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Hello friends. First something general to say: I have been on the Grip Board for about 3 years now, and I believe I have been to about 10 comps - enough that I am not actually counting anymore, but hopefully just the tip of the iceberg as to the rest of my life. All have been positive experiences, and this one deserves a special place as the first one post-COVID. Kudos for people of all different views about this to have come together and managed to complete a full, legit comp in a way that seemed pretty safe and still left nothing to be desired. Was everyone fully masked up at all times?

Myself and my trainer parters had only been training for about a month leading up to this competition. Mainly because of me and climbing the Mash Monster Ladder. I took alot of time off from other training to achieve that. We loaded up friday night and made the 5 1/2 hour drive from Oklahoma to Texas. We strategized and devised a gameplan on how we were going to approach the competition (Weight jumps,warmup period, etc). We got into town around 11:30pm and went straight to the hotel to pass out. Saturday morning we woke up early and i could tell everyone was dialed in and re

World strongest grip video by Larry Wheels is online

I’m sure some of you are into stats, so I whipped some historical King Kong facts and figures together. The following individuals have competed in at least three King Kong contests and have averaged a Top 20 finish in the overall standings. In brackets you will see the competitor’s average placing, his highest placing, his lowest placing, and the number of times he has competed. They are listed in descending order of average placing. 1 - Tanner Merkle (Av:2.00; H:1; L:4; Times:4) 2 - Jake Sahlaney (Av:4.00; H:3; L:5; Times:3) 3 - Kody Burns (Av:4.60; H:2; L:10; Times:5) T4 - Gi

2020 International King Kong Grip Challenge 21 venues spread over three continents 225 total competitors – 182 men + 43 women (excluding youth division) Reverse strongman scoring - Ties broken using the countback method, then by body weight if still a tie Men’s Overall Standings Position - Competitor Name - Total Points - Flask Points - Crusher Points – Grab Ball Points - Little Big Horn Points 1 - Tanner Merkle - 18.5 - 13.5 - 3 - 1 - 1 = "THE KING KONG OF GRIP" 2 - Jesse Pynnönen - 29 - 1 - 8 - 18 - 2 3 - Carl Myerscough - 32 - 17 - 1 - 3 - 11 4 - Jedd Joh

Dude lifts the Mbell like that and your take away was the title? 👍👍👍amazing if your going to offer marketing advice I’m sure Larry will be all ears - I mean he’s only got like 2 million subscribers 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ Obviously he could learn much from you guys Bader I really appreciate you filming & sharing all this stuff - Larry’s interest in grip is the best exposure we as a community have ever got. The ten best grip guys in the world combined couldn’t reach .0001% of the world the way Larry does. So much of that has been your design & handiwork. Looking forward to the next vid

I'm going to be running an ongoing video series called HARD TO HANDLE. It will be a bracket-style tournament to crown the HARDEST Thick Bar Rolling Handle on the Market today. I have many handles, and some folks have been gracious enough to send me theirs to borrow for the tournament. The video below describes everything in more detail, but I've already learned of a handle that I either didn't know existed or totally forgot about, and that is the PDA Rolling Handle, that Rick Walker told me about. He says he used to own one and sold it to someone, but doesn't remember who bought it.

As per tradition, I'd like to recognize some of the competitors who had some huge lifts in King Kong relative to their bodyweight. First, the women: Women who lifted 35% or more of their bodyweight with the Flask: Kravchenko Natalia – 45% ! Bianca Sieberer – 38% Patricia Luxner – 39% Tiia Niskanen – 36% Women who lifted 75% or more of their bodyweight with the 2.25” Crusher: Zhirkova Elena – 85% ! Ivchenko Anastasia – 83% ! Kravchenko Natalia – 79% Patricia Luxner – 75% Women who lifted 70% or more of their bodyweight with the Grab Ball: Kravc

Chalk? Check. Zubaz? Check. "Ranger panties" shorts for weigh-in? Check. New York Yankers shirts? Check. List of nonsequiturs to include in my trip report? Working on it. The next item on the checklist? @temmmeeee. Off to Piscataway to grab Tim and then hit the road. Friday morning I dropped my dog at the vet to have a tooth extracted, leaving my wife with the unenviable task of managing a whining chiweenie while I was off to compete for the first time since NY Strongest in January. I'd had a strongman comp planned for July, but due to The Unpleasantness the show was canceled. Probab

Following King Kong, this is my view of the current overall Top 10 North American active grip sport athletes: 1 - Tanner Merkle (TX) 2 - Jedd Johnson (PA) 3 - Carl Myerscough (CA) 4 - Gil Goodman (TN) 5 - Luke Raymond (PA) 6 - Joel Dircks (MN) 7 - Jason Dingey (OH) 8 - Brad Provick (SK) 9 - Adam Glass (TX) 10 - Steve Millard (CO)

Stephan saved the event for me as a promoter tracking scores and loading- it’s not always easy to control the chaos of 40 people mostly strangers at my house plus run an event but it went great. I have some assorted clips of contest / post contest feats for your viewing pleasure https://www.instagram.com/p/CGyn1VZAy3h/?igshid=10k4tbgcgfflm https://www.instagram.com/p/CGyiah2AG7m/?igshid=11hk0kvcgv9b3 https://www.instagram.com/p/CGyjZtlAV0H/?igshid=sp907zva45jl https://www.instagram.com/p/CGypY2Yg6Gq/?igshid=ts70qeaarayx https://www.instagram.com/p/CGwX4PCgwcM/?i

Good Luck to all Contestants, Organizers, Volunteers, and Judges tomorrow. Pray for no injuries or illnesses. Should be a good time for everyone! 👍👍💪💪

I understand that some people get terrified watching this as they are not used to hard life. To Khaled, Schoolboy started "bullying" at 9:20 and Khaled is not the type to submit. He will hit back stronger. He is a warrior by nature and proves it to whomever meet him face to face if he felt he was being disrespected. Yet, he is very kind if you are kind to him.

So Khaled proposed to invite two friends of his to my gym. One is a Cameroonian gym trainer. Not a big guy at all. Maybe weight 90 to 95 at best, but is tall. Around 6'5". Hands is between my hands and Khaleds. More towards mine. Not thick at all and his thumb pad is small. But boy, Cameroonians can grip! The second one is I think AbdulGhafoor. Don't remember his name. He is Pashtun Afghan that is a son of a garage owner and helps his father doing mechanical work. He unfortunately disn't come had someone else coming up. But boy, Khaled told me he is taller than him a lot. So 6'3" plus. An

Venue Standings 1 point per competitor + 5 points per 1st place finish, 4 points per 2nd place finish, 3 points per 3rd place finish, 2 points per 4th place finish, 1 point per 5th place finish (Youth Division Excluded) Position – Venue – Host – Points 1 – Heinola, Finland – Jesse Pynnönen – 68 – TOP VENUE 2 – Sumska, Ukraine – Ivan Pupchenko – 65 3 – Achenkirch, Austria – Sirko Petermann and Patsy Luxner – 35 4 – Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, USA – Jedd Johnson – 32 5 – Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada – Brad Provick – 30 6 – Arendal, Norway – Thomas Larsen – 25 7 – Carbond

So school boy landed two days ago. Today was their match. Larry asked not to share videos or results until he posts it. So I am helping the hype here guys. Wait and see what happened. School Boy is awesome. Larry is awesome too!

https://ironmind.com/news/Chad-Gustin-Breaks-Rolling-Thunder-Pull-up-World-Record/ @Chad Gustin Congrats to Chad on raising the bar on the IronMind double Rolling Thunder total weight pullup at our King Kong venue on Saturday! He had a very solid day of lifting. And he did over the old record on two attempts. Nice write-up on IronMind about an hour ago.

The closest would be ROO-SAIN, with little accentuation of the “N”. Sort of like saying “ain’t” but stopping short of the “t”.

Mark Felix has monster-sized hands. He is a World’s Strongest Man finalist. He is one of the best deadlifters who ever lived. He won the first two LA Fit Expo contests than have included top Grip Guys (Andrew, Chad) as well as some notable Pro Strongmen in them. That video gives you an idea of how hard it is just to get a tiny bit of air under the Millennium Dumbbell.

I enjoyed watching it. He has a winners mentality. This guy will go far if he wants to. Armwrestling is a combat sport, don't forget that. It's not smart to let your opponent take advantage of you. If there's a violation of the rules, it's the ref's job to enforce the rules and give out penalties, if they don't do that, they suck and shouldn't be judging in the first place.

You can build an awful lot of grip strength (and possibly size) with just a barbell. Wrist curls - reverse wrist curls - wrist curls behind the back and reverse curls done as a giant set to failure on each with no rest between exercises. Aim for 8 reps - when you hit 12 - add weight - keep adding weight every time you ca do 12 reps. Then a few days later do finger curls in a rack (crl grip) - start with higher reps - keep adding weight and lowering reps - "roll" the bar up you legs and do negatives. (Break into all this slowly) Then take a sledge hammer and lever it in all directions - fr

A new upload for the one pad section... basic stuff from the Rhön.

Worked up to 3 sets of 4 reps at 311 tonight Am wearing sleeves under the hoodie

And another A2 bolt cert. This time from Martin Arjoon from New York. He made a good progress and here is the Video.

Me and my four kids.

Hard day at work, only 2.5 degrees of movement Felt like my thumb webbing was run over by a freight train... Need to find some steel to bridge the gap, maybe some 4.8 bolts

Strongman pumpkin with bent steel. Daughter got to practice her nail drive.

That video was among the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. One absolutely elite grip feat after another.

Devon is one of the world champion and a very respectful guy. He shares my opinion too.

Unfortunately, from the several arm wrestling tournaments I attended in the past, I would say at least 25% of Americans act like children in arm wrestling matches and have poor sportsmanship and very little respect toward their opponent and the referees. Very large, fragile egos and lots of unnatural testosterone. Just watch many of the large televised matches over the last 4-5 years and you will see. Obviously not all are like that, but it is a large enough percentage to be very noticeable. I am pretty sure I have only been to one tournament that a fight did not break out or almost broke out.

I'm the one one with the dyno. And I'll definitely be there!

Schoolboy destroyed Larry of course. Larry has less than zero technical skill. Khalid steam rolled schoolboy

Well schoolboy not suprising, steamrolled Larry but got mowed down by.... Khalid! Video on Larry's channel.

So my brother wanted me to draw my own version of Pikachu based on a digital drawing he found. I'm decently happy with how it came out, although for some reason my phone cannot capture the colors/shading realistically 🤔 I used to draw a bit when I was younger but lost interest due to perfectionism instead of enjoyment. Easier when you are older to put things in perspective. Anyway here it is:

Saturday October 24, 2020 Toronto Strongman Spectacular https://www.instagram.com/p/CG3EXYrAYqy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link My symptoms were a bit worse again this week. I did a stool sample last week and they found blastocystis a common parasite that can be asymptomatic in people and most doctors opt not to treat and potentially mess up the gut lining even more. I'm hoping my relapse is just from pushing a bit too hard on the weekend with the contest and celebrating. Right now I'm just trying to figure out what I can eat. Won't be gaining back that weight anytime soon but I'll

Didn't have time for a proper workout so had to compromise as always. Handstand 2 sets for time Reverse grip bench:70kg 2x10 Regular: 70kg 2x10 Barbell row 85kg 2x10 Grippers Did a few sets after the workout with baraban adjustable to properly work the sweep. Dunno how beneficial it is though. Im bands

Before the COVID hit I had planned on hosting a steel bending and breaking contest in Phoenix, AZ this year in November, but COVID put everything on hold. This following year I plan to move forward with hosting it in November. The rationale being that: 1. This would be a subordinate/regional competition to Don's steel bending and breaking championship in Michigan. 2. Offer an opportunity for people to compete in the Western part of the US if travel to Michigan is too much 3. Be far enough apart that it doesn't interfere with people wanting to do both competitions 4. The weather is nice in Phoe

Finally got a decent lift on these. These sloped hubs are tough.

All of the New York Yankers:

Sounds like big fun! See you soon

And another one from the USA. Mike Johns (a performing strongman) bent the A2 bolt for a succesfull cert this morning. Very well done!

Small update... My brother in law was again here for some bending and could cert on the A4 bolt. Next step for him is the A2 and he will get it the next time for sure. Video:

Youth Division Results Position - Competitor Name - Total Points - Flask Points - Crusher Points – Grab Ball Points - Little Big Horn Points Boys 8-10 years 1 - Noah Warren - 4 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 2 - Samuel Gardner - 8 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 Boys 11-13 years 1 - Ace Gustin - 9 - 1 - 1 - 4 - 3 2 - Alec Roussin - 9 - 3.5 - 2 - 1.5 - 2 3 - Luca Roussin - 11 - 3.5 - 5 - 1.5 - 1 4 - Mattéo Roussin - 14.5 - 3.5 - 3 - 3 - 5 5 - Camilien Régimbal - 16.5 - 3.5 - 4 - 5 - 4 6 - Paddan Aram - 24 - 6 - 6 - 6 - 6 Boys 14-15 years 1 - Isaac Litzenberger - 5 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 1 2 - P

I’m sure I’ll do a full trip report later, but I’m thankful to @Jedd Johnsonand his family for, as always, hosting an excellent contest. This venue is consistently well-run and enjoyable to visit.

Khaled is a freak for sure. But I don’t think he would be closing 3’s and juggling inches if he worked in an office all his life and did no gym training. I’ve only heard one or two stories but it sounds like Khaled has made the work be demanding. Lifting tires one handed and such. My experience from armwrestling is that the strongest hands and forearms are seldom found on “gym guys” such as powerlifters and etc. At least not if the gym guy has an office job and only got his strength through the gym. There are exceptions of course but from my own experience, the freaky stron

crazy strong and interesting to see how some humans are just naturally extremely strong. I know this will be taken the wrong way and that doesn't bother me. I just really like seeing people who started off weak and busted there ass too become strong. I just tend to look up to and respect these types of individuals and stories more. Theres a lot more that can be learned from them. Is it entertaining to watch people lift really heavy things absolutely. Its just more interesting and inspiring to watch someone lift heavy things that busted there ass to achieve that goal. Its kind of like be

Yeah, well, they still play good snooker

Thats small potatoes, he might be able to bend the inch, a world's first.

I'm not so much impressed as I am astounded at what I saw here. Show him "how" to bend and i have no doubt he would add the Red Nail to everything else he can do. We're going to need a whole new group of "feats" to challenge him. Unbelievable! Keep it coming please.

Something I’ve been working on after beginning my steel bending practice back in August, is how to balance my other training pursuits without increasing my chance of injury or overtraining. Over the last few months, steel bending has been lumped into the same time as my hand balancing sessions (directly afterwards), which can go upwards to 3 hours a day. Through August and September that was fine, but this month has shown a noticeable difference In both my hand balancing and new steel bending practice, in that the quality in both were actually suffering. I also was experiencing tennis elbow on