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

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

It’s the beginning of a brand new week and I’ve got an announcement I’m happy to be FINALLY making.

The DVD Sets of the Basics of Grip Training and Strongmanism Seminar ARE READY!

This seminar took place at the end of March, and the attendees had GREAT things to say about it.

This is a 2-Disk DVD Set covering the Fundamentals of Grip Training and performing Strongman Feats.

Here’s how the seminar flowed, and how the DVD set goes:

DVD #1

1. Welcome

Just a quick meet-and-greet where we do introductions and I cover how I got into Grip Training and Feats of Strength.

2. Warm-up (03:24)

I knew the rides in to the seminar would be pretty long, and the last thing the guys wanted to do was just sit there, so the first thing we covered was the importance of proper warm-up, and I put the guys through the exact Warm-up protocol I go through each training session.

If you’re not Warming Up prior to your Grip Training sessions, you’re leaving strength on the table!

In my experience 2 out of 3 lifters do NOTHING before hitting grippers, besides doing a few reps of light grippers.

That’s a surefire way to not only never progress in your training, but how to GET HURT, as well.

Start implementing this routine ASAP to start instantly seeing benefits.

3. Grippers (23:06)

When you watch the Warm-up section, I encourage you to jump right down on the floor and go through it yourself. Then, grab a gripper and enjoy the Gripper section.

This section covers the importance of the Gripper Set. If you don’t have your set technique established, no drill will be able to get you where you want to be with your Gripper Training.

You’ll want to have a gripper there with you when you go through this section, so you can make sure you’re doing everything correctly with your gripper placement.

Before this section wraps up, you’ll also get to see what I consider the best gripper training drills. Most of these I do every single week, because I know how big of an impact they’ve had.

4. Pinch (1:04:54)

Now it’s time to focus on my bread and butter – Pinch Grip! Easily my favorite form of training, I do more of this than anything else.

In this section of the Disk, we talk about all the different types of Pinch Grip Training, and how the techniques for each type is similar and different from the others.

You’ll also see he nuances of how to place your thumb and hand on what you’re trying to pinch. One size DOES NOT fit all and you HAVE to make subtle adjustments depending on what you’re trying to Pinch.

DISK #2

1. Thick Bar

If there is any form of Grip Training that is a MUST for a true Strongman, it is Thick Bar, and we cover the topic in detail in this section.

From the use of Axles, to Fat Grip instant thick bar handles, to the most challenging types of thick-handled dumbbells like the Inch and the Death Grip Bells, you’re gonna see a host of ways to train Thick Bar for open hand strength.

You might be surprised how similar the techniques are between some of the Pinch Grip training methods and Thick Bar lifts, but when you learn about the importance of the thumb adductor pollicis muscles, it will all make sense.

2. Hub Q&A (32:01)

Before we branched out into Strongman Feats, we did one last Q&A session on Hub Style training.

Hub training is one of the few types of Grip Training where smaller hands are an advantage, believe it or not.

3. Feats of Strength (38:18)

In this section, you’ll see a little primer that I covered regarding something that many new Strongman Featists aren’t familiar with – Tension.

Feats of Strength are all about Creating and Managing Tension. Until you know how to use tension to your advantage basic feats like Card Tearing, Nail Bending, will give you trouble. But, once you master tension, the more complex feats like straightening Horseshoes come more within your reach.

4. Card Tearing (49:26)

The first Strongman Feat we jumped into was Card Tearing, and for good reason, too.

Card Tearing is the perfect feat to learn the production and management of tension.

With the techniques you’ll learn in this section, you’ll be ready to take your first steps as a strongman. You’re gonna love what it feels like to destroy a deck of poker cards!

5. Steel Bending (1:05:20)

My products have produced more certified Red Nail Benders than any other source out there, and with the info included in this section, that number is going to go up once again.

Steel Bending is easily the most addictive type of strength feat out there. There is something about how it feels when steel buckles under your might.

You get hooked on it, and before you know it, you want more and more. This portion of the video will show you how to do it the right way to see great progress and stay injury free.

6. Programming (1:23:04)

The biggest challenges about Grip Training and Feats of Strength isn’t how to get started or understanding technique. I’ve got all that covered for you.

The hardest thing is actually how to mesh Grip and Feats with the rest of your training. In this section I lay out some ways you can go about doing this the best way possible, without disrupting the rest of the training your doing and the goals you’re working on.

7. Soft Tissue (1:37:46)

As a special bonus, one of the attendees of the seminar, Dr. Jim Wagner, put us through a quick demo of some instruments he uses with his clients, called Hawk Grips.

We captured everything on video, and now you’ll get to see exactly what Dr. Jim does with his clients to get them out of pain and recovered from injuries and surgeries.

In total, this 2-Disk DVD Set is almost 4 hours of awesome content.

Order Your Copy TODAY => Basics of Grip Training and Strongmanism DVD

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Learned More in 5 Hours Than the Last 5 Years!

“I got to spend the day at a seminar with the grip legend himself, Jedd Johnson. I learned more in 5 hours than I did in the last five years. It was an awesome day and Jedd is one of the nicest guys you could meet! I’ll be seeing you again Brother, hopefully at the next contest!”

Chris Fritz

One of the Most Informational Courses I Have Taken!

Jedd Johnson CSCS is truly a national leader in the sport of Grip and Strongman competition!

Jim Wagner OTD, OTR/L, CHT, CPAM, CSCS
Doctor of Occupational Therapy
Certified Hand Therapist
Certified Strength and Conditions Specialist

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

Blob Training

Here in Wyalusing, PA, there has been some serious training going on.

This is the kind of stuff that will scare most people.

One point of focus for us has been working with the Blob. The Blob is a type of Block Weight, a weight or object shaped like a Block that you lift in a wide, open-handed, pinch grip.

Why Perform Block Weight Training?

Block Weight Training is an EXCEPTIONAL way to train the hands due to the wide open position it creates. This makes your whole lower arm work harder, especially the thumb, but the wide position also works the fingers and wrists thoroughly.

For more information on Block Weight Training, check out my ebook => Lift the Blob

Here are a few recent highlights from some of the Blob Training that has gone down.

50-lb Fatman Blob to 50cm with 60-second Time Limit

For the recently ended Grip Monsters Challenge, the challenge was to lift a 50-lb Blob to a 50-cm platform for as many repetitions as possible in 60 seconds. I did this a few times. I didn’t really hit my potential for what I can do in this though, because my left thumb had a nasty split in it for at least two of my sessions.

Luke Raymond Hits a Blob & 5-Tens Combo Feat

Luke has been challenging himself more and more with his grip training. Here, he takes a couple of solid attempts at lifting a 50-lb Fatman Blob, then he combines a 50-lb Next Generation Blob in one hand with 5-Tens loose pinch in the other hand.

Blob Lifting Terminology

In case you are not familiar with Blob Lifting terminology, here is a short list of key terms you should know:

Fatman Blob: The original style of York pill-shaped Blobs. These Blobs are a bit wider and have a more rounded edge than later models. Although seemingly a small detail, the additional slope makes lifting them quite a bit more difficult.

Next Generation Blob: The style of Blob York produced some time later, after the Blue Blob. The Blue Blob was slightly narrower and had less slope. The Next Gen had an even narrower profile and still less slope.

Loose Pinch: Pinching done with plates that are not supported in anyway, such as with a pipe. In the video above, 5-Tens Pinch (with smooth sides of outside plates facing outward) is an example of Loose Pinch.

Stay tuned for more clips on Blob Lifting.

If you are looking for tips on how to improve your Blob Lifting, be sure to check out my ebook, Lift the Blob.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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

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

Weekly Diesel Grip Feat Challenge

Card Tearing

I’ve been thinking of ways to make the Diesel Crew site more interactive, and I think I have come up with a cool way to do it.

Starting next week, we will have the Weekly Diesel Grip Feat Challenge. Here’s how it will work:

1. Every Sunday, I will post a video of a Grip Strength Feat of some sort. It could be anything from Pinching, to Support, to Crushing, to Wrist Strength, or anything else in Grip.

2. You will then have until the following Friday to upload a video of yourself performing the Feat.

3. In the video, you must say your name and state the Feat you are doing for the Weekly Diesel Grip Strength Challenge, Something like this: “I’m Conway Martin, and this is my video for the 5-10’s Pinch Lift for The Weekly Diesel Grip Challenge at DieselCrew.com.” Then you just hit the feat on film!

4. You must then hit me with an email with the link to the video. I must receive the email with the video link no later than 8PM EST on the Friday of the challenge.

5. I will post all of the videos that have been submitted 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.

500-lb Axle Deadlift (Photo – Kevin Cronin)

I think this is going to be a very fun and interactive feature here at the Diesel Crew site. I look forward to seeing all of your videos.

            Two Hands Pinch

By the way, I’m not wasting any time getting started. The first Weekly Grip Strength Challenge will be posted here on the site on Sunday afternoon, January 2nd, 2011.

So get your chalk, and get ready to do some serious Grip Training in 2011.

Remember, the first challenge will be here this Sunday – don’t miss it!

If you have questions, please leave a comment below.

All the best in your training!

Jedd

On Saturday, November 13th, the final leg of the World’s Strongest Hands Series took place.

The Series involves three events: the Two Hands Pinch, the Wrist Developer, and the Vulcan Gripper.

This has been an outstanding way to truly test ourselves against one another all across the globe.

As you know, going in, I was the World Record Holder in the Two Hands Pinch, 256.04 lbs, which I set in December of 2009.

From the beginning of the WSH Series, Grip Sport athletes have been gunning for the record, one of the most highly regarded records in all of Grip Sport.

In August, September, and October, no one, not even myself was able to eclipse the mark. While I felt excellent at Leg 3, a severely torn spot of skin on my thumb kept me from setting a new mark.

But Leg 4 proved to be a day of Pinch Heroics, especially in Stafford, England and Crooksville, Ohio.

Since the individual contests take place at different times and in different time zones, the British competition took place roughly 5 or 6 hours before the one I attended in Crooksville, Ohio. I went to bed Friday night with a strong feeling that David Horne and Laurence Shahleai would be very close to the record. That feeling was still with me in the morning when I awoke.

I did not let this feeling get to me. Instead, I focused harder on my goal. I knew I HAD to break my own record in order stay on top of the list.

Sure enough, my feelings of a fallen record were true – both David Horne and “Big Loz” had both broken my record by slim margins. Horne (pictured to the left) broke it first, lifting an estimated 256.22 lbs. Then about twenty minutes later, Loz hoisted an estimated 256.39 lbs. This of course, was unknown to me because results of individual contests are not publicized until all of the contests are complete and results are sent in…

I was not sure how well I’d be able pinch, because my thumb had been torn so bad over the last several weeks that I could not do much training on the Euro Pinch device. Instead, I had to do some other forms of pinch training that did not aggravate my tear.

For my first attempt, I started out with 237 lbs – this is usually a very safe weight for me, and I believe I had lifted weights in this neighborhood in the previous two Legs of the Series. Sure enough, 237 came up very easy. So easy, I think I probably could have hit it for a double without resetting my grip.

After a short bit of deliberating, I decided not to take an intermediate jump from my first attempt to the next and I went straight for a new record. Twenty pounds were added and I lifted it fairly easily as well.

So now I had broken my previous record, but I was not sure if it was a big enough jump to put me ahead of anyone who might have broken the record earlier on, so I asked for 5 more pounds to be added.

On this attempt, I channeled the spirit of Mister Perfect, Curt Hennig (“Now You’re Gonna See … a Perfect Plex”) and said, “Now you’re gonna see…a new World Record.”

I made sure to have my feet lined up properly and my mechanics dialed in, but I came just short of touching the loading bar to the stick. Getting cocky always bites me in the ass…

After a short break, I tried this weight again. I challenged the crowd to get louder, as I told them it was too quiet on the attempt before.

This time when I applied my Grip, I squeezed the damn implement as hard as I could, visualizing that my fingers were going to indent the outside steel plates. And this time, the implement came all the way off and knocked the target stick off the marker stand.

I was such a relief to hit 262 that I gave a scream that rattled the scrolled steel hanging on the inside of the garage.

I would have liked to have gotten 262 on the first try and then tried 264 as this would have been an even 120 kg, but I was happy with what I got because I figured it would probably be a large enough distance to over-take anybody that might have set a new record before me, or after me, as Aaron Corcorran, from Tucson, Arizona, has in the past lifted 254 lbs in an unofficial attempt.

So, I am blessed to have set another record.

How long will it stand? That is impossible to say.

But one thing I can say is I appreciate all of the support you give me here at the site, on Facebook, on YouTube, and by email. Having so many people behind me is a great feeling and it does make a huge difference, so thanks to all of you.

In particular, thanks to my family who puts up with my frustration when I have a rough workout. Thanks to my parents who have always supported me doing this underground sport. Thanks to my buddies at Diesel for pushing me when I do make it up to train. Thanks to Brent Barbe for continually pushing me via email and coming up here to train several times a year, driving roughly 5 hours at a pop. Thanks to Mike Rinderle and Rick Walker who keep my cell phone inbox filled with texts urging me to keep pushing forward. Thanks to Chris Rice, for holding the contest – I feel so much better competing when i don’t have to run the show as well.

I am sure I am forgetting some key people, but if I don’t mention you here, don’t think it’s because you’re not important. Every single time I get a text, email, or a Facebook/YouTube message from you guys, it makes want to get downstairs to my gym and get my hands on the Euro Pinch. I thank you all.

Thanks for checking out the post today. I have many more videos uploaded and more to put up tomorrow, so please check out the footage on My YouTube Channel.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

P.S. By the way, even though I did very poorly in the first leg, I managed to finish #5 in the world at the end of Leg 4. Ka Kuh!

P.P.S. Click the banner below to sign up for my Nail Bending Newsletter…

History is Made – A New Record in the Two Hands Pinch

As you saw in one of the recent posts below, this past weekend I set a new world record in the Two Hands Pinch – 256 lbs.

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP (more…)

Diesels,

Several of the Gripaholics that were going to be here today had to cancel out, so there is no live stream today, but we are in the process of scheduling more group training sessions soon, so please stay tuned.
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Recently I set out to hit a big mark on repetitions with the 50-lb Blob. The video of this feat is below, but before we get to that I want to make sure that everyone knows exactly what I am talking about.

Blob Facts

Richard Sorin lifting the Blob
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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.
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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.

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The blob is 1/2 of a 100lb York dumbbell. Currently there is a major push in the grip community to lift as much weighted added to the blob as possible. The current top lift is about 75 total pounds. My best ever is blob plus 20 but I haven’t done it for about a year. Just this past weekend I worked up to 20 lbs added again and was able to hold it easy at the top.

-Jedd-

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Chris Rice lifts 215 and 225 pounds, both excellent numbers, in the Two hands Pinch at the Gripmas Carol contest on December 13, 2008. Also, he lifts 5 ten-lb plates and two 45-lb plates following the contest, both excellent feats of grip strength.

-Jedd-

It was a great contest. I have a ton of videos of the after-contest feats. It will take me some time to get them all posted, just hang tight. First one up is Bob Sundin’s Two 45’s Pinch.

My crush was off for the contest and only managed a 177, putting me in third place right off the bat, so I had to play catch up the whole rest of the contest.

For the pinch, I think my attempts were 230, 240, 246, and 254. So my third was an attempt at the US record and my 4th was an attempt at the world’s record. I told Eaton on the way down in the snow and ice that I was going to squeeze the pinch set-up so hard that I was going to snap it in half. And that is what i did every attempt. I squeezed every single attempt so hard my entire torso shook. There was no way an attempt was going to slip out of my hands. So the 246 was no problem. I lined up everything real nice for the 254 but it only barely came off the floor. Not sure what happened there. I think at that point I was .5 or .8 points behind Dave.

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Here is a cool clip from a couple years ago of Brad and Eli vanquishing some pinch feats.

-Jedd-