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Subtle Tip For Inexperienced And/or Non-Elite Modified Du Benders


bencrush

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I have been helping out an old friend's boyfriend on Facebook messenger. It has been difficult for several reasons. #1) We are not in the same state. #2) I no longer bend. Period. Not even for "demonstration" purposes. Which he was well aware of when he good naturedly pestered our mutual friend to convince me to help him. He is a heck of an athlete though (from what I've been told about him), and I really like my old friend (lol), so I figured why not.

I wanted to share the simplest tip that finally got through to him in a messaging conversation on Wednesday. Back story was he texted me and I almost ignored it. Because I had a lot going on. Short version is I was still fighting the flu, had been stung by wasps (about 6 stings, from arm to head), and my last dog Willie had died two days earlier. Things were (and still aren't) not very good. But I am glad that I went ahead and communicated with him that day because he hit several very good milestone PRs.

His stats: 27 years old (I am still giving her grief over the age difference, haha), 5'9" and 255lbs. Have not seen him in person. But I asked my old friend how his 255lbs is proportioned, and she said - "like a He-Man figurine." :grin: He started bending in May. Bought some IronMind nails and bent the Yellow first try with what he said was terrible form. I'm sure it was, because all of us have terrible form in the beginning. Some of us never got a more polished form, lol. He has watched some YouTube videos (E.J., Mike Rinderle, Eric Milfeld, Jedd Johnson, and me are a few names he mentioned), and built what sounds like a pretty workable high DO technique. Then he became interested in DU and Modified DU at the start of July. He was able to easily strict DU a Yellow Nail and put a wobble in a Red Nail with IronMind pads. That was his beginning DU strength. So, not super, but definitely not bad to get any movement on a Red Nail DU.

He also got about the same amount of wobble on another Red Nail with Modified DU. He liked that technique better and thought that it would lead to less chance of long-term injuries. So he ditched the strict DU and asked for tips on Modified DU.

I tried wording things as detailed as possible to help him figure out his groove on Modified DU. But really, the thing that finally got him to break through the Red Nail barrier (and beyond, as you'll read) was what I mentioned a while back in this forum about Modified DU. Namely - starting the Modified DU bend by actively LOCKING the wrists in place. Lock them in position, versus trying to get movement on the bar by ulnar deviation (not radial, right?) like we do when strict DU is the aim.

I also sent him a dowel that I filed down the ends nice and smooth so he could carry it around with him and do bare hand isos on it throughout the day. As many as he wanted throughout the day was all I told him. Anything below an estimated RPE (out of 10 as the max) of 7 was not even worth doing. The dowel was 3/4"x8.5". That was a thick enough dowel that it didn't hurt his hands without padding. And I didn't want it to snap on him. I found it at the local hardware store (the dowel), but it seemed much stronger than the "normal" dowels I used to cut to various sizes to work on shoulder flexibility and hand toughness for bending. I chose that length on purpose because with IronMind pads wrapped around the Red Nail, it will be pretty close to that length that he'll be putting pressure on.

He only had 4 days of the dowel isos under his belt when he messaged me Wednesday. Remember, his best full Modified DU bend was a Yellow Nail. But I suspect his max would've been probably around the 9/32"x7" Drill Rod level before dialing in his form.

I've rambled on and on, but back to Wednesday...he had been doing isos for 4 days in a row. He felt rested and wanted to take a shot at another Red Nail. Plus, he had gone to Fastenal and bought some steel that I recommended from there, along with another online steel supplier.

So I told him to remember what I had been drilling into his head for a month - LOCK the wrists into position and let them transfer the force of the upper body into the bar. If the wrists are trying to "help" the bend (at least with mortals like me) on a Modified DU bend, there is a significant amount of force "bleeding" out and not being put efficiently into the bar.

This is what he had been practicing on the iso dowel. It also helped him when I told him to think of "folding" the bar inwards with his upper body (which has been talked about here on this forum for years, usually in relation to high DO though), and the locked wrists were just there to impart the force to the bar. The more isometrically locked he could keep them, the more force would be transferred into the bar.

Here are the results of that breakthrough Modified DU session:

All done in IronMind pads. He is almost OCD (like I was!) about timing things and taking measurements, but I won't put in a million parts of detail. Just what I feel are the most important things to relay here. He rested 5 minutes between every bend.

  • Warmup was a Yellow Nail to around 90 degrees. Then finished it DO to 1.5" Took about 10 seconds.
  • Red Nail to 47 degrees in one hit! Then finished it DO to 1.75". Took 70 seconds. Mostly because he was fiddling around with the protractor to make sure he got the minimum 40 degrees he was shooting for. He was very, very happy with this. As he should be. But he wanted more, so I told him to cut off 1/2" and do another one. :)
  • 6.5" Red Nail to 43 degrees in one hit! Then finished it DO to 1.9". Took 45 seconds. I had a feeling he might do better with a shorter Red, based on what he told me about his shoulder flexibility. It's not atrocious, but can be vastly improved. He sent me an unlisted YouTube video of this bend, and his form is pretty solid.

He had more in him that day. I think a 6" Red would've gone if he had rested longer than 5 minutes.

But the point of all this typing is that sometimes all it takes is a single, subtle change in technique and then - BAM! Your body finds that perfect groove and what was once impossible is now a warmup on the way to your next big goal.

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That subtle change is most times, huge. Mine was a shoulder tweak on the kink and BAM there's not much I haven't been able to kink. Your body always tries to communicate, we just gotta listen.

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So he e-mailed me last night and said he couldn't help himself. Yeah, that's the sign he's become a "true" bending addict. Said he did another Modified DU workout where he was going for isos, but ended up moving some pretty tough steel on Friday night.

  • 6" Red Nail to 32 degrees in one hit.
  • 5.5" Red Nail to 21 degrees in one hit.
  • 5" Red Nail to 7 degrees in one hit.
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Wow...that's nuts. Nice coaching there Ben.

I'm a fairly strong guy...I now know I need to go looking for that subtle change in my DU.

Thanks for posting this. Informative and motivating.

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Really enjoyed reading this Ben. I need a few tweaks to my DO bending, hoping I can start moving some bigger steel soon!

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Excellent bending and excellent info Ben.

The way it sounds, this guy may be built a lot like Booyah. Thick shoulders, and short thick arms. Do you guys think the troll-like body build is ideal for DU? Mike H had that same build and was insane at DU.

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Excellent bending and excellent info Ben.

The way it sounds, this guy may be built a lot like Booyah. Thick shoulders, and short thick arms. Do you guys think the troll-like body build is ideal for DU? Mike H had that same build and was insane at DU.

Whatever happened to booyah? Seems like his videos disappeared. I loved watching him bend. Edited by jmatney
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Nice write-up Ben. This guy sounds like he is going to do some huge bends!

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Excellent bending and excellent info Ben.

The way it sounds, this guy may be built a lot like Booyah. Thick shoulders, and short thick arms. Do you guys think the troll-like body build is ideal for DU? Mike H had that same build and was insane at DU.

Whatever happened to booyah? Seems like his videos disappeared. I loved watching him bend.

Most of his big bends are still on YouTube. I have never understood why he never gets mentioned more. He was easily one of the top five benders of all time. All-around bending I think he is only behind Gazza. Mag and insane BIEW is unreal. Every new and intermediate bender should watch his videos if you want a master class on intensity. The guy could transform back and forth so quickly from normal mild-mannered to borderline insane intensity. I can watch his vids over and over. His handle on YouTube is Booyahbender.

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Excellent bending and excellent info Ben.

The way it sounds, this guy may be built a lot like Booyah. Thick shoulders, and short thick arms. Do you guys think the troll-like body build is ideal for DU? Mike H had that same build and was insane at DU.

Whatever happened to booyah? Seems like his videos disappeared. I loved watching him bend.

Most of his big bends are still on YouTube. I have never understood why he never gets mentioned more. He was easily one of the top five benders of all time. All-around bending I think he is only behind Gazza. Mag and insane BIEW is unreal. Every new and intermediate bender should watch his videos if you want a master class on intensity. The guy could transform back and forth so quickly from normal mild-mannered to borderline insane intensity. I can watch his vids over and over. His handle on YouTube is Booyahbender.

Yep I'm an idiot, thanks. Ha ha. I'm still subscribed to his channel but somehow couldn't find it.

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I was probably searching "gazza" but meaning "booyah". I know gazza's stuff is gone.

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I was probably searching "gazza" but meaning "booyah". I know gazza's stuff is gone.

Message tommy if you want some of gazzas best bends, barehand shiny etc he sent me 4 or 5 links to gazzas bends on YouTube.

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So he e-mailed me last night and said he couldn't help himself. Yeah, that's the sign he's become a "true" bending addict. Said he did another Modified DU workout where he was going for isos, but ended up moving some pretty tough steel on Friday night.

  • 6" Red Nail to 32 degrees in one hit.
  • 5.5" Red Nail to 21 degrees in one hit.
  • 5" Red Nail to 7 degrees in one hit.

Full disclosure, he let me know that these above bends (not the previous ones I mentioned) were done with IronMind pads AND another pair of IronMind pads on top of the first set. Still great bending. He just wanted to let me know that he "cheated" (lol) to get those bends. I told him if it's making him stronger - it's not cheating. It's #winning. :grin:

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