Prctical Levering Progression Solutions

[Starkmann]

So most people lever with a sledge, from what I can tell. How do you progress?

The standard answer as I have seen it is to weld a bolt to your sledge and use that to load the sledge. Well, I can't weld and don't foresee learning in the immediate future. I currently have a plate duct taped to the face of the sledge but that doesn't seem like a good long term solution.

Other ideas?

[unseenbeat]

So most people lever with a sledge, from what I can tell. How do you progress?

The standard answer as I have seen it is to weld a bolt to your sledge and use that to load the sledge. Well, I can't weld and don't foresee learning in the immediate future. I currently have a plate duct taped to the face of the sledge but that doesn't seem like a good long term solution.

Other ideas?

Work your hand down a heavy sledge.

[bloodlyjahk]

yeah, just buy a hammer you can't lever from the bottom already, and mark a place wehre you can lever it (with a marker, tape, etc.) and then each week move your hand down a bit.

[Scott Styles]

I'm pretty sure if you PM'd Climber511 he could make you a loadable sledge for a reasonable price. Otherwise, the only other things I can think of are to work your way down the sledge handle or use some strong magnets to hold additional weights on.

[Starkmann]

I'm familiar with the work down the sledge angle. It's not the same, if you try it for a while you learn this. Besides, I already own two. I'm not sure I'm terribly interested in buying the four to six sledges that could seperate them. That could mean, if I ever worked up to a 30lber, I could own five to ten sledges depending on how you want to go about it.

I may speak with Chris, I was just hoping someone had come up with a practical solution to the sledge itself. Your magnets is the best so far. I believe most of the magnetised weights are 2 1/2 lbs or less. I'm not sure what kind of magnets I would need to get to do more. I seem to recall some very sketch adds in the back of Boys Life for magnets that held 1000 lbs. They were right next to the Xray specs.

[AP]

Just slide some plates down the handle, you can hold them on with a big pony clamp. Feels close enough, you only lose about 1/2" of leverage and my sledge handle is 32" long anyway. The Mi grip comp used plate mate magnets to add 1 1/4 at a time, that worked pretty well.

[Starkmann]

Just slide some plates down the handle, you can hold them on with a big pony clamp. Feels close enough, you only lose about 1/2" of leverage and my sledge handle is 32" long anyway. The Mi grip comp used plate mate magnets to add 1 1/4 at a time, that worked pretty well.

I didn't think it would work but tried it. Very nice. Thank you.

[Scott Styles]

This place has strong magnets if you want to go that route:

http://www.gaussboys.com/

Don't drop them, they'll break. Don't let anything eat them.

[Starkmann]

http://www.gaussboys.com/

Very cool. I'm not sure they will be my immediate solution as I have a pony clamp but that pag is officially bookmarked for future rainyday funds

[Starkmann]

Very cool. I'm not sure they will be my immediate solution as I have a pony clamp but that pag is officially bookmarked for future rainyday funds

It's raining today.....those are cool......I just bought some. I'll let you know how they come out. I don't look forward to pulling a box out of the mailbox with enough magnets to hold about 100lbs up.

[TelegraphKey]

It's odd that I never see any mention of the "Slammer" from John Beatty's Fat Bastard Barbell Co. Stock, it's a 2" thick handle, but I just ordered one with 1" handle for about $5 more (total about $40 plus shipping).

FBBC's "Slammer" is basically the length of a regular sledge (I requested mine to be 32" long below the head), and you can plate-load it.

Once I get it in the mail, I should be able to simply put Oly plates on it. I have 1-1/4 lb plates so hopefully I can make those increments without too much problem.

I don't see why FBBC's "Slammer" couldn't be the "Universal Plate-Loading Sledge" everyone has been clamoring for...

[Starkmann]

hmm, I'll look into that device. I have need of it for something else and possibly levering.

I was looking for a pair of loadable indian clubs. Currently I am using John's 3" dBs for that through the cunning use of spring collars. I like John's products but am not sure if my hands will adapt to a 2" handled indian club.

Thanks fo the tip.

[TelegraphKey]

I don't know if John would mind me saying this, but I did ask him if I could get the sledge with 1" thick handle instead of 2". I don't know if he can do this for lots of other people who might want them, but it might be worth a shot to email & ask him!

[Starkmann]

thanks again

[OldGuy]

I made a loadable hammer using a full length sledge hammer handle adapted to take Olympic plates and collars.

[FrankyBoy]

You might use some kind of a vertical bar and just move a plate further away from the top of the vbar using two collars.

This also gives you a exact way to measure your progress.

[Crotchulla]

I've been using magnets I got from the bottom of my old car speakers. I had a problem blowing them out quite a bit so now I can put them to good use. Started with a 10 lbs sledge, and with my magnets can make it up to about 17.5 lbs. I figure after that I'll just invest in a nice 20lbs sledge, if I can hold it up long enough to lever it.

[Starkmann]

Just wanted to support Scott's Gaussboys.com solution. I bought some magnets and took some pictures. I should warn you that the magnets can be hard to store. They are really powerful.

Observe