Finishing A Spike..

[MrZsasz]

Tried another spike tonight and got it exactly where I always get it....about a 30 degree bend. This is a 12" spike but I've tried 10" spikes and the same thing. Once it gets to that degree of bend, I seem to lose the ability to put any force into it. And I bend them over my knee, pulling the spike, not pushing it down on the knee. I've tried the pushing technique but no luck at all that way. Any ideas?

[nickr104]

All I can say is just keep at it. You get to a piont where you will not be able to kink it any more by pulling on it over yourknee or push on it over your leg and got for the crush down. The 2 ways I see the crush down being done is to post it on your leg then have you other hand on the end twards your abs and try crush it with your hand and body. This way take lots of core strength. The other way is crush it between your legs like Dennis Rogers and Pat do. Put your hands on the ends of the kinked spike and push in with your hands and legs at the same time. I like my hands to be 3 to 4 inches above the knee. I could show you some short clips if you like. The leg crush you just need to work on it to get stronger at it. The post body crush do lots of core work. I hope this helps.

[AP]

One trick I learned that works on most longer spikes is instead of giving it one huge pull trying to get it to that 30 degrees all at once, is to give it two softer pulls and then a big third pull. That gets me usually another degree on the kink and also heats it up, go fast from that third pull straight to the crushdown. I crush em with right hand right tight against the upper abs, left hand tight against the inside thigh about 5 inches above the knee. Its hard to get that first one but once you do you have a feel for it at least the 12 inchers fall easy after that.

[Booyah!!!]

Speed really helped me. Do not allow it to cool before you crush it.

[EricMilfeld]

Thirty degrees is the point where I need to swithch to the first crushdown technique described by Nick.

[antarath]

I'm in the EXACT same situation as you, MrZ!

I even laid down on the floor and braced it on my heel, but still didn't move hehe.

Hope we both figure out of it (Edit: and the posts above helped )

Mats

Edited April 28, 2007 by Mats Erik

[MrZsasz]

All I can say is just keep at it. You get to a piont where you will not be able to kink it any more by pulling on it over yourknee or push on it over your leg and got for the crush down. The 2 ways I see the crush down being done is to post it on your leg then have you other hand on the end twards your abs and try crush it with your hand and body. This way take lots of core strength. The other way is crush it between your legs like Dennis Rogers and Pat do. Put your hands on the ends of the kinked spike and push in with your hands and legs at the same time. I like my hands to be 3 to 4 inches above the knee. I could show you some short clips if you like. The leg crush you just need to work on it to get stronger at it. The post body crush do lots of core work. I hope this helps.

I would love to see some clips. I think if I could just get it another 5-10 degrees that I would be able to the post body crush. Hadn't thought about the between the legs one even though I see people using it...

[MrZsasz]

One trick I learned that works on most longer spikes is instead of giving it one huge pull trying to get it to that 30 degrees all at once, is to give it two softer pulls and then a big third pull. That gets me usually another degree on the kink and also heats it up, go fast from that third pull straight to the crushdown. I crush em with right hand right tight against the upper abs, left hand tight against the inside thigh about 5 inches above the knee. Its hard to get that first one but once you do you have a feel for it at least the 12 inchers fall easy after that.

Hmmmm that sounds interesting. Part of the problem might be that I get it as far as I can on the first big pull, then it gets a chance to cool down and I am stuck. I'll try the three pull idea...thanks.

[MrZsasz]

Speed really helped me. Do not allow it to cool before you crush it.

Yeah, I think if I can work with that three pull technique mentioned above, I might be able to keep the speed AND the heat going. The one I fought with last night was over 20 min or so which gave it plenty of time to cool......

[MrZsasz]

I'm in the EXACT same situation as you, MrZ!

I even laid down on the floor and braced it on my heel, but still didn't move hehe.

Hope we both figure out of it (Edit: and the posts above helped )

Mats

Speaking of the same situation, that's exactly what I did last night. Stupid thing wouldn't move any more so I said "Screw it" and laid it on the floor to use my heel. Same non-result as you. Nice to hear I'm not the only one getting stuck.....And yeah, all the above posts have given me food for thought..

[cabertosser]

I've played with the 12" spikes too.I got it to about 90 degs over the knee then couldn't get it any further.What is considered a full bend?How many degrees ar how close together are the ends?

[Booyah!!!]

Search Spike in the Gallery. There are 4 pages with videos

[Tim71]

If you favor the pulling over the knee method the thing that helped me get more degrees using that method is this. I'm right handed and I pulled it around my right knee. If I got stuck I'd position my left arm a little more in and maybe even try to brace it against my left leg then I'd have more to pull with my stronger right arm. Kinda tough to describe and it was no miracle cure but it would get me a little more. Sometimes too swapping hands and putting the head in your other hand would shake things up. That would sometimes do it for me when I used that style.

Tim

[MrZsasz]

If you favor the pulling over the knee method the thing that helped me get more degrees using that method is this. I'm right handed and I pulled it around my right knee. If I got stuck I'd position my left arm a little more in and maybe even try to brace it against my left leg then I'd have more to pull with my stronger right arm. Kinda tough to describe and it was no miracle cure but it would get me a little more. Sometimes too swapping hands and putting the head in your other hand would shake things up. That would sometimes do it for me when I used that style.

Tim

See, though I have many videos saved and watched, it's things like this that made me ask the question. Another tip I am going to put to use, thanks.

[MrZsasz]

Here's another question, what about hand placement? When you are starting the bend, pulling up against the knee, how do all of you hold the bar? Do you just pull with the first couple of fingers or do you pull with the bar totally in your hand? And do you grip the bar hard or just sort of hook the fingers over bar to pull with i.e. not really using the thumb? Got thinking about this as I was reading the responses and watching a few vids.......

[AP]

I put my hands pretty far out to the end, maybe three fingers on the bar. Another thing, and this goes for all types of bending where you use padding, your wraps should be on as tight as possible. Good, Tight wraps really allow you to get more force into the bend.