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When Am I Ready To Start Bending?


Kaskelotten

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I'm 20 years old and 145 lbs, I started 1 month in a gym. I'm relatively strong, but it feels like my tendons and ligaments are weak (never had a physical job, but always used the PC a lot). To give an overview of my current strength level, I can bench 60 kg only, deadlift 110 and squat 90, press 40 and row 60 kg. I don't think I'm ready to start bending yet, but I would like to start as soon as possible. 2 questions:

1. When do you think I would be ready start bending easy things?

2. Is the strength gained in the wrist / hands / forearms from bending steel transferable to the arm wrestling table? (Considering I have real technique, no formal training etc - just Youtube videos to go from).

I appreciate answers :)

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It's never too soon to start bending. Buy some 3/16" thick CRS, Ironmind pads and chalk. Watch YouTube videos to get bending technique basics and start bending. Post videos on YouTube and go from there.

As far as I know bending does not transfer to AW. However bending does transfer to grip.

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What EJ said. Start nice and easy - go slowly - and train, don't test.

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1: Yesturday

2: Not much but if you are bending in everyway then your wrist strength will become much stronger and it wil help a bit with AW. But train AW to be better at AW.

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Good technique will let you bend pretty far above your current strength level and can be learned at any time.

IMO you are better off focusing on getting stronger overall instead though. Someone 50% stronger than you on the big lifts will pass you on the grip stuff with a few weeks of specialization.

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All good advice. Both my sons age 11 and 15 have been bending off and on for a while now. 3/16 steel is a great place to start and either get some ironmind pads or 4 by 10 suede leather and have fun.

Lots of great info on this board.

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It's never too soon to start bending. Buy some 3/16" thick CRS, Ironmind pads and chalk. Watch YouTube videos to get bending technique basics and start bending. Post videos on YouTube and go from there.

As far as I know bending does not transfer to AW. However bending does transfer to grip.

Thanks for all da answers.

This is where it gets tricky though. I have no idea where to find nails for bending... I live in Denmark, and we use the metric system, which only makes it more complicated. I just looked it up and 3/16" is 0.47 cm's. Should I just go and ask in a hardware store for some steel nails that are 0.47 cm thick? :p It would be ideal if I could get a cheap starter pack or something online - Ironmind has one, but it costs 90$ - with shipping to Denmark it would prolly cost 30 more.

And however incredible it may sound I can find absolutely zero information on the topic in danish.

Edited by Kaskelotten
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Here bud: http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=42658read through this thread, then send Ivan an email. He will have everything you need to get started. And his steel is good stuff. His calibrations are close to perfect.

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Here bud: http://www.gripboard...showtopic=42658readthrough this thread, then send Ivan an email. He will have everything you need to get started. And his steel is good stuff. His calibrations are close to perfect.

Hats off for kind words, my sir. From a world-class bender like you it is very valuable.

That looks very nice, I think I might want to buy some on monday. But I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how many / which I should buy. How many do I need for a start? Should I just get some 50 kg, or 75 kgs? (I broke my wrist some years ago so it's pretty weak). I think I might want to spend like 50$ for a start. But I would also need bending pads, I think that's all the gear I need to get started, right? Do you know any place I can buy some other than Ironmind? Their shipping costs are pretty high imo.

On another note, how taxing is bending actually? Because I don't want to be too sore to weight lift. :p

Thanks for the help, this really is the best forum for these kinds of things.

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That looks very nice, I think I might want to buy some on monday. But I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how many / which I should buy. How many do I need for a start? Should I just get some 50 kg, or 75 kgs? (I broke my wrist some years ago so it's pretty weak). I think I might want to spend like 50$ for a start. But I would also need bending pads, I think that's all the gear I need to get started, right? Do you know any place I can buy some other than Ironmind? Their shipping costs are pretty high imo.

On another note, how taxing is bending actually? Because I don't want to be too sore to weight lift. :p

Thanks for the help, this really is the best forum for these kinds of things.

buy a few pieces of the 50kg, to see if you actually want to start bending. buying a few pieces is no big loss if you:

A. realize its too much on your body

B. you get discouraged

C. you get hurt and never come back to bending

send Ivan an email and ask what he has in the way of wraps, he can help you out.

bending is very taxing on your body. your bones, tendons, skin, muscles, nerves and CNS will hurt. bending BEATS THE SHIT OUT OF YOU. for a quick reference i hurt every single day from the elbows down for six months. my body adapted and evolved to deal with the stress. then one day, i didnt hurt. BUT i pushed myself very hard. I had one goal and that was to be the best. So i pushed hard to be the best. I have had every bending injury at least twice and i dont regret any of it. Ive lost mobility in my wrists and hands as well.

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That looks very nice, I think I might want to buy some on monday. But I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how many / which I should buy. How many do I need for a start? Should I just get some 50 kg, or 75 kgs? (I broke my wrist some years ago so it's pretty weak). I think I might want to spend like 50$ for a start. But I would also need bending pads, I think that's all the gear I need to get started, right? Do you know any place I can buy some other than Ironmind? Their shipping costs are pretty high imo.

On another note, how taxing is bending actually? Because I don't want to be too sore to weight lift. :p

Thanks for the help, this really is the best forum for these kinds of things.

buy a few pieces of the 50kg, to see if you actually want to start bending. buying a few pieces is no big loss if you:

A. realize its too much on your body

B. you get discouraged

C. you get hurt and never come back to bending

send Ivan an email and ask what he has in the way of wraps, he can help you out.

bending is very taxing on your body. your bones, tendons, skin, muscles, nerves and CNS will hurt. bending BEATS THE SHIT OUT OF YOU. for a quick reference i hurt every single day from the elbows down for six months. my body adapted and evolved to deal with the stress. then one day, i didnt hurt. BUT i pushed myself very hard. I had one goal and that was to be the best. So i pushed hard to be the best. I have had every bending injury at least twice and i dont regret any of it. Ive lost mobility in my wrists and hands as well.

Hi again, and thanks for all the helpful responses. Will be ordering some 50 kgs today from Ivan. If I weight lift tuesday, thursday and saturday, which days would you recommend that I bend? I want to minimize it's effect on my recovery, weight lifting has my no. 1 priority.

By the way, I saw the article about you certifying on the red nail. Damn, that must be hard. I guess it's akin to close the CoC 2.5 or 3. But I guess you were already really strong when you started bending...

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PS: Would you recommend I get the E-book from Jedd Johnson?

I would always recommend supporting the sponsors of this board. I haven't read that particular E-book, but everything Jedd puts out is high quality information.

Can you bend without purchasing an instructional video....of course, but if you don't have someone you know that can help you a bit in person its just gonna take that much longer to get proficient at it.

If an e-book isn't in the budget right now look through old posts on this site and read up, and also watch Sean Cashman's quick bending tutorial that's posted somewhere on here in an older (but not real old) thread....great video!

Bend something and post it and someone like EJ or Tim T, or another great and knowledgeable bender will likely help with your form critique and give plenty of good info if you ask for it. Both those guys helped me and absolutely know what they are talking about!

Good luck man!

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Hi again, and thanks for all the helpful responses. Will be ordering some 50 kgs today from Ivan. If I weight lift tuesday, thursday and saturday, which days would you recommend that I bend? I want to minimize it's effect on my recovery, weight lifting has my no. 1 priority.

By the way, I saw the article about you certifying on the red nail. Damn, that must be hard. I guess it's akin to close the CoC 2.5 or 3. But I guess you were already really strong when you started bending...

you are going to have to play around with bending and lifting days. only your body will be able to dictate what feels good. but if it were me i would only bend 1 time a week to get started and see how i felt. if i felt good id then add another day in there. to minimize recovery time, eat like a pig and sleep as much as you can. Remember you arent geting strongger while you lift or bend, you are getting stronger while you sleep. I personally would reccomend buying Jedds DVD, im a visual person and i can see how the DVD would help a million times more over the ebook. But if the dvd is regional coded be ebook is a good buy.

and yes, i suppose i was stronger than the average person when i started. I also pushed very very hard. I bent my first red nail a few months after i stared bending, that is not the norm in the bending community.

Edited by EJ Livesey
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Yes, I'd say EJ was definitely in the gifted class as far as progression.

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