Youngguy

[Guest Jeff Roark]

The exercise that you speak of holding a thin rope in your hand with weight attached is interesting to me. I think you might have stumbled on a key point for my progress. I have not been working my grip hard, actually I have not trained in about 2 months, I have been resting and letting a few injuries heal. Thinking back to when my crushing strength was at its peak I did not do alot of COC work but could mash the #2 for many,many singles. I was doing alot of long farmers walks with a 50lbs sandbag. I would only grasp a thin piece of the material, my hand was basically clenched into a tight fist, I would walk to my hand gave out and then change hands. I think many look at thick bars for help when maybe we should be looking at extremely thin bars. How about vertical lifts (similiar to what YoungGuy does with a rope) with a thin peice of steel? It would stimulate the part of a crush that is the hardest, and beyond the range of motion that a gripper allows. You would also sort of get an isometric hold, similiar to strap holds with possibly much more weight. What do you think of my take on this?

[Guest Youngguy]

I agree, but instead of just doing thinner bars and ropes, do both thick and thin which would work better because of more veriety. So you should do thicker first then thinner, and work your way down. If you use the thin rope pinch for closing a gripper you could only budge, you will get no were soon. The key is not thinner bars and ropes period. It is using a specific workout for a specific goal. Thicker for a more open hand grasp, and thin for a tight pinch. Do both and your results will be a better crushing grip if you progress.

[Tyrannosaurus Dave]

John Brookfield once mentioned in a Milo article that holding weights from a piece of wire (presumably vertical) would help prepare you for bending nails, which I think was the topic of the article.

[Guest Youngguy]

This is what I mean as opose to working my hardest. Joe Kenny couldn't of said it better. This is what I meant about going over not to the edge.

A: Joe believes they aren't training hard enough. He's talked to 100's of people and that's what he believes. No one is working hard enough. Joe said you have to treat your training like it is "do or die". Force the body to adapt. My impression from listening to Joe is that people stop short of doing that. Another reason is that Joe believes it's a lot in the mind. He says you have to tap into the "do or die" response of the body. He said if you can do it (create a do or die body condition) every workout you can then call on it at will. He told me his whole attitude changes when he trains. Basically, don't mess with him is how I interpreted what he was saying. He turns totally focused and mean and nasty (my interpretation).

I stumbled open this and thought, hey this is my intention for my workouts. Don't exacly follow Joe's plan though. Just take it as far as you can, and don't injure yourself severly. This may requier more rest time too.