Pages

Thursday, 31 May 2012

Seni 2012

This weekend I will be at Seni 2012 at Excel (docklands), again with Ultimate Grip. Seni's focus has always been combat sports including MMA, all the martial arts, boxing and so on. In addition, as with other fitness industry expos, it's including a broader spectrum of interests. So there's also a Show of Strength (featuring a WSM experience) and a Survival section (for those with outdoor pursuits interests).

With 100+ stands and in a 20,000 square metre arena and constant fighting displays I am sure you'll find something to watch and learn from.

We'll have toys for you to play with as usual and, of course, I'll be explaining what use grip training is for the fighting arts - if I can get a-hold of you you might be in trouble.

If you're there come and say hi! 

What equipment should I buy if I am 'not a grip guy'

Another reprint: 

Ok, although the precise reply completely depends on your chosen sport, the actual weakness you wish to strengthen and so on the following might be of some use.

Grippers
These train crushing grip. Adapting how you use them can help mimic some holds used in sports and if nothing else you'll have a hell of a handshake. :)

Wrist roller
A very simple device which can be used to help law enforcement officers (Correctional, Police, doormen and so on) and those involved in hand to hand fighting (wrestlers, MMA, etc) in controlling subjects. Because the two inch thick models are on a par with a thicker wrist working hard on this will help give you greater control when you've got someone pinned and am looking for a 'lock'. Adding a little padding (say using the tape used on some handles) will give the 'give' that flesh over bone has and this make it even closer to what you do.

It's also a very simple item and easy to make (although you'll love the heavier knurled versions if you take it seriously) which can be truly brutal when worked hard. Bone deep muscle burns, hands sore... you'll know you've worked the grip AND the forearm.

Thick bars
Like the wrist roller a good way to mimic real world work. From forearm curls (much harder than a standard bar), to press work (sits better in the hands) to picking it up (deadlifts etc) all are made hard when you use a thick bar but again those working with prisoners and the like will find handling a fighting limb much easier.

Small block pinching
One for the climbers. Think about some of the climbing walls you've seen and the holds they have to grip onto. Now in the case of the free climbers (no rope) you MUST hold on and you MUST have a grip. But if it goes down you come.... ouch. So you can find the guys doing low altitude (6-8 feet from the floor) hangs on beams and so on. Quite often done for time. Providing the block, pin, etc isn't dropped on your toes it's a far safer way to work that grip required.  

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? :wink:

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, 30 May 2012

Gripper certification schemes

Another repost of an old article of mine:

Fortunately for the grip freaks among you most gripper company owners, even if for marketing purposes as much as anything, have gripper 'certs' (certifcates or awards) for closing their hardest models.

Here's a few quick examples:

Ironmind - Captains of Crush. While the rules have changed over the years it's now currently using the CCS (credit card set) and you are awarded a certificate and your named placed on their honor role / cert list if you close, under their rules, any of the following - a CoC 3, 3.5 or a 4.

Heavy Grips
They call you a grip master if you shut their HG350 model but used to have award schemes for their large HG400 and 500 models (indeed using a CCS they used to award $500 for the HG500). I'm not sure if the scheme is still running but as yet I do not think anyone claimed the $500

RB
I think one of the RB distributors has a TNS (table no set) award scheme for the RB 300's and above. TNS'ting is the hardest of all of the schemes.

Mashmonster
A scheme created by the Gripboard in which they have Warren Tetting carefully construct according to some quite anal specs (thus hopefully keeping the small variations at bay) their MM grippers. An MM0 requires you to shut your own CoC 3 and an MM1 is the same as a harder CoC 3. They then go up to MM5/6 which is a a little below and a little above a 4 and finally they have the MM7. Currently I'm at the MM5 level and am awaiting my turn on the MM6. I have a (on long term loan from Neil 'Twig' Belcher) a MM7D (d = dud as it's nearer to the MM6) which I can close on a good day.  

If you know of any more let me know (esp if I can win some money ha ha).

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.

Quick!!!!

I have to get my last session done in a mo so a very quick post. I was at the Hercules Olympia over the weekend (super nicer hotel which was rammed). My hand got torn (both) in the sweet spot where the Argos Catalogues sit (new versions are shorter / less deep than before).

Yesterday I was a guest at Bulks Power and Strength Gym in Gravesend. I hadn't realized they're just two train stops away. 20p more than the bus costs to Chatham. I showed Jay, Will and others a few grip tips. They have some great strength toys to play with and the bells go to 100kg. Worth a visit.   

Friday, 25 May 2012

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.