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What a fantastic contest. The level of planning, work and attention to detail that Andrew and his team put into this event was very evident. It ran like clockwork. It is the only contest I've ever been to that it went quicker than planned. I did about where I expected and deserved. I haven't seen the final offical standings, but I believe I came in 9th or 10th out of 12 or 13 competitors. Given the murderers row that competed, I will take it. Day 1 Grippers: 140. Don't train em. Got what I deserved and expected. I think Aaron won this with 180. Hammers: Got the opener at 20 lbs. Just couldn't quite get 22.5. Extremely tough event. 3 people in the Legends class couldn't get the opener. For fairness sake they were allowed to try a lower weight the following morning. Luke and Jedd tied for first with 27.5. Day 2 Andrew's Axle: Got 135 kg pretty easy. Got 140 to lockout, but my hands were off center and it started slipping out of my right hand right at the top. Judges made the correct call that it was not a good lift. Had time and tried again, but 308 lbs is right at my max on this, and I just didn't have the horsepower to get it. I believe Andrew tied Eric for the win with Jedd right behind them. 2 x 5 Saxon bar: Got 105kg. Second time I've touched a Saxon bar. 2" is a little thin for me, so I was really happy with this. Jedd won with a huge world record of 135kg (297 lbs). Anvil: 90 kg. Had only touched this implement once before. Definitely different than other vertical bars. Really enjoyed the difference. In training with Jedd I got 231 lbs on his, but could only manage 90 kg on this one. Lack of training and the fact that the old man was running out of steam meant I just wasn't strong enough to go higher. Luke and Thomas had an epic battle. Luke would set a new world record and Thomas would match him. Rinse. Repeat. Luke finally won with a huge world record of 125 kg. Inch dumbbell medley. Did the 125 # and 150 # Inches and stopped there. I've never gotten a full lift with the Inch and I certainly wasn't going to get one in event 6 of the contest, so I didn't even bother. Jedd won this event by lifting the 200 # Inch faster than anyone else. Flew through the medley. I think it was well under 30 seconds to lift the 125, 150, 172, 180, and 200. Andrew got the 200 but he was slower than Jedd. Blob medley: I was really happy with my performance. Got through the blob 50 pretty easy. Just ran out of steam by the time I got to the half 120 legacy (beelzeblob). Just couldn't quite get it to the 24" table. After a couple other competitors went, I walked over and lifted it. Jedd smoked the field on this one. All the way through blobzilla in about 20 seconds. Thomas came in second and also got zilla but slower. Great seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I would definitely do this contest again. Porkchop won the Open Division and Hilda won the womens. Feats: When I got into town Thursday night I got a lot of air with the 172# Sahlaney Inch about 6 times at Paul Knights without much warmup. He lent me this bell so stay tuned. After the contest, I was able to pinch three 25s for the first time. Those and getting Beelzeblob after the contest made me very happy.

Bench 70x5 70x10 90x5 110x5 130x10 PR! That was a best-ever projected max set. Felt like it, too!

Deadlifts and Right Hand Grippers today. Only my 3rd gripper session since coming back to training and it went better than expected. My deadlifts are weak right now because I had a back issue for a while before the hand surgery and I'm still battling achilles tendonitis. I also have to use wrist wrap hooks for deadlifts right now because my hand isn't ready for the weight. At least I am making progress though and getting stronger everyday. Deadlifts with Wrist Wrap Hooks 2 Warm Up Sets 225 lbs - 2x 275 lbs - 2x 315 lbs - 3 sets of 5x. Good enough for today. I have squats tomorrow Seated Medium Width Cable Rows 110 lbs - 4 sets of 15x. I just started to do these without the hooks. The doctor wants me to slowly increase the weight and get my hand use to handling weight again. I'll keep bumping it up week by week. Feels good to use my hands again. Lat Pull Downs 110 lbs - 2 sets of 15x. Same thing. Just started not using the hooks so I have to ease into these. Right Hand TNS Grippers Warm Ups COC #2 - 5 sets of 5x TNS. Not too shabby. Strength is coming back quickly. This went better than I thought for my 3rd session. Video of the first set below. GHP 4 - 3 sets of 5x TNS COC #1.5 - 3 sets of 5x TNS COC #1 - 3 sets of 5x TNS - Good enough for today. Squats and wrist work tomorrow. I'll hit therapy grippers for the left hand tonight and soon hit regular grippers for that hand as well.

Blobs with an inbuilt narrow pinch trainer? Sorry David

Certainly all of the above. I also keep a list of all my PRs on my phone for all lifts and number of reps. That’s kind of like my personalized rep calculator.

If I can type “PR” I’ll take the low hanging fruit any day of the week. Always a confidence booster.

Thanks! Its low hanging fruit but I'll take it. I've started to like the backoff 8-10s(going for 10)after the working sets. I've only done 130x2 once or twice before aswell so getting work done on that weight will hopefully pivot me to 150kg real soon!

Nice bench PR! Especially after all the heavy volume.

Benchpress: 20x10 40x10 60x5 80x3 100x3 120x2 130x2 130x2 130x2 130x2 110x8 PR Squat: 60x5 100x5 140x5 160x5 180x3 180x3 180x3 Platepinch Right 15x2 - 6 5 Left 15x2 -4 5 Kettlebell pinch deadlift 16x5 16x5 Kettlebell clean and jerk pinch 16x1 both hands Platepinch 15x2 transfer 10 Great bench useless squat. Couldn't get the backside to work with me today. Pinkie is alright, still swollen but could do everything without pain.

Had an awesome time with you this weekend, and it was great seeing you do so well across the board!

9.9.19 easy day, bw 218 lb double over hand axle 215-1, 305-1, 395-1, 415-1, 435-1 thumbless double overhand 305-1, 355-1, 375-1-2, 385-1 cable extension 5 sets single arm extension 2 sets bear claw row 3 sets ssb 105 x 20 + hold plate curl 35 x 8 smooth/25 x 9 right rotator janky today

Fantastic bench Eric!

Thank you Mike and Joe for the kind words! I feel pretty darn good about my performance.

I do it obsessively to compare how one of my PRs theoretically compares to another. The calculators seem pretty close on my squat and deadlift, but give me too much on bench. For example, today’s set calculated a 380 max; but I’m probably more like 360. Thank you, sir!

Working on it!

Very nice contest you had Mike! All you numbers were very good and 2nd time ever using Saxon and pulling 105kg is crazy strong! Nice feat with the 3 25's pinch and awesome pull on Inch DB.

U are a good day away from a lockout with the inch. September 21st sounds about right, get here!!

This past Saturday I hosted the Mid-Summer Grip Classic in Ottawa, Ontario. A few months ago it seemed as though the turnout would be pretty big for this contest, but in the end this was not the case. No less than four competitors who were planning on attending are currently recovering from injuries, including Yves Gravelle, Adam Chappell, Philippe Tremblay, and Natasha Batt. The good news is that there were three first time competitors, including two women. And despite the low turnout, I knew big numbers would be lifted, because Justin Major, Joe Sullivan, and Dan Fleming were in the house. The first event of the day was 20 mm block set grippers. This was the first time I’d ever included this event in a contest. Yves graciously lent me about a dozen of his rated grippers. Combined with mine, there were 25 to 30 grippers from which to choose. I opened with a 155 and shut if fairly easily. I then jumped to a 170 that belonged to Yves. It was a very narrow gripper, so I knew it would be much easier to set than a typical 170. I didn’t quite manage to get the handles to touch, but I had to have been very close – I’m guessing there was less than a millimeter to go. I went for the 170 again on my third attempt, but my set wasn’t quite as good. So I dropped to a 162 for my final attempt and shut it. This was good for a contest PR. Justin tied me. Joe almost got it as well, but considering he hardly sets the gripper, I’m sure he’d be able to close a much harder one if he put in some time practising technique. Next up was the two-hand Flask. One of the reasons I included this event was because I wanted to give Yves another chance to see what he could do with this implement. It was included at Canadian Nationals in February, where he misjudged his weight jumps and consequently performed way below his abilities. Alas, Yves could not compete, but several competitors put up very respectable numbers. I lifted a hair under 217 lbs, which is exactly what I lifted at Nationals. On the Wrist Wrench, my numbers were slightly down. I’d like to think it’s because I competed at the Canadian Armwrestling Championships a week earlier, but I’m really not sure. Justin’s numbers were also down – I suspect for the same reason. We both lifted 111 lbs and some change. Robyn Getson, a first-time competitor who also just got into armwrestling this year, did very well in this event, lifting 106 lbs. I’m a fan of key pinch events, and I was looking forward to seeing what people could lift with the Mini Inch Pinch. I was very happy to have set a PR with a lift of 55 lbs. But Justin put on the most impressive performance with a lift of more than 61 lbs, and even getting some air with 65! The contest concluded with a 30-item medley. I include medleys in many of my contests, and I would say this one was probably the most challenging one to date. However, nothing impossible was included. In fact, every single item was lifted by at least one competitor, with the exception of a 35-lb plate hub lift (wide hub). And while I couldn’t lift it during the medley, I lifted it soon after. I wasted a lot of time of this plate, and consequently didn’t have time to try the Blob50, which I possibly could have lifted. I didn’t even try to lift the Stirrup, which was loaded up with 175 lbs. I had never lifted more than 160 lbs on this device. However, Justin, Dan, and Joe all managed to lift it. In the end, I completed 27 of 30, while Justin completed 28. It was a tight contest, but in the end Big Justin edged me out in the overall standings by a single point. I’m very proud of him, and the success he’s having in both grip sport and armwrestling. Next up for both of us is an armwrestling tournament on August 10th, Living Legends in early September, and King Kong in late October!

I think I'm just below you on both those numbers, so my ratio is just about the same. Must be an AARP thing.

@Kluv#0Great thumbless pull! I also really like how you did a with thumb lift after the thumbless! I did my first axle workout in years last week after watching this video and one of Adam Glass's recent thumbless axle videos. I like how thumbless feels. Do you know your thumbless to with thumb ratio on 2" axle? I think Adam mentioned that his was about 80%, but he was working on going closer to 100%. My ratio is at 93% on my baseline max tests. I rested a week between with thumb and thumbless.

Thanks, Carl! A few years ago I couldn’t have guessed my bench would be responding like this.

You too buddy! Always a lot of fun!

Great to see you this weekend!

Hahaha omg. That would triple the amount of contestants, I’m sure

Mon (9/2) Bench Press (1x5) 135 (1x3) 185 (1x3) 225 (1x1) 265 (1x1) 305 add loose shirt (1x1) 345 (1x1) 355 I got the shirt on by myself in about 15 seconds. Definitely not ideal, but my options are pretty limited right now with bench. I have a few shirts that are tighter and sized-down, but am not anywhere near comfortable with them. I am thinking about opening with 300 raw at the meet and then putting on my loose shirt for 340-350 and then my tighter one for a final attempt at something closer to 400.

You need a half 90

Hmm, seems to be a crapshoot then. I’m looking to build a set of boobs for a medley and I need something between a Silarukov 18 kg blob and a Blob50. I already have an old 25 kg gladiator blob so it’d be a wasted purchase if the 110 lbs legacy york turned out to be harder.

I did another gripper session today. After a warmup Filed CoC #2 - 6,4,4 reps, CoC #2.5 deep set mini reps x 6, GHP6 deep set 1 max hold (not fully closed), GHP4 TNS x 3, CoC # 1.5 TNS x 6 80 bodyweight squats, 72 pushups, 3x8 pullups on red fat gripz.

I use them quite a bit too, there's a bit of margin for error but they're a good way to get a gauge on how your training is going without actually going for the 1RM and risk stalling your progress. I use them mostly for calculating percentages of the 1RM to help get me in the desired training zone for my main working sets.

Awesome set buddy!

I appreciate that, Raymond!

Great work on the PR Eric!

Thanks Mike! You would have done well!

Right back at you Jason. You should be extremely proud of your performance buddy. You hung with some of the true monsters of the sport. You were right there in contention for a top 5 spot the whole way. For someone who has only been doing this a short time, your lifts were incredible!

Yea, even the open class was crazy strong with the guys from Charlotte and Dube making the trip down from Canada. And Hilda and Melissa were strong AF on the womens side.

What you are describing is the GHP rankings - They are extremely well designed & manufactured. Edit - and of course the Mash Monster ladder. If you are in to grippers that’s the best one imo because every closer used the same gripper.

#1.5 10 klickreps #2 3 mms #3 1 1 0 CCS Tried 2 reps the first and last close, 5mm left on first attempt and same on last. Notice on video that i didnt close the handles on the last attempt so no-rep. Even if I miss the setting slightly I still get it closed which feels great.

Mine is way harder

Depends on the blobs; on average I would say blob50 is the easiest, then depending on the next gen it could be easier or harder than the 110.

Well... 55lbs is heavier than 50, so... At Living Legends the half 110 legacy was definitely easier than the blob 50.

Time to post today's training. I had a rough start to the day. I was exhausted yesterday from a long and stressful work week so I slept in late. On top of that, I woke up feeling ill. My stomach was in bad shape. I have a wheat gluten allergy and it felt like I got contaminated. I was suppose to lift after lunch but I couldn't even finished lunch so I got it wrapped up and headed home for more rest. I knew it wasn't a good idea to go to the gym feeling like this. I eventually decided to push myself to the gym around 4:30 pm and I was able to rebound and have a great workout! Standing Barbell Overhead Press 2 warm up sets 135 lbs - 3x. moved super fast 165 lbs - 2x. moved super fast 185 lbs - 2x. Moved super fast. It was at this point I knew this was going to be a good workout. The extra rest paid off. 210 lbs - 4 sets of triples! every rep felt so fast and smooth. I actually only planned for doubles when I walked into the gym because of the start of the day but every rep felt so dam good I went to triples. definitely more in the tank. its days like this that are the most important in training. Some days you won't feel great and you are facing adversity. you can either quit or make the best of it and grind. I decided to grind. Machine Rear Laterals 100 lbs - 10x 110 lbs - 10x 120 lbs - 10x 130 lbs - 10x Seated Machine Shoulder Press 125 lbs - 3 sets of 10x. Fast and explosive. I did this for some more volume and speed training. Easy Money Seated Machine Bent Arm Lateral Raises 70 lbs - 10x 90 lbs - 10x 110 lbs - 10x 130 lbs - 10x - Too easy. More weight next time 1 Hand Flask Pinch 1 warm up set 36 lbs - 2 sets of 5x each hand 41 lbs - 3 sets of 5x each hand - Obviously this is super light weight and it felt easy. My doctor said I can start grip training but I have to start slow. I'm holding back. Every week I'll add weight. This felt great. My hands feel great. 1 Hand Sorinex 4" Pinch Block Lift 25.5 lbs - 2 sets of 5x each hand 28 lbs - 3 sets of 5x each hand - Again. Easy money. More weight next time. Thumbscrews Dynamic Pinch Heavy grips gripper 1 sets of 25x 4 sets of 20x Note: deadlifts and grippers tomorrow. I feel so dam good and lucky to be back training. Its all about prospective. When you get injured and can't train for months, you realize how lucky you are to be able to train again.............I'll keep fighting because that's who I am. 1 step at a time i'll rebuild myself

Time to start logging again. Its a perfect night to start since I just had my strongest chest and arms session since the surgery. My press and arm strength is super close to presurgery levels. I had a huge breakthrough tonight. its the kind of session where everything felt light and I had to keep checking to make sure I loaded the correct weight. I live for nights like this. Barbell Bench Press 3 light warm up sets 225 lbs - 3x 255 lbs - 3x 285 lbs - 5x. I should have stopped at 3x and saved energy for the later sets but I was shocked at how easy this weight felt tonight so I kept going. I honestly could have gotten more but I stopped at 5x when I decided to go heavier for subsequent sets. 295 lbs - 2x. Again I stopped to save energy 305 lbs - 2x. The crazy thing is that I wasn't even in proper position and noticed it as soon as I unracked the weight but still got this relatively easy. this is by far my best bench session since the surgery. Incline Hammer Strength Machine Press 180 lbs total Plate weight - 5x 230 lbs total plate weight - 5x 270 lbs total plate weight - 3x 320 lbs total plate weight - 3x 360 lbs total plate weight - 3x 270 lbs total plate weight - 5x 230 lbs total plate weight - 8x - again my best session on this machine as my second exercise since the surgery easily Pec Deck Fly Machine 190 lbs - 12 x 210 lbs - 12x 230 lbs - 12x 250 lbs (machine max) - 12x - I am at the point where I have to increase the reps on this machine since I am maxing it out 4 set Single Arm Machine Bicep Curls 140 lbs - 4 sets of 10x each arm. This felt insanely easily (maybe the easiest ever) and the machine doesn't have much more weight. You can do the machine 2 arms at a time but I do it single arm because there isn't enough weight on the stack for me to do double arm. I want to max it out and then switch to free weights. Skull Crushers with an EZ Curl Bar and arms slanted back where the bar goes behind my head to keep tension on the muscle 70 lbs - 10x 80 lbs - 10x 90 lbs - 8x 100 lbs - 8x - first time doing this exercise since the surgery and it felt dam good. Note - currently hovering between 290-295 lbs body weight. I plan to return to competition late next year as a leaner 300 lb monster. I signed up for a food deliver plan. The meals come pre cooked and are high in protein and healthy and cater to my gluten allergy. I’ll have to eat two of the meals at a time because of my size but it still works out to be economical and convenient and healthier so I think it will be a game changer for me. I have come back stronger from every injury and this time will be no different. I am in my mid 30s (just turned 36 a couple weeks ago) and these are the prime strength years (they say peak strength years are late 30s to beginning 40s). I cleared some stuff in my personal life so I have more time than ever for training. Time to get serious! Everything has to be stronger than before. It will be a long journey but I enjoy the grind

The Zass medals for the comp are a great design.