What's Good On An Im Hub?

[rolf]

How good do you guys reckon a 20 kg / 44 lbs. (incl. handle and loading pin) deadlift on the IronMind Hub is? I just surpassed 15 kg / 33 lbs. and almost got 17 kg / 37.4 lbs. I realised that magic 20 / 44 is not that far away.

[twig]

Anything you couldn't do yesterday!

[Cannon]

I think that's damn good. I find it to be very smooth and more difficult than the plate equivalent. For example, I think it's easier to hub an actual 25lb plate than do 25lbs on the IM Hub. Great job.

[OldGuy]

I found it to feel very different to an actual plate hub lift. I could lift more using the IM hub. Never liked the IM hub, and now that I have some suitable plates only use those.

[Niels]

I think 20 kg on the IM hub is very good. I can easily hublift a 20 kg Hamptonplate lefty and righty but the same weight with the IM hub is a damn fight.

Edit:

When you lift with the IM hub don´t use too much chalk!

Edited August 2, 2007 by Niels

[maidenfan]

It depends on how your fingers are placed on the hub. Tips of the fingers and thumb only - I'd say a good lift. If you're "clawing" with the ring and pinky fingers - not as good obviously.

[lifesnotfair]

It depends on how your fingers are placed on the hub. Tips of the fingers and thumb only - I'd say a good lift. If you're "clawing" with the ring and pinky fingers - not as good obviously.

So on a normal plate hub lift, you don't use your pinky and ring fingers?

[superfeemiman]

It depends on how your fingers are placed on the hub. Tips of the fingers and thumb only - I'd say a good lift. If you're "clawing" with the ring and pinky fingers - not as good obviously.

So on a normal plate hub lift, you don't use your pinky and ring fingers?

I think he means if you wrap it around the hub.

[lone Wolf]

It depends on how your fingers are placed on the hub. Tips of the fingers and thumb only - I'd say a good lift. If you're "clawing" with the ring and pinky fingers - not as good obviously.

So on a normal plate hub lift, you don't use your pinky and ring fingers?

I think he means if you wrap it around the hub.

What he means is there are guys with big enough hands use a v-bar style grip

I use a claw grip and have pulled 53 lbs. in training but so far have only 48 lbs in 2 contests

40 lbs is a very good I use 1 1/4 lb. Oly. plates and 2" washers about 5/8 lb. to micro load it

[rolf]

Thanks for all the replies! It seems 20 kg /44 lbs. is a worthy goal. That'll take 17.7 kg / 39 lbs. worth of plates on the pin.

I lift with fingertips only, my hands are nowhere near big enough for a V-bar style grip.

[lifesnotfair]

Thanks for all the replies! It seems 20 kg /44 lbs. is a worthy goal. That'll take 17.7 kg / 39 lbs. worth of plates on the pin.

I lift with fingertips only, my hands are nowhere near big enough for a V-bar style grip.

My hands are on the small side, so I couldn't do that V-bar style of grip on it. I think that defeats the purpose of the device, though.

[maidenfan]

The plates generally are easier due to the gussetts on the hub (to jam your fingers in). In addition, the powder coating on the IM Hub makes it a lot slicker.

[lifesnotfair]

I have Sport Authority 25lb plates, I have not tried to hub lift them, I think... but I think I can't. I can do at least 30lb on the hub, or so I think... this post got me curious, I will try next time.

[Hubgeezer]

The IronMind Hub, been doing it for more than 8 years. Have been in 6 contests where it was an event. I am 4-2, and my two losses came when the opponent used the Vertical Bar technique. I do not use the Vertical Bar technique, and the only times I have tried it in my garage I got around 45 using it. Based on others weighing in on this board, at least 90% believes the "claw method" is legitimate, and the "vertical bar" technique is a separate event. I don't complain or grumble about anyone's techniqe in a contest, but if you are talking about records, or comparing apples to oranges, the v-bar technique is not the same thing. Dan Praydis and his son, as well as Thor (Adam Demnowics) can do some MONSTER numbers using v-bar technique.

That being said, here are some other comments:

1. Like a lot of things, ability is more learned than natural on this event. Practice makes perfect, and you can practically double your lifts in 6 months time.

2. Including the weight of the device, I have never seen, out of perhaps 30 different competitors, some of them 100% inexperienced, pull less than 35 pounds in a contest. The techniques have been all over the map.

3. Those of us that are IM Hub freaks can do way better on the IM Hub than real hubs.

4. I consider 45 respectable, and 50 a good lift. The herd REALLY thins out at 60. I don't think there are 10 people who even "claim" to have done 70 using the claw method.

5. There is a small minority (Maidenfan possibly in that camp) who believe in purity, fingertips only, and using the claw method, in which the pinkie sweeps back slightly stabilizing or balancing the device is a bastardization of the spirit of the lift. I don't agree. Hub lifting started in gyms over 50 years ago by grasping hubs of barbell plates. The "v-bar" method was impossible, so I would imagine the guys positioned and wedged their fingers any way they could. I seriously doubt if John Grimek, who allegedly was the witness to Steve Stanko lifting over 90 pounds total weight, small plates stacked on a York 45, saying, "Steve, I am not going to allow that, I saw more than your pinkie's finger tip touching the hub that time".

6. That (#5 above) being said, Maidenfan is right. If you are using fingertips only, and not a "claw", 30 to 40 pounds is outstanding. It would be like deadlifting with your index and middle fingers only. I would expect that to go from "fingertips" to "claw" would add 20 pounds.

7. My best lifts in competition are 63 left and 73 right. Without witnesses, without photos, without video, I have done approximately 129 left and 167 right handed, in my garage, on my 83rd birthday.

8. Chalk and the IronMind Hub. In 1999, after 3 months, I could lift 35 pounds of plates (device weighed a little over 2). I purchased some chalk. In 15 minutes, I did 37.5, 40, 42.5, 45, 47.5, and 50. I like to wipe the device clean, but to have lots of chalk on my hands, ground into the skin well, nothing flaking off. I will sometimes bring my own towel to obssessively wipe the device clean before my attempt. Training without chalk may be a plus. When you go for a PR, with chalk on your hands, you feel like Clark Kent transformed into Superman.

9. In 1999 and 2000, when I was relatively new to the Hub, I frequently would apply so much pressure in training that the sides of my fingers would bleed from my fingernails digging into the skin. I had never met another grip guy, contests did not exist in America, and the Gripboard was not around. I simply wanted to lift more.

10. My fingers have toughened, but in early 2007 something snapped on my right ring finger while lifting 65, and I took a 6 month layoff. I still have pain, but my hub lift has risen from around 15 pounds (that was how bad it was) to 45. When I start to pick up 50, it feels like something is going to break again. I currently do 2 reps of 40, 2 reps of 45, test 50, wait a week, and try it again.

I like the IM Hub. Although I am much more impressed with plate hub lifting, it seems to me to be the only way to "standardize" the event if one were keeping records or running contests.

This post is way too long, but I have probably invested more time in the device than anyone else, saw the thread and discussion, and could not resist.

IM Hubgeezer

[OldGuy]

Hubgeezer, how are you on hublifting plates rather than the I.M. hub?

[maidenfan]

I have no preference either way, as long as everybody at the contest does it the same way. I did a grip contest in 2002 where the IM Hub was a lift. I used the fingertips and got ~25-30lbs iirc. I couldnt figure out why everybody else was so much higher, but then realized they were wrapping the ring and pinky fingers around the hub vs. using fingertips only. Its no big deal, but I would have placed better in the contest.

PS - I've never seen anyone so methodical about their pre-lift psych as Hubgeezer - Obviously it paid off in the RT lift

[Hubgeezer]

PS - I've never seen anyone so methodical about their pre-lift psych as Hubgeezer - Obviously it paid off in the RT lift

1. Regarding the above, Morgan, you have never seen me get ready for the Hub. Dustin Hoffman in Rainman comes to my mind, but I have never seen me on camera so I can't be certain.

2. As far as your contest goes, yeah, that would be a bummer to have never touched one and see that type of technique being used. I was self-taught, never saw anyone lift one, but it sounds like the competitors in the contest you speak of used the same style as me. "Claw" is a good description.

3. OldGuy, I am pretty pathetic at plates. I have done high pulls with some deep dish brand Clay Edgin had (45s), but don't own any plates with hubs I can lift, so I don't train them. Stuart R of the Gripboard is real good at extremely shallow hubs. Dan Praydis seems to do well with hubs, IM claw, and IM vbar.

4. Odd Haugen had never really touched an IM Hub, immediately used the v-bar method in a November contest (he saw that's what half the guys were doing) and lifted 73.

[pdfk20]

very interesting stuff Hubgeezer, i might be persuaded into getting loading pin and IM hub.