jakethesnake Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 Hi Everyone, Per the advice of @wobbler I started working on some 7x5/16 HRS bends in my training for the red nail. In the attached video you can see me put a kink in it with hands placed at the upper chest - I have struggled to find a "groove" for bending higher up under the chin. After this I rested for a couple minutes and finished the bend in 3 hits. I used single IMPs with no bands for this bend. Can any folks better than me take a look at this video and see if a) I should just stick with a this starting point for bending and b) if not, what are some ideas for finding a better setup higher up under the chin in this case? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Young Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 Work on technique by buying lots of O-1 drill rod while sticking with 7" stock. Keep the bar high up under your chin. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakethesnake Posted June 7, 2020 Author Share Posted June 7, 2020 3 hours ago, Danny Young said: Work on technique by buying lots of O-1 drill rod while sticking with 7" stock. Keep the bar high up under your chin. Thanks for the tip. I’ll work on some lighter bends focusing on getting the bar up under my chin and then inch my intensity back up incrementally with drill rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Jack Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 How are you stretching your shoulder flexibility before the bending session? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horrido Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 To work on the position and the technique here are maybe some usefull advises: Before you take the bar up under your chin squeeze the shoulderblades together and down then take care that in the start position the shoulder, elbows and wrists are in one line - no chicken wings (elbows higher than shoulders. If you are not able to do that you have to work on your flexibility with lots of shoulder stretches like dislocations or things like facepulls, pullaparts and behind the neck press can be very helpfull in this case. Also stick with it and practice a lot and it will be easier and you will get better. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy J. Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 Practice keeping palms facing down, and elbows moving outward on kink. visualize the ends of the bar bending away from you. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Jack Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 Shoulder dislocations is what I was gonna suggest per my earlier post if he didn't already do them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakethesnake Posted June 7, 2020 Author Share Posted June 7, 2020 6 hours ago, Billy Jack said: How are you stretching your shoulder flexibility before the bending session? I was basically just doing a few behind the neck presses. I’ll add in some banded dislocations prior to sessions. Thanks! 6 hours ago, Horrido said: To work on the position and the technique here are maybe some usefull advises: Before you take the bar up under your chin squeeze the shoulderblades together and down then take care that in the start position the shoulder, elbows and wrists are in one line - no chicken wings (elbows higher than shoulders. If you are not able to do that you have to work on your flexibility with lots of shoulder stretches like dislocations or things like facepulls, pullaparts and behind the neck press can be very helpfull in this case. Also stick with it and practice a lot and it will be easier and you will get better. This is all very helpful. I was attempting to shrug my shoulders up in order to keep them above my wrists. I’ll work on this with some smaller stuff until I get it. I appreciate the input! 5 hours ago, Tommy J. said: Practice keeping palms facing down, and elbows moving outward on kink. visualize the ends of the bar bending away from you. Huh, basically the opposite of what I have been visualizing when I bend? Ha. That’s why it’s great to ask experts - thanks for giving me some pointers. I’ll incorporate these cues from now on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wobbler Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 With smaller wraps especially, you don't need to use a lot of chest strength to kink, its mostly upper back. You should be pulling the bar into your chest, while spreading your shoulders out and trying to drive your elbows forward. Its different for thicker/double wraps, and I guess depends on your strength and body type, but for me there's not much chest pressure until the second or third hit. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakethesnake Posted June 8, 2020 Author Share Posted June 8, 2020 5 hours ago, wobbler said: With smaller wraps especially, you don't need to use a lot of chest strength to kink, its mostly upper back. You should be pulling the bar into your chest, while spreading your shoulders out and trying to drive your elbows forward. Its different for thicker/double wraps, and I guess depends on your strength and body type, but for me there's not much chest pressure until the second or third hit. Interesting. I need lots of practice, because the kink is very difficult for me right now and I basically feel all of the tension in my chest. Thanks for taking a look and giving some advice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wobbler Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 Shoulder stretching is very important, grab a belt and do this: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Jack Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 7 hours ago, jakethesnake said: Interesting. I need lots of practice, because the kink is very difficult for me right now and I basically feel all of the tension in my chest. Thanks for taking a look and giving some advice. That's because by the looks of your video you are using just about all chest on the kink in the lower position. Like was said above, the kink should be mostly upper back strength. The good news is you should be pretty strong on the sweep and crush now that you have built a lot of power there from having less than stellar kink technique. Something good can come from something not so perfect. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wobbler Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 Hardest part to figure out is getting comfortable/stable on the kink before you start to apply force. You can't really do this with all chest, it will be unstable and you might punch yourself in the face. Put it up under your chin (or as high on your chest as flexibility allows) pull towards you and bury it there (lowering your chin can add some stability if the bar is high enough) and then apply force, focus on your elbows and not the bar. I'm certainly not the best DO bender by a long shot, but I think I'm much more technique than strength at this point, so feel pretty qualified to give some advice. This one looks pretty good on the kink at least, I still struggle crushing it down. This is a much older video where I still lacked shoulder flexibility. Bar location is similar to yours, *but* you can still see the difference in the kink, there is not much forward/chest effort at the start, it is more pulling the bar in/up and moving elbows forward. The difference in the two videos is a lot of experience, and a little bit of strength. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakethesnake Posted June 9, 2020 Author Share Posted June 9, 2020 11 hours ago, wobbler said: Shoulder stretching is very important, grab a belt and do this: I tried this today and basically couldn't do it unless my hands were much wider than you have them in the video. Something to work on for sure. Thanks for posting! 11 hours ago, Billy Jack said: That's because by the looks of your video you are using just about all chest on the kink in the lower position. Like was said above, the kink should be mostly upper back strength. The good news is you should be pretty strong on the sweep and crush now that you have built a lot of power there from having less than stellar kink technique. Something good can come from something not so perfect. Thanks for the encouragement. I think you are right. The sweep and crush are very easy for me compared to the kink. I'm hopeful that when I get technique dialed in I will be able to not only make bigger bends, but perform more volume per workout without feeling as though I'm going to be injured. 9 hours ago, wobbler said: Hardest part to figure out is getting comfortable/stable on the kink before you start to apply force. You can't really do this with all chest, it will be unstable and you might punch yourself in the face. Put it up under your chin (or as high on your chest as flexibility allows) pull towards you and bury it there (lowering your chin can add some stability if the bar is high enough) and then apply force, focus on your elbows and not the bar. I'm certainly not the best DO bender by a long shot, but I think I'm much more technique than strength at this point, so feel pretty qualified to give some advice. This one looks pretty good on the kink at least, I still struggle crushing it down. This is a much older video where I still lacked shoulder flexibility. Bar location is similar to yours, *but* you can still see the difference in the kink, there is not much forward/chest effort at the start, it is more pulling the bar in/up and moving elbows forward. The difference in the two videos is a lot of experience, and a little bit of strength. Certainly a big difference between those two videos! That's promising - I'll keep at it. I'm going to go back down to 1/4" CRS and work on getting the technique down. I fiddled with it a bit today and I believe I'm starting to understand. Again, thanks for taking time to post these videos. It's great to see the impact that perfecting technique can have on bending ability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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