jarow Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 I've been meaning to start bending for a while, but didn't get around to picking up some steel until today. I actually bought it all on the way down to Providence for a kettlebell session, and while I was there I happened to get into a grip conversation with the gym owner (Anthony Diluglio). One thing led to another and soon he had an IM green nail wrapped up for me - my first bend ever. Went really easy and smooth, so he pulled out a yellow for me to try. I ended up kinking it maybe 10 degrees, but after that it wasn't budging... Anyway at home I cut up a bunch of the 3/16" inch stock I bought to 5" lenghts and bent 10 more of my "green nails," and then broke a few of those just for fun. The 3/16" is going down no problem, and I think that the only problem with the yellow was mental - that looks like a fat piece of steel to someone who's never bent before. I saw a red and I can't believe some of you bend those things! Anyway next few sessions I figure I'll just do a bunch more 3/16" to get the form down (I'll have to get more - this stuff gets used up fast) and then maybe move on to the 3/16" square that I've got. Plus lots of levering. Fun stuff. I got some 1/4" too, but after getting it home I realized it is zinc plated cold rolled steel...might have to wait a bit for any of that to go down I can already see why bending is so addictive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorGrip Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Oh yes the addiction has begun, you will be strung out on steel in no time. One of the fun things about bending is you end up with a little souvenir of sorts. It's like a max rep froze in time, I mean if you told someone of I benched 500 today that might believe you but to be fully convinced they would need to see it in action. The art of bending produces evidence of the achievement that you can literally put in someone’s hand. Now you may have to try another for them and it will be fun anyway, but like I said you have a solid piece of tangible evidence not just a number in a training log. Even with grippers one second you have the handles touching then let go and you have a gripper that never looks like it has been closed, even though you know it or who ever watches. I hand all of the first bends of a specific diameter, length, HRS or CRS, pennyweight nail or grade bolts on a big corkboard. It like a living training log open all the time to check your progress and even draw motivation from. I am sure you will find yourself moving pretty fast through the different steel stock pieces, nails and even bolts. I have been bending for about 2 months now and I like you went from an initial Green Nail to a Grade 5 Hex Bolt 1/4"x6" in 50 days. WARNING: Don't let your will to achieve the next PR or big bend lead you to injury. The one thing I can say thus far is I didn't do any other exercises but bending and I now know that I should have incorporated levering and a few other exercises for balance, take appropriate recovery time- I did not and suffered the consequences. I bent daily and was hitting PRs in every workout but eventually they will slow as you reach the bigger stuff and then need to build on what abilities you already have acquired. Lastly read that article on Bending by Dave Morton & Greg Amidon it was great and experiment with the double overhand and double underhand methods. Clays article discusses the better bending style for a specific body type. I also recommend Eric Milfeld e-book Maximized Bending it will breath life into bending. Good Luck and Great Training, Welcome to the Steel Brotherhood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarow Posted March 23, 2005 Author Share Posted March 23, 2005 Yeah I read that article that Dave and Greg wrote - there was some awesome information in there. I definitely won't be bending daily since I'm doing other grip stuff (mostly grippers), and lots of kettlebell work as well. Plus my wrists are definitely a weak link at this point so I'll need to work on that. However I'm definitely looking forward to making some quick progress. One question I do have: When wrapping the nail, how do you keep it tight and straight? (so the leather isn't going at an angle) I was having some trouble with this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorGrip Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Yeah I read that article that Dave and Greg wrote - there was some awesome information in there.I definitely won't be bending daily since I'm doing other grip stuff (mostly grippers), and lots of kettlebell work as well. Plus my wrists are definitely a weak link at this point so I'll need to work on that. However I'm definitely looking forward to making some quick progress. One question I do have: When wrapping the nail, how do you keep it tight and straight? (so the leather isn't going at an angle) I was having some trouble with this... ← As far as wrapping say a 60d nail or even a smaller one I keep the heads on and that does make for a more difficult wrap. I think it is crucial to get a tight initial wrap around on the nail so I lay the leather down on a flat surface space the nail on the leather where I want it and then wrap that first loop or wrap around tight paying close attention to the end towards the other wrap making sure I wrap it as tightly as I can at the same time then as I roll the nail I keep pulling the leather tight to get out any slack or bunching, it will not be quite as tight as the other end but enough that there should be allot of slipping especially with that death grip you should have around the wraps as you are bending. I also use wide rubber band to secure each wrap so as not to slip and if you are bending several of the same diameter steel stock lengths then you can usually get several bends out of those pre-wraps before you must take off the rubber bands and re-wrap. An easier solution would be to just snip off the nail head and to lessen the chance of damaging you or the leather (suede) clip off the point as well and you have a straight length of stock like steel to bend. I mean after you bend you initial nail form each size you keep that as a souvenir and the rest hey you now it is a nail even though the ends are gone. I am recovering from a wrist injury for the last two weeks but I was fighting off a bender last night (going through steel withdrawals or detoxing off nails) so I clipped some 60s just like that to make wrapping quicker as I am needing to focus on volume when I get back to bending and like I said earlier levering. I hope this helps some and happy bending. I am not the bending authority on this board but I have learned a boatload from those who are like Eric, Greg, Dave and a few others. If I can help in any way just drop me a line and I'll do my best to answer your question or we will ask one of the expert bending gurus. GatorGrip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Styles Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Buy a 5lb box of timber ties (spiral 60 penny nail) from Home Depot. They'll be cheaper and harder than the 3/16", but easier than a yellow. A good volume nail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarow Posted March 23, 2005 Author Share Posted March 23, 2005 Alright will do. I think right now what I need is something just below the yellow. Last night I tried a 3/16" x 6" piece of square stock and bent it with little problem..so then I figured I'd go for some of the 1/4" round I had. I cut off an 8" hunk and wrapped it up. The initital kink wasn't too bad, but for a few seconds I couldn't budge it anymore. Then all of a sudden the thing just collapsed! It was awesome, and the crush down wasn't too hard at all. My shoulders are pretty sore today...but I can't wait to bend more though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAMMERHEAD Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Outstanding post Gator! -HH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamidon Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Alright will do. I think right now what I need is something just below the yellow. Last night I tried a 3/16" x 6" piece of square stock and bent it with little problem..so then I figured I'd go for some of the 1/4" round I had.I cut off an 8" hunk and wrapped it up. The initital kink wasn't too bad, but for a few seconds I couldn't budge it anymore. Then all of a sudden the thing just collapsed! It was awesome, and the crush down wasn't too hard at all. My shoulders are pretty sore today...but I can't wait to bend more though. ← Welcome to bending. I hope you don't make the same mistake EVERYONE makes and go too far too fast. If your shoulders are sore, take extra time to rest. Bending is injury management and everyone who bends gets hurt. Some minor some major. Work on volume of things you can do pretty easily. Spend the time to do higher volume easy bends and move up very slow. This will go against all of your instincts and desires to get a new big bar. Do some levering and rotator cuff work to get your shoulders 100% and your wrists strong. I dont know what you are using for wrapping material but it is important that you use something that will not puncture. Greg Amidon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNowiski Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Buy a 5lb box of timber ties (spiral 60 penny nail) from Home Depot. They'll be cheaper and harder than the 3/16", but easier than a yellow. A good volume nail. ← Yeah, I started bending about a week ago, and got some 3/16" and 1/4" stuff and a 5lb box of timber ties. I could do the 3/16" with easy but couldn't do the timber ties, but now I can do the ties with ease. They seem kind of expensive, but if you look at the price of these compared to the price of a rod of 3/16" (from Lowe's or Home Depot) than its cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarow Posted March 23, 2005 Author Share Posted March 23, 2005 Thanks for the tips Greg...I definitely don't want to get injured, and I got a bunch more 3/16" square stock to work on volume with since I can do it very easily. I must admit its very tempting to try and bend some of the other stuff I got (bought a few 60D nails today just to look at), but I'll try and make myself go slow. I went to Home Depot to get 60D timber ties but all that they had was 30lb boxes or individual nails (11 cents each) so I just picked up 10 of them and figured I'd see how it goes. I need to find a different hardware store though I think - Home Depot is kind of expensive and doesn't really sell in bulk - everything is in 3 foot lengths except for a couple 6 foot sections of 1/4" I found. As far as wraps I'm using suede I got at Wal-Mart...the pieces are about 4.25" x 10.5", and so far its worked fine. I don't think anything is about to puncture it. I also got an 8 lb. sledge for levering. The biggest thing I've noticed so far in bending is that the initial kink is the hardest part - I did bend one 7.5 inch piece of 1/4" just to see if I could, and while it felt near impossible at first, after I got it kinked a bit it only took a second or two to crush down. I'm not sure if the problem lies in my technique, not really exploding into the bar enough, a lack of strength in some area needed to kink, or more likely some combination of the three. However I'll definitely work on it with more easy stuff for a few weeks and get all that taken care of (hopefully). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeGripper Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Good to have another bender aboard! Trust us, it'll get more and more addicting as time goes on, and as GatorGrip stated, don't move too quickly because most (if not all of us) here have injured ourselves by trying to set new PRs too quickly. I'm just recovering from a palm injury that made me take a few weeks off bending and I have to jump back in slowly and do more volume with easier stock just to get the feel back. Definitely go slowly and master a piece of stock before jumping way up or you'll suffer the same fate as most of us here have Treat a new bending level like a new squat PR - if you're not comfortable with knocking out reps with 300 on the bar, why would you load up to 400 if you know you're going to get pinned? Practice, keep your wraps tight, try different styles to find what works best and you'll be hitting some hard bolts and stock before you know it! VeGripper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt. crushalot Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Best of Luck with your bending. Some very good posts up already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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