[Ben Edwards]

This one’s right (write) up my alley Al! I hope to earn one of those handles too because I’ll put it in my training rotation in hopes of beating a gym record at the Dino Gym.

I’ve been training my grip for 11 years now. Over the years I’ve “borrowed” more training ideas – many, many more – than I’ve actually come up with on my own. I know the old saying “there’s nothing new under the sun” has a lot of merit when it comes to training. If I “come up” with an exercise or technique, chances are someone else has already done it before me.

There are a few training ideas or methods that I’ve come up with that I haven’t seen elsewhere, or at least hadn’t seen when I came up with it on my own.

I’d like to write about one training idea I came up with about 5 years ago. I shared it with very few guys. Namely law enforcement officers (LEO) and a few amateur MMA guys that I correspond with. For safety reasons the LEOs aren’t going to speak (to anyone outside the LEO community) about the training I helped them with. But it has drastically improved their hand strength. Same for the MMA guys. It’s a specialized form of training that focuses on the thumb, ring, and pinky fingers – and excludes the others.

These guys also did training that helped their other fingers improve in strength. But the ring and pinky are weak spots on most of the population.

-Think about when someone grabs your wrist (in a hostile situation) and you want to break their grip. There are many ways to go about it, but most people are taught to break the grip by forcefully twisting their wrist outwards and upwards – using a curl-type motion – and focusing that escape attempt on the attacker’s thumb.
-The opposite side of that coin is that by having an unusually strong grip – you can keep hold of someone to defend yourself, etc.

This training also has a big carryover to 1″ and 2″ vertical bar strength by the way. It’s not the aim, but it’s definitely something the guys I’ve helped have reported. At least the few of them who do vertical bar in their training on a regular basis. One of the guys was stalled on his 2″ vertical bar numbers for 3 YEARS before I gave him the workout. 5 weeks later he had put 30 pounds on that lift. And that’s a monstrous increase on a grip lift like that – especially after that much time in a slump.

I’ve rambled a lot I guess. But my point was to ask if I can elucidate further on this in an article, or does it have to be something that I have personally used on myself to get stronger? I do have some experience with it a few years back – but for the most part I’ve just shared it with guys who don’t already have an unusually strong grip.

https://goalorientedtraining.wordpress.com/

[Ben Edwards]

I thought you were also referring to the Goerner Stroll. I want to try the Dumbbell Walk soon. I’ll have to rig up a DIY handle to test some techniques out. I imagine you guys “cup” the handle (thumbless) more than grip it though, am I right?

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[Ben Edwards]

Great article Thom! Good point about the nature of having a plethora of events and its relation to injury potential.

https://goalorientedtraining.wordpress.com/

[Ben Edwards]

Great job on the 32lb increase! That’s similar to my experience with the Middle Fingers Deadlift. Four workouts yielded about 50lbs increase. Then being in the contest atmosphere netted me 35lbs more.

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[Ben Edwards]

It’ll be good to see you again Mike! Been a long time. I chased your one-hand thumbless-grip deadlift record for a long time. I have the feeling you could’ve upped it whenever you wanted though but you had other big lifting to do. I’ll see you at Nationals man.

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[Ben Edwards]

Al, the story about your grandfather is one of your best yet. I was sad and very impressed by the time I finished it.

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[Ben Edwards]

That’s some solid pulls all around! Great one-hand deadlift too. That’s one of my favorites. Especially the thumbless variety.

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[Ben Edwards]

[b]Quote from 61pwcc on February 24, 2011, 22:18[/b]
middle finger Deadlifts!! After working up to some heavy Jerks, I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Figured I’d give middle finger Deads a try. 135 flew right up so up another 45/side to 225…hey…who glued the bar to the floor!?!? So down to 185 will be easy…yikes took everything to get it. WOW those are hard! The record is 400!?!? For who, the Incredible Hulk?

Two guys that I’m aware of have pulled 400lbs in a contest. Kevin Fulton – a certified COC (#3 gripper closer) and David Horne – also an elite grip guy have done it.

Chuck Cookson has pulled over 350lbs and so has Sam Cox. I think one was 355lbs and the other was 360lbs. Crazy!

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[Ben Edwards]

Welcome Jarrod! My in-laws live in Denver and my wife and I drive out there about 2 times a year. So if you ever want to meet up when I’m out there that would be great. I’m mostly a “grip guy” and focus on the USAWA lifts that allow me to exhibit my above average grip – but I’m up for any kind of training. Also love the Highland Games.

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[Ben Edwards]

As soon as the events for the 2012 Grip Nationals are decided I’ll get them disseminated around work so that I can encourage these guys to actually start training for the contest. And taking the time off for it well in advance so there aren’t any surprises along the way.

https://goalorientedtraining.wordpress.com/

[Ben Edwards]

[b]Quote from dinoman on February 14, 2011, 16:51[/b]
Thanks Steve. I really wanted to get that 555 because it was 5 more pounds more than what my brother-in-law Bob Burtzloff did about 10 years ago when he was the age I am now. Those kind of things are good topics to bring up at family holiday dinners!! haha

Truthfully, I don’t consider myself much of a “grip guy” and the 3″ deadlift really clouded who the best grip man in the group was (Ben Edwards). Ben clearly beat me on the other more grip-style events, and really deserved to be the winner. Afterwards, I questioned myself in having the 3″ deadlift in this meet. I guess just because it is a grip lift for me (I can do more on a regular bar) this doesn’t ring true for everyone when the back becomes the limit before the grip.

The funny thing is our judge Scott Tully should have been competing instead of judging. The next day at the record day he put up these great grip lifts: 358# Fulton Bar Ciavattone grip dl, 232# in the one hand 2″ VB, a 77# one hand pinch grip, and a 414# 2 bar 2″ VB deadlift!!!!! Al

Thanks for the compliment Al! I’m glad you had the 3″ bar deadlift in there though. It’s pretty hard to make any grip contest totally dependent on grip and not to some degree overall bodily strength.

Huge numbers by Scott on the grip stuff! He would’ve dusted us all it sounds like.

https://goalorientedtraining.wordpress.com/

[Ben Edwards]

[b]Quote from RAINBOW BEND on February 12, 2011, 19:56[/b]
ben…judging by the weights you lift (huge), i thought you’d be BIGGER!!!! hahahahaha

Haha Dave! Great line from one of the best movies of all time – at least in the campy movie index.

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[Ben Edwards]

Look forward to the report from the Record Day. Wish I could’ve lifted at that one too!

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[Ben Edwards]

Yes, the lifter in question (his name rhymes with Denny – haha) has super integrity. Very classy move!

I had a great time and enjoyed seeing everyone and the after-lifting meal was great too because we all got a chance to just sit around and chat.

I’ve got quite a list of memorable moments but here are just a few since I’m home and want to spend some time with my wife.

-Felecia! Destroying the 3″ bar deadlift record in style. I have no doubt she could’ve pulled the weight I did and made it look a lot cleaner than I did too. It was also neat getting to offer my 2 cents on what weights you should attempt on one or two events – along with Dave. You didn’t think you’d be able to pinch lift the two 45s but you did that with ease – and about 10lbs more!

-Rudy! Beat HIS 2″ vbar record by 10lbs and didn’t even know it until I looked it up and made sure that was the case. I am somewhat of a rainman with certain numbers (usually my own of course) and remembered his lift on the 2″ vbar from last year.

-Mike! Loved the middle fingers deadlift attempt that went from being a failed attempt – no movement at all – to suddenly being a dominating pull after taking a very short break to re-set.

-Mark! Huge pinch strength! He made 175lbs look like a feather pillow and seemed to be close on the 190+lbs attempt too. And he doesn’t train his grip. Which would make me dislike him slightly – if he wasn’t one of the nicest guys in the world.

-Denny! Had very good and balanced strength on all the lifts that it’s hard to pick one that stood out in my head. Plus the aforementioned super integrity.

-Al! MONSTER 3″ bar deadlift – 555lbs! – to end the meet in great style. Dave and I were puzzled by your 1-pound weight addition though to the 2″ vbar weight that you ripped off the ground and could’ve seemingly held for a day. I thought you were joking us, haha! Also considered “saving” a 3rd attempt on the 3″ bar deadlift and asking for 1 pound more than what you did on your best attempt. Then of course not being able to lift it wouldn’t be so funny, but hey.

-Dave! That 360lb (?) 3″ bar deadlift was the most impressive IMO of your lifts. Very nice!

-Me. So glad to pull that 310lbs on the middle fingers deadlift! I thought the 275lbs was going to rip my fingers off and really didn’t “want” to try the 310lbs but I knew that with the great crowd behind me I would at least have a chance if I could block the pain. Well, I couldn’t block the pain, lol. But the lift inched up and I just reviewed the picture that Felecia took of me on that lift and it looks like I’m about to fall apart. Little disappointed that my 2″ vbar strength was down 13 pounds from my best pull. Pinch strength was right where it always is – in the crapper, lol. The thick bar deadlifts were very challenging and I’m glad I had enough sense to not choose more weight and hurt myself on either of them. Was embarrassed to only get 325lbs to my knees since I’ve been able to pull that weight on the Apollon’s Axle since 2004.

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[Ben Edwards]

I’ll see you guys there tomorrow! I’m finishing up a 16-hour shift and I feel great. It’s hard NOT to train even with the contest only a day away. I have a fatal flaw (have since “beat” it this past year) and that is thinking that my strength is somehow gone right before a contest. So I have to “test it” – and then I hurt my chances at the actual contest just because I don’t have faith in my training.

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