Building Sidepressure...

[Blackheart]

How you build sidepressure? what exercises are needed guys?

[dadams]

Find someone and pull with them on a real table or make one. that is the best way.

[dennisb]

Davey is correct pulling but i once started this topic on the northeastboard and Christian Binnie also recommended DB flys on a flat bench. But i think the best way is pulling like Dadams mentioned.

[DAN PRAYDIS]

How you build sidepressure? what exercises are needed guys?

back pressure is more important than side pressure if you get your arm pulled away from your body you will have no side pressue do hammercurls and preacher curls first then use a bicycle innertube hooked to something and pull against it for side pressure flys and dumbell bench are good to if you have access to a peck deck that works good to if you have any small kids in your house i use to have a wooden handle with a rope hooked to it and my son use to tug of war me until i gave up and we hade fun also try a bath room scale held in a door way and press against that to see how much poundage you are putting out and try to improve on that good luck

[MarkH]

How you build sidepressure? what exercises are needed guys?

back pressure is more important than side pressure if you get your arm pulled away from your body you will have no side pressue do hammercurls and preacher curls first then use a bicycle innertube hooked to something and pull against it for side pressure flys and dumbell bench are good to if you have access to a peck deck that works good to if you have any small kids in your house i use to have a wooden handle with a rope hooked to it and my son use to tug of war me until i gave up and we hade fun also try a bath room scale held in a door way and press against that to see how much poundage you are putting out and try to improve on that good luck

I disagree. Backpressure can be negated too easily with an adept hand or good supporting strength. Inorder to fully utilize backpressure you *must* pay equal or greater attention to pronation strength from both an ulnarly deviated and an ulnarly radiated wrist orientation. Being able to hammer or reverse curl a considerable amount of weight is relatively inconsequential if you find yourself supinated.

The sport is slowly changing, and with the advent of Europeon "strength" (read that however you like) armwrestling is moving in the direction of the hook. With the exception of Artem Klimenko (who was later DQ'd for banned substances) in the last WAF Championships, the top nods all went to hookers. John B, Tood H, Ruslan B, Matt G, Devon L, Luke R, etc etc all can develop massive sidepressure by utilizing the front head of the delt, a static tricep lockout, and the pec. This power coupled with an exceptionally powerful wrist and supination power makes it very difficult to backpressure your way out of.

Backpressure will only carry you to a certain level in the sport. After that you have to be an absolute freak with it (Gary G in the mid 90's) or you adapt or you'll plateau.

[austinslater]

Mark you talked about a powerful wrist and supination strength needed to win in a hook. What is the best way in your opinion to develope this strength while in the weight room? Thanks in advance,

Austin

[MarkH]

Thick handled wrist curls are what I use for off-the-table training regardling wrist flexion strength. Wrist flexion strength is fairly simple to train for. Table work, as I'm sure you know, is best. It's simply impossible to effectively emulate any actual table scenario, there are just too many force vectors at play at any given moment. For Supination/pronation work I do leveraging. This can be done nearly anywhere as you can use various impliments to train with; brooms, hocky sticks, mops, uh...saplings, whatever. In order to build up my static tricep lockout that's used in a driving side pressure I do isometrics in various positions. Usually against a door frame, or a stack of books ontop of a scale on my table. To increase your side pressure in an inside position use your obliques to create torque with your hips perpindicular to the table side.

[austinslater]

Great advice bro. Ive thought about doing something similar to the stack of books on a scale but never figured anything out that would work. Looking forward to trying your ideas.

How often do you train your thick handled wrist curls and levering? Also sets and reps?

For those that dont know, Mark is a highly ranked puller and one of the best in his weight class. Thanks in advance buddy,

Austin

[dennisb]

Excellent advise Mark...Would tricep pushdowns be helpfull using thick bar?Instead of the books on scale?Also im curious as to the set ans rep range you use in the weight room or using weights..thanks

[MarkH]

Books on a scale was just an example. I vary the height of the stack of books so that I can use the isolations with varying body position. As far as repetition ranges are concerned, I work out with weights strictly for explosive power, stamina and endurance are better developed at the actual armwrestling table. I use a general pyramid ending with only a couple reps. I've found this works best for my body, I can't vouch for anyone elses. Wrist curls, I've found, can be done at least every two days without any detrimental effects from overtraining. I also sparratically train with my CoC's, usually just doing several sets of a few reps (4-6) with my #3 whenever I notice it sitting on my table. My actual training routines are nothing to really emulate as they occur infrequently and without much zeal. I prefer actual table time. My most constant training impliment, oddly enough, is isometrics with my other hand. I make the ring and pinky finger a "thumb" and work on pronation/supination that way. Static lockouts in a hooked position, battling a strong ulnar deviation with pronating power etc. I find now it's almost a nervous habit. My two hands, when not occupied with work or whatever else, are armwrestling each other. It looks ridiculous to anyone who sees me, I'm sure, but I find it helps me considerably in experimentation. I don't have a large hand, nor am I all that big (muscular wise). To compensate for my physiological attributes I put more emphasis on technical ability.

Edited April 7, 2006 by MarkH

[austinslater]

Mark,

Do you stick to single digit reps with your wrist curls? Ive had similar results and seem to do well training wrist flexion every 48 hours. As of now, Im rotating plate wrist curls, thick dumbell wrist curls and the formulator. Ive been doing higher reps because of a somewhat sore wrist but once I get healed up Ill drop down into some lower reps.

Austin

[MarkH]

Generally, after a warmup set to get the range of motion dialed in, yeah, I'll keep the reps to the single digits. I also work specifically on setting the hook on the table having someone else use two hands or a blind start in a toproll. As I'm sure you know, the initial wrist set is where a hooker is most vulnerable. You can set the hook using various methods depending on your opponents wrist orientation and your analysis and subsequent prediction of where they're attacking. Strong sidepressure and a powerful supination drive combined with wrist flexion from an ulnarly radiated (high hand) position works quite well in many instances, although not all.