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Congrats to Stephen!

Volume braced bending PR today, I bent 22 Gold Nails in a little under an hour. My hands and wrist are pretty beat up. Here are pics of my hands and the bars. Very happy with this. My endurance is definitely going up.

So I did my basement wanna be workout and decided to try a bend. I hit a spiral once and managed MAYBE 5 degrees. Bahahahahaha! OMG I'm so pathetic. What makes it funnier is that I just ordered like 50 Golds and a shit ton of O-1 drillrod up to and beyond U. I literally laughed out loud at myself looking at a barely kinked easy Red. Wanting to end on a good note...I put some cordura pieces on the end of a mighty 60d and showed the bastard who was boss! Ha! It complied with my folding order in about 2 seconds...allowing me to at least experience something like bending. I'm glad I got some time to get in shape before the shipments arrive.

I tried wraps but still lots of pain. Well good news guys. I reached out to Luke Raymond since hes a PT and one of us and he immediately knew where the pain was and gave his diagnosis and after watching youtube videos I think hes right. I found a wrapping technique for it. I tested it tonight with push ups on dumbbells handles to see if I felt pain and felt none. As most of you know I am a big boy. I use to weigh almost 300 lbs but I am down to 280 lbs so push ups puts a decent amount of weight on my wrist. Goal tomorrow is a top set on flat bench with paused reps with 225 as I continue to rehab the pec so with the wrapping technique I should be ok. Always gotta to find a way to keep moving forward. Icing the wrist constantly also and doing rehab stretching and blood flow exercises. I am a stubborn dude. I am not out of this.

It's allowed to use a block set but the important thing is to make it visable to the judges. If you chose to use a block set, the block also need to be measured and the video need to be clean. By using a block set, you might make it more difficult to make a clean video. Just use a parallel set with a short pause, that is the best IMO. If the gripper is right at your limit, just practice filming a lot and you might be able to do the set faster, so you don't lose any strength for the close. Making a good video is the most important thing.

I have thought about the other certs. I just have focused on getting as strong and well rounded as i can. Still a ways to go! My max mms close in training is around 199. I only have a 193 and 199 so nothing in between. Without the set in a chocked gripper. 213 is my max thus far. I appreciate the kind words. Keep training hard!

I've done this and gotten mixed responses on whether people think its cheating but I don't worry about that, I'm definitely not doing any elite blob feats so it's a non issue. I have a blobzilla that's totally stripped, I also took a smaller blob and painted half with glossy paint and half with textured paint to get two lifts in one object.

I don't think I have ever watched 5:30 Minutes of video without dialog before, but this one was worth it. Besides the closes (which were awesome) your capturing the event on video was also well done.

Completely new in grip but it seems to me that you were among the most promising beginnings there have been on this forum! Super impressive and convincing, are you thinking of looking for other certifications like those of iron mind or the GHP challenge? What is your maximum in MMS close right now? Congratulations the MM4 has only the reprieve of the delivery times!

Only reason i keep it wide is so i dont get a red light for set depth

Preciate it guys! The long break slowed down the progress a bit. But just have to keep grinding.

All good stuff presented in this thread. Myself, an old dog of the Gripboard, found all the posts quite helpful with the info that has been presented. As soon as I get caught up with some projects and a little bit of traveling, I will be posting MY York Blobs 95 and 100

Not dying. 8 minute mile. Gotta lose some weight for sure

Pretty manly stuff you got planned for this year. And all of seems quite doable for you. Which will be the toughest?

My god man...I missed the "braced" part the first time I read that. I almost quit bending forever. That said...it's still ridiculously sick work! Nice!

I was at that point one time in my gripper career as well. The solution is to just train it more. Before I did MM cert I trained only for it, nothing else. You get good at what you train. Gripper training is very neurological.

Maybe a bit controversial, but would a cert attempt automatically pass the set depth requirement if the athlete swiped a 20mm block through the handles? That would demonstrate parallel.

I thought you would make it on the first attempt before you got yourself the Inch. After seeing your first attempt I thought, he will get it at the second or third training session. I was wrong but the fourth training session is when you're going to lock it out, I don't think you can get much closer than that, so next time you'll get it

Definitely reassess and keep moving forward! Thanks for the advice

That set should give a light as green as the Hulk. No reason to do it like that, will only make the grippers harder to close. Just practice the right set and your hand will learn the position. Then you will be ready to reach your full potential on the ladder.

5/27/20 Session 3 of Thomas Inch replica DB (173lbs) good improvement(vids below) still long way from a good lift but not scared of the bell only respect it. Slater's hardware Thomas Inch replica DB- very nicely made.

Congrats and nice SxS

Congrats dude!

BOOM! Great job Stephen!!

Very strong closes! You don't need such a wide set. Just set to parallel and you'll probably ready for MM5 right now

Congratulations! Strong closes!

I love hearing you're building back up, Chris! Pure and simple is best in my book. Let's jazz up that description a bit and call it "elegant". The goal is roughly a 2x BW DL or somewhere around 400#. My last semi max single was 386# at a 202# BW - goal is to do it by my birthday in August - so seemingly right on track - call it 20# more. I have my 72nd Birthday challenge list started - looks like it's going to be quite a day. Things have to be done in 7s or 2s except for singles - don't think I'm man enough for 72 challenges so shooting for 27 different items done within 72 hours of the day. I have some work to do still!

Nice farmers, gentlemen!

May 26, 2020 Before Supper Trying some dumbbell work to see what my shoulder thinks. Meh. Still niggly. DB Bench 85e x 4 x 10r Row 245 x 6 x 5r Skin the Cat 2 x 20r High/Low Pullaparts 4 x 15r Nautilus Curl 70 x 2 x 12r

Dr. Caffery! What a pleasant surprise to hear from you. I recently looked up your whereabouts, so I can confirm you do in fact live in New Jersey. I'm pleased to hear you're back at it! And a belated congratulations on your babies! Hey, does your Dad still compete? I love hearing you're building back up, Chris! Pure and simple is best in my book. Let's jazz up that description a bit and call it "elegant". Today: Deadlift 95x10 125x7 155x5 175x3 200x9 @8.5 Chins body weight: x3 x5 136.7x5 @10 brief pause, then body weight x6 @9

So good to see you are back at it!

Got a strange compliment the other day. "Jesus dude! Your hands look like they're on 'roids! They're f-ing huge!" Grippers ftw, I guess. 23May20 -Front squat: 50x5,5,5, 100x5, 140x3,3 190, 230, 280, 305, 330 -Back squat: 280x2,2, 320x2,2, 370, 410, 320 24May20 - rest day. Hips are feeling beat up so the streak is getting paused for a few days of recuperation. 25May20 -Swiss Bench: 240x2, 270x3,3, 240x8,7 (Supposed to be 240x8,8 - first missed rep in almost four months of programmed bench work!) -Lots of kayaking in the afternoon, including dragging two kayaks up the world's worst hill

Nate, great to hear!

Boy and I did some farmers walks today. Bumpy back yard & sligthly uphill / downhill about 25' each way. He and I both did 42 lbs. I did the following up and back: 190, 360, 440. Then I did 500. But I had to rest between the uphill and the downhill on that one. My ankles and right hip seemed to be pretty angry with me. 762 lbs total waddling along will do that I guess. Lol

The 4 yo and I did some farmer's carries in the back yard of sand and despair. Slightly uphill. I got 500 and the boy got 42 lbs on his first ever try!

Strong SB hold!

Maybe when the niggles disappear and you get a fancy tummy like me haha!

OHP feels good for me. So much so I’m considering giving up benching due to constant niggles. Pretty neat how we all have different strengths and weaknesses.

May 23, 2020 Afternoon Outside with the mosquitos. Strict Press 155 x 4 x 8r Standing BB French Press 95 x 4 x 12r Various Stone Picks, Rows, etc.

Real working sets from today. About 70 lbs off at the bottom, slack at the top.

Thanks, guys!! I am feeling my best ever on grippers. Definitely putting all of my effort into this.

Tns a #3 at any rating with both hands is damn impressive. Not many can do that Tns style.

Sun (4/12) DO - IMPs 1/4 x 7" O1 1/4 x 7" Grade 5 Red Nail Felt really strong today. Took the Red down quick with no pain. Right afterwards, destroyed a Grade 8 double-under in single IMPs. Great session!

@Maiche 25 on good days when I close a #2 5 times in a row, I can close this #2,5 too. To close this #2 I've trained the close of a #1 to 30 reps and a #1,5 to 20 reps. So I think that when I will be able to close a #2 10 times or even 15 times I will be able close a #2,5 on daily basis. So that my disposition will vary just on another scale.

Big pull Tom!

Congrats on that 565!

Back quite awhile back I reached out to him to see if he was interested in sponsoring the board. Here was the response:

I will reiterate as I did in an earlier post that Ryan is an awesome guy and a good person. However, it seems he may be lacking in the communication department. We all have things we're good at, but that's not good for business. The bad word-of-mouth will bite you. If I were him I wouldn't accept payment until the order was ready to ship. But.. That's for him to manage. It's a tough spot. In this case the man is the business. I would trust the man, but probably would not risk an order from the business. Ryan himself is good people.

I placed an order with Strongergrip on June 14th and after a few non-returned emails and few unanswered calls and full voicemail box I finally went a head and filed a return of money on the order after 6 weeks of no contact which he also didn't respond to and paypal issued a judgement to give me my money back. It's kind of disappointing to spends hundreds of dollars and not even get reply.