Fuel Crusher Posted January 5, 2002 Share Posted January 5, 2002 I've made myself a thick handled dumbell, diameter of 2 3/8" (2.375"). I'm not sure how close this is to the 'Inch' Dumbell size, if anyone can shed any light? I loaded it to 20kg then 30kg then 40kg all went up to waist height easy. I then tried 45kg (99lb) this went up to my waist with my left but it was very hard, with my right I only managed to just float it off the ground. Further attempts with my right failed to budge it and on trying 47kg with my left this also failed to budge. I was very surprised with how low these weights were as I'm lifting much more with my same size non rolling handle, obviously it was due to the bell rolling into a pinch type grip as opposed to carrying. I'm now keen to get this weight up so how would be the best way to train on this dumbell? Timed holds with a lower weight? Reps? or should I just keep trying to pull more weight up? Advice much appreciated Hoping to put some pics up on my page tomorrow night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted January 6, 2002 Share Posted January 6, 2002 The original Inch dumbell is 2.38" diameter, and the replica- at least the only one I measured was 2.47". The hand spacing width is 4" on both. Regarding training, I would suggest one hand cleans, and one hand hammer-curls with whatever weight you can muster six reps; then one hand deadlifts for time with as much weight as you can hold for ten seconds, alternating hands-all with this thick bar, of course. Also some wrist curls with the thick bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobsterone Posted January 6, 2002 Share Posted January 6, 2002 Ahem - I mean geez Louise guys am I not the man for this kind of lift. You know he who has lifted the Inch (off the floor) and has pulled as high as 259 pounds on a 2.5 inch thick handle. Last night, in additon to 112.5 kilos on the Rolling Thunder and 370 kilos on my Deadlifts lockouts I also did 4 x 1 with 100 kilos (220+18 handle/rod = 238) on a thick handled dumbbell. I'm also seen using a fair bit on the grip gallery. To answer one of your questions: Both I tend to do holds when I feel the need to be confident in a good strong lift. If I feel like I'm only just holding it and it could slip then next time I'll pull it just clear of the floor and 'hold' it. Other times its poundage all the way baby! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuel Crusher Posted January 6, 2002 Author Share Posted January 6, 2002 Thanks for the spec's Roark, I guess my bells diameter is close enough however I've made it with a larger hand spacing than 4". Would this affect the difficulty of the lift you think? When you say one hand cleans do you mean bringing the bell up to the shoulder or up to the waist . I suspect I'll be dropping a fair few kilo's to be able to do hammer curls with this baby, I'll have a go. Mobsterone those weights are amazing. I was hoping to get more when I first tried my bell, thought I'd pull 50kg easy. No go though, god 1kg too many and it feels like its welded to the floor :crazy unbelievable. Thanks for the training tips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kINGPIN Posted January 6, 2002 Share Posted January 6, 2002 I can't wait to see it on your site. That site is getting better by the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted January 6, 2002 Share Posted January 6, 2002 You see? If you want mobsterone's latest progress, then someone such as I, who is unable to carry his empty Inch bar into the polishing room, needs to post some advice. Those figures are fabulous, mobsterone! Others have stated that the specs of the Inch handle (4" width) DO matter, and that even after 172 is reached on the replica bars, some have not been able to lift the 172 replica bell. Mobsterone,your 2.5" handle is the same dia- meter as the replica bell handle, so how much on your practice handle translated to lifting the Inch replica, AND how close are you to the 226 pound Millennium bell ? Have any idea? Also, did you mean the 370 kilos deadlift lockouts were on a thick bar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Luke Reimer Posted January 6, 2002 Share Posted January 6, 2002 The shorter (4") handle length made a big difference to me. I recently made a 2.375" diameter handle with this shorter length and was stunned at the difference. The narrower opening between the plates caused my hand to bunch up so that my fingers couldn't reach as far around the handle. It felt almost as though the handle were another quarter inch thicker in diameter. My max weight, accordingly, wend down quite a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuel Crusher Posted January 7, 2002 Author Share Posted January 7, 2002 It sounds like the shorter bar negates the advantage of a larger hand then. Seeing as the first time I tried my bell was at the end of a workout, I sneaked over last night for another quick go and to take a few pics. I was sure that as I felt fresh I'd get 50kg up. Not a chance :crazy managed to get it skimming on the floor but theres alot of work to be done here. Luke what specific ways of training do you do on your thick bell? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobsterone Posted January 7, 2002 Share Posted January 7, 2002 Roark: To answer your question first. The day before I pulled the Inch I showed a buddy what I had done in my last db session 212 pounds. However, as stated elsewhere. The Inch is a solid bell and has globed ends. These 2 things are so much more importnet than they seem. The solidity means that the weight, even made up of plates and using an identically sized handle, feels massively different. The globes mean, for me at least, that my lifting style with plates allows them to touch the wrist or forearm and stops the whole thing from rotating. The globes will sit much higher. What to do: One get rounded end plates/dishes made or lift dead level or (as I do) lift a massive amount over and above that which you are aiming for. And I am aiming for 275-300. As for the challenge db - its still been glued to the floor by some fiend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted January 7, 2002 Share Posted January 7, 2002 mobsterone, Already you have exceeded the Millennium dumbell by ten percent on your practice handle, yet the Millennium still won't stir. Are you thinking 300 lbs on the practice before the Millennium rises? Also, your deadlift lockouts- on a thick bar, I assume? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuel Crusher Posted January 7, 2002 Author Share Posted January 7, 2002 Pics up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobsterone Posted January 7, 2002 Share Posted January 7, 2002 Roark: Yes regarding the transfer of strength and no the lock outs are done on a bog standard bar - not even any knurling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Luke Reimer Posted January 8, 2002 Share Posted January 8, 2002 Fuel Crusher, My method of thick bar training seems to be in transition right now. I used to focus on 2.375 inch diameter handles, but have been experimenting with some other diameters. Also until recently my thick bar workouts were mainly heavy one-armed cleans (I liked this because it gave me a brief, explosive motion that still offered a postitive way to measure success or failure, for my workout logs). The problem with one-armed cleans is they seem to require dumbbells. Although dumbbells have been and still are my mainstay, I'm just coming to appreciate how tricky it is to use plate loading dumbbells for gripwork without cheating (by allowing the near plates to brace up against the bottom of your forearm.) I thought of going to smaller plates and building out the ends, but this required me to make dumbbells two feet long. While this extra length would not have been so bad for lower lifts, it drastically affected the balance for my cleans and is forcing me to explore new methods of cleaning. For now I've dropped cleans from my grip workouts and have gone back to one armed deads, mainly with IronMind's rolling thunder handle. Steve G. I've got another question about the Inch Dumbbell, and the problem of simulating the lift with a plate loading dumbbell. I'm aware of the tendancy, from hammer style grip, for the near plates to brace upward against the bottom of the forearm, preventing the dumbbell from rotating toward the fingers. I'm also now familiar with how signficant this cheat is (it's inflated some of my lifts so badly that discovery was disallusioning). Anyway, I was wondering if you'd thought it would be possible to get a close Inch Simulation by building the plates up along a lower profile. What about putting two 2.5 #s on each side of the handle (or more), then some 5#s, and then nothing bigger than 10#s? I've recently tried this and in this manner there's no way my 4" long handle can touch my forearm, since my hand is wedged between the 2.5#s and the other plates don't reach much higher. If there's any bracing going on, its way down at the hand, where it seems to be the furthest thing from an advantage. Have you tried anything like this? What do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuel Crusher Posted January 8, 2002 Author Share Posted January 8, 2002 Luke I follow what you're saying about 'cheating' with a dumbell, you're basicaly stopping it rolling by bracing the weight against the arm right. To do this you must perform the lift with the bell quite out of balance, surely pulling up with the dumbell balanced would help to eliminate this 'cheat'. Also Luke, without sounding to dumb how do you perform the cleans you've mentioned? Are you pulling the bell up to shoulder height or waist? Cheers mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Luke Reimer Posted January 8, 2002 Share Posted January 8, 2002 Fuel Crusher, I understood "cleans" to mean a lift to the shoulder, and that's what I've been doing. And yes by cheating I mean using my forearm against the plates in such a way that the handle doesn't roll out my fingers. It may sound like a simple thing to balance the weight during the pull from the ground so that the plates do not touch the forearm throughout the grip intensive portion of a "clean," but I haven't found it to be so myself. My old spin-lock dumbbells are only 15" long, so I have to use a couple tall 50# plates. They go halfway up my forearm, and if I attach them right next to the handle, they make a narrow gap. I've also tried placing them farthest from the handle, but this makes plate changing a nuisuance during my warming up phase; and then for all my troubles it's still possible to cheat. A little easier to avoid maybe, but still very possible. What I want is a way of avoiding cheating that requires no conscious effort on my part. I find nailing heavy singles in the clean to require a lot of co-ordination, and I want to be able to concentrate on making this violent yank from the ground without having to think about anything that doesn't help me get the weight up higher. I've tried the balancing thing, and no matter how I tried, it always felt like a half hearted effort. Holding back seems to defeat the purpose. As far as style goes, I've been standing with the weight centered in front of me, and the handle positioned hammer style. As the weight comes up the top end summersaults over and lands against my shoulder, all the while spinning slightly so that my hand finishes supinated (palm facing me) and the bottom plates are more toward my midline. This seems to give me my heaviest pulls with a thick handle, but on a thinner handles where grip failure has never an issue, it feels a little more natural to sommersault the far end of the dumbbell straighter and higher, so that it lands right on top of my shoulder with my hand beside my head, still in a hammer style grip. In any case, when I pull as I do with the thick handle it's a challenge not to cheat. I've made myself some longer dumbbells so that I can make up the weight with smaller plates that don't touch my forearm, but only to discover that that torque of a longer dumbbell being pulled into a summersault is such that it makes the dumbbell feel much heavier than it really is, and it worse yet, it resists coming back into the shoulder even after coming up far enough. I've had to find another way altogether to clean my longer dumbbells loaded up with small plates, and so I've been practicing it with a supinated grip, starting with the handle lying across my path. This way brings the handle up straight and keeps it from rotating, but doesn't seem to allow me to use the best muscle groups. My numbers are significantly lower here, but probably high enough that I shouldn't have any trouble reaching grip failure when I introduce thick handles again (I've been using thin handles just to see where my limits are in this style). Thanks for your curiousity, and whatever you do, please don't apologize for asking. :hehe :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuel Crusher Posted January 8, 2002 Author Share Posted January 8, 2002 Luke, I'm going to try some cleans as you've described them, I'm just hoping that the bell I've made isn't too large as to become unstable. I actually tried to pull a weight by cheating but found that due to the length of the handle and the size of my discs I couldn't get my forearm anywhere near the weight to stop the roll. No cheating on these for me then Thanks for the detailed descriptions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobsterone Posted January 8, 2002 Share Posted January 8, 2002 Luke I have tried the method you suggest and yes a massive drop in weight was encountered. Thats why I'll be aiming a #### of a lot higher than the 226. D. Horne has 2 saucer shaped plates with a hole through them for putting next to the plates. This mimics the bell shaped ends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kINGPIN Posted January 8, 2002 Share Posted January 8, 2002 That handle is absolutly brilliant. Well done on that one. I really want a welder now. The posibilities as you are showing are endless. Keep it up bud! We await your next device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuel Crusher Posted January 8, 2002 Author Share Posted January 8, 2002 Cheers kINGPIN, to be honest I don't think I'll be making anything else for a while, I've too many toys to decide what to do ??? Anyway this thick handled dumbell has realy got me going and I was gutted that I could only pull 45kg with it, so I'm going to concentrate on getting this weight up over the next few months. I've also had a further play on my grip machine and realy enjoyed it so using this will be my other focus. Then again farmers walk handles might come in handy...... :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kINGPIN Posted January 8, 2002 Share Posted January 8, 2002 ....Thats the spirit! :hehe :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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