Never Before Done Grip Strength Combo Feat

I’ve had my eye on a few goals this year, along the lines of grip strength feats.

The biggest one, I crossed off my list earlier this month – the Inch Dumbbell Clean.

I also recently was successful for the first time pinching 2x25kg plates.

Well, I took that one a little further, but doing a combo feat with the Inch Dumbbell, as well.

Inch Dumbbell Plus 2x25kg Plate Pinch

Training has been going very well, and I am very thankful. Probably 95% of my work has been dedication to King Kong. Luckily, the events have lined up well with the extracurricular feats I’ve been working on as well.

Now, it is Deload time, in preparation for King Kong.

If everything goes well, I will hit some PR’s on the King Kong events.

And maybe even go for some other cool feats, once the competition is out of the way.

How’s your training going?

Feel free to leave a comment below to let us know where you’re at, as the year winds down.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

In October of 2016, I experienced the worst back injury of my life. It was then that I decided that as soon as my back was ready again, I would make this feat my primary focus, and possibly become the first person to do it.

I first pinched one pair of Old School York Deep Dish Plates in 2013, and since then I trained it sporadically, mainly during periods when I wasn’t training for contests and certifications.

Last week, on Tuesday, I was sure I was going to pull this feat off. So much so, I actually wrote down on a piece of paper that I would do it on that night. It ended up being the first time I ever broke both sets off the floor, which gave me some great mental momentum. On my 5th or 6th attempt, I nearly got them to lockout. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite pull them all the way, as the set in my left hand slipped out about 6 inches before Lockout.

Finally, this past Tuesday, on 3/29/17, I focused in hard, took my time warming up and getting everything right, and was successful on my 2nd or 3rd attempt.

I waited to hear confirmation from Richard Sorin that he hadn’t heard of anyone else doing it yet, especially Chad Woodall, who I know was extremely close in 2011 at Summer Strong, and who has made other trips in recent years. Once Richard confirmed, I went ahead and uploaded the video.

After years of trying, and failing literally hundreds of times, this feat is in the books.

Thanks and all the best in your training.

Jedd

This video talks about the most important factors in preventing skin tears when pinching: what you’re lifting, the edge of what you’re pinching, the placement you use with your thumb. The video also will help you make some modifications so that you experience fewer tears.

For additional resources and information on reducing skin tears when training pinch grip, check out the links below:

Skin Tear Prevention Article

Get Your Napalm Pinch Device

Two Hands Pinch Training DVD

Two Hands Pinch Workshop

All the best in your Pinch Grip Training.

Jedd

After just about every contest, it’s a free-for-all of feats of grip strength.

Juha Harju, 1st Person to Pinch 2x25kg Plates

Lots of times, especially at Gripmas, people bring cool stuff for other people to try that others might not normally get the opportunity to get their hands on.

One such item is the 2x25kg Plate Pinch.

Up until this year, no one in the world had ever pinched 2x25kg plates.

Then, all of a sudden, Juha Harju did it (shown to the right).

Then Bob Sundin did it a short time later.

Funny how once you see something can be done, it becomes that much easier for others.

Bob was nice enough to bring his set of 25kg plates with him to Gripmas, and several of us took tries on them.

So, the list of people who have achieved the 2x25kg Plate Pinch has grown again, with Kody Burns becoming the 3rd person EVER!

And you can bet in 2016 the list will keep expanding. The only question is who will be NEXT?

Stay tuned for more awesome feats that went down at Gripmas. Sign up for my free email newsletter:

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Turn Steel Bars into Strongman Works of Art
The Art of Scrolling Steel

Ahead of everything else, I want to wish a Happy Easter to all my Diesel Friends out there.

Thank you for being a part of my life.

It is my pleasure to share my training knowledge, experiences, and PR’s with all of you.

Today I have a Highlight video for you from yesterday’s session. Check it out below:

Grip Training Highlights: 3/30/13

JT was running the table yesterday. He hit so many huge lifts yesterday he said this afterwards, “PR’s and Baselines were on sale today, so I decided to pick a few up.”

Naturally, the clip above only has about 25% off what went down yesterday. Sometimes, when the lifts are cooking, you just don’t take time to turn the camera on.

One of my big lifts resulted in a huge chunk of my thumb getting ripped off. Check it out below.

Hey, when you are training to do lifts that were never meant to be done, sometimes things like this happen.

But, I can assure you, “The PR was worth the PRice.”

It’ll grow back.

Before I go, I want to leave you with one more thing.

Today is Easter, signifying the miracle of the return of the savior from the dead. It is also Spring time, signifying a new season of growth and life.

If your workouts have been down lately, then use this time of year as a time to start turning things around and get some more momentum going.

In a way, it’s just like being reborn, with a new opportunity to grow and gain momentum.

Momentum is so important with training. Once you get just a little bit going, it can carry over into many workouts and before you know it, you are on a roll again.

Start your roll today.

Even if you have a bunch of Easter stuff going on, you can still find something to do to get that momentum going again.

Don’t wait until tomorrow. Do it today.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Check out More Training Clips and Instructional Videos at My Youtube Channel:

Improve Hand Strength for Strength Training and Sports

The hands and lower arms are often a forgotten aspect of a well-rounded strength training program, and they also are something that can hold us back from attaining what we want to accomplish if we fail to train them properly.

Thick about it this way…

Don’t think hand strength is important in sports?

• Try tackling a player on the football field with weak hands.
• Try holding the basketball in the paint with weak hands or fingers.
• Try maintaining control over your opponent on the wrestling mat without a good grip.

All of these things involve a great deal of general body strength in order to be successful, but if you grip is weak, then you might as well forget about all of them.

The same can be said for pulling movements like the Pull-up and the Deadlift. While both of these movements are mostly limited by the strength of the back and arm muscles, a weak grip will also be a hindrance.

Even pushing movements like Overhead Lifting and the Bench Press can be very affected heavily if you have weak hands.

With all of this in mind, it is important to include Grip Training in your routine regularly.

When speaking of Grip Training, there are several common questions that often come up…

• How much training should I do?
• When does it become too much?
• Should I buy a bunch of equipment in order to train my grip?

These are questions I am asked all the time, but the answers truly come down to what exactly your training goals are. You can’t write one program and have it work for everyone.

Instead, when I work with my clients and coach the the members of my site, The Grip Authority, I try to offer examples of movements and exercises that are high impact, meaning that you get a lot of benefit out of them regardless of your individual training goals.

One High Impact Grip Training Movement is Plate Pinch Around the World’s.

This movement is often overlooked but it is actually a fantastic movement for ANYONE to include in their training.

Here’s why:

1. Open Hand Movement – The best Grip Training movements for complete hand strength involve an open handed position. This is beneficial because since you can’t close your hand around the implement, you have to fire your first two fingers (the strongest ones), the last two fingers (the weakest ones) and the thumb very hard in order to complete the lift.

2. Full Body Engagement – Just as Muscle-ups, Hand Stands, and even Deadlifts require coordinated strength generation from very large portions of the body, so do Around the Worlds. At first glance, this lift may look like something that hits the hands only, but it actually will leave your wrists and forearms, biceps, shoulders, lats, back and glutes tired, if you do it the right way.

3. Endurance Based – Many Grip Training drills involve just picking something off the ground, but Around the World’s are different. With this drill, you have to be ready to put forth effort for anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds, depending on the intensity (% of 1 Rep Maximum) you are training.

4. Bonus! – You probably already have ALL THE EQUIPMENT YOU NEED to do this lift, which means you can save your money and put toward Detailed Grip Training Instruction.

I could go on about why you should do this movement, but instead, let’s look at How to do Around the World’s.

The movement is so named because you will be picking up two plates (from 25 to 45-lbs) positioned together smooth-sides-out in a Pinch Grip (thumb opposing the fingers) and working all the way around the plates.

Below is a video clip of myself and some people who traveled to my location to find out more about Grip Training for a day.

One of the main drills I put them through was Around the World’s, because it requires your whole body to work together as a unit. Observe:

Keys to Watch For:

Full Body Engagement: Notice as you watch the video how the legs and glutes are brought into play in order to transition grips placed on the plates. It is not an easy thing to control 90-lbs in your hands while keeping your body limp! You have to keep your core braced and fire the hips repeatedly in order to propel the plates upwards and shift them around…

Hand Speed: Take note that the movement involves a series of rapid firings of the body and the hands. Transitioning quickly around the circumference of the plates helps you keep moving steadily, while fumbling around will cause you to drop the plates and have to start over.

Concentration: Around the World’s also require hand-eye coordination. You’ve got to make sure you move far enough on the plates to make progress around them, but not too much, because you might miss and drop the plates. Take note that I continually cue the guys to involve the lower body. Newer trainees will become engrossed in executing strength with their hands and forget about keeping the rest of their body active. They will either relax their lower body and crumble or stiffen too much and not get the spring needed.

Loading: One plate combination may be too light for some trainees, while the next one up is too heavy. One easy way to load them further is with chains, as you can see done in the video. Chains are usually incorporated in lifts for the benefit of Accommodating Resistance, but in this case they are used as a way to increase the N-Planar Force demands of the lift, randomizing the movement of the implement.

Execution: Most trainees will be more comfortable executing this lift in just one direction, either clockwise or counter-clockwise. Don’t fall prey to this trap – make sure to work both directions.

As you can see, there is much more to this lift than you may have first thought. This is exactly why I consider it one of my High Impact Grip Training Movements.

Training of this nature no doubt will increase your performance in the Strength Game or with Sports.

If you are serious about strength and performance, then check out The Grip Authority. All aspects of lower arm strength are covered, in order to take your grip strength from being a liability you worry about to being an asset you are glad to have.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

P.S. Have you checked out the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales? If not take a look right here.

Just about every single product I’ve ever put out is discounted, with several other packages already set up for even further savings.

Don’t waste time though. These sale prices are only available until 10PM EST tonight.

Richard Sorin, Pinching Two York 45’s

Plate Pinching is one of the main forms of testing Pinch Grip Strength. Plate Pinching involves placing two or more plates together so that the outside plates are facing smooth-sides-out, and then lifting them in a Pinch Grip.

I’ve always wanted to be able to Pinch Two 45-lb York Plates. I’ve pinched several sets of 45-lb plates over the years, but pinching two old-school York 45’s is a feat altogether different.

I only know of two Grip Monsters who have ever pinched two old-style York 45-lb plates with one. One is Richard Sorin, shown to the right. I can only imagine how many times he had to pull the feat off so the camera man could get the shot right.

Richard Sorin is probably the only man with a great enough love for strength exploration and pushing ones own limits to even try this feat. If you’ll remember, he is also the originator of the feat of strength and definitive test of open hand strength, pinch grip lifting the Blob, which is a half of a 100-lb Old School York Dumbbell. I have tons of information on that feat of strength here on the site as well if you are a newcomer: What is the Blob?

Aside from Richard, I only know of Chad Woodall as someone who has accomplished this feat.

Slide this video to the 3:00 minute mark and watch Chad stomp a mud hole in two York 45’s:

I watched him do that again at the Sorinex Summer Strong 2011, and almost got it with a pair in each hand on one attempt. He would have been the first person any of us know of to have accomplished that feat, and he was seriously close that day:

So the way I figure it, it is time for someone else to accomplish this feat, so I have put aside all of my other personal grip feat goals and am going to be focusing on this one.

To me, this is a good goal to focus on for many reasons:

1. It is a Pinching Goal, so it will support my other goals within Grip Sport, including the Euro Two Hands Pinch, Grip Medley Demands, etc

2. It is a lofty goal, meaning I feel I am nowhere close to it right now, so it will force me to think, work, and try new things, i.e. Further Challenge My Paradigms.

3. It is Wide Pinch and Open Hand Dependent, which means it involves the same qualities as Block Weight Training, and the same benefits for general hand strength as well.

The long and the short of it is that this feat is world class and I want to do it. Grip Feats are cool, especially when almost no one else in the world can do them.

So, in order to keep myself going on this, I wanted to involve someone else. Daniel Reinard, one of the most impressive newcomers to Grip Sport in the last 5 years in my estimation, is a superstar when it comes to accomplishing feats. For his bodyweight, he just may have the best all-around Pinching ability in the world, so I did what anyone else would have done in my position.

I called him out…politely of course, after all I am a Pennsylvania Gentleman.

Aside from knowing that I want to Pinch Two 45’s so bad I can taste the rust on the old ass plates, I also know that Daniel has his eyes set on pinching two 45’s as well, so I reached out to him to see if he would be interested in an on-line challenge. His goal would be to Pinch Two Regular 45’s – mine would be to Pinch Two Old School York 45’s.

Daniel has accepted, so I went ahead and made this video to show where I am at with this challenge.

As you can see, these Two OSY (Old School York) 45’s barely even stir when I hit them, so this is sure to be an interesting ride. These are so hard to lift because they are very wide and their edges are rounded so any tilting, which would generally make pinching two 45’s easier, makes OSY 45’s slide apart.

Incidentally, in the video above, I have a small section of pipe running through the plates, to keep them from sliding around. I will focus on lifting them like this first, and then graduate to a completely loose pinch of them.

Wish me luck and make sure to subscribe to my channel to see how the training goes.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Last week’s Diesel Grip Feat Challenge was the Two-25’s Pinch. To see the videos, go to this post = > Pinch Grip Two 25’s.

Watch this video to see who won the challenge and what the feat for this week will be:

(more…)

WEEK ONE – ONE HAND PINCH TWO 25’S

This is the inaugural installment of the Weekly Grip Feat Challenge.

Here are the rules for the Weekly Grip Feat Challenge.

1. Every Sunday, check DieselCrew.com to see what the Grip Feat is for the week.

2. Shoot a video of yourself by the following Friday completing the feat.

3. In the video, you must include the following phrase: “I’m ____________, and this is my video for the Weekly Diesel Grip Challenge at DieselCrew.com.” Hit the feat and upload it to YouTube!

4. Email me at jedd dot diesel at gmail dot com with the link to the video. I must receive the email with the video link no later than 8PM EST on Friday.

5. I will post all of the videos that qualify 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.

To get this whole process started, we will start with Two-25’s Pinch.

Rules of the lift:

1. Show that they are 25-lb plates.

2. Position them smooth-sides-out.

3. Grip them with one hand with the thumb one side and the fingers on the other.

4. Lift them to the full deadlift position, then lower them to the floor under control.

5. For those who do not have access to 25-lb plates, 10-kg plates may be used as long as they are made of metal and are roughly the same size as 25-lb plates.

Here’s a video showing how it’s done!

Good luck and check back on Friday to see all the submissions.

Jedd