Here’s a write-up from 2018 North American Grip Sport Absolute Champion, Luke Raymond, 93kg weight class

Well to start I definitely did not think that I was going to win at the start of the day with Eric Roussin and fellow Canadians including Justin Major and Tom Bryson I was hoping to sneak into the top 3 overall.

To start the day I woke up at 4:15am super anxious for the contest which is normal if anyone knows me. My weight was somewhere near 205 but wasn’t too concerned whether i would be in the 93k or 105k class so i ate a small bowl of oatmeal and drank a creatine drink. I had a bunch of stuff I needed to load in my truck and planned on being at the gym early to help Jedd setup what he didn’t have done. After the 50 minute drive there it was 7:45 and only Jedd and Nigel were there. This was my first time meeting Nigel but following him on IG and FB I feel like I already knew him. After messing around with the two different scales we realized they were both about 1 lb over after checking them with the calibrated plates so we were both good for our respected weight classes. After getting everything settled in an people slowly coming in I relaized there must be something in the water in Canada that makes the people grow bigger because their smallest guy was over 6’ tall and the lightest Dan Fleming is a grip monster.

Chez had put together a list of the USA team for each event and after going through it, the lineup was set and knowing it was going to take some serious lifts to surpass the team from up north.

Event 1- Grippers– I hadn’t been able to train heavy grippers R handed due to injurying my R middle finger when chalking the hub in the Armlifting Contest in Philly (yeah quite the way to injure your finger); so I was unsure how I would do and I was hoping I could get 1-2 decent closes RH on the first two attempts and then if I had to go LH. First attempt I decided to go fairly high with a 155 and smashed it closed, immediate sharp pain in my finger but dissipated enough for me to try 160; close but no cigar. Next attempt I took LH and wasnt close and final attempt RH again no close. Finger held up enough to get me where I was hoping to end up.

Event 2- Euro Pinch – Last contest I was training and consistently pulling 227+ training but wasn’t able to reproduce those numbers in contest. This event I didnt even train Euro specifically instead training flask and IM blockbuster so I was unsure where I was going end up especially since tearing on my last flask session. Warming up I felt pretty good and was able to a few singles at 216 lbs on the warmup implement but is much more seasoned. After hitting my first two attempts at 203 and 208, Rob and I decided to jump up to 218 and both of us unsuccessful.

Event 3- 60mm Napalms Nightmare – thickbar has always been where I lag behind compared to the other elite 93k people and this was no different. I started light at 323 and took my next three attempts at 333, 338, and 348 all successful. The three thickbar giants from Canada still hadn’t even started; Eric, Justin, and Tom. I wasn’t paying full attention but I believe Tom finished around 380-390 and the Eric and Justin at 412. Justin was frustrated as he had pulled 430+ in training which is just unreal strength for both guys. I knew at this point I was close to the top 3, after figuring out the scoring I was indeed 3rd place behind Justin and Eric and felt I had a possibility of moving up based on the medley and wrist roller event.

Event 4- Medley – based on the items and the weights I was hoping to coming in at 53-56/60 but trying to determine the order to which I could maximize the points without fatiguing and failing on items I would normally lift is that planning part of the medley that makes it challenging. Knowing fatigued I wouldn’t be able to lift the 160lb crusher or the fatman blob those were the first two items I did. I was able to get everything I wanted except the 50lb inverted DB which I ended up with 55/60 which was the winning score wit the next highest being 51/60. After this event Eric and I were tied for first and Justin close behind.

Event 5- Wrist Roller – Ive had success with wrost roller events in the past and Jedd and I tried to figure out an appropriate weight that would lead to about a 40% success rate for the competitors and came up with 115lbs added to the sled. So 130lbs, 34’ and 60 secs was the course. As contestants went through the first competitor to finish was Nick Carigan (Canada) and then 3-4 more competitors coming in around 51-54 secs. Then in third place Justin Major sets a blazing fast pace with 39 secs with Eric and I still to go. In my head I now have to see how Eric does but also have to be able to stay within a few seconds of Justin to win the overall. Eric came up 2ft short of finishing and now I had to pick up my game as this was mine to win. No one else to help and all on me, I win or lose it’s all me. Prior to my attempt my anxiety was kicking in, heart rate was elevated, a little shortness of breath; so after chalking up I decided I would set a timer on my phone for 75 secs and when it said 60 I would start. As I am going I am focusing my eyes on the rope as it is winding on the wrist roller and nothing else, I could hear people yelling including Adam with the time but couldn’t decipher the words and the first time I looked up the sled was about 6’ from the line and I kept cranking on it until it crossed the line and looked at my phone which said 25 sec remaining so I had finished it in 35 secs and then In the excitement and couple yells I realized I had won my first overall contest and just happened to be NAGS.

Jedd had informed me that Brad Martin the gym owner had donated a prize for the overall winner and to find out it was a genuine replica of the 1988 Winged Eagle WWF Championship belt was truly badass.

It was a pleasure not only being in one of the closest grip contests but also competing with a bunch of new people that I had only ever seen on social media including; Nigel, Vinnie, Tom B (who made the trip from western Canada), Justin M, Nick C, and Bernie. Not to mention everyone that I had previously met an competed with. I look forward to many years to come and hopefully team USA can bring the team championship back!

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Who Would Win the 2014 NAGS Championship?

Who Would Win the 2014 NAGS Championship?

On June 14th, 2014, I competed in the North American Grip Sport Championship at Durniat Strength Gym in Wooster, Ohio.

This is the 3rd year in a row it was held at Andrew Durniat’s gym. He has also been the reigning North American Champion every year since 2011. Andrew runs a nice demanding competition every single year, featuring a mix of the classic events (Grippers, Two Hands Pinch, and Axle Deadlift) plus other new challenge events as well (this year the Pinch Block Curl and the Sledgehammer Choke).

Recognition is in Order

Before I get too far, I absolutely must give credit where it is due. This year I am in the best shape of my grip career and I owe all the thanks to a handful of people.

First and foremost is my dietary coach, Joe Carabase. Without him, my diet would be a mess and I would most likely still be fat, in poor condition, and hurting all the time.

Next is Luke Raymond and Dan Ely – I began training with Luke in the Fall of last year and Dan Ely came on in the Winter of this year. Having these two guys around so we can all push one another has been HUGE for my training. I can only hope that they have gotten as much out of training with me as I have from training with them.

The Competitors

The list of competitors was quite a bit different this year from last. It seems like about half the group is truly a core group and shows up to throw down year in and year out, while the other half is more dynamic and changes from year to year. Either way, this year saw many hardcore veterans and first-time competitors who will be forces to reckon with for years to come.

Competitor & Bodyweight in Lbs

Brent Barbe (Pennsylvania) 204.5
Charles Chartan (Quebec, Canada) 144.6
Andrew Durniat (Ohio) 227.5
Brandon Gerber (Ohio) 211.2
Michael Hann (Texas) 162.7
Jermey Hartman (Ohio) 226.85
Jedd Johnson (Pennsylvania) 228.4
David Labbe (Virginia) 275
Malcolm Majesky (Ohio) 247.8
Eric Milfeld (Texas) 182.75
Robert Miller (North Carolina) 265
Lucas Raymond (Pennsylvania) 204.6
Nic Rosendaul (Ohio) 244.25
Eric Roussin (Ontario, Canada) 204.25
Tom Scibelli (Maryland) 220
Darrin Shallman (Michigan) 156.1
Yori Skutt (Texas) 129.75
Bob Sundin (North Carolina) 180
Jonathon Vance (Ohio) 196.65
John Wojciechowski (New Jersey) 273.15

First Event – Grippers

Grippers have been an event that have been known to give me trouble, as my crush generally lags behind my other events, especially in comparison to other top grip athletes. This year, my goal was to make up some ground. I began training grippers every 4 to 5 days, and many times more than once a week, and it paid off, as I was able to close a 175-rated gripper Right-handed. I also got a 155 shut lefty.

The grippers used were a set that was purchased from Cannon Power Works by a few members of the North American Grip Sport committee. They were all rated by Cannon, meaning the same device and practices were followed, making it the most valuable gripper set in the world, ranging from 80-lbs up to over 200, in 5-lb increments. I can only imagine the hundreds of grippers that would need to be rated in order to obtain these 30 or so grippers.

By the end of the first event, I found myself behind Andrew Durniat and David Labbe, both competitors in this year’s Mighty Mitts competition at the Arnold Classic, but the gap was not so far that it would be insurmountable.

Here are the videos of Luke Raymond’s and my attempts on Grippers.

NAGS Championship Right Hand Grippers

NAGS Championship Left Hand Grippers

Event Two – Two Hands Pinch

As much as I would love to hold the World Record in this lift again, this year it was just not in the cards. I tore the hell out of my right thumb and I had to modify my training through all of April, May and June. I was super stressed about it, because I had actually set some pretty lofty goals made some hard plans, but they went awry, so I had to do the best I could.

Since the implements used for NAGS were virgin plates – they had never been lifted on ever before that day – numbers were down across the board. I sealed the victory in the event on my first attempt with a lift of 224, which was enough to top Andrew’s 219 and 209 put up by David Labbe and Eric Milfeld. On my second attempt, I lifted 239.69, a lift of 105% of bodyweight.

Two Hands Pinch – NAGS Championship – Jedd Johnson

Two Hands Pinch – NAGS Championship – Luke Raymond

Event Three – IronMind Axle Deadlift

The third event was another one that is a classic thorn in my side. But, since my Two Hands Pinch training had to take a back seat leading up to NAGSC, it made room for more Axle work. In training, I actually worked up over 400-lbs for the first time since 2012, and I think if I would have switched to Sumo Technique a little sooner, I think I could have pushed my training numbers even higher, and perhaps even attained a lift over the 400-lb mark in competition at NAGSC.

As you will see, on my last attempt, I went for 402-lbs, and got it well over the knees, but couldn’t quite hold on until lockout.

IronMind Axle Deadlift – Jedd Johnson – NAGS Championship 2014

IronMind Axle Deadlift – Jedd Johnson – NAGS Championship 2014

Fourth Event – Pinch Block Curl

The Pinch Block Curl was a new event this year. The design of the implement is to replicate the act of performing a Plate Curl, without having to attach weight to the end of an actual plate. This tests the strength of the entire lower arm and hand at the same time.

Many of the competitors are experienced at training the Plate Curl, so no one really knew what to expect going into the event. I know I had no idea where my lifts would fall against the other competitors, so I made my training as hard as possible, loading my implement with as much of a leverage disadvantage as possible. Apparently, my preparation paid off, as I was able to finish with 44.66lbs with each hand, good enough for second place right behind David Labbe.

NAGS Pinch Block Curl – Right Hand

NAGS Pinch Block Curl – Right Hand

Final Event – Sledgehammer Choke

Still a fairly new event, the Sledgehammer Choke has only really been contested since about April of 2013. However, I think I have been at 4 of the 6 competitions where it has been held, so this has been a big advantage for me. The biggest advantage was seeing the way other people do the Choke at Gripmas 2013. Instead of trying to radially deviate the wrist, some were allowing the wrist to kick into ulnar deviation and then lock it there, allowing for a bigger tilt and bigger lifts.

Luke really took to this technique in training, working up to over 22 inches almost immediately, once we started training it heavily in May. This variation is MUCH more intense on the wrist though, and he found he could not recover from training it very quickly, so he actually stopped training it about half way through May. I was not getting the lingering soreness that he was, so I continued to work on it, with the main objective of catching up to him as much as I could.

Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t narrow the gap quickly enough, because Luke hit 23 inches righty and 27 inches lefty, to my 22 inches each hand. Despite the fact that 22 inches on a 14-lb hammer (308 inch pounds) actually beat the previous work record on the 12-lb hammer of 25 inches (300 inch pounds), it wasn’t nearly enough to catch up to Luke’s 322 righty and 378 lefty inch pounds. CRAZY!!!

Sledge Choke Right Hand

Sledge Choke Left Hand

I knew going into the last event that I was slightly ahead of Dave Labbe, by just tenths of a point. So I knew that the entire contest was mine to win or lose. But I really had no idea what Dave was capable of on the event – I wasn’t even sure if he had trained the event before, so I went for broke and tried an all-out PR on my second attempts, both right- and left-handed. Both of those lifts proved to be enough to beat out Dave, so I knew he had him beat.

To hear my name called at the end as the Absolute Champion, winning the Overall, was amazing. Once I knew, I gave my parents a call to let them know, since they have been behind me every step of the way.

What was even more awesome about that is they were babysitting my daughter and I even got to tell her about the win and hear the excitement she had in her voice.

Naturally, there are dozens of people I can thank, but the biggest credit has to go to Luke and Dan. I can’t describe the impact it has had for me having them here in the gym.

I hope you have enjoyed the write-up, and I hope it inspires you to try your hand at Grip Sport sometime soon.

From what I hear, Dave Labbe is HOOKED.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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