USAWA

Mary has competed in the USAWA before, including a Record Day competition about 12 years ago in which I also competed.

I first met Mary at the 2002 Super Grip Challenge at Kevin Fulton’s farm. She is a delightful person and is a blast to be around. I remember her smacking me on the butt at one of the Dino Gym meets (2006?), and I was a bit wobbly after a lift and almost fell over the chairs, lol. My wife also loves Mary, so she didn’t mind that I had Mary’s gigantic hand print in chalk on my butt after that.

I know of Mary because Dan also talks about Mary from the 2002 Super Grip Challenge. Wish I would have known about USAWA back then.

SHE GAVE SOME OUTSTNADING TECHNIQUE ADVICE AT THE ‘GRIPS’! THANKS, MARY!

Dave, you’re right about Mary giving some outstanding technique advice!

The best advice I got on the Middle Fingers Deadlift was by Al over 5 years ago. He showed me the tip of turning my fingers sideways on the bar instead of straight on to the bar. Spreads the discomfort across a slightly larger surface area of finger. And for a guy like me who doesn’t have big fingers or big strong finger bones, it helps quite a bit. Maybe 30-40 pounds for me. I was showing this tip to Emily Burchett. I didn’t explain it as well as Al did, but I tried. Another very helpful thing I found in the limited number of times I’ve pulled MFD was that just hooking the middle finger under the bar isn’t as helpful as actively trying to squeeze the bar. This is the opposite of what helps me on thick bar lifts. On those I don’t squeeze the bar hardly at all. I just try to rigidly lock my hand in an isometric position and lift. My Inch results from this year didn’t show my full potential, for simple reason not related to my method of lifting.

Eric, I thought about what I wrote and to be even more clear about what works (for me) on the middle fingers deadlift is to “screw” them into the barbell. Like you’re trying to mash them into the bar. I screw them so roughly into the bar that it almost cuts my skin just getting into position.

One last tip that I can give is to try gripping the bar two distinctly different ways. See which one works best for you. On light weights that aren’t near my max, I prefer to just hook the middle finger under the bar. Squeeze a little bit on the bar. On heavy weights that are near my max, I not only squeeze (which I mentioned in my previous post) the bar, but I actively try to FLEX my fist as hard as possible the entire time. Now, technically, it’s not a fist if you can’t curl all the fingers together, right? But that’s how I think of it. It seems to “anchor” the middle fingers to the bar better that way.

I agree with ET. I will have to try your tips Ben and I greatly appreciate the advice.

I will SECOND squeezing the bar hard on the Middle Finger Deadlift. Light sets are bare while I will tape up for the heavier sets. Skin seems to tear easily once I get over 300lb.