I hope you have all had a fantastic fourth of July. I also hope you got the chance to spend time with family and also to get a good training session in.

This week’s challenge is inspired by my buddy, Mike Rojas from Strong 101 Gym!

Mike won one of the weekly challenges a few weeks back, in the One Hand Dumbbell Snatch. When he received his shirt, he immediately threw it on and did some Grip Training, and this is what he did…

Two Hands Pinch Holds for Time

Two Hand Pinch Holds are great for developing thumb strength, full hand strength, and for endurance. Just look at how Mike had to focus in so that he could get a good time. He said he got to 1 minute, 14 seconds – BAD ASS!

Requirements for this lift:

1. Must be two 45′s or two 20-kg plates with smooth sides

2. Plates must be positioned smooth-sides-out

3. Must use a double overhand (pronated grip)

4. Must lift the plates together off the floor with both hands and hold for time without touching the plates against your body

5. Your time begins when the plates leave the floor and ends when one or both plates slip out of the hands

6. Video requirements:

• Title: DieselCrew.com – Grip Strength Challenge – Two Hand Pinch Hold
• Description: http://www.dieselcrew.com Grip Strength
• Tags: grip strength, thumb strength, pinch grip training

7. Upload you video to YouTube and send me the link by 8 PM on Friday, July 8th, please!

8. Have fun. Try multiple attempts. Send in your best, even if you give it go multiple times per week!

Here is a video demonstration of the Two Hand Pinch Hold for Time:

Send me your submissions, DIESELS!

Jedd
Similar Posts:

• The Gut Wrench Hold – This Week’s Grip Strength Challenge
• Wild Card – Grip Strength Challenge – Qualify for Nationals
• Wild Card Qualifier – Two Hands Pinch
• This Week’s Grip Challenge: Plate Curl for Reps
• One Hand Deadlift Submissions

Hello Diesels!

It is time to vote for the winner of the Grip Strength Challenge – hub lifting a 25-lb plate.

Many members of the Diesel Universe found out just how tough a hub lift of a 25-lb plate can be, especially when it is a very shallow or even slightly angled hub.

If you didn’t have time to shoot a video for the challenge this week, do make sure you try this out because it works the thumbs very well and helps toughen the fingers. Just don’t overdo it at the beginning, because this kind of pinching makes my fingers sore as hell!

Below are the entrants…Who did the best with 25-lbs? It could be on either a 25-lb/10-kg plate or I allowed 25-lbs on a hub loading device, which you will see below.

Remember the factors of difficulty – especially the sheer height and angle of the hub. In general, a shallow gripping surface will be tougher than a deeper one, and an angled hub will be harder than a straight one.

Thanks for voting, and remember – one vote per I.P. address. Voting will go on until 5PM on Monday!

Hub Lifters

Patrick Landriault

Leander Rådesjö

Carlos Rodriguez

Chris Smith

Zach Lister

Darrin Shallman

Paul Tompkins

Josh McIntyre

Daniel Reinard

PITT

Discover more ways to develop superior pinch strength:

Similar Posts:

• Slim Lever Submissions
• Diesel Grip Strength Challenge – Week 3 Submissions
• Grip Strength Challenge – One Hand / Arm Deadlift
• Grip Strength Challenge Week 9
• Diesel Grip Feat Challenge – Week 1 Submissions

There are many variations of pinch movements than can be done to increase the strength of the thumb and fingers. Many of these variations are quite common with grip athletes such as loose pinching plates, the euro pinch (or equivalent) and the pinching of odd objects whether wide or narrow.

One movement that doesn’t seem to be quite common is the pinch swing. The movement effectively combines the kettlebell / dumbbell swing movement with a two hand pinch.

The pinch swing is good for building up hand and forearm endurance as well as hitting the muscles in many different ways as the velocity of the weight changes throughout the movement. This can help break through some plateaus in your grip training and is worth trying out as part of a new program.

For advice on correct swing form it is best to check out a video or article on kettlebell swings, but the idea is to use the muscles of the posterior chain to thrust a weight forward due to being hinged at the hips, until your body is straight and then allow the weight to drop back down. The swing generally ends with the arms roughly level with the chest, higher then this is considered a high pull.

For the pinch movement I clamp some plates onto the center of a 2” thick bar with some locking collars, and then load up both ends to the desired weight and VERY securely locking the outer collars.

It is best to stick to smaller plates for this as you need to be able to get them comfortably between your legs, also due to the way this movement taxes the hands you will probably end up starting off around 30% or even less of your max Two Hand Pinch.

Things to keep in mind

• Start light! When I first started doing this I had them slip out my hands a few times, thankfully without anything/anyone getting hurt! I have never used more than about 50% of my 1RM two hand pinch for this movement, see the variations below for ways to make it harder without adding more weight.
• Always chalk up properly between sets Chalk is pretty much mandatory for this exercise to maintain a strong grip on the plates.
• Keep a few reps in the tank. If you go to failure you will end up loosing your grip on the plates and that won’t end well!

You will definitely feel a burn in the forearms and hands from this, make sure to learn the difference between getting a nice burn from it and your grip failing!

Adjusting the Difficulty of this Exercise

There are many ways to adjust the difficulty of this exercise. I will list a few variations that you can try once you have got the hang of it:

• Vary the width to very wide or very narrow. This will change the focus to either more finger strength or more thumb strength. Along with the velocity changes due to the swinging this can be very difficult.

• Use one hand instead of two. This also allows you to vary the weight for each hand if they aren’t evenly balanced.
• Forward Swing and Back Pull Force. Try to swing with more force and make an effort to pull the weight back down as hard as possible, this increases the velocity in both directions which can make the same weight require much more hand pressure to stop it flying out.
• Instead of a swing do a high pull or even a snatch. Be careful though as these are more likely to end up in you letting go and damaging yourself or your gym! Personally I see little merit in doing either of these compared with doing faster/harder swings as above, but I have tried them and the snatch is certainly interesting!

Check out the Two Hand Pinch Swing in Action!

Check out Kris Blog: KrisWragg.com.uk

• How to Perform Mace Swings
• Wild Card Qualifier – Two Hands Pinch
• Muscle Building Strength Training Exercises
• Some Pinch Training Footage
• Woodall Grip Highlights

Here are the submissions for this week’s Grip Strength Challenge – the Plate Pinch Hula.

This is a great drill for building thumb / pinch strength without expensive equipment, because you can use the plates you already have.

SCORING PROCESS

The way I scored this was with a Stop Watch, and once the hands separated, I hit start and the hit stop once the athlete reached a minute, so, the count may be slightly different from what the athlete counted, but not much.

Jeff Parker took the title this week with 33 Revolutions – AWESOME – the only guy to hit at least 30 Revolutions. Jeff – any pointers for the rest of us for performing this drill so well? Please post them below!

If anyone else would like to mention what they learned from this drill, please comment below. Will you keep this in your Grip Training routine? How do you feel it will help you?

Josh Dale – 22 Revolutions

Jeff Parker- 33 Revolutions – WINNER!

Andy Thomas – 24 Revolutions

Darrin Shalliman – 16 Revolutions

Josh McIntyre – 23 Revolutions

All the best in your training,

Jedd

For more Pinch Grip Videos, check out this playlist = > Training for Thumb Strength, Pinch Grip Strength
Similar Posts:

• Wild Card Qualifier – Two Hands Pinch
• Upcoming Feature at Diesel
• Week 5 – Diesel Grip Feat of the Week
• Man of Steel Challenge – Tons of Comments and Videos
• Most Popular Videos of 2011 – Part 2

A couple weeks back I blogged about how I was going to start taping my workouts and posting them to YouTube so that I could get help from you all and so that I could spread the word about Grip and Strongman training.

If you missed that post, you can read about it here: ===> Training my Ass off in my Garage – Fire Walk with Me. I have had a lot of fun putting these together and my workouts have just gotten better and better.

So I had to let you all know that I was able to accomplish something HUGE in my Grip training last night.

For the first time ever, I was able to lever my 16-lb hammer, free standing, from the vertical position, down to my face, and back up again. I did it very strictly, meaning I didn’t bounce it around or anything. My hand dropped a bit which makes it easier, but I was very happy to be able to get it back to the vertical position, regardless.

Sledge hammer levering is great for strengthening the wrists for nail bending and card tearing.

I must warn you, levering a heavy sledge hammer is not a walk in the park. Dominating a lighter hammer for multiple can make you think you are ready to jump up a couple pounds, but once that hammer head starts moving downward, it can feel totally different.

If you try sledge levering, watch your lips. The moment that hammer gets near parallel, it starts picking up speed in hurry, and you can’t just call time out and stop it.

The Hardest Block Weight I Ever Saw

I was also able to get some good work in on my GIGANTIC half 115-lb block weight.

If you’re not familiar with block weights, the most common type is half of a dumbbell, Block weights are great for hand strength because they force you to generate strength in an open hand position, training you to engage your finger tips and your palm.

Anyway, back to the half 115-lb hex block weight.

In like 2004, a very strong grip dude named Shane Larson from North Dakota sent out 3 of these half 115-lb block weights. He sent them to 3 of the top block weight lifters at the time – Sean Dockery, Heath Sexton, and me.

These half 115′s are freakin’ HUGE, my friends!  The slope on these things is over 7 inches across, meaning from the end of one side slope to the end of the opposite side slope is over 7 inches.  I have a hard time even getting a purchase on the vertical sides of this hunk of iron and my hands are pretty damn big.

I’ve had this thing for 5 years and have only broken it off the ground a handful of times and I was able to do more than that last night.

In fact, nobody in the world has ever lifted one of these block weights to a full deadlift!

So check this video out.

This one is my bench workout and my Grip stuff.

This one is just my grip stuff – it’s the same video, just I auto-started it after all the bench footage.

Right at the end of the video is when I start ramping it up for this killer half 115-lb block weight. Wait for it, it’s worth it.

-Jedd-Similar Posts:

• Levering a Giant Hammer
• This Week’s Challenge – Sledge Hammer Deadlift
• Diesel Grip Strength Challenge – Week 3 Results & Week 4 Feat
• Grip Strength Training – Block Weight Lifting
• Isometric Hammer Work for Bending Success