Grip Strength. The old timers had it and swore by it. Most of them achieved great grip strength due to the demands of their professions. They worked as blacksmiths, butchers, and pounded away at spikes on the railoads. Hard manual labor toughned their hands, wrists, and tendons to the point where they could bend steel with ease. Today, we have replaced those tools of the trade with keyboards and mouses. Today, you go to give a handshake and it feels like there's a dead fish in your hand. Unfortunately these are the signs of the time and technoloigcal advances have eliminated the need for such grip strength and grip endurance. The great thing though is you can still achieve tremendous amounts of grip strength even if you work a desk job, and the best part is you dont have to pound away at a spike for 12 hours a day to achieve it. Here I've listed my favorite grip exercises for beginner's. These exercises are a great way to build a solid foundation in your grip and forearms. Grip Training is fun, but be careful not to over do it. Just with any other muscle in your body, overtraining it is a bad thing and can be easily done with your hand muscles. Slow and steady progression is the key to muscle and might!
Chin-up bar hangs
These are one of the best ways to start to develop your grip strength and endurance. Dr. Ken Leistner, famed trainer and author of The Steel Tip Collection, wrote about his praises for this exercise and with good reason. It WORKS! All you have to do is find a chin-up bar, grab onto it with the palms of your hands facing away from you, as if you were to execute a pull-up, and try to hang the for as long as you can without swinging your body. You maybe asking, wow that doesnt sound to hard...try to hold on for a solid minute. You can achieve gorilla grip strength from doing this exercise. Set timed goals for yourself and try to work up to 30 secs. then a 1 minute, then a 1:30 and so on and so forth....
Pull-ups
Pull-ups are a must! start doing them and you will see results not only in your grip, but your arms and upper back as well. They are a terrific functional movement exercise and can build great bodyweight strength. Make sure you wrap your thumb around your fingers and do not use a hook grip. This will enable you to use all the muscles in your forearm and thumbs. If pull-ups are a challenge for you, I recommend you buying resistance band loops. They come in different resistants and allow you to work up to a decent amount of pull-ups. As you progress you can lower the weight of the resistance bands or cease using them all together. Kipping pull-ups are becoming popular these days especially in the Crossfit circle. I have never been a fan of kipping pull-ups, but what works for someone else may not work for another person. My advice is to use strict form on the way up and down while minizmizing the amount of momentum from your body.
Plate Pinches
One area of the hand which is neglected most often, is the thumb. If you have a weak thumb it will hinder your grip strength and endurance. Plate Pinching is a long time proven exercise used to strength your thumb and other fingers. Edward Aston, George Jowett, and Thomas Inch ( all famous strongman from the early 1900's ) all trained and wrote about plate pinching. Plate pinching works best when the weight plates are solid steel. Stand the weight plate upright, and use your hand like a forcep, keeping all four fingers together, to grasp onto the plate. The outside edge of the plate should be hitting the inside of your palm. Lift the plate up and hold it for as long as possible. A 25lb plate should be a good starting point. If a 25lb plate proves to be too challenging, take two 10lb plates and put them together and pinch lift them in the same manner. You will have to squeeze very hard in order to keep the plates together, thus giving your hands quite a workout.
As a beginner, I would recommend incorporating one to two grip exercises into your workout routine.
I can guarantee you, regardless of your job, age, or whether your an athlete or not, grip training will benefit you in many aspects of your daily life. Whether it is cooking, typing, working on cars, painting, the list goes on and on with the amount of activites grip training can help enhance. I urge you to utilize grip training and in doing so you will see and feel the results.
In part 2, I will cover some slighty more advanced yet basic exercises for the grip.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The Might and Brawn of Lumberjacks!!
Lumberjacks have become an icon of true rugged strength and with good reason. The work was hard, dangerous, and very primitive. With hours of chopping, sawing, and lugging logs around, their strength was as hard as the trees they chopped and their tendons and ligaments were as tough as tree roots. My grandmothers first husband was a lumberjack in Lithuania in the early 1900's. The job was very demanding and eventually it took his life in a logging accident, but she would recant about how physically strong he was. I have an appreciation for their work and how the work done as part of their profession has carried over into Physical Culture. Lumberjacks were probably some of the originators of odd-object lifting. Everday they would lift and hoist logs of different shapes and size. Not to mention, the sophisticated sawmills of today did not exist back then, resulting in the logger having to hold and balance heavy logs while running them through the blade of the saw. Imagine having to hold the end of a 700lb + log for several minutes...and having to do it all day! The closet thing I can think of that closely resemebles this would be doing a 700lb deadlift hold for a mintues at a time, over and over again. Famous old-time strongman, George Jowett, was one of the most strongest and famous strongman to have walked the planet. One of his most famous feats was to pick an anvil up by its horn and clean it to his shoulder then press it over head. These anvils would weight over 160lbs. Jowett posessed extreme grip strength and wrote many books and articles how true strength came from strong tendons and ligaments in the body. Jowett credited his incredible tendon and ligament strength to working as a Lumberjack in the woods of Canada at an early age. Brooks Kubik gives an excellent rendition of this in his book Strength, Muscle, and Power and I highley recommend this book to anyone interested in advanced strength training. Jowett explained the lifting and holding of heavy logs created a rugged hardness in the connective tissues and the tendons and ligamnets throughout the body. Even on page 144 of Arnold Schwarzenegger's The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding Arnold states training for strength and power gives you a certain look of hardness and thickness, which can not be achieved without HEAVY weights. Lumberjacks exhibited this strength through hours of hard physical labor, and though I am not suggesting you go out an become an old time logger, one can implement their style of work into their training. This can help develop real world rugged brutal strength, which can not be achieved by pumping your arms on a preacher curl or doing cable cross overs. I am talking about heavy awkward odd-object lifting.
LUMBERJACK TRAINING Part 1
Log Lifts
Lumerjacks lifted logs and so can you! Today there are a few places that sell log presses which you can add weight too, but they will run a good amout of doe. If your lucky enough to live in a wooded area, then go chop a tree down and start cutting that sucker up into smaller logs. Lift them any way you can. One of the best ways to develop upper body strength is the log overhead press. The shape of the log will force you to use every muscle in your upper body to stablize and press that monster over head. A couple years ago we had many trees come down in my backyard. I would cut the tree into ten foot sections and pick up one end of the log and try to hold on for several minutes and then eventually try to push press it over head. It would resemble a lever of sorts while one end remained on the ground and the other end was lifted over head repeatedly. The challenging part was balancing the rounded end of the log over head, while trying to push the weight up as well. It was a constant struggle to keep that weight over head without it rolling out of my hands. If you do not have access to logs or a log bar, maybe a keg or barrel is readily avaiable. A keg and barrel can closely resemble the hard, heavy, awkwardness of log lifting. Fill em up with water or sand and take a stroll with it. You can shoulder it, which is a workout in itself without walking with it, bear hug it , hold onto the sides ( this will work your grip!), or simply lay the long side of barrel against both your arms in a zercher style fashion.
Chopping!
Anyone who has chopped wood knows how demanding this is on the caridovascular system. You'll be huffing and puffing in no time. Lumberjacks used to do this day in and day out! Even today you see the Timbersport competitions where the loggers are chopping for speed. They exhibit mass amounts of cardio endurance. A popular thing to do today is the "hit the tire with a sledge hammer" routine. This is an excellent way to replicate the chopping movements (and a pretty safe way as well) but for the real thing, nothing beats the old axe. Hitting a rubber tire with a hammer does not give you the same effect as striking metal into a piece of wood. The axe penetrates the wood and there is no assisting bounce back as you would receive when hitting a rubber tire. Of course when I talk about this I am talking about attempting to chop through a large log, not splitting logs with a maul for kindling or firewood. You have to continue to work to get the blade out of the log in order to repeat the chop again. John Brookfield wrote an excellent artilce in the June 2011 issue of Milo, were he discussed a workout which consisted of doing 300 to 400 yard sprints to a log and continuing to chop at the log for a minute before breaking into a sprint again. The individual would do this over and again for about 40 mins. This is one demanding and brutal workout. If sprints are not your thing, I recommend doing kettlebell swings or snatches in substitute. Another great exercise is to hit logs with a sledge hammer. Due to the blunt nature of the sledge hammer, when you strike the wood, you will know and feel it because it can be painful! This will tax your grip extremely hard as it sends shock waves up your arms! Try doing 30-40 non-stop swings with each arm. Your grip and forearms will be numb from the force of hitting the wood. Its more demanding that striking a tire with a hammer, and if you try it you will feel what I am talking about.
This style of training can be fun and exciting! It is different and the primative ruggedness of this style of training is effective and as old school as you can get. You will not be seeing the pretty boys doing these kinds of lifts, or the people in the flex appeal magazines either. This is old school no B.S. training! So throw on your favorite flannel, get out the beanie cap, grab your axe, and go destroy some logs!
The most important thing I cannot stress enough when using logs, axes, and other heavy oblects in your workouts is to be SAFE and TRAIN SMART!!!! This are demanding exercises and can be dangerous if you do not respect them. Swinging heavy and sharp tools can always pose a threat to you and anyone around you. Train Smart and be Safe!
Hope you enjoyed the post.
Stay Strong!
Greg
LUMBERJACK TRAINING Part 1
Log Lifts
Lumerjacks lifted logs and so can you! Today there are a few places that sell log presses which you can add weight too, but they will run a good amout of doe. If your lucky enough to live in a wooded area, then go chop a tree down and start cutting that sucker up into smaller logs. Lift them any way you can. One of the best ways to develop upper body strength is the log overhead press. The shape of the log will force you to use every muscle in your upper body to stablize and press that monster over head. A couple years ago we had many trees come down in my backyard. I would cut the tree into ten foot sections and pick up one end of the log and try to hold on for several minutes and then eventually try to push press it over head. It would resemble a lever of sorts while one end remained on the ground and the other end was lifted over head repeatedly. The challenging part was balancing the rounded end of the log over head, while trying to push the weight up as well. It was a constant struggle to keep that weight over head without it rolling out of my hands. If you do not have access to logs or a log bar, maybe a keg or barrel is readily avaiable. A keg and barrel can closely resemble the hard, heavy, awkwardness of log lifting. Fill em up with water or sand and take a stroll with it. You can shoulder it, which is a workout in itself without walking with it, bear hug it , hold onto the sides ( this will work your grip!), or simply lay the long side of barrel against both your arms in a zercher style fashion.
Chopping!
Anyone who has chopped wood knows how demanding this is on the caridovascular system. You'll be huffing and puffing in no time. Lumberjacks used to do this day in and day out! Even today you see the Timbersport competitions where the loggers are chopping for speed. They exhibit mass amounts of cardio endurance. A popular thing to do today is the "hit the tire with a sledge hammer" routine. This is an excellent way to replicate the chopping movements (and a pretty safe way as well) but for the real thing, nothing beats the old axe. Hitting a rubber tire with a hammer does not give you the same effect as striking metal into a piece of wood. The axe penetrates the wood and there is no assisting bounce back as you would receive when hitting a rubber tire. Of course when I talk about this I am talking about attempting to chop through a large log, not splitting logs with a maul for kindling or firewood. You have to continue to work to get the blade out of the log in order to repeat the chop again. John Brookfield wrote an excellent artilce in the June 2011 issue of Milo, were he discussed a workout which consisted of doing 300 to 400 yard sprints to a log and continuing to chop at the log for a minute before breaking into a sprint again. The individual would do this over and again for about 40 mins. This is one demanding and brutal workout. If sprints are not your thing, I recommend doing kettlebell swings or snatches in substitute. Another great exercise is to hit logs with a sledge hammer. Due to the blunt nature of the sledge hammer, when you strike the wood, you will know and feel it because it can be painful! This will tax your grip extremely hard as it sends shock waves up your arms! Try doing 30-40 non-stop swings with each arm. Your grip and forearms will be numb from the force of hitting the wood. Its more demanding that striking a tire with a hammer, and if you try it you will feel what I am talking about.
This style of training can be fun and exciting! It is different and the primative ruggedness of this style of training is effective and as old school as you can get. You will not be seeing the pretty boys doing these kinds of lifts, or the people in the flex appeal magazines either. This is old school no B.S. training! So throw on your favorite flannel, get out the beanie cap, grab your axe, and go destroy some logs!
The most important thing I cannot stress enough when using logs, axes, and other heavy oblects in your workouts is to be SAFE and TRAIN SMART!!!! This are demanding exercises and can be dangerous if you do not respect them. Swinging heavy and sharp tools can always pose a threat to you and anyone around you. Train Smart and be Safe!
Hope you enjoyed the post.
Stay Strong!
Greg
Monday, December 12, 2011
Gripmas 2011
Most people probably never heard of Crooksville, Ohio. Even so when notified the small town does exist, they usually follow up with "whats so special about it?". The small village of less than 3,000 people, which once harbored the famous Hull Pottery company, lies in southern Ohio just outside of Zainesville. What is so special about it?... something is happening there in a garage filled with homemade strength equipment. Inside that garage, within the tiny village of Crooksville, many of the top grip competitors meet annaully to test their grips in feats of strength! World Records are set there!
The owner of the garage, Chris Rice, is 64 years old and stronger than most 24 year olds. The man can bend steel with ease and two hand pinch over 200lbs. His garage is the perfect stage for a grip competition. It serves almost as a museum to the strongman of old and new with photos of The Mighty Atom, Slim the Hammerman, and many other famous strong individuals plastered to the wall. Along the wall are pieces of steel bent and twisted in every which way possible from a simple V bend to a twisted preztel like shape. Most of these steel trophies are stamped with an autograph from the persons who forged the steel into its unnatural awe-inspiring shape. In the middle of the floor lied 2 to 3 inch thick handled bars loaded with plates of various weights, along with a thick axel and the wooden pieces of what would become the torturous looking device for the Hercules Hold. With more Inch Dumbells in one place then I have ever seen, the stage looked more like a armory fill with an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. The atmosphere was there and the stage was set for records to be gained and broken amongst the cold sunny morning of December 10th in Crooksville, Ohio.
The first event of the competiton was the Chocked Gripper Event. We sat anxiously with gloves over our hands to keep them as warm as possible waitng for our names to be called. One by one we approached the table looking at the mass aray of grippers and like the scene out of Indian Jones and the Last Crusade we looked for our holy grail of a gripper to attempt a close. The event was highlighted by Andrew Durniat closing a 214lb gripper for his first attempt! Andrew set the bar high for the elite class, which would prove to be a close race between him and Jedd Johnson. Andrew topped the event off with a 224lb close. A feat only a few in world can only come close too.
The second event brought the Two Handed Pinch. Jedd Johnson currently held the world record of 264lbs and the lightweight divison record was close to being broken by Brendan Gerber. This event brought a lot of excitment do the possiblilty of current records being broken in both classes. Brendan Gerber came close to breaking the record back in October during the third leg of the World Strongest Hands competition, but fell short. Brendan, cool, calm, wrapped a belt around his waist and confidently lifted 206lbs (about 30lbs over his bodyweight) to take the current world record and was able to get 210lbs off the ground. The place erupted as Brendan executed the lift to take the record. Jedd Johnson warmed up with 250lbs in preparation for for his attempt at 268lbs, four pounds over his current world record of 264. Jedd appraoched the stage pacing back and forth while he chalked his hands. Before making his attempt he let out loud yell "who wants to see this!?" we replied in cheer. Jedd grasped the device and lifted only to have it slip violently from his hands. This only pissed Jedd off...making him more bound and determined to make the lift. He approached the device, grapsed it and pull with all his might and BOOM! Victory was achieved! Jedd had broken his last record and set a new world record of 268lbs.
The third event brought us to the Double Sledgehammer Lever. Prior to this event I did not know how much pain my wrists could take...but I was about to find out! Chris fabricated two 12lbs sledgehammers together with the capability of adding more weight to the ends for added resistance. Each individual was to lower the device to their foreheads with a 5 sec pause before levering the hammers up to the starting position. Those 5 secs proved to be some of the most painful. Lowering the weight was not so much the issue rather it was the instant feel of your wrist about to be broken off while holding it at forehead height. I can only imagine how Slim the Hammerman felt when he would use up to and over 70lbs for this feat. Andrew Durniat came in for the win on this event with a lift of 50lbs.
The Medley was tough! Many items including Inch Dumbells, thick handled barbells, an upside down anvil, sledge hammers, block weights, and blobs littered the floor. 4 minutes were given to each person in order to lift all 25 items on the floor. If 20 out of the 25 items were lifted, two bonus items of a 60d nail and a piece of 3/8 square stock could be bent for added points. It was amazing to see some people rip through this event as if they were picking up pieces of paper. Most items felt frozen to ground for myself. This event gave me a new prespective and appreciation for the sport of grip. It was also awe-inspiring to see such people demostrate tremedous amounts of wrist and grip strength.
Probably one of the most highly anticipated events for the evening was the Hercules Hold. The device made to support the the weight of the Hercules Hold, looked like a torturous device from the Middle Ages used to draw and quarter victims. A wooden frame constructed held two pillars on each end which held the loaded barbells. Pulleys were attached to the barbells leading to non rotating handle grips. Each person would stand in the center and grab hold of the handles, while others assisting the barbells, would slowly lower the weighted barbells through wooden slits until all the slack in the pulleys was eliminated. The weight on each barbell was 260lbs for open and novice classes. 300lbs was loaded for the Elite class and the female weight was a impressive amount as well (sorry i dont recall the exact lbs but I believe it was around 170). The first victim of the day was female Mary Keague. She showed her bravery and strength by no only being the first one subjected to the Hercules Hold, but almost withstanding a full minute under its pressures! Many held on strong but dropped the weight after feeling their triceps start to tear. The average hold time was around 30 secs with Nick Rosenthal and Brendan Gerber almost completing a minute. In fact if I recall, Nick did exceed the one minute mark with a very impressive hold and mental toughness! The fun escalated when elite class Jedd Johnson and Andrew Durniat went head to head to determine who would win in a what would be a close battle. The weight was increased to 300lbs and Jedd held on as best he could for 30 secs while shouting friendly taunts to Andrew. Andrew grabbed hold of the handles and held on for a mighty 57 secs secruing his win for the competition!
I was saddened to hear Chris was no longer going to be hosting the gripmas event, but I was happy to have been able to attend it. It was truly a unique experience with a great group of people, and the wealth of knowledge I gained is priceless.
The owner of the garage, Chris Rice, is 64 years old and stronger than most 24 year olds. The man can bend steel with ease and two hand pinch over 200lbs. His garage is the perfect stage for a grip competition. It serves almost as a museum to the strongman of old and new with photos of The Mighty Atom, Slim the Hammerman, and many other famous strong individuals plastered to the wall. Along the wall are pieces of steel bent and twisted in every which way possible from a simple V bend to a twisted preztel like shape. Most of these steel trophies are stamped with an autograph from the persons who forged the steel into its unnatural awe-inspiring shape. In the middle of the floor lied 2 to 3 inch thick handled bars loaded with plates of various weights, along with a thick axel and the wooden pieces of what would become the torturous looking device for the Hercules Hold. With more Inch Dumbells in one place then I have ever seen, the stage looked more like a armory fill with an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. The atmosphere was there and the stage was set for records to be gained and broken amongst the cold sunny morning of December 10th in Crooksville, Ohio.
The first event of the competiton was the Chocked Gripper Event. We sat anxiously with gloves over our hands to keep them as warm as possible waitng for our names to be called. One by one we approached the table looking at the mass aray of grippers and like the scene out of Indian Jones and the Last Crusade we looked for our holy grail of a gripper to attempt a close. The event was highlighted by Andrew Durniat closing a 214lb gripper for his first attempt! Andrew set the bar high for the elite class, which would prove to be a close race between him and Jedd Johnson. Andrew topped the event off with a 224lb close. A feat only a few in world can only come close too.
The second event brought the Two Handed Pinch. Jedd Johnson currently held the world record of 264lbs and the lightweight divison record was close to being broken by Brendan Gerber. This event brought a lot of excitment do the possiblilty of current records being broken in both classes. Brendan Gerber came close to breaking the record back in October during the third leg of the World Strongest Hands competition, but fell short. Brendan, cool, calm, wrapped a belt around his waist and confidently lifted 206lbs (about 30lbs over his bodyweight) to take the current world record and was able to get 210lbs off the ground. The place erupted as Brendan executed the lift to take the record. Jedd Johnson warmed up with 250lbs in preparation for for his attempt at 268lbs, four pounds over his current world record of 264. Jedd appraoched the stage pacing back and forth while he chalked his hands. Before making his attempt he let out loud yell "who wants to see this!?" we replied in cheer. Jedd grasped the device and lifted only to have it slip violently from his hands. This only pissed Jedd off...making him more bound and determined to make the lift. He approached the device, grapsed it and pull with all his might and BOOM! Victory was achieved! Jedd had broken his last record and set a new world record of 268lbs.
The third event brought us to the Double Sledgehammer Lever. Prior to this event I did not know how much pain my wrists could take...but I was about to find out! Chris fabricated two 12lbs sledgehammers together with the capability of adding more weight to the ends for added resistance. Each individual was to lower the device to their foreheads with a 5 sec pause before levering the hammers up to the starting position. Those 5 secs proved to be some of the most painful. Lowering the weight was not so much the issue rather it was the instant feel of your wrist about to be broken off while holding it at forehead height. I can only imagine how Slim the Hammerman felt when he would use up to and over 70lbs for this feat. Andrew Durniat came in for the win on this event with a lift of 50lbs.
The Medley was tough! Many items including Inch Dumbells, thick handled barbells, an upside down anvil, sledge hammers, block weights, and blobs littered the floor. 4 minutes were given to each person in order to lift all 25 items on the floor. If 20 out of the 25 items were lifted, two bonus items of a 60d nail and a piece of 3/8 square stock could be bent for added points. It was amazing to see some people rip through this event as if they were picking up pieces of paper. Most items felt frozen to ground for myself. This event gave me a new prespective and appreciation for the sport of grip. It was also awe-inspiring to see such people demostrate tremedous amounts of wrist and grip strength.
I was saddened to hear Chris was no longer going to be hosting the gripmas event, but I was happy to have been able to attend it. It was truly a unique experience with a great group of people, and the wealth of knowledge I gained is priceless.
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