Thursday 19th July 2012 - gripper

Thursday
Bored and waiting, waiting, waiting on final bits-n-bobs. Now also getting hassle again re stuff in storage (!soon!!) 
V/Gripper
did not go to max but tried holds. Slight twinge inside of right elbow (muscle/tendon)
B/H: usual warm ups
L/H: 5/6 x 1 rep, 6/5 x 1, 1, VNN, VVN dropped to 5/5 x 3 lots of holds for time using HG300 as 'gap'
R/H: 6/ x 1 rep, 6/7 x 4 x 1 reps, 6/6 x 3 x holds (last very short).

Tuesday 19th June 2012 Vulcan gripper work

Tuesday
V/Gripper work
Levels are based on gold spring ratings as this is what I am using. I've agreed to sell this V1 and replace it with a new model after my move with a GB member. It'll be interesting to see what I do with a new version and new spring.
B/H: 1/1 (L3) x 8 reps, 3/3 (L8) x 3 reps, 5/5 (15) x 1 rep
L/H: 5/6 (L16) x 3 x 1 reps,  6/5 (L17) x 3 x 1 reps, 6/6 (L18) x VN, F
R/H: 5/6 (l16) x 1 rep, 6/6 (L18) x 3 x 1 reps, 6/7 (L19) x  TnG, TnG, 1 reps, 7/6 (20) x VN, F

Friday 15th June 2012 workout

Friday
Getting closer slowly but surely to my old strength levels.
V/Gripper
B/H: 1/1 x 8 reps, 3/3 x 3 reps, 5/5 x 1 rep
L/H: 5/6 x 3 x 1 reps, 6/5 x 1, TnG, 1 rep, 6/6 x VVN, VVN
R/H: 5/6 x 1 rep, 6/6 x 3 x 1 reps, 6/7 x 3 x 1 reps, 7/7 x F, 7/6 x TnG

Monday 11th June 2012 gripper work

Monday
V/Gripper
B/H: 1/1 x 8 reps, 3/3 x 3 reps, 5/5 x 1 rep
L/H: 5/6 x 3 x 1 reps, 6/5 x 3 x 1 reps
R/H: 5/6 x 1 rep, 6/6 x 3 x 1 rep, 6/7 x 1, VVN, TnG

The last but one top set (ie: the max effort one) was relatively easy and all sets bar the max effort stuff was done sitting on the floor. This makes a difference - try it.

Hand size in grip - is it such an issue?

Every so often on grip forums the issue of hand size comes up. Now one way round it, suggested by IFBB and Iron Game Historian Joe Roark (a fan of hand strength and its history) was his 'fair bar' idea. He suggested that, if only for a few events, we have the option of differing size bars and handles which would suit the broad spectrum of hand sizes.

So not so different from arguments on pretty much every sporting forum and discussion that's ever taken place. From expensive football boots and running shoes to the weight and material make up of a baseball bat fans of the sport in question have and always will debate such things. 

But... in the case of hand size you're not able to trade up or down. You are, as the saying goes, dealing with the hand god gave you. 

From the hand length chart I'm using here (for a PC mouse size company - yes it exists) I fall into the the top end of the large scale, which I knew. Here's the thing - I just get on with it.

Genetics, oft discussed on bodybuilding sites, are what they are. The last time I was ripped was probably when I was 18. Yet I trained as a bodybuilder, at least in my mind, from age 15 through to what... 25... maybe 30. It's only in the last 10+ years that I've focused on strength and specifically hand strength.

A balanced argument for the hand size debate suggests, as I have, that having a big hand is, for sure, great for some lifts. I am best suited for thick bar events because of my hand length and also it's width. Throw in my decently long and broad looking thumb and it'll be all 'well no wonder Mobster can pull X, Y and Z'. I'd argue I am as limited by my comparatively weak lower back (compared to my hand strength). I could, as others have, also argue that not every grip event (esp those in a properly and fairly set up competition) suits a big hand. 

In other words deal with what god gave you and just work your hardest. Make the most of what you have and save the energy put into bemoaning your lot in life by making 'haters' eat their words. 

Thursday 7th June 2012 workout

Latest version of the Vulcan Gripper including 'wasp' spring.

Thursday
First time back on gripper work since the weekend. That time and the forearm curls yesterday meant the first few sets felt harder than usual even so, all things considered, it was an ok workout.

V/Gripper
B/H: 1/1 x 8 reps @, 3/3 x 3 reps @, 5/5 x 1 rep @
L/H: 5/6 x 3 x 1 reps, 6/5 x 1, TnG, VN
R/H: 5/6 x 1 rep, 6/5 x 1 rep, 6/6 x 3 x 1 rep (1st was poorly set), 6/7 x TnG, TnG, N

Most of the work, bar the last right hand effort, was done sitting on the floor.

Great photo

Yours truly pulling 118-kilos (same as my 2011 effort) at the Rolling Thunder event. I like how my forearm looks, the tricep looking fat and the veins on my head bulging with effort.

But without argument the one of Mark pulling an all time record... I can't argue with that. Great effort by Mark and an awesome series of photos by the photographer Zoie Carter-Ingham. Check her work at www.zoie-photography.com and the album on facebook

 

Pinch work = I like

One of the things I'm looking forward to train when I get the bulk of my kit out of storage in Gloucester into the new 'gaff' (slang for place where you live) in Wales is the Euro pinch. I like it and not only (but mostly) because I was good at it.

My all time best on the Euro set up (see image below) is a 117.5-kilo effort (matched minutes later by WSM competitior and current Britain's Strongest Man Laurence Shahlaei). As far as I know this is still No 2 on the worlds records list. 

It takes around 100-kilos to get you into the top 10 or so and even with a 100+ competitors taking part in the last World's Strongest Hands event I think only 3 or 4 did over 100kg.

Humidity and surface texture play a huge part in how good you'll grip will be on any given day but that's true for ALL the athletes competing and lifting.

The part in bold below includes text from a half-finished bit I did for another site:

I love to pinch!! Not the kind involving girls asses... ok that too but not in that way. Nah, when I say pinch I mean one hand pinch and two hand pinching (esp) of the kind I might just get a world record in one day.


Image of two differing widths box pinches and a thin plate pinch.


In simple terms it's literally a folding of the hand, fingers and thumbs flat, and with nothing other than a flat pressure through the same. There are wide versions including Blob pinches

Grip equipment varies but includes:

• 2 hand pinch on the Euro set (as per David and Mikeal's creation)

• Weight plate pinching - one and two hand (smooth sides outwards)

• Thin plate pinching

• 2 x 45lbs / 2 x 20-kilo plate pinch

• Super thin pinch - needles (usually a knitting needle thickness)

• 4, 5 and 6 ‘dimes’ (10lb or 5-kilo plates) - image 3 plates

• 'Penny Pinch' (specialized equipment based on an old Victorian Penny welded to a small plate with a clip fastened to a loading pin. Great fun at expos. Indeed I’ve been asked if I brought mine to the last 2 events I’ve done as customers wanted another go.
  

Thick bars and handles

Another oldie (short n sweet. I've written longer versions for another as yet unfinished e-book):

Oh man you're gonna love these... or maybe you'll curse all the way through each and every brutal set but you'll love the stimulus, growth and deep bastard burn you'll get. What am I on about... thick bars and handles!!

Robert B makes a series of cable attachment style handles including v-bars, low row cable handles and more. Just recently I took a stock item or two out of the warehouse and clipped them onto the lat pulldown machine. With 'willing' victims, Harry Shahlaei (brother  of WSM competitor Laurence) and his buddy Tom finishing their tricep workout I suggested that they 'give these a try'.

For some reason, ha ha, they didn't thank me. Perhaps, starting with the thick V-Bar attachment (see it on this site), it was because gripping harder than usual means that the triceps contracted harder than usual. Hence, in just one set (of three) they got double the intensity. I then gave them the thick pulley handle to try and with them turning into the machine (an old trick) and hanging on for grim death... or better tricep growth... which ever came first... they did one set of sweeping down and back single arm tricep pushdowns.

Harry and I have a little 'who's got the biggest guns?' rivalry going. At 280lbs, 6'3  and a much longer time training with a pump I've had 20-inches. Harry is a little shorter and a whole lot younger but he had his right arm, pumped and flexed to a tad under 19-inches on Thursday last. His biggest yet! Did the thick handles help? What do you think? 

You don't need to be grip specialists (Tom and Harry aren't, although they'll pinch now and again) to use thick bars in your training. Give them a try... then stand back and watch out!!

Wednesday 30th May 2012 - training grippers = pain

Ouch. As only a little while previously stated (you get to moan loads when you hit a certain age and so I am taking full advantage) my palms are torn. Not much but just in the sweet spot where you anchor the end of a gripper. My right is almost healed but I felt like I was pulling on the tear on my left. 

Now the skin of your palms etc heal real quick. A week would do it and although I thought about it I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave it a week without hitting grippers. This morning my left thumb was remind me that picking up rounded end solid dumbbells (York style) by their heads is a width too far if you over extend. Combine that with the other grip stuff we did at Bulks and that hurt today.

So all I could do was work to 5/5 x a rep or two on the Vulcan and then some light sets and reps with my handy HG300. If I am lucky I might get a little scare tissue and the gripper will anchor just so. Always looking on the bright side.

Training for grippers

Here's another article I wrote for the web-shop. Enjoy:

A much (almost too mush sometimes) topic on the few grip forums we have is the 'how to' training to improve on grippers. As someone who wrote a book on the subject (www.gripperbook.com) I'm well aware of the more complicated and, so it seems to me, overly technical aspects of gripper training. But as anyone who's ever read my training logs you'll note I keep to the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) principle in a very big way.

I train (usually alternating) on both TSG (torsion spring grippers) or the Vulcan Gripper. On TSG I use Paul Knight's suggestions (helped me to tidy up the set) to position them in my hand just so with Paul Savage reminding me to press the thumb (non gripping hand) on the gripper handle against the palm locking it in position better. Then, taking a wider than usual set (as others seem to enjoy when watching my youtube videos) I wrap my hands around and squeeze. My volume is much lower than many and so I rarely, if at all, get any torn or rough skin. 

One little trick I use in competition is to warm up on them as though it was a workout so this usually goes thus: CoC 1 x 6 reps, HG200 x 3 reps, then 1 rep per gripper to my working grippers (right handed usually CoC 3.5 or better and left handed a BBE). Once I get to the working gripper I aim to do around 7 x 1 reps.

On the Vulcan I take the same set up and warm up approach. At the working level (16-18 right handed) I can add the rubber bands for micro-loading and use the same 7 x 1 rep approach. But there's very little over-closing, BTR training or similar. Literally and then if reminded only I might do these extra bits and bobs once a month.

Yet here I am at the or very close to the absolute tip top of the gripper closing tree. There are a few main reasons why I probably don't need to do anything complicated: I'm strong anyway, I've been training a long time, I know what works for me, I've been doing grip longer than most and maybe little or no pressure to go up too many more notches. Now I know that last bit sounds 'big headed' but I've joked with others 'where's the money?'. If I knew I'd make a few bucks more CCS closing a 4 or the guys started breathing down my neck big style I'd either have to pull my socks up and 'get game' or pull over to the side and let them pass (that time is a-coming trust me).

Gripper feats/records

1. Certified CoC 3 back in 2001, closed it for reps, closed it inverted and closed it hanging upside down in a power rack using inversion boots for giggles. I also have a video of my crushing a credit card to show how it's done
2. Closed three (or 4??) different 4's in one evenings training late 2008 (9000+ views to date on youtube) inc one rated at 4.01 (belonging to Jim Wylie). Quite an evening even for me.
3. Hold both official records (CCS and 20mm) on David Horne Vulcan Gripper: 20mm at Level 21 and CCs level 16 (Laine Snook and Paul Savage have done more unofficially)
4. To date worked my way through the Mash Monster list to level 5 (of 7) of which there are, inc myself, 6 of us on that level. I've also closed a MM7 (dud) which is rated as being as hard as the actual MM6 so I'm ready for that one too.
5. Closed a 205lbs calibrated CoC 4 at the 2009 Chad Woodall event (apparently best in competition to date). The same day I then closed two more after the competition (on video) inc one rated at 199lbs with NO CHALK and then another a few minutes later. Again a good day considering I'd travelled 5000+ miles to get there and had managed 2nd place against Chad and had not closed a 4 in weeks!!

One might then ask, if we ignore genetics, hand size and god only knows what else people might possibly come up with as excuses, reasons, what-have-you, as to why I do what I do and why they cannot - how come I can do 'all this shit' with my KISS approach?? Part of it has to be sheer hard work - I treat a gripper close like any big max effort on a compound. So it's near teeth grindingly hard, eyes bulging, veins throbbing and F-O-C-U-S that is getting the job done. Grippers aren't an after thought but 1) first in the workout and 2) treated as seriously as any other exercise I do. Only recently I saw a video (one or my more recent 4 close) where I am breathing out in certain way just prior to a big one in and my eyes take on a certain look (a little away from the camera but also in another place as it were) and I am 'in the moment' and giving it my all.  

Back for a bit part 3...Grip Dyno

When we were setting up etc on Thursday the guys, Charles and Gary Rinaldi, showed me their Baseline Grip Dynometer (see image). We had a LOT of fun this weekend with it. As well as having visitors to our stand try out their Heavy Grips we got them to test their strength. The little booklet that comes with it suggest that the mean average for all age groups is, in what I assume to be the untrained population, 115lbs or a little over 52kg.

Throughout the three days we had a load of guys, who obviously lift weights, hit 65-kilos or 140lbs. Now I am sure we did not get them to hold it as per how a sports scientist might, nor did we (for the most part) adjust the handles, but 25lbs better than average consistently is a decent enough indicator.

The climbers among the visitors got higher numbers than you'd expect for their relatively light body-weights and also had as good a crush grip number (slow but steady powerful squeeze until then red needle stopped) as they did ballistic (just a snap like pull). Those who did combat got wide differences (weight trainers would get 5-15kg difference, combat athletes 10-30kg spreads). The handful of women that tried also scored (with only one below - but she was a wee lass) above the mean average. Of course we also had some awesome numbers - one was an old mucker of mine from Liverpool who hit numbers very close to mine. We didn't get the chance to test any high level pro strength guys.

I also noticed, just from my own efforts, peaks and troughs through the day. The closer together my efforts and those of others were the worse the drop off. However, my average crush was 100-kilos with lows of 90-kilos and a peak of 120-kilos. My ballistic efforts averaged off the scale (130kilos being the max) with the best going all the way back to zero and a low of 120-kilos. A few visitors were so impressed they videoed these efforts as the needle went so fast. It was even suggested I was using a secret button!!

Much like the arm wrestling tables and boxing machines both guys and yes gals like to test themselves against the big guys and the dyno was a harmless but fun way for them to do so.