jchapman Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 I got another of my goal bends tonight. 19/64" DR under 1:00. My first four goal bends leading to the Red Nail are now complete. http://youtu.be/Mef3by9cxFQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acromegaman Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 The video isn't working for me. Can anyone else see it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jchapman Posted August 24, 2014 Author Share Posted August 24, 2014 Sorry, does this work now? Doing this from my IPad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acromegaman Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Great job man! What's your time on the red? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Sharkey Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Solid. Good use of the time. Movement on every hit. Yeah what does your Red look like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jchapman Posted August 24, 2014 Author Share Posted August 24, 2014 Thanks guys, my Red is like 9:00. My sticking point is at 4". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Sharkey Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 My sticking point is at 4". That is the sticking point. Lots of isos open hand sweep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJ Livesey Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Very awesome bend. The 19/64 comes in around 405. You are very very close. My advice is do volume work with 19/64. I mean a lot of it too. A few bars a day. And isos at the end of your bending workout. In a month or less a red will fall. You'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jchapman Posted August 24, 2014 Author Share Posted August 24, 2014 Thanks for,the advice guys. I will order more 19/64", and I have plenty of Reds kinked to 4" to work iso's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Sharkey Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Thanks for,the advice guys. I will order more 19/64", and I have plenty of Reds kinked to 4" to work iso's. you could also play around a little with how the bar sits in your hands with the fingers interlocked for crush. 4" was wide for me to solidly interlock, but I found a place higher on the thumb pad i could hook it under some flesh. hurt more but i could often get movement between 4.25"-3.9". EJ's approach really worked for me. kinked 3-5 bar one day and let them sit around at 4". crush them next day. you can manage your hand trauma recovery this way too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Nice bending! You can also use the approach of doing volume work at a bit "before" the 4" sticking point. I was asked a few years ago by a (later became certified Red Nail) bender (he can chime in if he wants, but since we mutually dislike each other, I doubt he will) how to get past the same sticking point. On a 7" bar his sticking point was right at the 4" mark. Like clockwork, he'd bend a Red Nail (or sometimes a harder Bastard) and it would just get stuck in the mud at the 4" mark. He could ratchet it down over time, but it always took a while (shortest time to bend a Red Nail from start to finish in IronMind pads: 11 minutes) to rest and then continue hitting the bar and trying to hold the hits, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill, you've been bending a while. He was pig-headed for a few months and wouldn't take my advice to start working HARD with lots of volume (I remember telling him that 50 bends in a week wouldn't be too much, if his body could handle it) at the 5" mark. Yeah, it was just 1" wider than where he was getting stuck. Anyway, he relented and he bent his first Red Nail - in the 1 minute time limit, in IronMind pads - 10 days after he changed his workout to only doing "hard" bends from the 5" mark to finished (under 2"). Don't bend super easy bars. He probably could've progressed faster actually than the 10 days. But he started by bending thirty 3/16"x7" CRS bars cheatkinked to 5". That is worthless "training" for a Red Nail bender. He moved to 1/4"x7" CRS for the next workout, which was the very next day. Because the 3/16" bars did not tax him at all. Bent 12 of those 1/4" bars before calling it quits. Next workout was on day 5. 1/4"x7" Stainless-303. Yeah, I didn't say this would be cheap! 10 bars. He was starting to feel more comfortable at this range. And he sent me videos that just backed up to me that his "real" sticking point was the 5" range. He just managed to piss his energy and strength away at the 5" mark and barely creep to the 4" mark on all his bends, mainly through willpower and a smidge of stupidity. But all benders have both of those in abundance, otherwise we wouldn't keep at it. The next workout was on day 7. It was 9/32"x7" Drill Rod O-1. Only made it through 6 of those before his speed slowed way down. Edit: I left out an important caveat for his workouts. I told him that he should bend as much volume with whatever bars he chose for that day's workout until he failed to complete the bend (from 5" to 2" or less) in the 1 minute time limit that he was interested in for the Ironmind cert. I told him to rest at least 3 minutes between bends so that he could recharge enough to get in enough volume to get stronger in a hurry. On day 10 I told him to warmup lightly, and then bend that Red Nail. I took the pressure off him by just saying he should try to cut the time it took to bend it down as much as he could. There was never any mention of the 1-minute time limit. By design. He is not the strongest guy mentally, and I think it was the right coaching strategy at the time. You, on the other hand, jchap - I would tell at this point to push the pace and try to smash the goal time barrier. So, the 10th day's bends looked like this: -3/16"x7" CRS from straight to 1.5" in 5 seconds. rest 3 minutes -Yellow Nail from straight to 1.5" in 12 seconds. rest 5 minutes -9/32"x7" Drill Rod O-1 from straight to 1.75" in 23 seconds. rest 10 minutes -Red Nail from straight to 1.9" in 57 seconds. He never once slowed down at the 4" mark on that bend. We "parted ways" soon after, but I know from a mutual friend that he continued doing "90% of his hard bends at 5" to finished" - at least until injuring himself at work and then giving up bending and grip. He supposedly was bending Reds a few months later as a warmup on the way to Huge Shinys and Huge Hexes though. I was surprised to hear that he continued the 5" mark bending even after switching to shorter bars. It apparently suited him well. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 (edited) Soon after his success, I wrote a detailed training article for an online magazine (the editor was interested in bending and heard of me from the former online friend) that later went under. I was paid (surprisingly well?) for the article, but it was never published, unfortunately. Not that it was curing cancer, obviously. But I was proud of selling another training article at the time. I heard from the editor for the first time in a few years last week. He surprised me by messaging me on Facebook and saying that he wanted to commission another bending training article from me. I passed. But he was nice and said I could post up the entire training article in its entirety if I wanted to, no strings attached. I again politely declined the offer, but it struck me as being pretty generous from my dealings with some editors over the years. Not all editors, mind you. Just the majority. Edited August 24, 2014 by bencrush Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 (edited) By the way, jchap, I'm definitely not saying you should listen to my advice over the other guys. Especially guys like E.J. - who have destroyed entire worlds of steel. It's just another option in your toolbox. Well, I think the way I worded that about listening to guys like E.J. makes me sound like an elitist snob. Not my intention. The other guys who commented are very accomplished benders. So my apologies to them if that's how this came off. One of them (someone I respect) sent me a kind of ticked off text a minute ago. So I'm saying - My Bad. Edited August 24, 2014 by bencrush Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Cashman Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Getting close man! I remember I used to get stuck in the exact same spot. Keep pushing and it’ll come with time. Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jchapman Posted August 24, 2014 Author Share Posted August 24, 2014 Thanks for helping out, guys. I can't believe everyone on this thread is on the Red roster (except me of course)! This is great support and motivation. I am always looking to incorporate advice from those who have "been there, done it." Ben, you make a good point about the sticking point being potentially wider than I think. I can stop my kink at about 5" and leave the sweep/crush for more focused work at that point. It is great to see this forum is approaching the community that BB had. As most of you have found out, there ain't too many guys you can talk steel bending with. Most guys my age (39) are into training for 5K, fun runs, etc and I am not into that stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJ Livesey Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 What it all comes down to is a few very simple things: Take all the info you can get your hands on. Take that info and decide what seems "right" to you Apply info to your bending goals. Be smart and listen to your body. You can only push so far. Know your limits Set small goals. That way you are always progressing. Watch your own videos and critique yourself. You will always be the harshest critic. Don't compare yourself to others unless in a competition setting. For me, my idea of "volume" work is 3 or so edgins or a few R bars. My idea of "big" bends. I bend these bars for a few reasons. It's 80% effort for me. My muscles are just as sore from a few of these bars as it would be from 10-12 shinies. Going big right out of the gate wether bending or lifting always works very well for me, I get better and stronger gains this way. The advice I give different people is tailored to them for the most part. Bending as well as lifting is not a one size fits all, cookie cutter program. Everyone is different and we all have our strengths and weaknesses. What worked for me may not work for you. The first 6 months when I started, I beat the shit out of myself. I was sore everyday. I mean everyday. I was bloody, bruised and crippled. I bought hundreds of dollars in vitamins, tuf foot and tiger balm. I needed my body to adapt. Then one day I didn't feel anything and I bent my first red in imps in seconds. Those brutal 6 months built the stupid strong base I now have. Now this method I would not tell anyone to do, ever. My body was on the brink of giving out almost everyday. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MANTHOS Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Great work...Keep it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 Jchap, you and I are the same age. And I know what you mean about not being able to talk about steel bending with many people. I am actually not certified on the Red Nail, even though I was murdering them (bent dozens of 5" Reds in IronMind pads well under the 1 minute mark before hanging up the pads) before retiring from bending in 2008. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Sharkey Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 I am actually not certified on the Red Nail, even though I was murdering them (bent dozens of 5" Reds in IronMind pads well under the 1 minute mark before hanging up the pads) your bending was legendary Ben. I watched all your videos when I was learning. crazy strong stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 Thanks Mike! It seems like a lifetime ago now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim71 Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 Ah yes the memories. Ben helped me a ton in the beginning. I was braced bending then got hit with the unbraced bug and he coached me more than anybody and I got certified on the huge bastard. You can learn something from everyone. I try to pay attention to even the greenest benders because you never know what they might stumble acrossed. jchap, congratulations on a great bend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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