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First, I would like everyone to understand that it took the two of us just over a month to come up with this list. We changed the format of the invitation structure a handful of times, finally settling on this one. Our initial iteration was to include a lightweight and heavyweight women's class, as well as three to four men's weight classes. However, the format of the Arnold is unlike any other contest most of us have experienced. Having worked with Odd Haugen at the Arnold a couple years for mas wrestling and dealing with such strict time restraints, I can tell you that there is absolutely no wiggle room for us to spill over past our allotted time. The Concourse stage in the hallway of the Expo is shared on an hourly calendar, and that hour has to include our set-up, event, awards, and tear down each day. I would like everyone to consider what it might be like to have to set up and run a competition with 20 athletes, some of whom may not speak English and require additional translation, and then tear it down in an hour. Riccardo and I spent dozens of hours, and that is no exaggeration, cultivating this list of athletes. Whether you want to believe it or not, objectivity was at the forefront of our decision-making process. Riccardo and I have both been competing in powerlifting for probably a combined 40 years and we've been exposed to an entire alphabet soup of federations, each of whom thinks they are doing the right thing and each of whom despises any competing organization because they think the other people are playing favorites in some way. So it was really important to us, not just as members of the board of Armlifting USA, but as promoters of this event, to seek out who we thought were an all-star cast. We did also consider whether some of these people we wanted to invite were likely to come. People like Brian Shaw, who would do very well, but will be there competing for cash money in strongman. And there were several incredibly strong gripsters, both male and female, who turned us down in our initial private discussions because there wasn't money on the line. The weight classes we decided on were an Open Women's category, a lightweight men's category under 100kg, and a heavyweight men's category over 100kg. We thought that at most we would be able to have 20 competitors participate in a single event in our 1 hour time slot on each day, So that meant we had to break up the three groups into roughly 7 competitors each, with possibly more for the silver bullet because that wouldn't take as long to run. Now, there is no question that Jedd Johnson is one of the best gripsters/armlifters in the United States. I've known Jedd since my beginning in grip in 2003, and met the man for the first time at the Global Group Challenge in 2004. He's been a friend and in many ways a rabbit I have tried to chase with some of these grip feats. But is he one of the 7 best *in the world* over 100kg when it comes to the events we're contesting? All of the HW's invited, excluding me, can do well over 190kg on the axle and 110-115kg on the RT. (as an aside, I'm only participating in the silver bullet). The idea that Jedd wasn't invited because he is in a competing organization misses the mark and only serves to stir the pot. Why wouldn't I want the exposure for myself as a promoter and as a director of Armlifting USA through Jedd's social media following and his podcast? Someone also said to me privately that they thought the invitations were put together by Randy Strossen because we're using Ironmind equipment. What, you think he's sitting in some dark office wringing his hands over the list like an evil mastermind, laughing maniacally while writing my mortgage checks? No I pay my mortgage like a real man - with my wife's salary. We used the Armlifting USA rankings and past results to help guide us in finding those top 7 as well. So why didn't Gil Goodman get an invite? Because neither Riccardo nor I know what kind of numbers he can hit on the events we're contesting. Is he high enough caliber to compete at the Arnold under 100kg? I think so, yes. We have a short list of people who were right on the cusp of getting those initial invites and Jedd is on that list. Also on that list is arguably one of the best in the world Harri Tolonen. Harri is setting World Records at practically every contest these days and is only really getting started in the sport. Gil is on that list, so is Mervi Pekki, Joel Dircks, and a dozen others. We knew that no matter who we invited, somebody was going to be upset that they weren't invited. Or in this case, people were going to be upset that their friend wasn't invited. It's okay to be upset, because it shows that you care about your friend and you care about the sport. But to call our efforts "laughable" or "a joke" is a little insulting. If you wanna know why it's insulting, I'm gonna let Riccardo talk to you for 2 hours a day on the phone for a month and see how it feels haha We gave those initial 20 invitees until November 1st to sign up. You could call it us giving them the right of first refusal as a reward for being arguably the top 20 in the world in this sport. Out of those 20, 8 have signed up already. Most of the remaining athletes who have not yet signed up have indicated they want to come, but have not yet entered. As you can imagine, committing to paying for a flight and 3 days in a hotel at the Arnold can be expensive. A couple have declined, citing personal objections, financial hardships, or injuries. On November 1st, another round of invitations will go out. Those who received the initial invitations will of course still be able to enter, but now will have to do it before this new batch of folks toss their hats in the ring.

Raw Nationals Squat 518, 535, 546 PR! Bench 308, 320 (not bad with a shoulder injury, passed my third) Deadlift 595, 628 PR! (passed my third) Second place was good enough to qualify me for the IPF Worlds in Sweden. And the great hookgrip experiment has come to a crashing finish. The Titex bar used had very soft knurling and I almost dropped my opener. I switched to mixed grip for the 628 with no trouble. My hands just aren’t suited for pulling max deads with a hook. No problem, I’ll train double over and with straps and use mixed for contests

10/13/18 Celebrated Anton's Birthday with a griptogether. Many hours of feasting and feating. Too freakin many feats and PRs to remember. Off the top of my head... Matt and John both got 3x25x2. Juliet pulled 162lbs on the Jug. Tim pulled 226.8lbs on the Jug. Matt pulled 229 on the Jug. Anton did a 12lb PR on the Crusher (forgot number). Juliet hubbed a 45 multiple times...then hub pinched 2 45's at the same time. Never seen that before from a woman. Vinnie pulled 95kg/209lbs on the Saxon Bar. Wayne ripped his first deck of cards. Tim pulled 98kg on the Legends Anvil (105kg was a 4 way tie for first at Legends1). Jose taught Juliet unbraced bending...she bent her first 2 nails...the second one was an I.M. Blue. Ridiculous. As far as me...I kinda did a little of every implement and quartered a bunch of cards I did pull 95.7 on the flask (4lb PR). Pretty cool residuals from training the Saxon and 2x45.

Thanks all my main goal this year is to climb the MM ladder since I'm not ready to compete yet in other events. I feel it is the most prestigious gripper certification and I'm happy to be closing the same grippers so many strong grip guys have closed on their way up the ladder. I need to work on my set I was way off on my first two but the gripper did feel easy and it was after a hard training session at the gym.

Congrats! 3 whites on 3rd attempt!

Dude! I actually pulled 164.8 on the jug!!! Get your numbers straight. Anton only just about edged me out with 167! It was the only reason he didn't crawl back to NYC with his tail between his legs! Next time I won't let him off so easy!!!!

This is a great idea for a post. And I am looking forward to meeting you in December. My OVERALL GRIP GOAL FOR MY LIFE is to get the IM cert on the COC 3 (what else is new on this board, that's the goal of most unless they already did it lol). I think I can do it in time, as I have made some progress lately with Chez's help and recently MMS closed his COC cert gripper rated 153. So I believe I am awfully close to being able to get MM1, which is a more immediate goal, and that with hard work and good health getting the IM cert in 2019 is not a pipe dream. Other specific goals, some round numbers, which seem so arbitrary yet so close to my PRs and thus seemingly attainable: 1 - 200 on Euro (PR 193, have floated 200 and yesterday did 209 on 2" Saxon bar, which is about my preferred Euro width) 2 - 90 on flask (PR 81) 3 - pinch 2 45s (PR is 2 35s in both hands simultaneously, 2 35s transfer, but not even close to getting air on 2 45s, and I suspect I won't until after I can do 90 on the flask!) 4 - hub lift 2 45s (just learned yesterday how to do it and managed each hand alone, but Juliet Avila did both hands simultaneously and I couldn't, lol) 5 - 150 on crusher (PR 148) 6 - 40 on moontop (PR 39) 7 - 175 on jug (PR 167) 8 - lift baby inch 9 - try for a max on rolling thunder to see whether crushed to dust is worth adding to this list. I can do 45 on the hub any day either hand and TNS a COC 2 for reps any day as well, but I am not sure I could ever pull 200 on the rolling thunder. But I am also heeding some of my senior grip sports mentors' advice not to nay-say myself before giving it the college try, so I am willing to assess the situation next time I get to try a rolling thunder. But I do think that is a real challenge that may have to wait for me to meet some of the closer to today ones listed above. 10 - deadlift 300. I know that sounds kinda wimpy. If I said axle 300 it would sound better, but for me they are the same, and it is the lift, not the grip, that holds me back. I have had back surgery and I have much better arm strength than torso, core, and leg strength. My axle and deadlift PRs are thus both 275, and in both cases I fail the next attempt up because I am unwilling to push the legs and back any more than I do for the 275. I am thinking I need more practice on form and to be extremely careful. Hence the modest goal and low placement on this list. Some general goals: 1 - Get a little more into bending and card ripping. 2 - Beat Juliet, at least usually. 3 - Beat Dan Fleming just once at anything, even a crossword puzzle for chrissake. 4 - Get to the 74K weight class, because that probably would be my ideal physical weight for health reasons. But maybe after I cert the 3 ...

I understand where you're coming from... But, Jedd did win the overall in Philly... Also, if it's a numbers thing, Hunsaker wasn't on the list. He hit a big rolling thunder recently

It’s always a good episode when you are the guest on the show, Mr. Roussin.

From Randall Strossen and IronMind We’d be happy to lend you a Rolling Thunder (and IronMind loading pin & carabiner if you need them), and as far as any certifications (CoC grippers, Red/Gold Nail, Crushed-To-Dust) go, please feel welcome to announce them, but anyone interested must contact IronMind first, per the rules, and we will arrange the referees and official attempts with you: I find this news very exciting and appreciate Randall allowing this. It's now up to whoever wants to cert at Gripmas to set things up through Iron MInd and let me know what's going on. Grippers - Red or Gold Nails - or Crushed to Dust. Thank you Chris Rice

Saturday October 13, 2018 Went to my first AW tournament and managed to walk away with 2nd place left and right hand in the 200+ novice class. There were 6 people right and 4 left. I pulled 5 matches right. Won a great battle with someone I lost to earlier to wind up in the finals. The guy who won flashed me for first place. Left hand I pulled him first and was flashed again. I won my next two matches to face him in the final again. He beat me again but I made him work for it this time. Sunday October 14, 2018 AM Last training for KK with Gus. Nothing was feeling good today except, strangely, the crusher. PM easy 6km run

Going for the 195 Gripper 20mm block set. Just had a great gripper workout today

My Last Gripmas Carol Goals First to just survive :). It's going to be a long 3 days of moving my weights etc to the venue - doing the meet - then moving everything back and cleaning up the venue. Under IGC and NAGS a 70 year old man must lift 75% of the current weight class record for the lift to be considered as an Age Group “World Record” (no idea if this will change under the new organization). My goal is to set as many Age Group World Records as I can. Being as how I’ll probably be the only one in my group – every lift will be a “record” of sorts but I want a certain standard in my mind. t will be interesting to see how I do in regards to the percentages needed. Climber511

I will log my thick bar training here, separate from my other training log to easier keep track of what I did, later on. It will be a boring log for sure because I will not set any goals in numbers. The only goal is to train thick bar consistently for one year and try to get stronger, see where it leads me. Main focus will be RT but I will do a lot of other exercises as well. Best lift so far was 84 kg and 2x2 with 75 kg thumbless. Best axle was 140 kg. Best wrist wrench almost 40 kg. As I said no particular goals in numbers, will just focus on getting stronger.

I think the only implement I can breathe easy on when you are around is grippers lol. Anton and I used to joke that as long as we stayed ahead of you we were fine, but really, it's no joke to stay ahead of you, and I am sure we sometimes won't. You are not just very strong for a woman, or for 145 pounds; you are just very strong, period. Keep it up!

I squat underneath the table when I am losing.

Even if the Arnolds contest only featured the Stub, I’d be excited. Of course I’m thrilled to be taking part, and I’m lucky that the events align with my strengths. But even if they didn’t, and even if I wasn’t invited, I would still think this is fantastic for the sport. Kudos to Riccardo and Clay for making it happen!

49.4kg.

honestly i think what causes these type of changes are unhappy individuals (haters) who get in Randalls ear with complaints of others. the red nail/IMP cert rule wouldnt have happened if there was never a hater of Eric in Randalls ear. the CCS rule would have never happened if it wasnt for some go-hard complaining to Randall who claimed everyone was cheating, because they certed with a “full” close, but everyone else “used their other hand” and i would put money on someone likely also crying to Randall that the old RT handle was “easier” than the new one, making the comparison to performances on the new handle “unfair”. So in short, blame the haters for the rule changes. Not Ironmind.

I’m not sure if this bold move will help them sell more RT handles. Oh, hang on a tick – there are now apparently caps on the ends . . . .I should have realised. My apologies. I look forward to the next design upgrade AND the accompanying record reset. Might be a few years away - depending on the strength of similar product sales offered by their competitors. Seriously, why take this decision now ??? The model discrepancy issue has been around for YEARS. Call me cynical but this is simply a marketing strategy to give the Armlifting competitions a bit of a boost.

This is very good news! Of course they should not remove anyone from the CoC list but they should have a pre and post CCS list.

I haven't figured out exact numbers but I want to break a bunch of 66k records, I was close on the euro at gripmas last year and feel way stronger now. Half body weight on the flask would be nice, I don't have one to train on so don't know how realistic that is. Trying new feats is always a goal when going to comps, and mostly just hanging out and conversing with everybody and having a good time.