DOUBLE OVERHAND AXLE DEADLIFT

Bodyweight was 222 today.  It was 113 degrees in my garage during this workout.  So I’m glad my chalk was doing its job and keeping my hands glued to the bar. 

My Axle is homemade.  It’s a piece of pipe (actual diameter is 1.9″) that I slid over an Olympic bar.  Then used some cardboard to stuff into it and help create a “soft bond” with the bar.  Then I used a bunch of duct tape to secure it to the bar so that it wouldn’t slip.  It’s solid as a rock and feels pretty close to an actual Axle.  I had an Axle for 8 years so I’m pretty familiar with how it felt. 

-137×3     *Notes: Sumo.  Wore flip flops.  No belt. 

-228×1     *Notes: Sumo.  Wore flip flops.  No belt.

-298×1     *Notes: Sumo.  No shoes.  No belt.

-350×1     *Notes: Sumo.  No shoes.  No belt.  Felt strong.  Back was a little iffy but I pulled right through that and had no pain.  Held for 5 seconds at the top.  Could’ve held it a lot longer.

-361×1     *Notes: Sumo.  No shoes.  Wore a belt.  Back was right at the danger point.  Held at the top for 10 seconds and felt very strong in the hands. 

Gotta start tightening my training focus for the Fall Grip Decathlon up at Adam Glass’s training facility in Minnesota – November. 

MMS GRIPPERS

This was my strongest MMS Gripper workout ever.  In 11 years of grip training.  Yes! 

Warmup:

-Trainer-x5-both hands, -#2×5-both hands

Workout:

-137lb #3×1-right hand, -x5-left hand     *Notes: 5 reps lefty is pretty good for me. 

-151lb #3×1-both hands     *Notes: Slammed righty and pretty strong lefty.

-169lb #3.5×1-right hand     *Notes: Solid close.

-174lb Elite-x1-right hand     *Notes: SMASHED shut and held for 2 seconds! 

-179lb Elite-x1-right hand     *Notes: SMASHED shut and held for 3 seconds!  Whoa, this is the strongest close I’ve ever had on this gripper. 

-179lb Elite-x1-right hand     *Notes: Another smash and hold for 2 seconds! 

-179lb Elite-x1-right hand     *Notes: Barely closed this time. 

Shook my hands out between attempts and did some slow walking around the yard.  It was about 100 degrees in the garage when I did this workout.  But heat sure doesn’t hurt the hands’ performance – as anyone who trains grip is well aware.   

For anyone who’s on the fence about Gym Movement…get off the fence!  I did some simple testing and changed up my stance slightly and had a gripper workout to beat all of my previous gripper workouts.  Grip and Rip 2.1 DVD helped me immensely.  Adam T. Glass is discontinuing the DVD and I believe is supplanting it with the Industrial Strength Grip DVD.  Buy them both.   

MMS GRIPPERS

Did this MMS workout immediately following the TNS workout.  Had not planned it.  But as I was headed out of my garage I happened to absent-mindedly pick up my easy Super Elite and SHUT IT.  That’s very odd since my hands at that point felt absolutely fried from the TNS work.  And I did 2HP and Blobs the day before so my forearms were swollen with blood still. 

-166lb Super Elite-x1-right hand!     *Notes: Whoa!  Very surprised to feel the handles touch. 

-166lb Super Elite-x1-right hand!     *Notes: Again, whoa.  Barely got it closed on video.

-174lb Elite-MISS-right hand     *Notes: Missed by a sliver.  Going to give it another shot and focus on nailing it shut.

-174lb Elite-x1-right hand!!!     *Notes: Smashed it and held it shut for 2 seconds on video!  So surprised my mouth was probably hanging open at that point.  Very excited about this.  It means that my gripper strength/stamina is improving dramatically. 

-179lb Elite-MISS-right hand     *Notes: Missed by 1/8″.

What an extraordinary workout!  Also forgot to mention that I did a braced bend after the TNS grippers – and before the MMS grippers.  My hands and forearms were fatigued from that too.  So for me to close a 174lb gripper after all that it just continues to blow my mind.  In a good way.

BLOBS

See here for details:

http://pinchpilgrimage.wordpress.com/

MOUSE PINCH-57MM

See here for details:

http://pinchpilgrimage.wordpress.com/

I’ve written and then re-written my goals for this contest several times.  Each event’s goal has some sort of reasoning behind it.  Whether it’s just a nice round number – 400lbs on the Plateau Buster One Hand Deadlift – or just beating a long-time PR by a few pounds – 182.5lb #3.5 gripper on the MMS Gripper event.

MMS GRIPPERS: 182.5 #3.5

2 HAND PINCH: 190

AXLE-DOUBLE OVERHAND: 350

HUB-GRIP TOPZ: 40

ONE HAND DEADLIFT-PLATEAU BUSTER: 400

RIM LIFT-GRIP TOPZ: 175

2″ VERTICAL BAR: 315

2″ ROPE HANG: 60 seconds

REPETITION 2 HAND PINCH: 30

MEDLEY: Top 5

My followup posts will explain the reasoning behind each individual goal and my opinion on how easy it will be for me to hit that goal at the contest. 

CHINUPS

Tested today and pronated was better than anything else.  But when I set up to do my first chinup that way it set off some alarm bells in my left shoulder.  So I went with double supinated again today.  Didn’t have any density goals today and it was after 16 hours of work anyway so I wasn’t out to break any PRs.  Just wanted to get in some work and keep my left shoulder “used to” the stress of performing chinups. 

Bodyweight was 215lbs right before the workout started.

1st set) – BW for 1 rep     *Notes: Shoulder is tender today.  Did a single rep and knew that my workout would probably consist of doing singles.  So I decided to do some weighted singles.  A little more weight wasn’t going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

2nd set) – BW + 10lb kettlebell + 15lb kettlebell for 1 rep     *Notes: Pretty painful in the shoulder.  Got the rep but it also felt bad on my elbows.  I think that has something to do with my injury constantly telling my muscles to “put the brakes on” - and my mind is trying to overcome that braking message.  And it makes it very hard to do any pulling when the brakes are on full blast.  Technically a weight PR for the past year or so. 

3rd set) – BW + 35lb kettlebell – MISS     *Notes: Got about halfway up and my shoulder was warning me to quit so I listened.  The muscle brakes were on hard too. 

4th set) – BW for 4 reps     *Notes: A rep PR by 1.  Probably won’t add weight next workout but will instead build up some volume and then test with weight in a few months.  Or test “max” weight. 

5th set) – BW + 10lb kettlebell for 1 rep     *Notes: Just thought I’d add one more to the rep total.

This worout was completed over a 40-minute time period.  Shoulder hurt a little more than it did in the last workout.  Not necessarily a sign of backsliding though.  It might just be the fact that I got greedy and added weight to see how the shoulder would take it.  The shoulder is telling me that I’d better stick to basic bodyweight for a while.  Let it get comfortable with that and then progress from there. 

Definitely going to do more testing in my next workout.  I’ve got some ideas for a few postural changes that might help.  I also have an alternate pullup bar – the one I’m using is a Power Tower – that has parallel handles on it.  That might be easier on my shoulders than supinated or pronated. 

SHALLOW HUB 35

-MISS-right hand, -@ 8″-left hand     *Notes: Very hard to get this thing moving.

-MISS-right hand, -@ 1″-left hand     *Notes: That sucks.

-MISS-right hand, -@ 5″-left hand     *Notes: Feel like I’m on the verge of being able to pick the plate up if I can find the right technique.

-@ 1″-right hand, -FULL LIFT-left hand     *Notes: Very pleased with a full lift!  This is the first time I’ve hub lifted this shallow 35 in the “claw-style.”  Many times I’ve hub lifted it “vbar-style.” 

-FULL LIFT-both hands!     *Notes: Felt great to get it with both hands.  On video too.  Both hands pulled the plate to crotch-height. 

*Overall Notes: I found the best way (for me) to put my fingers and thumb on the claw-style.  I am not new to hub lifting.  I’ve lifted a bunch of 45lb plates by the hub.  That was vbar-style. 

Lifting on this shallow hub 35 should set me up just fine for Adam Glass’s Grip Decathlon in November – in Minnesota.  His contest is featuring the Grip Topz Shallow Hub.  But mine is close enough to the contest implement dimensions to at least be helpful in my contest prep. 

CHINUPS

Did more testing before this workout and got the same results as the previous workout – the one where I performed my first chinup in more than a year.  Went with a double supinated grip for this workout.

Set my stopwatch and had the goal of doing 10 chinups in whatever time limit it took.  Just getting to 10 total reps after not being able to do any at all for so long felt like a triumph.  Didn’t care if it took all day.  Literally.  Because I had the day off. 

Bodyweight was 215lbs right before the workout started.

1st set) – 2 reps

2nd set) – 2 reps

3rd set) – 2 reps

4th set) – 1 rep

5th set) – 1 rep

6th set) – 1 rep

7th set) – 1 rep

Total time was 7 minutes on the dot.  Still a volume PR since my last workout was 6 total reps.  Probably a density PR too actually since I think my other workout took about 10 minutes.

Shoulder seemed to hurt a bit less than it did last time.  Not enough to go wild and crank out more chinups.  But enough to do some sets of doubles at first. 

CHINUPS

Not very many.  But I’m still ecstatic to report that I did a few.  Why?  Because I tried to do a single chinup 3 or 4 months ago and wasn’t able to complete one.  The pain in my left shoulder was so intense that I literally couldn’t even grind through it to complete the rep.  I have the strength to do one.  But the arms-overhead position is terrible on my left shoulder. 

Thanks to Gym Movement (biofeedback training) I’ve been testing things and sometimes doing movements that aren’t necessarily testing well for my body.  But my theory is I could somehow break through the standoff my left shoulder has forced me into this last year.  It paid off and I did my first complete chinup in probably over a year. 

Did it hurt?  Yep.  Quite a bit.  But the pain was less than it has been in at least a year!  I’m on my way to recovery – I can feel it.  I decided I was tired of passively waiting for that day to come.  All the times I’ve just avoided doing any pressing or DO bending or pushups…that hasn’t helped me.  Working through the pain slowly and what I consider smartly – using biofeedback – is paying huge dividends already. 

Even hanging with no tension on my lats or arms was super painful even a month ago.  I was happy to be able to hold onto a 2″ thick PVC bar a few weeks ago in the KC Qualifier II grip contest for 41 seconds.  I tried to do a pullup after that contest was over and got about halfway up.  Which was sadly an improvement from the few weeks before that. 

> I had to test several different hand placements to figure out which one was going to allow me to do my first chinup in a long time.  Pronated grip really hurt my shoulder.  Even more than arms-overhead position normally does.  Crossed that off the list.  I knew I could do better than that with another hand position. 

> Next I tested an alternate grip on both sides.  Supinated on the left and pronated on the right.  Then pronated on the left and supinated on the right.  That was a little better than both being pronated.  And the left being supinated was the best of those two options. 

> Both hands supinated tested far better than anything else.  The shoulder pain was still there quite a bit.  But I thought it would be manageable for very short periods of time. 

 Ω Gritted my teeth and pulled toward the bar and eked out a single rep on the chinup with both hands supinated. 

Ω  Rested a few minutes and then gave myself some verbal cues to relax the left shoulder area as much as possible during the next attempt.  Got 3 reps on that set!  All were clean reps but still painful. 

Ω  Another few minutes rest and I got 2 more reps.  Both reps were solid.   

It will seem silly to most people reading this to get excited about being able to do a single chinup.  But most people reading this probably haven’t had the shoulder issues that I’ve been dealing with since about 2007.  These shoulder issues are my own fault though.  And they don’t impede my day job at all…no overhead lifting.  But my injuries have really made me appreciate anything I can once again do that I haven’t been able to for a while. 

I look forward to doing more pullups soon.  My numbers will probably never go higher than 10 – but I’m really focused on getting my shoulder into good operating condition once again.  In case any challenges I used to enjoy suddenly call to me again. 

2nd) Ben Edwards

3rd) Austin Acree – qualified for Grip Nationals!

Austin closed his first #3 at the contest! Also hubbed his first 45 – and so did John. I got some great armwrestling instruction after the contest and was really stoked about the feedback and the training itself from Scott, Josh, and John. Thanks again guys! I had a great time and my arm doesn’t hurt…yet…lol.

MMS GRIPPERS: Josh tied with Nick Zinna on the MMS grippers with a 183lb Heavy Elite. Needed to have a lower increment from 183lbs to the 195lb #4. More on Nick Zinna’s insane gripper performance(s) in a later post. Nick got injured or he would’ve no doubt destroyed some of the next events.

I smashed a 179lb Elite and then failed miserably on a 183lb Heavy Elite and #3.5 of the same rating. Still a contest PR for me and I’m happy with it!

2HP: Josh won with an easy pull of 181lbs. It was raining by this point and he could’ve NO DOUBT gone well above 200lbs but he wanted to save his hands for some later pulls. And possibly he was saving up for the inevitable armwrestling instruction AFTER the contest. I pulled 171lbs and although that is super low it is a 7lb contest PR for me and was about where I thought I’d end up. Or close to it. Budged 181lbs so it’ll rise at the next contest.

2″ VBAR: I won with a hail mary pull of 301lbs righty! Got it on my 4th attempt so that’s hard to beat. Josh and I both took 251lbs as openers and high pulled that like the bar was empty. He suggested we jump directly to 301lbs and have a shot at it. I was game for that and it was a good thing we did because if I had gone the conservative route of takingHe was VERY close on 301lbs and almost got it on all 3 attempts at it. Hope someone posts the video soon. Not necessarily for the pull itself…more for the shirt I wore for the attempt. John weighed 165lbs and pulled 221lbs on his FIRST time doing vbar!

AXLE: Josh won with an easy 330lbs. I got 2nd with 325lbs and quit there with back worries.

WRIST DEVELOPER: Austin won this event with a hard-fought nasty effort! Josh got 2nd and I squeaked into 3rd.

MEDLEY: Josh took another dominant first. We set up some of the Grip Nationals qualifying weights and just let people run through it in a 6-minute time limit.

FAT BAR HANG: Nasty event! John won this with 10 seconds longer than Josh. I got 3rd with a 1-second longer time than Scott Harris. Scott just miscalculated and kind of accidentally re-grabbed the PVC bar with a thumb grip and that messed him up.

FAT BAR HANGS

Did these with the same 2 and 3/8″ diameter PVC handles as last time. 

Bodyweight was 220lbs.

-1st set was 20 seconds.  Hurt from the first second onward.  Used a thumbless grip.  This is a 5-second improvement over my previous best time.  Mainly due to relaxation of my shoulder – which is quite hard when it’s hurting while under tension. 

-2nd set was 12 seconds.  Did this hang 13 minutes after the first set.  Could’ve held on longer – but the tension in my left shoulder was pretty high and I called it a day.

I tested this exercise – knowing full well it was probably going to test poorly – and it of course tested worse than my baseline range of motion test.  I’m mentioning this because it actually tested a bit better (while still testing worse than baseline) this time than it did on the 5th.  This might be a case of loosening my shoulder up enough to eventually be able to do the exercise and have it test better than baseline. 

FAT BAR HANGS

These were done by slipping two 5″ long pieces of 2.375″ diameter PVC over the pullup handles on my Power Tower.  Then hanging from them – with a thumbless grip – for time.  Easier said than done when you have a left shoulder like mine.  It hurt from the first instant of when I put full weight (it hurt even at a small fraction of my weight though) on the left shoulder. 

These hang times are not long.  They’re not being held back by my grip strength.  But this event – most likely with a 2″ barbell – is part of the KC Qualifier II on May 14th.  So I should’ve put them into my training before now probably.  But they hurt my shoulder quite a bit so I’ve put it off.  I’m going to do it at the contest otherwise I wouldn’t be messing with them now.  I want to ensure that I can at least put in a token performance to help me not lose as many points to the other guys with unimpeded shoulders. 

Doing these sets went against the Gym Movement principles.  I don’t recommend others doing that at any point in their training.  But I felt the risk was worth it to prepare myself for the stress of this event to my shoulders at the contest.  Doing something that hurts you is not going to be worth it – or recommended – to anyone usually.  But again, I made the decision to do this and I think the risk will be worth it at the contest.

Bodyweight was 220lbs.

-1st set was 10 seconds.  Hurt from the first second onward.  Used a thumbless grip.

-2nd set was 7 seconds.  I rested 3 minutes and tried to relax.  Less pain than on the first set actually.  Might be stretching out my shoulder a bit. 

-3rd set was 15 seconds.  This will be my training “max.”  I might do this exercise once more before the contest or maybe twice.  So it’s not much of a real training max but stretching the shoulder complex might do it some good anyway.  The trick is knowing how much time is going to be “okay” vs. how much time will hurt it further. 

POWER TOWER PUSHUPS

Weight was 220lbs.  Left shoulder is always going to be the limiting factor on any chest and tricep exercise.  Did these at a moderate speed.  Wasn’t trying to go really fast and bang out max reps.  I didn’t test range of motion between sets either.  I just did another set when I felt ready.  And I never went to failure on any set.  Stopped most of the sets when the rep became difficult. 

Did 44 total reps in 10 minutes.  Not impressive by anybody’s standards – but I was still pleased because I was finally able to do a chest and tricep exercise with minimal shoulder pain!  Again, not trying to break any strength records either – although I think a large portion of my training will still be with weights – not only bodyweight. 

A day later I was pretty sore in the chest/shoulder tie-in area.  2 days later I was very sore.  3 days later I was as sore as the 1st day.  4 days later I’m still a tiny bit sore in my triceps.  That just goes to show how little tricep and chest stimulation I’ve received in the last year. 

For quick, at-a-glance record keeping purposes I’m going to bold print a short snippet that tells me what I did in each workout like this one.  The grip training might be written down differently on paper but I haven’t decided yet.

POWER TOWER PUSHUPS-220BW-44 total reps in 10 minutes-average reps per minute: 4.4

Sounds kind of melodramatic – but it’s an accurate title.  I went to see my family on May 2nd and 3rd and (long story short) was impressed that my sister Sal, brother Joe, and cousin Kenny are making some significant physical improvements in their health and fitness levels.  In some ways I’m strong.  And in others I’m weak.  Just like everyone who strength trains of course.  But I do very little cardio.  And by cardio I mean dog walking.  Slow and not likely to increase my fitness levels even if done for twice the distances I average a week. 

I don’t currently do what I would consider bodybuilding-type training either.  And I think it’s time to start.  I want to lean up quite a bit.  I estimate I’m at 20% bodyfat right now and that’s a bit embarrassing since I have all the training tools I could ever want to increase my strength and fitness.  I have the willpower.  I have the desire to train.  I’ve just got to change my training focus from singles on mainly grip and USAWA contest events to repetition work that stimulates major muscle groups. 

I started working my chest again the day after I got home from seeing family.  Haven’t bench pressed in so long that I’d guess it’s been over a year at this point.  That’s mainly due to a shoulder injury that’s given me trouble for some years. 

Been using Gym Movement and Grip and Rip since early March and have already had very good results in my contest training.  Now it’s time to put them to use in my bodybuilding-style training.  And when I say bodybuilding-style training I don’t mean getting big and vascular muscles.  I solely want to lean out and get in better cardiovascular shape – while developing some aesthetically pleasing arm and chest muscle especially.  I’ve been blessed with legs that respond pretty well to any type of resistance training by getting more cut.  Not necessarily stronger though. 

But now it’s time to say goodbye to only training for strength and contests. 

I have been using only a small portion of the Grip and Rip 2.1 DVD that I purchased from Adam Glass.  Now it’s good that I’ll be able to put the fitness and fat loss segments to use too!  I’ve gotten my money’s worth just out of the grip section though.  I’ll probably feel like I’m robbing him and Brad Nelson when I see the results from a year of putting the information from the rest of the DVDs to use.

The chest exercise I found that doesn’t actually hurt my shoulder (it is still tender, but much less so than with any other chest or tricep exercise I’ve tried so far) is simply pushups with my hands on the Power Tower handles.  I can get a deeper stretch and it doesn’t hurt my shoulder like doing pushups on the floor does.  I’m not using any weight – just bodyweight right now.  Don’t have plans to rush into adding weight either.  I’ll add a bunch of reps (volume) before I’ll add weight. 

I still tested some movements for my chest – even though I knew from recent experience (just tried Power Tower pushups about a week ago) that the Power Tower pushups felt the best.  I wanted to make sure that they did in fact TEST the best.  They tested very well.  Nothing else tested positive over my baseline toe test.  And if you’re reading this but don’t have any idea what I’m talking about – read Adam Glass’s blog or purchase Grip and Rip 2.1.  You will be very glad you did!

My arms have never been a strong point either.  Or rather the appearance of my arms has never been a strong point.  I’m totally unconcerned now with the strength of my arms in the sense of trying to get stronger for a contest performance.  I’ll have a lot of exercises to choose from but the ones that don’t hurt my shoulder are going to be limited to about a half dozen overall.  More info on that will come in my future training posts though. 

Gotta say that it’s nice to have a new training focus that will impact the way I look to a big degree.  If I get down to about 185lbs that’s the best bodyweight for me in terms of how I look muscularly.  The journey will be fun – but I’m in it for the long haul.

KC QUALIFIER II – CONTEST SIMULATION GRIPPER WORKOUT

MMS GRIPPERS

*Notes: Didn’t do any Gym Movement biofeedback testing before this workout because I already knew I was going to do MMS grippers regardless of how they tested.  It’s the first event in the upcoming (2 weeks away now!) grip contest so for me it sets the tone for the rest of the events.  This is the first workout in a long time where I closed all my mid-to-high-160lbs grippers on the 1st attempt on all of them.  No missed first attempts and then getting a good close on a 2nd attempt.  Nope, I was slamming every gripper I touched for the most part. 

Only worked my right hand for the bulk of the workout since the left isn’t being contested at the grip contest.  Makes sense because when I work my left along with my right – the left is a bit weaker on the all-important set.  Which brings my right hand down in terms of the biggest gripper I can close.  I did a few closes lefty after my right hand workout was over. 

WARMUP: -57lb Trainer-x5, -81lb #1×1, -110lb #2×1, -137lb #3×1

WORKOUT: Went with the idea that my hardest (not counting my crazy Atomgripz Penta Band and Hexa Band!) gripper would be my opener.  If I nailed it on my first attempt that would technically mean that I had no grippers in my aresenal that were harder to go up to.  Or at least no grippers that are within the realm of possibility for me to close. 

-169lb #3.5×1     *Notes: Slammed shut and held for 2 seconds!  Could’ve closed a mid-170s gripper today I think. 

-167lb Atomgripz Wide Quad Band-x1     *Notes: Another solid close and short hold!  This was a harder close than the first gripper only because the Atomgripz is 3″ wide and the #3.5 is 2 and 7/8″ wide.  That extra 1/8″ is quite noticeable on the Atomgripz. 

-167lb Super Elite-x1     *Notes: No problem on this close either.  Held shut for a second.

-166lb RB300x1     *Notes: Solid close and short hold. 

-166lb T7x1     *Notes: Closed and briefly held shut.     This gripper is about 1/16″ narrower than the RB300. 

-unrated Atomgripz Narrow Gun Metal Quad Band-x1     *Notes: Just got this gripper and wow it’s an awesome-looking gripper!  Pretty stout too with the slightly slick handles. 

TNS GRIPPERS

*Notes: I could’ve gone on with more MMS closes but the grippers were dropping off in poundage pretty drastically (my next hardest gripper from the T7 is only about 152lbs) so I used the biofeedback testing and TNS tested well. 

-152lb Atomgripz Narrow Quad Band-x1     *Notes: Slammed shut and held for about 2 seconds!  Not bad, but not super hard either with the 2.5″ spread of this narrow gripper.  Got it on video and will get it on the Atomgripz CCS cert leaderboard soon. 

-137lb #3×1     *Notes: Just closing this easy #3 to warmdown essentially.

-129lb Atomgripz Mirror Finish Triple Band-x1     *Notes: This is a surprisingly hard gripper to TNS close.  Beautiful as it is hard to close too because of the mirror finish handles.  And it’s heavy.  Perfect gripper for collectors in other words.

CCS GRIPPERS

*Notes: CCS didn’t actually test very well but it wasn’t necessarily “bad” either.  I decided to throw a few closes in to see if I still had a bit of juice left after the rest of this strong gripper workout.

-149lb #3×1     *Notes: Strong close.  No problem at all. 

-149lb #3×1     *Notes: Another strong close. 

*Overall Notes: An extremely good gripper workout for me today!  MMS grippers mainly.  But not bad on the TNS and CCS either.  This bodes well for the contest but I still have to be realistic and say that I probably won’t close a gripper in the 180s.  Mid-170s is a good possibility. 

MOUSE PINCH-48MM-STANDING ON BLOCKS

*Notes: Tested Mouse Pinch, Axle and MMS Grippers first and the Mouse Pinch tested much better than the other two.  Grippers tested worse so that must mean I’m still not fully recovered from my MM3 attempts from the 8th.  Broke my recent PR on this setup (standing on blocks) by 6 pounds!  For me, even a 1 pound increase is something special.  To get a 6 pound increase since my last Mouse Pinch workout is great.

 -104×1

-138×1     *Notes: Didn’t feel very strong on this lift – the plates felt very slick today.  Had to really buckle down and concentrate for the next sets.  Plus I worked diligently on rechalking the plates and my hands.  Then made sure I smoothed the chalk down enough where it felt like it was working its way onto the plates more securely.

-165×1     *Notes: Full lift.  Felt stronger than the 138 so I knew I had done something right with the rechalking.

-175×1     *Notes: Full lift.  Ties my best pull so far on this setup.  Good news since I felt like I could pull a bit more – as I went on to prove.

-181×1     *Notes: Another full lift!  6 pound PR from my last Mouse Pinch workout.  Got it on video and it definitely felt like I was at my max even though I pulled it to lockout. 

-186-MISS     *Notes: No movement at all.  Guess that was my clear message to stop the workout. 

This gripper workout was the best I’ve ever had in terms of closing 4 hard grippers in the same workout.  3 of the grippers I’ve never closed before this workout.  I’ll be sending them out to get rated by Chris Rice this week.

4-4-11, Monday

MMS GRIPPERS

WARMUP: -Trainer-x5-both hands, -#1×1-both hands, -#2×1-both hands, -easy #3×1-both hands

WORKOUT:

• 160lb #3×1-right hand    
• T7x1-right hand     *Notes: Super solid close and a 2-second hold.  Knew it was going to be a very strong gripper day.
• RB300x1-right hand     *Notes: 1st time closing this RB300!  Bought it some months back.
• Hard #3.5×1-right hand     *Notes: 1st time closing this hard #3.5!  Have had this on loan for more than a year!  Felt great to finally close it.  Todd Coenen’s been very patient letting me have this on an extended loan.  Held it shut for 2 seconds.  I always thought that if I finally closed it the handles would barely touch and I’d have to review the video a dozen times to make sure they touched.  Not the case at all.
• Hard Atomgripz Quad Band-x1-right hand     *Notes: 1st time closing this gripper and I barely got it.  Felt harder than the Hard #3.5. 

Thanks to Todd Coenen for loaning me this hard #3.5 for over a year.  I’m very happy to finally close this beastly gripper.

Also owe a big thanks to Adam T. Glass and his Grip and Rip 2.1 DVD for helping me get out of my years-long gripper slump!  If you’re battling a plateau or just want to progress faster – buy the Grip and Rip 2.1 DVD!

FBBC 2″ VERTICAL BAR

-116×1-both hands

-163×1-both hands

-207×1-both hands

-242×1-both hands     *Notes: Felt heavier than it normally does so I had forewarning that it wouldn’t be a record-breaking workout.  No worries though.

-278-MISS-both hands     *Notes: No movement at all.  Not a good thing since 275lbs will be what I call for at the contest after my opener of 250lbs. 

-278×1-left hand, -MISS-right hand     *Notes: Made a hair over the 2″ minimum height lefty and only got 1/2″ of movement righty. 

-278-MISS-both hands     *Notes: Got 1″ of movement lefty and nothing righty. 

*Overall Notes: Pretty decent workout even though I only pulled 278lbs.  Tested myself with the Grip and Rip 2.1 (Gym Movement) biofeedback methods and it actually suggested that 2″ vbar wasn’t the best exercise to train today.  I ignored that advice and paid the price with a subpar workout.  I chose this route because I wanted to get some work in on the 2″ vbar and to test the results of the test that suggested it wouldn’t be a good exercise today.  I’d say the test passed with flying colors.  Which makes me an idiot not to listen to it. 

MMS GRIPPERS

*Overall Notes: Meat of the workout was 31 total reps in 23 minutes – right hand – with my Narrow Quad Band.  Huge volume PR.  Lefty I got 8 singles with my Atomgripz Narrow Quad Band in the same time period.  Also a volume PR.  Only previous workout with the Narrow Quad Band was a dozen singles righty.  What I forgot to write down in my training log was that those 12 singles were over a period of 3 hours.  That wasn’t going as fast as I could between sets but it bears mentioning that I almost tripled the total number of reps in about 1/9th of the time. 

The breakdown righty was 6 sets of 3 reps, 6 sets of 2 reps, and 1 set of 1.

The warmup consisted of: -Trainer-x1-bh, -#1×1-bh, -#2×1-bh, -146lb #3×1-bh, -Atomgripz Triple Band Smooth-x1-bh

MMS GRIPPERS

This workout was very good.  I talked to Adam Glass on the phone the day before and he ran over a huge list of tips and tactics for me to take to get my grippers stronger.  And the very first workout it paid off with some very solid closes on my easy Super Elite.  Not a terribly hard gripper, but I’ve been backsliding and even a single close has been barely there lately. 

This workout I did 5 singles on my 169lb Super Elite in 13 minutes.  Missed the 6th attempt and then called the workout done right there.  Did some warmup closes en route to the singles on the Super Elite.  What made the biggest difference for me was doing the testing methodically and patiently to see what gripper I should be using that day.  Then testing my stance.  Stance made a big factor in my grip strength today.

Long story short is that biofeedback works! 

If your workouts are stalled and you need to get them back on track there are 3 things you can do.

• Continue to work hard and get nothing in return.  Like I’ve been doing for a while.  Something was broken but I stubbornly refused to find out what it was so that I could fix it.  That changed when I bought the Grip and Rip 2.1 DVD in February.
• Buy Grip and Rip 2.1 DVD. 
• Contact Adam Glass and do the distance coaching that he offers. 

Choice 1 sucks.  Choices 2 and 3 are great. 

FBBC 2″ VERTICAL BAR

-276-MISS-both hands     *Notes: Not sure why I skipped a normal warmup but I felt really strong.  Then was surprised when the weight didn’t move off the ground.

-276-MISS-both hands     *Notes: Ever the optimist – I tried again.  Nothing out of either hand.

-253×1-right hand, -MISS-left hand     *Notes: Missed on 3 attempts lefty!  That’s really strange.  Lefty is normally my stronger hand. 

-253×1-both hands     *Notes: Both full pulls this time.  What the heck is going on? 

-263×1-both hands     *Notes: Pulled about 3″ lefty and a full pull righty.

-273×1-left hand, -MISS-right hand     *Notes: Full pull lefty and got about 1.5″ righty.  Almost enough height to count as a legitimate lift.  But not quite.

-291×1-MISS-both hands     *Notes: Got about 1″ righty!  Nothing lefty on 2 attempts.  Surprised and pleased to get any movement righty so I will attempt this a few more times.

-291×1-right hand!, -MISS-left hand     *Notes: NEW PR righty!  Hell yeah, great feeling getting 291.  A step closer to 300lbs!  Pulled right at 2″.  Had to review the video it was so close.  Definitely a legit lift though.

-291×1-right hand!, -MISS-left hand     *Notes: Pulled to the 2″ height again.  Had to review video to make sure it was legit – and it definitely was! 

-301-MISS-both hands     *Notes: Tried 2 attempts on both hands and got nothing at all.  Not bad considering the 5lb PR over the 2″ vbar workout from 4 days ago. 

Overall Notes: 250 will be my opener at the contest so I’m making sure that I can lift it with little to no warmup.  I want my 4 attempts to really count.  I’ll open with 250lbs and then go to 275lbs.  Then 300lbs.  Or at least that’s the plan.  Plans have a way of changing though if I’m not feeling really ON that day.  I will open with 250lbs unless I’m feeling terribly ill though.  275lbs should be enough for 2nd or 3rd place in the KC Qualifier II though.  Josh Dale will probably pull somewhere around 280-300lbs too.  So I know I’ll have my work cut out for me.  

Thanks to Adam T. Glass and Brad Nelson for their superb grip training DVD titled “Grip and Rip 2.1″ – it has helped me significantly just in the 3 weeks that I’ve been putting it to use in my workouts.  Still haven’t figured out how to get my gripper strength on the rise again but it’ll work itself out I think. 

HALOS

2 sets of 30 with a 15lb kettlebell.  Shoulders feel pretty good.

ONE-ARM SWING

-16kg for 10 reps-both hands     *Notes: Not going for an actual workout, just doing some Gym Movement testing. 

CLEAN AND PRESS 

-4 singles with a progressively heavier kettlebell on both hands.  Again, not a workout, doing more Gym Movement testing. 

*Overall Notes: This was essentially a warmup for my grip workout that followed later in the day.