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New Benders Be Warned!


Jose Cabrera

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Greetings grip/bending brethren. I have made a huge mistake in my bending that my buddy Sharkey has scolded me for countless times, switching lengths on your DO. Ihurt my shoulder this year fussin over the red cert, I switched to 6" stock to alleviate some stress on my shoulders while gettin some "PR's", did pretty good too, now today I go to warm up with a 5/16×7" g2 bolt our buddy Josh Odell sent me some time ago, its the last one left, not only did I put a pathetic wobble in my "warmup bar" I tore a fat chunk of skin off my knuckle. I digress, STICK TO 7 INCH STOCK IF YOURE NOT A BIG FELLA! Re-learning leverage is not going to help for shit on your way to the red cert. Strength is one thing, technique and leverage are of more importance than poundage ratings in regard to 5 6 and 7 inch stock. Learn from the best and follow their advice.

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Well said! Spoken like a veteran bender, actually. I think the focus that some "normal" guys have on the Gold Nail is going to demand even more attention to prehab/rehab exercises to stay or get healthy and injury-free.

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I can only imagine the stress on a persons shoulders kinking that monster. Loads of contra specific work to keep that ball and socket working correctly is of huge importance.

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The key to bending greatness is to focus on the contra-specifics - Adam T Glass

More chalk - Mike Sharkey

Condition your hands - EJ Livesey (adapted)

My biceps are just too big for DO - Chez

F*&k bolts - Everyone

Edited by Mike Sharkey
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The key to bending greatness is to focus on the contra-specifics - Adam T Glass

More chalk - Mike Sharkey

Condition your hands - EJ Livesey (adapted)

My biceps are just too big for DO - Chez

F*&k bolts - Everyone

Great quotes, Mike!

I am including one I said to a very good bender friend of mine in 2006. It is a simple truth with bending. Not the "fault" of bending...more the "fault" of the benders and their enthusiasm.

"The layoff YOU choose is always shorter than the layoff INJURY chooses for you." -Ben Edwards

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Very true... Bending did my right pec in 3 years ago and I'm still far below the upper body strength I had before then. Trust me ive been working at building it up. That layoff made me put down the steel and leather for good.. Except for the occasional 60d for SnG's

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I stretch my chest and shoulders regularly. Every now and then I throw in a few sets of deep dips to work mobility and strengthen my shoulders to work in a stretched range. I don't know if that'll work for everybody. But it works pretty good for me.

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Very true... Bending did my right pec in 3 years ago and I'm still far below the upper body strength I had before then. Trust me ive been working at building it up. That layoff made me put down the steel and leather for good.. Except for the occasional 60d for SnG's

Bending can cause serious damage to your hands aswell!

I was used to bending in imps+suede and when I started bending in Imps only I kept going full retard and got hurt badly.

I used to to kink and sweep steel, rest 1-2 days and then Crush my 90 degree harvest from the last session.

Crushing 5-6 reds in imps only with little to no rest gave my palms deep tissue bruicing.

My palms hurt so bad I couldnt even do a pushup on my knees.

Took more than 6 months for it to heal and even today, 1,5 years later, I can feel it if I Do something that puts too much pressure on the palms.

I thought that my grip journey was over for a while.

Wont risk that again :D

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I think one of the biggest mistakes people new to bending make is that they try to bend ‘max effort’ way too soon. The structures in the hand need conditioning and the upper body needs movement rehearsal. Yes you might be physically strong enough to melt a yellow nail but the bones, tendons, ligaments in the hand are not prepared to. The upper body doesn’t know the groove for technique and the correct placement, alignment of limbs to keep the shoulders etc. in optimal positioning.

Think about bending like olympic weightlifting. You would never take a person who has never snatched a barbell and have them test their max lift after one training session. For the first few months of their training you would never have them max out every time they lift. You would work with light weight, discovering technique, working on assistance exercises that develop mobility and stability, then progressively overloading as they become accustomed to the loads. You would set them up for a major injury if you got them to just muscle through the pain first up. The same goes for bending.

Build volume at a low intensity to discover optimal technique, whilst conditioning the hands for the impact a steel bar can have on them.

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I think one of the biggest mistakes people new to bending make is that they try to bend ‘max effort’ way too soon. The structures in the hand need conditioning and the upper body needs movement rehearsal. Yes you might be physically strong enough to melt a yellow nail but the bones, tendons, ligaments in the hand are not prepared to. The upper body doesn’t know the groove for technique and the correct placement, alignment of limbs to keep the shoulders etc. in optimal positioning.

Think about bending like olympic weightlifting. You would never take a person who has never snatched a barbell and have them test their max lift after one training session. For the first few months of their training you would never have them max out every time they lift. You would work with light weight, discovering technique, working on assistance exercises that develop mobility and stability, then progressively overloading as they become accustomed to the loads. You would set them up for a major injury if you got them to just muscle through the pain first up. The same goes for bending.

Build volume at a low intensity to discover optimal technique, whilst conditioning the hands for the impact a steel bar can have on them.

I dunno I went pretty much to max effort right away and only some pain in my knuckles but that was due to my bad technique at first. I laugh when watching my first red attempts my index fingers were like an inch apart from each other lol.

I'd have to count but I'm probably just at about 30 pieces of steel bent total. And a dozen or more of those are little spiral 60ds.

For me though I've had about 17-18 years of lifting before trying bending so that has to help.

I did have some thumb pad pain after the 7" 5/16 ss though. It's good now though about 95% healed

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Sean brings up the most excellent point. There are two ways bending steel generally hurts people. Either you go with bigger wraps early on and hurt your pecs or shoulders, or you don't put in the time to condition your hands with IMP's with medium steel before bending big. Lots of people way stronger than me, yet I was never ever hurt. Like Ben said, listen to your body and know when to layoff, or your body will chose a layoff for you.

I wish I listened to Andy Thomas in the beginning. 1st year of bending should be in IMP's ONLY. Adam told me the same thing. Bigger wraps=injury potential.

When I made my push for the Red, I spent a month bending 30 x Grip Rite 60D's every other day. Then when I moved into harder steel, my hands (and skin) were far tougher.

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Good points Sharkey! I remember the first few months after I started bending. I worked on bending shorter and shorter cuts of blue/yellow nails in IMP's. Eventually I was bending 4" blue's and the ends of the short bar were digging in hard into my palms. My hands and fingers would ache daily. The force was good enough to stress my hands, but not enough to injure them. I think that initial period helped my hands build up a tolerance that helped keep them injury free all these years. I think starting with IMP's only is an excellent advice. Jumping on that double wraps train as a beginner can be very tempting when the fat wraps give you one PR after another. It might be a good idea to hold back the enthusiasm for bending bigger and bigger bars and settle for bending smaller bars with IMP's and work up strength, tolerance, and flexibility before going with the fatter wraps.

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A quick question: what is a good size of steel for a (bending)beginner to use to practice form/technique? I tried bending for the first time ever just yesterday, on 3/16 steel that I cut into 6" lengths. It embarrassed me. I can clean 125kg squat 185, pull 205, and yet this puny little toothpick defies me!!!

oh, and when you say 'Imps', I'm assuming you mean the cordura wraps from Ironmind? I have strips of suede leather that I used to wrap my foe.

Edited by diomedes
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I have just started bending also and reading through this thread has provided me with some great info. I have just tried round stock from Lowes/HD.3/16 " and today just bought some 1/4" that I cut to 7".I am also just using the Ironmind pads .I wont be trying that 1/4" till middle of next week. Im giivng this stuff a lot of respect. Im planning on taking my time building up my strength and not thinking about any certs for the time being.But I feel Im missing the point on the OP's comment on "sticking to 7stock. It could be an "inside "comment" but why did he get hurt?,because he went back to 7"?..

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The bending Titans have spoken! For the new guys, the 1/4 round stuff for the most part is just mental, hit it hard, you gotta deal with the ouch more so than strength, now reverse and unmodified DU are a different story. When stuff goes into the 400s then it can become a strength issue. Like the council of benders has stated toughen them hands, lots of contrast baths massage and tiger balm, when I said I tore skin it was my DO callous kn the index finger, too much of a good thing backfire, when skins too tuff it rips, get a stone to it early before you lose em.

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I have just started bending also and reading through this thread has provided me with some great info. I have just tried round stock from Lowes/HD.3/16 " and today just bought some 1/4" that I cut to 7".I am also just using the Ironmind pads .I wont be trying that 1/4" till middle of next week. Im giivng this stuff a lot of respect. Im planning on taking my time building up my strength and not thinking about any certs for the time being.But I feel Im missing the point on the OP's comment on "sticking to 7stock. It could be an "inside "comment" but why did he get hurt?,because he went back to 7"?..

Well plz dont think 7 inch stuff will kill you, it wont, what I meant is switching between lengths is undesirable because you may beleive a poundage rating is all there is but ask the big fellas that can squoosh the really big steel ie 3/8" cold roll and see how they feel about gold nails, I hurt my shoulder for reasons that have already been stated, getting over zealous after bending my first red nail I started killin em regularly but one must ask oneself, woyld I max on my bench or overhead press 4 days out of the week, hell no!
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A quick question: what is a good size of steel for a (bending)beginner to use to practice form/technique? I tried bending for the first time ever just yesterday, on 3/16 steel that I cut into 6" lengths. It embarrassed me. I can clean 125kg squat 185, pull 205, and yet this puny little toothpick defies me!!!

oh, and when you say 'Imps', I'm assuming you mean the cordura wraps from Ironmind? I have strips of suede leather that I used to wrap my foe.

The suede will work just fine but don't wrap it too thick early on. 4 inches by 10 inches is a great standard to start with. Thicker than that and you won't condition your hands and learn the good technique early on.

I've coached a few guys around here in nail bending and that's the wraps I always cut for them.

If you failed on 3/16 then it's probably a technique issue. There is smaller steel to work with but I'm betting you can get this. The zinc plated 3/16 from Lowes and Home depot should be easier than regular cold rolled.

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... for those new(er) to bending: Just skimmed through this. But, as many have said, don't push it before you are ready (i.e. you've put some serious time in with minimal wraps.) I have bent near-exclusively with single IMPs for most of my ~6 years of steady bending. Progress came real slow at first (as this was before BendersBattlefield and its monumental wealth of info) but it set the stage. The minimal wraps toughened my hands; my hands were far from what they are today back then!! Most importantly, I didn't/couldn't attempt any steel that was past my "breaking point."

I also varied the stock a lot, including a lot of bolts/bars from 5.5-7". This was a big part of my progress, IMO. When I began training for the Red, I became a little more specialized with my approach. But, all-in-all, one of the biggest "secrets" is to avoid rushing through the stages, and build up a solid base, in both pain tolerance, hand conditioning, and overall flexibility.

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Goals and focus are needed. Plain and simple. If your goal is to get on the Cert of Cert list (Red Nail) then you need to train accordingly. By this I mean stick with 7" stock only and IMPs. Like said many times before IMPs will make you tough, both mentally and physically. They will teach you the different types of pain, how to adjust for the pain, the difference between catastrophic and "push through" pain, and proper technique. if your goal is to bend the biggest stuff possible then doubles are needed. Doubles will make you incredably strong while keeping your hands significantly less stressed. Both wraps serve a very important purpose in their own right. But you need to pick, jumping around from wraps and different size stock is counter productive. Hannes is a prime example of this. After he certed the Red, he focused on short stock. He was an absolute MONSTER with stuff shorter than 6". His body adapted and generated crazy power for short stuff. But to watch him bend 7" stock was painful. Another good example is me. Im decent enough with 7" stock i have adapted very well to bending it. But put a 6" piece in my hand and its a nighmare. My hand placement is all wrong, fingers get in each others way, knuckles bump into eachother. Its a mess. All stock sizes, all wraps, all styles have thier own place in the bending world- but its up to you to make goals and follow through. You will hit walls, you will fail, you will be in pain, you will bleed but thats what makes this fun and addicting.

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Tim T - Thanks for the response. After my initial post, I spent some more time watching videos on technique, went back to the garage, wrapped some bars (I have some thick, rubber tape, but have some suede leather now), and bent 10 of them with ease. Feeling kinda silly now.

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