The Professor Does A Grip Competition: World’s Strongest Hands, The Movement Minneapolis Minnesota August
The Professor: Euro Pinch Test, August 2010
Adam T Glass convinved me to compete in the latest grip contest.
I have not done much grip stuff to be honest, so I figured it would be a great baseline and something fun to try. I have never done a single rep of the 3 grip events that were in the contest until that day.
I could have sat at home and talked about getting better, but that is too easy. Time to sign up and see how it goes.
Adam added a few other fun events too like 2 inch vertical bar, 2 inch diameter axle deadlift (double overhand, so both palms down) and rolling thunder.
Check out the video below and see if you can spot the Professor
The Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) is coming up on Sept 25, so that will be a great one. Max deadlift, pullups and kettlebell snatch.
The second part of the Grip Contest will be at the Movement Minnesota on Sept 11 and if you missed the first one, there are still 2 more chances after the Sept 11 one, so come on out.
Drop a comment on who is going to compete.
The goal is not to win, the goal is to be better first. Winning will come once you are better and better and better.
No excuses, sign the line now! If you want someone to guide you through your first meet or TSC, hit me up at the “services” tab above and I will help you out.
Rock on Mike T Nelson
PS
HUGE thanks to Adam for doing the contest and David Horne for the idea. You can see Adam’s blog post at
Time to find out what your best exercises are for all the crazy office workers.
I unfortunately have been spending too much time lately behind the keyboard with blog writings, guest posts, an academic book chapter on “Protein Metabolism: Athlete Cases Studies”, dissertation writing on Monster Energy Drink, etc, so I know what you are going through.
Do you spend lots of time at a desk or in front of a computer?
I find that the wrists do not want to go into extension very well (think of making a stop sign with your hand) from it adapting to being on a keyboard or draped over a mouse all day.
Is your hands starting to look like a computer mouse?
The thumbs of office workers tend to be weaker and they suffer from “dumb thumb.” Getting the thumb strong and back up to par will pay off for lifting in the gym too as the thumb is the opposite of the 5 fingers in many grip positions. For more on all things grip, see the Grip Series with Adam T Glass HERE
Is your thumb dumb?
Here are some suggestions to try.
This is not going to solve everyone’s issue, but I have found these 2 exercises to be quite effective. Test them and find out for yourself.
1) Plate Press from a split stance
How To Perform
Hold a plate like a pizza or large tray and press it up
It works to reverse the standard position your hands are in all day, especially you mouse hand
Shout out to Adam Glass for this suggestion
Variations To Test
Left side vs right side
Split (lunge) stance. Play with right leg or left leg in front
Torso Rotation: From a standard stance or split stance, rotate left or right
2) Plate Pinch
How To Perform
Grab 2 plates and pinch them together
A good starting point for most is two 10 lb plates or even two 5 lb plates
Put the numbers and letters facing in, so the smooth sides are facing out
Pinch them together and raise them up past your knees
Variations To Test
Left hand vs right hand
Different stances: deadlift position, split stance position
Movement and Mood
I am a happy dog!
How do you know when fido is sick?
Does fido talk to you or bark at you in morse code?
No, fido moves poorly; so you infer that fido feels bad.
How do you feel when you are sick and/or injuried and move worse? Bad
So we know that movement and mood are related.
Move better and you will feel better.
Work on movement quality with tested movements (as shown in the video above and the Grip n Rip DVDs)
Summary
Two simple to try exercises that you can do with common gym equipment.
It is now your turn to try them out!
Comments
Try them out and let me know how they worked out for you. Leave me some comment love on your thoughts on this one!
PS
The copies of the Grip n Rip DVD are going fast and only a few copies are left as of this posting. Check out the link below for 7 bonus items too, but act fast as I expect them to be gone by some time tomorrow (Saturday July 17) in the morning, if even that long! Go to this link now
Last time we talked about a super cool research study that looked at muscle and connective tissue hypertrophy. This time there will not be any of those big words and we will check out the lifting world and see if the meatheads had already figured this out years ago (like most things, the answer is yes!).
Ever notice how old school mechanics have massive forearms?
I decide to pull the elusive professional Strongman Adam T Glass out of his cold and dark cave in Minot, ND to get his thoughts on muscle and tendon strength. Take it away Adam
Mike, first of- great article. My thoughts will come from my direct experience and the progress of my students. So whatever that is worth here it comes
Is frequency with the lift clearly a key element for tendon development?
My first thought is absolutely. For example, the only people i see day to day whose wrist tendons look like mine are men who work with hammers and tools all day- the farmers out here.
Is load important for tendon development?
I believe load is the key. I work with some bone heads who curl literally every day. They are typical weekend warriors. A “workout” is bench press and curl. That means 185 on the bar and the partner does all the lifting “Its all you bro” for sets of 10. The curls range from mildly good w/35-40lbs to some wild $hitty looking cleans with 50’s and 60’s. So naturally i introduce them to the plate curl.-
95% of the men i show a plate curl to are unable to curl a 25 for 1-2 reps. Only one man has ever curled a 35 in front of me– Freak show Mark Wilson- A man who has spent most of his life lifting dry wall, swinging a hammer and other stuff. (Editor’s note, if you are in the ND Fargo area, look up Mark Wilson RKC for training HERE)
If frequency is the key element, and SO many men do curls as their primary fitness vehicle, why is the plate curl so challenging for them?
At first i though it was the thumb pinch but every time they complain their wrist tendons hurt when they try it, they are simply not strong enough to handle the force. So in my opinion, based upon what i have seen– load has to play a role in this, but i have not tested enough to have any clear data to say the extent. –Adam T Glass
Special thanks to Adam for his words of wisdom above! Be sure to check him out on his blog below and if you are in Minot ND, you MUST get your butt in to see him and train.
I have noticed that on wrist curls my wrist (and others too) tend to “bend too much” and not stay straight. This shuts down the muscles of the arm via the arthrokinetic reflex as talked about last time. “Jammed joints = muscular weakness”
Frequency and Load
Some of you are now rolling your eyes into your head muttering “This is nothing new” and you would be correct. To others, this is earth shattering since it is rarely talked about in the popular media. Chad Waterbury and Jason Ferroggia had a disccusion like this one below
You need to work to add more weight over time. Keep track of your PRs (personal records) for your major lifts. I have PRs for rack pulls, bench, DB bench, reverse bench, kettlebell press,kettlebell snatch, etc I have about 20+ PRs that I regularly track. I am always looking to add more load and/or reps over time. Just the other night I was not feeling like lifting, but I made it to the gym and after some Z-Health joint mobility work I started out on my main lifts of low rack pulls and kettlebell presses. Everything felt good and tested good (but not great) and over time it started to get better. I opted for an old PR on the rack pull and added 2 reps to a 1 rep max weight and also did a bottoms up kettlebell press on my left side with the 24 kg kettlebell for a PR! I felt great after that! Make it fun and chart progress. You do have a training journal, right?
Frequency
Chad Waterbury has talked about this before too and if you want to bring up a lift, and easy way is to add some bodyweight drills. Since my bench is stalling a bit and I don’t have tons of time to add more bench work in right now, I am doing 50 pushups each day for a week, and then the following week I will bump it up to 60, etc. I also added inverted rows (from a TRX or a straight bar) to keep it balanced out. My goal is to get to 50 per day, and that may be sets of 10, 8, 15,,and it doesn’t matter.
Advanced Only
Finger Lifting: Note, this is advanced, which means don’t go out and try this at home right away with a heavy weight. You may find it is the last time you do any finger lifting. Like all things, the dose is most important and start very very light and build up the load and frequency over time. Adam has been done this MUCH longer than you; so you are for warned.
Summary
Frequency + Load = Bigger Muscles and more strength
We have outlined some great options for you to add some size and strength around this Holiday season.
Drop me a line and let me know how it is going and what PRs you are going to break!
Tons of great posts coming up including USAPL Meet update, Z-Health Review rolls on, more testimonials, TSC results, a top secret project, and much more so stay tuned here!
I will have an update to the last post below coming soon too!
If you are in Minnesota, you have to be watching the Green Bay Packers vs Minnesota Vikings game this Monday night too! It is going to be a killer game, so Jodie and I will be watching the game after a nice dinner of salmon, veggies and a nice Blue Moon Harvest Moon pumpkin beer. Tasty!
Testimonial for Mike T Nelson from uber strongman, grip athlete Adam Glass
For those on my newsletter list, you know I went over to Brad “No Relation” Nelson’s top secret location last Friday for a little talking shop pow wow that went into the wee hours of the AM. As with most things, at some point in the night we end trying all sorts of stuff on each other especially after a few tasty adult style beverages.
Adam had some issues closing a gripper, so after some investigation I did some nerve glides on him and gave him a Z-Health joint mobility drill (fingers curled and perform finger circles). Keep in mind that the body place a HUGE priority on the nerves and if it thinks that you will potentially damage them by a particular movement, it will start to neurologically shut down your performance as a survival mechanism. For more info on nerve flossing, see the post below.
Fast forward a few days and Adam sends me this video.
In short, he did the drills and went on a complete terror and closed every #3 gripper in his gym! Wow! Very cool. A HUGE shout out to Adam for being a great student (we are all students) and taking massive action (he did the drills). If you know Adam, you also know that he tells it like it is and does not pull any punches.
Do you want to increase your performance? Move better? Get out of pain?
I often getting the question of “What should I focus on for my fitness goals?”
It is a great question, and while the answer depends on your goals, a linear approach would be to focus on the following in this order.
1) mobility first
2) coordination (stability makes it sound like you don’t move)
3) strength (in what position?)
4) power/speed (everyone need to move fast since life is a full contact, fast paced sport)
5) CRF (cardio respiratory fitness)
I honestly can’t remember who I stole it from (Frankie F and Aaron S I think?), but just thing about Quality over Quantity and you will have your answer.
Is it good to run 5 miles if your gait (walking motion) sucks?
Should you just keep pounding your joints to dust to increase your “cardio”?
If you want to get even simpler, you can just go with
1) mobility
2) coordination (unloaded, under load and at different speeds)
Again, this is a generalization as every individual athlete will have specifics needs that will vary from day to day; but if I had to pick I would go with the above.
We have a special treat from “Unbreakable” Adam T Glass as the “Killer Grip” series rolls on. As mentioned in the past, the Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) is coming up in less than 8 weeks!
Adam what would you recomend to me at the top 3 (or 5) grip exercises I should do?
My 2 main goals are
1) increase my raw DL from (current PR is 410 lbs)
2) increase my snatches (current PR 32 kg for 75 reps in 5 min)
Mike
Here are 7 distinct elements of grip
1) Support
2) Crush
3) Pinch,
4) Hand extension
5) Finger flexion
6) Lever/bend
7) Rip/tear
We can add
Finger support as an 8th if it floats your boat (it floats mine!)
Things i am not a fan of:
1-Loaded dynamic Wrist flexion and extension. Reps of wrist curls seem to really burn the hands and are low yield in terms of whole body power.
2- Squeezing tennis balls (garbage!!)
3- Wide grip pinching. The thumb is already weak for most people, hyper mobile and weak is a terrible combo (Mike’s note, I would agree with this since I tend to do a fair amount of thumb mobility work on athletes)
4- Wide grip crushing, similar problems to #3
5- Seperating “grip” from strength training.
We do not train the quads, we train the squatting patterns. We do not train the medial delt, we train shoulder movement.
I am not a fan of weird isolation of grip from strength.
Things i am huge fan of:
Anything that combines mulitple qualities of grip along with gross motor and complex movements:
–Steel bending, plate curling, pinch and fat bar deadlifting, tearing phone
books and cards, plier rows and plier deads. farmers walks, towel pull
ups, etc.
My top grip drills
- Plate curls with a pinch grip. Dynamic flexor work for the arms (we love curls!!) and static work on the thumb (thats how you use it under load, not moving bjects but holding them still)
- Fat bar one arm deads–a lot of good stuff in this movement pattern. Dynamic stability of the hips, static stability to the shoulder griddle and tremendous work on the hands. Huge workloads on the glutes and lats (my favorite muscles!)
- Hammer lifting, as you experienced, it is very challenging and makes your entire body subdue the load (Mike’s note: you need to try this, go back a few in the series to find the video)
- Grippers– because i am still a grip meat head. These are near pointless for athletics! Grippers should be treated like a sport lift. They do make you stronger, but it is a very limited window of power. (Mike’s note: Put in a comment at the end if you want Adam to expand on this point)
- Plier rows, crushing grip and a pulling movement pattern. I love this exercise and it is high pay off
That is a good baseline.
Adam T Glasss
How about that for a conclusion to our gonzo grip series! If there is something you want more from the extreme human himself, Adam, drop some comment love below and we will see if we can pull him from his cave in bumbletown North Dakota for a follow up! Thanks again Adam for all the time on this!
I will be at the Dragon Door / Z Health 3 Day Seminar here in Minnesota this coming Friday – Sunday, so if anyone is interested in a private session, drop me an email ASAP at michaelTnelson@yahoo.com I will be there Friday afternoon and most of the day Sunday. My sister is leaving for a new job soon, so I will be with her, my family and Jodie on Saturday. See ya there and please say hi!
Here is another great video in the Killer Grip Series.
You want to increase your crushing gip? Want to lift more weight? No more dead fish handshakes either! More from that extreme human himself, Adam T Glass.
Happy July 4 to everyone in the USA. To my foreign friends, it is just another day. Either way, I trust you had a great weekend.
Jodie and I along with my parents and sister went to see the latest Cirque De Soleil Kooza on July 4 outside here in Minnesota. WOW, is all I can say. If you get the chance, you MUST see them-amazing performance and I will have more details soon.
Tactical Strength Challenge Fall 2009
Check those calendars and the Tactical Strength Challenge is about only 8 weeks away! Wow, time is flying by.
Are you ready?
Do you have a plan to be ready in 8 weeks?
Heck, are you even going to SHOW UP?
Your goals need deadlines and you need to be held accountable (that goes for me too).
Who is holding you accountable?
I will be there and I want to see all of you there too.
If you need a plan, drop me a line at michaelTnelson@yahoo.com and I will set you up.
Using some great techniques I picked up (thanks Frankie), I went from 39 reps with the 32 kg KB for the 5 min snatch test to only 4 weeks later cranking out 75 in 5 minutes. I had managed to fall in a broomball game and bruise my sciatic nerve in mid January and was unable to do any snatches for about 6 weeks.
That is almost DOUBLE in 4 weeks and I can show YOU how to sky rocket your numbers too. There is nothing special about me, just some well applied knowledge.
You would be shocked to learn that other than a few test days, my max number of snatches with the 32kg was about 8-10 reps at a time per hand.
Enter the Assisted Pullup
The common question is “What if I can’t do even one pull-up?” No worries, as B-Rad, Adam T Glass, Mark Wilson, Myself and friends are here to the rescue with an exclusive video on some options for you.
Technique Note
Keep a nice tall/long spine and no crazy chicken maneuvers at the top just to get your darn chin to the bar. Bring your body to the bar. If you need another cue, think of bringing your elbows to your waist. I would rather have athletes only go to the top of their head, eyes, nose and then chin rather than do some crazy-ass neck cranking at the top.
The killer grip series rolls on with that extreme human himself, Adam T Glass.
Below, Adam shows you some hammer lifts, and I even give it a go although I think my nervous system was still in a mess from the TSC just a few hours below as I could not understand a command from Adam to save my life!
More Extreme Human Feats from Adam T. Glass bending stuff!
The video is huge, so it may take a bit to load (still playing around with bitrates and video size).
Keep in mind, Adam did this AFTER competing in the TSC Elite style at B-Rad’s Torture Chamber (aka Kinetic Edge Performance). You too are more capable than you think. Time to remove the brakes.
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