DIFW – Double Inch Farmer’s Walk
Lifting two Inch Dumbbells at the same time and then walking with them.
I have done a few short walks with two Inch Dumbbells. This one took place in December before I took John Eaton’s Inch Dumbbell to Chris Rice’s place so that he could train on it. Big Thanks to John Eaton for letting me borrow it for a few months.
It was great getting some practice on two Inch Dumbbells while my second one was away for a while with Ryan Pitts and Adam Glass. Adam sent mine back in early January and its handle is much slicker than both of the ones shown above, and the DIFW’s have not come as of yet. Texture on the handles is an incredibly important element of the lift, especially if you do the lift level.
I am drilling this hard and frequently as often as I can as it is the first event at Mighty Mitts.
So who is going to the Arnold and who will bee checking out Mighty Mitts? Post below in the comments.
The other day I decided to try a Bipolar Strength Feat (combination feat of strength with a different implement in each hand; read more here: Bipolar Training).
David Horne’s World of Grip is having a contest – a video tournament for a tee-shirt giveaway, and I have been meaning to put in a video for it for quite some time, but I couldn’t seem to fit it into my training.
I wanted to do something that had never been done before by anyone that I know of, and I was coming up short, but it finally came to me the other day – Lift the Inch Dumbbell, hold it at lockout, and perform a kettlebell flip with the big 95-lb Kettlebell.
If you are a loyal reader of this site, you probably know what the implements are in this video, but many of the people who watch YouTube do not know exactly what some of the implements I train with are, so I am going to try my best to explain everything below.
Inch Dumbbell
In my left hand in the video, I am performing a suitcase deadlift with the Inch Dumbbell. The Inch Dumbbell is NOT named due to the size of the handle, the gap between the fingers when gripping the dumbbell, or anything like that. It is named after the performing Strongman from the late 1800′s who originally introduced the dumbbell, Thomas Inch. Inch would take his challenge dumbbells (there were three, if memory serves) with him to his performances and challenge on-lookers to lift it. This most likely almost never happened, since the level of thumb and fingertip strength required to do so are pretty substantial.
The thing that sets the Inch Dumbbell apart from other Grip Strength challenge items is it’s weight, size, and design. Check out the specs on this piece: Inch Dumbbell Specs
Weight – 172-lbs
Handle Size – 2.38 to 2.47 inches, depending on the manufacturer of the replica
Design – One solid piece of Cast Iron
A lot of people scoff at the Inch Dumbbell when they hear that it is only 172-lbs, but because of the handle diameter and the fact that it is all one piece of cast iron, it is a bitch to lift. The globe heads reach way outside of the handle, so when they start to turn, the handle also wants to turn as well, and it begins to rip out of your hand. To lift it, you need a strong thumb to resist rotation, strong fingertips to lock in on the handle, and / or a strong wrist to compensate for weaknesses in the other two areas.
95-lb Kettlebell
This dumbbell came from Max Kettlebells, a now defunct Kettlebell company that was located in Pennsylvania, so the design is not the same as the more widespread Dragondoor Kettlebells and others that are so popular out on the market these days. Instead of being completely round, the handle actually has what feels like corners and flat spots on it, so when you flip it you want to catch it just in the right spot or else it can hurt pretty badly.
Aside from the fact that the Inch is so damn hard to lift and the Max Kettlebell is so damn hard to flip and catch, there is more to this feat that makes it feat so challenging.
When flipping and juggling kettlebells, the power to elevate the bell comes from the hips. Because I was holding the massive Inch Dumbbell beside my hip, I could not hinge at the hip or generate any drive from my glutes in order to propel the kettlebell upwards, so essentially what you are seeing is a really big cheat front lateral with the kettlebell, instead of a powerful swing that you would normally see.
So, all together, this is a giant combination feat that involves the Grip Strength needed to lift and hold the Inch Dumbbell, the strength to flip the 95-lb Kettlebell, and the coordination to maintain all of the tension to not crumble under the uneven loading of the Inch and the continuity to then catch the Kettlebell and recover to the standing position.
I am looking forward to continuing my experimentation with different Bipolar Lifts in the coming year, as I feel it is a very good form of training in order to hit multiple aspects of strength all at the same time.
You should give it a try too! Put together a Bi-Polar lift, give it a try in your next workout, and then post a comment below to tell everyone in the Diesel Universe about it!
Thanks and all the best in your training.
Jedd
P.S. Need help learning to Flip and Juggle Kettlebells? Check out Logan Christopher’s DVD, The Definitive Guide to Kettlebell Juggling, the most complete resource on the planet for Kettlebell Juggling.
I have continued to train my ass off on the Inch Dumbbells the last few weeks.
Even though the Inch Dumbbell and Thick Bar itself was not an event that was part of Gripmas, I continued to train it hard because I was seeing a relationship develop between my performance on the Inch Dumbbell and my Two Hands Pinch lifting, as I highlighted in this article: Continued Progress with the Inch Dumbbell Deadlift.
Here is my first lift, which I luckily caught on tape.
The Inch Dumbbell is named after the traveling strongman, Thomas Inch, who used to take his challenge dumbbell around the country and defy others to lift it. Replicas of it these days are about 172-lbs with a handle approaching 2 inches thick. The implements are cast iron and one piece, so when the globe heads start to rotate so the handle tries to tear out of your hand.
I have since carried the dumbbells a longer distance, but I have not had the opportunity to cut up the videos yet. When I do another batch of editing, I will do my best to get more footage uploaded.
Training continues to go well each time I get to the gym. I have begun training specifically for the Arnold Sports Festival and the Sorinex Mighty Mitts competition. I have not actually been selected yet to compete, nor do I know what the events will be. However, if I wait to be told I am in, then I will be wasting time, and I have a hunch of the general idea of the events, so I am not wasting any time getting started.
If you have any interest at all in going to the Arnold Classic, which is the first weekend in March, then I hope you will come and cheer me on from the crowd. Having the support of the people watching when you are up on stage feels amazing.
I competed at the 2010 Mighty Mitts competition, and was selected to participate in the 2011 competition as well, but I had injured the middle and index fingers on both hands and was able to do almost no Grip Training from February to May, and so I had to write the organizers and tell them I could not make it.
This year, I am not even thinking about that. I am just focusing on training smart and staying healthy, which has been working very well for me over the last few months.
On the work side, I just went to Bucknell University yesterday and shot footage with my good friend, Head Strength Coach, Jerry Shreck. We looked at the system he uses to reduce and eliminate knee injuries in his collegiate athletes, especially his basketball, lacrosse, and volleyball players. I am anxious to bring this project out.
In addition, I am working as hard as I can to finish up Braced Bending: How to Destroy Everything in Your Path. Between computer snags, babysitter call-offs, and other commitments, my progress has slowed, but I know this one is going to be awesome for those looking to bend stuff like wrenches, short, mid-length, and long bars, frying pans, and other things. If this is something you are interested, make sure to get on my Feats of Strength Newsletter below.
Feats of Strength Newsletter
I am also in the planning stages of a collaborative effort with Rick Kaselj on preventing and eliminating forearm pain. We don’t have everything worked out yet, but we do have a general idea of what we want to do and we spoke on the phone earlier this week and he is just as excited about it as I am. While many gripsters, strongmen, and powerlifters come to me for advice on how to fix what they are feeling in their forearms, Rick, I am sure gets even more in his line of work because he covers a much broader scope. I think be working together on this we can really put something together that will help a lot of people.
Another iron I have in the fire is a DVD that I shot the footage for with Steve Slater when I was in Ohio on Strongman Atlas Stones. There was more to shoot when I left his place but we were not at the position to shoot it, so he had to shoot it a few days later. he will be compiling the footage on his end and sending it to me so that I can process the video and get the ball rolling. More on that down the road.
And, I think the last video project I am working on here and there is another documentary on my Two Hands Pinch Record. I had the camera running during every training session and you will be able to see everything I did leading up to the event, including many tactics I have never tried before, but have come to love very much.
That is enough of the updates for now. There is still a ton of stuff I am working on. I will share this at a later date.
The plan for the next post here on the site will be a Diesel Classic. This one has recently come up as a request from multiple people across the land, so I am going to dust it off and post it for all to see soon.
Thanks and all the best in your training.
Jedd
If you are into feats of strength, check out Hammering Horseshoes. It’s gotten incredible reviews from many satisfied customers. Click the image below…
The year was 2004 and the month was March. I believe the day was a Thursday and that we had wings for dinner.
The only pic I can find of my buddy Rick: Rick Walker, Don Pope, and Napalm
On this awesome day in DIESEL history, Smitty and I went to Rick Walker’s place the day before the Arnold Classic. We were going in order to attend an event called Night of Strength, sponsored by Atomic Athletic. We had no idea what to expect at Night of Strength, so we hit stuff hard at Rick’s.
We didn’t realize that Night of Strength would end up being the biggest 3 hours of Grip and Bending ever known to man.
I distinctly remember the pain in my left hand from carpal bone misalignment was killing me by the end of this session. I still get this pain occasionally, but I know how to fix it now, so it doesn’t affect my training. Also, from all the wide pinching, both of my thumbs were throbbing and wanting to fall off. They were so tired I don’t think i could have hitch-hiked a ride home if my life depended on it, but it was worth it to enjoy the day with good friends and train grip hard.
We did so much Volume on this day that by the time Night of Strength rolled around the next night, I was destroyed. I distinctly remember failing miserably over and over on the Original Fatman Blob repeatedly while watch guys like Sean Dockery bust it off the floor repeatedly. It’s hard to believe it would be over 7 years until I would take a try again at the Fatman.
So here is the video. The music is by Systematic and it is called “Beginning of the End.” They had an album that came out in like 2000 or something like that. I saw them open for Cold, Stain’d and Godsmack and picked up a two-song disk with this and the song, “Dopesick” on it and played like every day for like 6 weeks.
Tim Narducci in the Captain Morghan Pose
I remember the lead singer, Tim Narducci, looked about 7 feet tall with a big bald head and played the entire set with his foot up on an amp, sort of like Captain Morgan. Dude looked so freakin big I bet he could lift the Inch Dumbbell.
Back to the video… Let’s look at some of the stuff you are going to see:
Lots of failures on the Inch Dumbbell – horrible, embarrassing failures
Lots of stuff with Five Tens – both loose and with a loading pin
a little bit of Six Tens – hideous failures and loading pin lifts
8 Fives (I think we were the first ones to do this because at the time there was debate as to whether it was even possible)
37.5-lb Blob – Not sure why I put that in the video
50-lb Next Generation Blob – Rick and I made this thing look like a little bitch
Two-35′s Pinch (tried doing a clean lefty – my left hand was a better pinching hand at the time, but I had epicondylitis so bad in my forearm that I just could not make the clean happen)
Double Anvil Step-ups (each about 110 to 120-lbs)
Windmill Lift where I anyhow’d a barbell with about 100-lbs overhead and then reached down and picked up a Blob
Most of the feats in the video are marked, but if there’s anything I missed, just leave a comment below.
I have been continuing to work toward improving my Double Inch Deadlift with plans to progress to the Double Inch Farmer’s Walk.
Last week I was able to pull a solid deadlift and even got a good pause at the top before the bells overtook my thumb and ripped the Inch out of my hands…
I recorded some of the tools and methods I have been using to bring my thick bar strength up when I wrote about the double inch dumbbell deadlift last week.
The methods I covered in that post involved solely use of the Inch Dumbbell itself, however that is not all that I have been doing on a regular basis. I have also been using two pieces of training equipment, which I am sure you have heard about – Fat Gripz and Grip 4orce Handles, quite frequently.
Until now, of the two tools listed above, Fat Gripz has probably gotten much more notoriety, but I think that the Grip 4orce handles are going to get more attention very soon.
First off, I want to say right off the bat that I like both of these handles. They both go on and off dumbbells or barbells so quickly that they add next to no time to your workout. You can literally put them on and perform a set of one lift and then pull them off and put them on something else for a superset / giant set
However, I feel the Grip 4orce handles are equally impressive, but in a different way. I see them particularly powerful tools for building thumb strength.
So I probably just lost you right? You’re probably thinking, “How can a thick bar trainer help with thumb strength?”
Well, here is why Grip 4orce builds thumb strength…
When you put the Grip 4orce handles onto dumbbells and curl them, in order to keep them on the handles, you have to squeeze not only your fingers tightly, but also the thumbs must fire throughout the range of motion and continue to adjust pressure in order to keep the G4‘s secured on the dumbbell handle.
What People Don’t Realize about Thick Bar Training
What many people do not realize about thick bar work is it actually requires a substantial amount of thumb activity, especially if you do not flex the wrist while you perform the thick-bar lift.
In other words, when you lift a thick bar, such as an axle, in a double overhand grip, if you keep your wrist in extension, you will have to apply pinching strength onto the bar in order to lift it. If you flex your wrist more, then you shift the emphasis more to the wrist and forearm flexors, and also more on the fingers and less toward the thumbs.
The same is true for lifting the inch dumbbell. If you goose-neck your wrist (if I do this, I get a terrible pain in my wrist and have for years) the thumb does not come into play.
However, if you have your wrist in extension when you lift the inch dumbbell, then you essentially have to “Pinch the Inch” in order to lift it.
Pinching the Inch
This is how I have done it for years – I Pinch the Inch Dumbbell in order to lift it because if I flex my wrist to take emphasis away from my thumb it hurts immensely, almost like an electrical shock through my wrist.
This is also why it is even tougher for me to lift the Inch Dumbbells with them sitting outside my feet as compared to straddling them. When they lie outside my feet, my wrist goes even more into extension, requiring even more effort from and emphasis on my thumbs.
Back to the Grip 4orce handles. I first got a set when I wrote the owner, Jim Hartman, about sponsoring the 2011 National Grip Sport Championship. He sent me a pair to review and a few sets for the prize package at Nationals.
The first thing I did with the Grip4orce handles was to put them onto the dumbbells for my next workout that involved curls, and I noticed how much they work the thumbs right away. The next day, my thumb pads were very sore, much more so than any Two Hand Pinch or Block Weight workout I had recently. In fact, I would compare the feeling to a Volume Workout of Dynamic Pinch, using a Pony Clamp or TTK.
I feel the reason that Grip4orce training feels so much like dynamic pinch is because when you use them on curls, your thumb is acting dynamically the entire time, adjusting the force it is creating throughout the strength curve of the curling range of motion.
I have been using Grip4orce handles on every set of curls I have done since June, and I absolutely love them. They hit my thumbs, they work the fingers, and my forearms feel completely wasted after 3 to 5 sets of curls because they too have to work harder in order to keep the handles secure throughout the curling motion.
I continue to use Grip 4orce handles on every set of curls I do, and my Inch Dumbbell lifting continues to go up. I have even seen improvement in my gripper work, nearly credit-card closing a #3 for the first time ever this week.
I strongly suggest you add these to your equipment collection today. If you currently do curls in your training, this will make them even more worthwhile, and if you are not currently doing curls, then this just might give you a reason to put them back into your routine. They certainly have done that for me.
