder shape. It has an open top in it and a slit in the side.

If you hit the “Kan,” or if your partner helps you in hitting the Kan or getting it into the Kan, you get points. If you throw it into the “Kan” via the top opening or the slit, unassisted, it is an automatic win. My partner threw it through the slit unassisted 3 consecutive times yesterday. This has to be a record somewhere.

Right now I want to tell you about what I feel will be an automatic win for my Gripper Training.

One of the great things about Gripper Training is that there is a nearly endless variety of things you can do with grippers as long as you get your imagination going a bit.

If you have troubles thinking up cool and interesting variations in your gripper training, just think about a form of more conventional training and apply it to your gripper work.

For instance, one common method of increasing the number of reps and sheer volume you do in your regular strength and muscle building training is Drop Sets. This is where you perform a certain number of repetitions in a lift, and then once you come near to or actually hit the point of failure, you set the weight down and perform more repetitions.

For instance, in the Deadlift, you can hit a set number of repetitions with a starting weight, and then pull a plate off the bar and continue.

Here is an example of how to do Drop Sets with the Deadlift:

The very same concept of Drop Sets can also be performed with Grippers.

In order to do this, you will need at least two grippers. One of them will be “heavier” and the other one will be “lighter.”

In this video, I perform a Gripper Drop Set, first hitting a filed Elite Gripper, then hitting a lighter, #3 gripper.

Normally, that #3 would go down no problem, but because I already attempted the Elite gripper and performed a static hold near the end range, I was pre-exhausted and it made the #3 gripper some much harder to close than it actually is.

So, if you have only a limited number of grippers in your collection, this method can be very helpful to you, because the lighter grippers will seem tougher to close and you will have to work harder to make the handles touch.

If you want to take this method even further, you can use a whole series of grippers and run down the table in almost a medley-type format.

Other variations include modifying the set depth used, the period of time holding the gripper closed, the number of repetitions with the grippers, etc.

Like I said at the beginning, the only thing limiting you in your gripper training is your own imagination. There’s no reason to ever get completely bored with grippers. There are always more ways you can challenge yourself.

For more gripper training variations, check out the following posts:

Also, if you are really serious about your Gripper Training, then you need to pick up my On-line DVD called CRUSH: Total Gripper Domination. With over 2 hours of training instruction, you will increase your awareness of what is possible with grippers and see new progress moving up the gripper ladder.

All the best in your training,

Jedd Johnson

DieselCrew.com

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New Article for Wrist Strength

Jedd Johnson — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:24:04 +0000

Just posted a new article on StraightToTheBar.com – Hammering Strength into the Wrists Part Two. Sledge hammers are awesome for working the hands, wrists, and overall lower arms. Believe me, there are some exercises in this article that are going to give you indestructible wrists. I shot the footage several days ago, and I am still feeling it.

If you think you are tough enough to try these exercises out, then click here.

I also show you one of the exercises we have used here at Diesel to keep us injury free for years, so get over there and check it out right now.

All the best in your training,

-Jedd-

These exercises are great additions for your Card Tearing and Nail Bending training.