I Need Help To Get Kinky!

[GatorGrip]

I am beginning to think for those who try DO (some half-ass version of it) then try DU it is like night and day for bending. So we use the DU style with great results and move up quickly until we start reaching the limits of our current or pre-existing wrist strength, which it seems like for most the Grade 8 bolt, is the usual topping out mark. We then start turning back towards the DO style but as we have seen this is a more technical style that has to have all the angles right to gain maximum leverage for optimum results. When we do get mastered or at least close we start seeing the PRs again and push past the previous DU PRs. I am currently bending pre-kinked bars of locally purchased (cheaper) 5/16" & 1/4" Square CRS, a few IM Reds and some FBBC Round 5/16” and 1/4" Square stock with the inner gap spread ranging from 11/4” down as small as 7/8” but I still don't think I have mastered the Double Overhand style as of yet.

My weakness is the KINK ( I guess I am not a kinky guy) as you may recall my efforts and results back on my 100th day since I started bending Ironmind Red attempt. http://www.gripboard.com

I have a good sweep and even better crush but the kink is the part that I need help on. Once the kink is mastered I will be able to focus on certifying since I stopped this message and wrapped my new chalked up IM wraps and bent a pre-kinked IM Red and FBBC 5/16” x 7” bar with shocking ease and record time (less than 20 seconds give or take a second) both down to a gap of exactly 1/18”.

Crazy as it may sound the IM “Blue” Wraps were more comfortable than my old short worn out suede wraps that I would have to cut shorter and shorter as the bolts and nails chewed up the ends, so my hands needing to toughen up in preparation for those thin IM wraps is not an issue thank God!

So I said all this to say “I NEED HELP!” on getting pass this kink in my bending and to tell those of you who were interested in where my bending was currently as I was easing back into bending after my shoulder girdle injury.

So any suggestions from the master veteran benders or the new guy as he may have an idea or angle I have not even thought of, all is greatly appreciated.

I want to say thank you for your understanding, time and efforts in reading my message and if you choose to respond even better.

GatorGrip

YALL ROCK!!!

Edited June 19, 2005 by GatorGrip

[DAN PRAYDIS]

let me jump in the water to gator i also have trouble with overhand bending so now i do a half and half bend i grab the wraps as if i were superman flying and keep my hands facing the same way and fold the bolts outward instead of up or down then i switch up. i never know or think i just grab it a second time to finish it off sometimes overhand and sometimes underhand but its never easy to kink them maybe when we get stronger we will have a easier time try one this way and see if it is a little help ps just a beginner bender

Edited June 19, 2005 by DAN PRAYDIS

[Oldtime]

when i first started bending with horrible DO hand form my kink strength was horrible. i couldnt bend a yellow but i could bend a blue pre kinked,fairly easy.

I started doing every diffrent anlges of sledge levering from rear levering to sledge wrestling, and plate curling and wrist curls with barbells.

i also used some one my old iron rods cut to 6" that i had lying around. and would only kink the bar about 50 degrees and did highvolume of this, I went from bending yellows to bending grade 5's in less then two weeks.

Now my strength is the kink. i kinked a g5 pretty damned easy and had tons of trouble with the crushdown, so maybe you can do what i did if you havn't already, it worked well for me.

goodluck gator

Oldtime

Edited June 20, 2005 by Oldtime

[patrick]

Any chance you could post a vid of you bending overhand so we can see what exactly you are doing. I think it would be a lot easier to help you if we could see what you are doing in detail.

[Dude]

I think I might be the worst DO bender there is. I get zero leverage in that position, even less when I move my hands up under my chin like I see some do on the board here. I know my technique is whats holding me back so I need to get going on that.

Gator do you think its beneficial to train both DO and DU to be able to hit PRs with DU? I imagine to gain overall wrist strength you need to do both so I gotta try it soon.

On a side Q, does bending help with grippers?

[porky]

gator try reading this article even tho u have probably read it before

http://www.dieselcrew.com/articles/gregdavebend.pdf

u may be overlooking something, or not doing something that may help that u forgot about that you used to do but dont anymore.

or something like that

its always good to to refresh urself with the basics

Edited June 20, 2005 by porky

[VeGripper]

Hey, Gator!

I feel for you on this one - seems that again, we ride in the same boat when it comes to our bending, and I'm finding that I'm now starting to mix in more DO bending to try and see if it can advance me further. I think that what is now helping me to work toward soon being able to mangle the 1/4" square on command rather than on rare occasions is mixing up the techniques and upping volume again. For example, I had my first good bending session in weeks, working through DU and DO styles alternating every few bends. Since wrist strength tends to fade quickly for me, I'd do 2-3 of the 6" G8s with a good DU kink, then when the DU kinks would be barely noticeable (no resting between bends in sets of 5 was the rule!) I would force myself to DO the rest of them no matter how long it took. When I'd have group of 5 down, I'd take 2-4 minutes to rest, then hit the next round, mixing up the styles until they were down. If I got a good positioning I'd get one done in about 10-15 seconds with a full DO, if I had crappy leverage and bad positioning I'd need around 45 seconds, but the rule was to never give up. This is pretty well how I'd managed to get from the G5s to the G8s - increasing the volume, mixing it up until I'd reach my goal. I know you've got one hell of a skill with the DU bends (especially the short stuff!), and I think that perhaps more solid volume work will be the key to making that next step up in wrist strength. I'm sure there are some crazy benders here who have made leaps even without supplementary work like levering, and I feel that the biggest key to progressing my bending has been doing more bending. Yeah, I do a bit of levering and wrist curls now and again, but never with solid consistency because I feel that for me, too much supplemetary work holds my bending back and causes me to need more recovery time. Perhaps try a new angle for a few workouts with higher volume, maybe toss in a few more rest days between workouts as well and it might just bump you up.

Today, I thought I was going to suck miserably since I haven't had a good bending session in around 2.5 weeks, but where my previous G8 volume PR was 9 bolts in a session, I mangled 15 fresh and 2 with slight kinks (15 degrees or less) plus nearly a dozen more G5s and 5/16" G2s thrown in for good measure. Completely caught myself by surprise, so when in doubt, change it up a bit and it may just be a great thing!

I know you've got the strength in you for that next step - perhaps just honing it to where the stuff that's still semi-challenging is like bending a stick of butter and breaking that mental barrier is the key!

VeGripper

[dadams]

he has the strength and the mental ability, go get it gator!

[burner]

Probably the greatest advice I got for busting plateaus was from big steve, He told me to throw in really big volume every so often for strength and conditioning of the DO kink. So I threw in in 60d volume every other week and at times every week. He got me up to 60 in a row and then I ran out. But 10 in a row was enough for me to kink a red. I believe that u must throw in volume at times but most don't believ how much volume is necessary. With this training focus I have never plateaued for longer than 2 weeks. Best of luck gator.

Burner

[Lyle]

Gator, I noticed that all of a sudden "like mentioned above" that my DU was not as strong as my DO which was initially weaker, also now that I've had some time on the DO kink I found that I've really got to keep the wrists straight and focus on bringing the elbows down hard, usually on a hard bend I'm full force for up to 3-4secs before the steel kinks.

Keep at it, Your my bet for the next red bend.

[GatorGrip]

I bent some more pre-kinked 5/16" x 7" FBBC today and it went really fast so I decided I would cut an inch off and pre-kink it. I wrapped the pre-kinked

5/16" x 6" in my my new Ironmind (Blue) wraps and bent it and then crushed it down to a inner gap of 1.5"!

So it is official, the kink is my weakest link in bending the bigger stuff.

Man I wish I had a camera hook up to my PC so I could let gamidon or one of the other great benders on the board tell me if it is a major flaw in technique as I feel it is more of that than just my strength level.

Well I will just keep plugging away or should I say bending away. Not a bad effort at all considering the circumstances.

Did I mention that this morning it was raining at about 0130 as I came in the house with my arms full bags of books form clearing out my office and as I was headed down to the basement on about the forth step my wet shoes slipped out from under me and I crashed down the stairs breaking part of the railing with my right forearm and the wrist insertion point took the brunt of it. My wife was screaming are you alright and as I always have said in times of accidents "Yeah I am fine" lets just get this stuff in here so we can get to bed we got to get up early as usual. Man I ran up stairs to the bedroom and quickly got on my hands and knees and prayed to my God as the area around my wrist begin to swell and I had landed on a step right in the shoulder area I had already injured and have been recovering from not to mention my ribcage took a good thump on the corner of a step. I said " Lord please heal me and don't let this have hurt me again or bad enough that I can't bend that Red nail as you know how important it is to me, by Jesus stripes I am healed in Jesus name I pray AMEN"

I got up this morning and the wrist swelling was gone and my shoulder girdle and upper back area is barely sore at all with no bruising. If you would have seen the nasty fall you would know this is just one more miracle that our Lord and Savior does continually in our lives all over the planet. I am a man of God and Faith a Soldier in God's Army if you will.

I felt that I had to share this with my friends so please don't lock my thread as I feel it may be helpful to some to get them through their battle for the Red Nail.

Thanks again for everyone’s support, encouragement and positive comments or feedback.

GATOR

Edited June 21, 2005 by GatorGrip

[dadams]

gator i am glad that your alright

[diesel]

Gator, i am real new at bending, in fact, today was my first official IM bending session (as you know of past, i was bending dining hall knife handles and about a total of 5 or 6 pieces of steel).

now i know you are light years ahead of me right now, and i envy your progress greatly. maybe you have tried this, maybe you do this, or maybe you think this is crazy, but this is the technique that i was using to help me better my kink. after psyching myself up and getting my arms into position, i take a step forward with my good leg and drive my upper body down hard. i found that this maximized my lat/chest usage and made the kink no problem.

keep up the good work soldier. can't wait to read up on that sweet bending progress.

LOCK AND LOAD GATOR, IT'S RED TIME

btw, keep rocking out the faith Gator... way to take it to the skies for help--cool story

nick

[Titan]

Gator, Your never have to apologize on behalf of Christ. One day EVERY knee shall bow!! As you stated ... I'm just glad I'm on His side, and in His Army!!! I'm glad you are okay.

I have seen you bend in person so I know the Red is going to "officially" happen very soon. I'm surpirised you are doing so well with the Blue Wraps. That should really have you motivated!! Keep focused!! Kurk