A Benders Log

[bender]

I usualy keep track of my block weight / gripper / bending work outs in a lenghty Word document, but after buying my first crate of real 60D's I'm going to start a volume bending journal to track my progress. I've never tried 60D's for reps, but with 50lbs of them now, I'd like to see how far it can go.

I'd also like to reserve this post for answering bending questions, because it seems I usualy pull other posts off topic with my personal bending ramblings.

These 60D's are "Fairly Hard". I've bent many easier ones, and these fit into the Med-Hard range. Much harder than a BLUE, but quite easeir than my grade-5's. Really, they feel between a BLUE cut to maybe a 5.25" but closer to a 5.5".

My immediate goal now is 10, and I'd like to see 20, 30, 40, 50, ect... Let's see how it goes.

Rules (for me) for my volume bending:

1). Rest periods will be no longer than 2 minutes.

2). The initial 2 bends will be across my left thumb, as show on my page.

3). The 1st crush will be braced across my chest, the 2nd will be braced under the chin. Yea, it detracts a bit from the purity of the bend, but I want to see what my body can do when I eliminate the harder/less safe parts of the bend that would usualy limit my bending due to bad form from the fatigue.

4). I won't do the final 1" crush where I un-wrap it and palm-crush it with a quartered cloth. This is fairly easy, and again I want to focus on bending.

5). I will palm-crush the nails or "finish them off" when I'm done, but I won't include this in the time. Again, I want to focus on bending.

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Today, 3 OCT 03: 3 60D's. Not a hard work out, but with no warm up (which is pretty lengthy when I do it), my shoulder hurt after three. A good place to start. I can't wait to see how far this goes.

[bballdad]

Good job bender!! Work on that video!!!

[Jonathan McMillan]

Nice to see you start a training log again Bender!!!

Good luck on your Marathon training.

Jon@han

[austinslater]

Bender-The log sounds great and maybe now I wont have to ask as many questions! lol, what are you doing for crush right now?

[bender]

The next 6 weeks are going to be an endurance period for me. I'm starting wrist roller work and standing wrist curls so I can "Tou-ify" my forearms a bit. I'm going to have the bending fit this scheme so I can build up my base strength for my bending. As for crush, it will be the same as it's always been, "For fun", and nothing else. I will keep up pinching, but won't be hitting it as hard, but will keep up with daily block weight lifting. Finally, I received a Hangboard from Nicros, so will be throwing in some open-hand static-strength endurance training too. But, yesterday I did my squat/seated goodmorning/neck harness work out, and won't be doing anything for the rest of the day besides feeling wonderfuly horrible.

[austinslater]

Bender how often on the roller and wrist curls? and im assuming you will do these on bending days after bending. I am entering a arm wrestling contest in march and My bending is horrible as you know wo I might switch over and follow you around for awhile. Oh by the way my pinch block is up to 63.5 pounds on tettings block! My cruch is also up, dave m. has been helping me out and our observations are almost exactly what yours were Thanks for your pinch advice! Austin

[Jonathan McMillan]

Bender,

I can't recall if you posted this but could you jot down where you got your 60d's you plan to use in your training and the company that manufactured them?

The 40d's and 60d's I have were purchased through TSC and are manufactured in Quebec so maybe they'd be appropriate in your training seeing as how you are Tou-ifying your arms

Jon@han

[bender]

The Nail is from “Grip-Rite Fas’ners”, the source is “Prime Source”: 60D Galvanized Common Nail. Item 69591, if it helps. Made in Chile. Bought at “Lowes”.

07 Oct 03

Volume 60D Bending Total: 11 60D’s.

I warmed up in our gym, and then started but the first nail bent half way, and I was about to call it quits for the day. I think I’ve been bending too many Timber Ties and lost track of how hard a med-hard 60D would be… A few minutes later, I tried again, and it gave away. I bent 10 more at a slow pace, with usually about 45 seconds rest. I think I should rest longer, but it’s just so fun. I want to keep bending.

Sadly, I had to stop because on the 12th bend, I felt my the cloth slip in my hand. This was nauseating, because with a cloth, chalk, and my grip, it couldn’t slip. The actual sensation was my outer layers of skin slipping against the inner because of the giant blister that was forming. I stopped on that bend and looked at my hand, and there was a big pinch of skin sticking up, rubbed up from the bend, with a big white blister underneath. I straightened my hand out and I felt the same sickening sensation again as the skin slid back into place. Yuck.

I guess my intent for the volume bending will happen for sure. Toughen the hands. After this bending is done, I do believe my hands will be much tougher.

Lessons Learned:

-Eric (the CoC), I guess I don’t bend straight down the plane of my arm, but instead bend about 20 degrees to the inside. I also noted that when my left elbow was flared out more, I couldn’t start the bend, but when I tucked it in again, I could bend it much easier. The perpendicular left forearm is key.

-My skin is my weak point. Damn. I guess I knew this to be true about bending, but this makes it too clear. You simply can’t bend with out tough hands. I’ll admit this, I’ve had unusually soft hands my entire life, so may not be best suited for bending. In the last year they’ve gotten rougher and more firm, but the whole flesh-sliding-off-my-hand experience confirms that this is still a weak point. Must find a way to prevent this. Must harden hands.

-With increased hand pain and general body fatigue, I am always more aware of my bending when I push for volume. This time, I was mindful of using the arms as levers. I usually just bend it, but now, on the first crush I focused on bracing my wrists and then dropping my elbows. This again made the first crush much easier. This lesson came again when I noticed the first crush being too hard, and I noticed wrist pain. Use the arms. Push with the elbows, not the hands. Problem solved.

Austin, my wrist roller / wrist curl tou-ification process will happen twice a week, “when I feel like it”, just like my bending. I don’t like plans. Having a plan just limits what you can do. Once the bullets starts flying, the plan goes to hell anyway. You just got to learn to think on your feet.

[EricMilfeld]

Lessons Learned:

-Eric (the CoC), I guess I don’t bend straight down the plane of my arm, but instead bend about 20 degrees to the inside. I also noted that when my left elbow was flared out more, I couldn’t start the bend, but when I tucked it in again, I could bend it much easier. The perpendicular left forearm is key.

This is the technique I've naturally adopted, as well.

[bender]

13 Oct 03

Volume 60D Bending Total: 6 60D’s.

F***. I tore another hole in my left hand. The last part was still tender so I shifted the nail farther down in my hand. Now instead of one deep blister, I have one healing deep blister and a torn open blister! Yea!

There were some Lessons Learned.

1). I remember another reason why I bend more often than I have lately. During the first bend, two calluses came off. Bending often keeps the hand’s tough and hard. When you take a break, the new skin starts to grow underneath and forces off the old stuff: calluses slide off. I think from now on I need to work in some Timber Tie work to keep the hands used to it. Besides, it may help with “ND”.

2). I’ve noticed a trend in this volume nail bending pertaining to how each nail feels. The first three seem like I’m going to hurt my self, but then suddenly on the 4th, I feel fresh warm and ready to bend.

If anyone has any advice about how not to remove chunks of the palm while bending, please share. For now, I’m starting to think about wearing gloves.

[bender]

I think I need to follow my own advice. Ease into it. I'm going to bend fewer nails, more often to work on toughening my hands up. Perhaps a M-W-F rotation with 5 a day. Take the weekend off, and bend M-W-F with 6 a day. That may be safer and my hands may appreciate it more.

[Jonathan McMillan]

Bender,

For what it's worth here's something you could try. For my warmup bends -anything under a 60d I usually only pad my palms slightly. Then when I work into the harder bends for myself I pad the whole nail (I always pad the whole nail for the hand over hand practice and most of my underhand attempts). It seems to help me as I haven't had any palm problems. So maybe for your light days you can work in some bends of easier stuff with less padding.

Jon@han

[AP]

Bender,

You can try filing down/cutting off your callouses. This keeps them from ripping off and leaving a big hole. Be careful when cutting though so that you don't do the same sort of damage. Also, keep some super glue on hand! you can glue callouses and blister skin back on if you need to get through a tough workout.