USAWA

by Thom Van Vleck

Loadable Sledge Hammer

So I wanted to be able to train to lever a 16lb sledge maul like Slim “The Hammer Man” Farman.  A potentially dangerous thing lowering an axe blade with 16lbs of steel behind it to your face!  I needed a way to train!

The loadable sledge opened up and the one pound weights that can be loaded inside. This can loaded from 4lbs to 20lbs.

Regular readers will notice that I’ve featured this loadable sledge before in my three part article on the Gada (or Mace) training.

I knew from looking at Slim’s hammers he had done two things.  He had added weight to them.  That part was obvious.  The part that wasn’t so obvious is that he had marked the inches on the handles.  I assumed that was for training purposes.

So the difference was my hammer had added weight on the INSIDE.  And then inches marked off on the handle like Slim’s.  That way I could add or subtract weight and move my grip progressively further down the handle.  I could quantify the sets, reps, weight, and leverage distance.

I used this training device to eventually do the 16lb sledge maul.  It always amazed me how impressed people were watching this event.  Or maybe it was like watching Evel Knievel waiting for him to wreck!  But out of the hundreds of times I performed that feat I never once dropped it on my face.

Slim giving me the “Ice Clamp”. He was in his 70’s and still had a steel grip.

I can imagine how sledge hammer levering started.  A group of guys swinging them for a living having an impromptu contest.  Of course, that probably applies to everything involving lifting!