Analyze My Form

[DieselWeasel]

This is my latest PR bend of a FBBC 6" x 3/16" square piece:

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=max_bend_square

Tell me what I should do to finally destroy the yellow!

[GatorGrip]

Okay my friend you have a whole lot more strength than you realize but straight up your poor technique is wasting the energy you are expending. So lets break it down shall we?

1) IM wraps if you are going to use them from the start you must rub them down good with chalk. Next lay the wraps down on a flat surface the roll one side up at a time really tightly as you periodically pull the slack then begin rolling again. Once you have a tightly wound wrap grab a rubber band and wrap it around and around towards the front end of the wrap to keep the nail secure and lessen its slipping.

(You have now made a pre-wrap the can be used several times before having to re-wrap you nails. Continue with the other side and do the same thing. Now you have something to work with, but also remember that leather suede works wonders because it grips the nail well and rolls much tighter.

2) Your beginning Double Overhand Style needs some tweaking. First thing I noticed was you were having a difficult time getting the nail into position under the neck area. To help remedy this you need to become more flexible and can do this by clinching a door way and leaning forward slowly bringing the arms extended to the rear or use a bath towel held at the ends diagonally and lift your arms up and back as you progress by stretching a little each day you will be able to grab the towel by the regular top corners and do the same always being careful not to over extend your self to far but gradual flexibility. I draw my arms up behind my head and back and can touch the towel to my lower back and then back up and over to the star position. This has helped me tremendously to be able to get the nail up as high into the neck as needed for optimal DO success.

3) Wrists must be locked straight out in other words your from your elbow to the point where your hands are clinching the nail should be straight. Your wrist was cocked back like you were going to do a pushup. Bending takes a great degree of wrist strength and stability to transfer you energy from your upper body through your arms into your hands to explode into the metal. I can't stress this enough because when you allow your wrist to be loose and then canted backwards you are in great danger of sustaining a significant wrist injury that can sideline you bending in order to heal, which in my experience wrists don't get a real break to from activity so they can take a while to get back to normal.

4) Go into the gallery and watch accomplished benders bending take for instance the FBBC Square stock bend with IM wraps by Frankyboy which is in the line up to view as we speak. Study his form, position and movements through the 3 phases of the bend KINK-SWEEP-CRUSH DOWN. He is a great DO style bender and he has many recent videos to watch.

5) Now practice the movement in the mirror with either a soda straw or something flexible the point here is to get yourself into the correct positioning and try to mimic the movements of the DO bender as he transitioned through the phases. Feel the angling of the arms and shoulders practice makes perfect then go after a piece of your 3/16". In the beginning it is all about learning the technique that will help you maximize your bending. Once you have your technique down them you are continually honing it until you find your own sweet spot. Big mistake and I was guilty of it and it cost me some avoidable injuries is to jump from one stock to the next in search of that next big max PR without really mastering the prior bar, also jumping from 6" down to 5" is okay as the Green is 5" but going down to the extremes like 4.5" and 4" is really not helping you as the whole mechanics will change drastically from a 6" length to a sub 5" length. So at least at first stay with the standard stock measurements.

6) Lastly as you have got your style down by putting all these facets together and your about to pump those arms a couple times into position when you hit it don't just bend it gradually instead with everything tight and ready you explode it to that steel and kink it as far as it will go on that initial burst then reposition if need be and hit it again show no mercy on this foe as he is hard as steel and will be glad to break your wrists and ego in one swipe. The kink is the most crucial part (no kink - no bend) so that’s that, then go into the sweep and the bar is beginning to resemble a wide "V" and just follow through until the "V” is narrow enough to get one hand around it and then wrap your other hand around it. The key here is not just to push the hand with the other but also squeeze that hand on the metal hard as you are pushing. Another tip is to keep that nail close to your body as you will have more control on it than way out in fromt of you.

Last tip: Once that bar starts to bend don't stop other than to quickly reposition if necessary as the steel is bent it warms and makes it more pliable but if you stop for even a few seconds it immediately begins to cool and set in that position and in most cases make it harder to restart especially when you are close to or on you max bends. Lastly when you are absolutely sure that the gap between the inner sides of the nail is less than 2 inches then you can stop but don't get into the habit if going to maybe 2" and stopping because you may find what you thought would be 2" will turn out to be a 2 1/4" or 2 1/8" ect... Get in the habit now of mashing it together hard enough to go below the 2" marl and when you are ready to certify on a Big Red Nail you won't come up short by accident.

My friend I hope this helps you on your bending journey and may you reach all your bending goals. If you do the basics and get a solid foundation the PRs will soon start accumulating quickly and you will gain strength without injury so train smarter and not just harder.

Welcome to the Steel Brotherhood,

GatorGrip

[FrankyBoy]

Some comments here:

1. As Gator already stated: Wrap the pads MUCH tighter.

Lay them on the floor, chalk them up really good.

Now:

Wrap the pad once more lengthwise (~3-4") so that you have now a 6 layer at one end of the pad. Fix the other side with a plate. Roll the bar into that 6 layer end very tight stretching the whole pad by pulling it away from the plate.

Fix the wrap with a rubber band. Pull it off and do the same with the second wrap.

2. For the kink:

Let your thumbpads rest on your chest. So you stabilyze your hands. Bend more towards the floor not away from the body.

Now go and bend that Yellow!!!!

[gaster]

Not too bad at all, good job.

As others have said I think you need to practice wrapping more, but you'll get better over time.

I can't get into that type of position under my chin for DO so you aren't too bad there.

The crushdown technique needs to change. You need to learn how to interlock the hands to help crush it down. You got the job done, but you need to learn how to lock the hands for a crushdown once you get into bigger stuff which will happen pretty fast as soon as you get better with wrapping.

[Dude]

I've just started bending but I also see big differences when my pads are wrapped as tight as possible and when they're somewhat loose. I can't get nearly as much leverage when they're loose. Keep up the good work man.

[DieselWeasel]

Thanks a lot for all of the info and advice, guys. You're all a great source of help and inspiration.

I will post more videos when I get more PRs so you can see how I progress.

[Oldtime]

This is my latest PR bend of a FBBC 6" x 3/16" square piece:

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=max_bend_square

Tell me what I should do to finally destroy the yellow! 

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I think you shouldnt give short bursts of energy into the abr

i think you should just give it 100% and keep going till you have to change your form cause your knuckles get in the way, then give it 100% again and so forth. Also instead of bending the nail in the direction you are (straight out) try bendint it down i find this works better. In my opinion your bringing the bar too highg your almost bringing it to your throat not your chin, i think you should be bending around collar bone/chin level. i find this works much better for me. I went from bending 1/4 7" crs to IM blue nails in a week and 3 days, probally due to form, once you get the right form down you will make great progress.

[tx_fireman]

Thanks Frankyboy:

"Wrap the pad once more lengthwise (~3-4") so that you have now a 6 layer at one end of the pad. "

This one little sentence changed the way I feel about IM wraps drastically. Doing this, simplified the whole process. Many thanks!

[DieselWeasel]

Guys, I have a question regarding your advices ( Ahnold reference ):

I'm supposed to put chalk on the inside of the wraps, right? I'm referring to the side that's touching the nail/bolt.

[DAN PRAYDIS]

Guys, I have a question regarding your advices ( Ahnold reference  ):

I'm supposed to put chalk on the inside of the wraps, right? I'm referring to the side that's touching the nail/bolt.

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yes cover that thing till its white all over then wrap it up as tight as you can i did mine 3 folds and it makes the roll 4 inches long

[DieselWeasel]

WOOO! I finally bent that yellow bastard!

I used a rubber band on each wrap and it definitely helped me get those wraps as tight as possible. However, I probably should've used chalk on the wraps too because as you can see in the video, the wraps were slipping around in my hands during the sweep.

Watch the video:

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=max_bend_yellow

[GatorGrip]

Great you now know you can bend one. That bend came after just a few technique tips and there is still more to improve there but your off to a great start my friend look forward to the fact that was the hardest Yellow nail you will ever bend from now on they will get easier and easier as you fine tune your technique thus allowing you to get maximum energy from your exploding strength. If you have not tried DU style give it a try as you may really surprise yourself with that style I know I did. DO I could barely kink a Yellow and I was bummed out but after reading Clays article on the Diesel site regarding bending styles for body type I tried DU and BAM! I found my groove thing all these were done within minutes and the bottom two came just as fast as I could wrap them up so you be the judge and don't cross off DU until you have fully tried it. I can bend both ways now but the difference in the beginning was night and day. Take a look DieselWeasel.

http://www.gripboard.com

KEEP PRACTICING YOUR FORM AND THE STRENGTH WILL COME FAST!

Great Job

GATOR

[FrankyBoy]

Congrats. Nice job.

Yes, chalking up the IM pads at the outer side is important too.

Otherwise those pads are getting very slippery with moisty hands.

Concerning your style:

Again: try to rest you hands on your chest for the kink. That will give you some stabilization.

And try to bend more towards the floor not parallel to it. Practise that a few times with easier nails.

Then grab a Blue and bend it.

You should already be able to do that.

[DieselWeasel]

I bent the BLUE NAIL!

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=max_bend_blue

[Oldtime]

your makin crazy progress sir, i needa step it up a notch your catchin up, this unday im gunna do a volume blue nail session!!

on a more seriouse note, good job youll be slappin down grade 5's like yellows in no time.

[FrankyBoy]

Wow, thats some progress here.

Very good!

[DieselWeasel]

Thanks, guys.

[patrick]

Great job on the BLUE nail.

One thing that has helped me in bending is to bend in all 3 styles, rev grip, underhand and overhand. While you will be weaker in the other 2 styles it will strengthen you wrists and you will become better at your strongest style too. Even bending just 2 or 3 medium hard nails in the other styles each workout will make a difference, at least it has with me. I hope you keep progressing and hitting prs. Keep it up.

[Holes]

awesome work diesel! way to slam that blue! giver hell (the grade 5)

[Left Side]

Great job Weasel.

Even on your blue bend you bent parallel to the floor, try bending down,and you'll notice a big difference in the kink.

For a great example here is Clay Edgin's red cert video:

Clay Edgin

It's the video on the bottom right. Clay has excellent form.

[maximus1]

Thanks, guys.

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good effort,good to see another Max going crazy on the bendin,keep it up!

[DieselWeasel]

Thanks for all of the replies, guys.

I'm going for a 5.75" blue nail bend, next bending session. I will try to progress by 1/4" every time that I bend. After I bend a 5.0" blue nail, what should I try after that?

Edited June 22, 2005 by DieselWeasel

[FrankyBoy]

G5!

[DieselWeasel]

G5!

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6" x 1/4" Grade 5 bolt, eh?

I have some of those and shorter bolts of the same grade in my FBBC shipment.

[FrankyBoy]

Yup, 6" x 1/4" G5 would be the logical next step.