Troy's Bending Log!

[Slider454]

Hi guys, as some of you may have read in the bending forum, I am trying to get back into a little bit of bending. Also I will prolly post some other grip work in this here and there. I have deemed Tuesday's as being my Bending day of the week. I hurt myself by doing to much too fast the last time. So its going to just be 1 day a week for me for quite a while. I will throw in some grippers and pinching in here on other days, but for now I'm just focusing on bending, untill I get some new kewl grippers from ironmind, like the 2.5 and the 3.5 wished they had these about 2 years ago!!! Well enough talking, let me tell you where I stand on my bending!!

Partly focusing on bending in all styles so that I dont burn my shoulders out on doing just DO bending. Just to kinda get an idea as to where I still stand I grabbed some grade 2 bolts of 6" and 5" lengths, also dug up some of my 60D bright common nails.

After some good stretching, and doing several minutes of swinging my arms round in circles to get the blood flowing I wraped up a 6" grade 2. I killed this thing in all the 3 styles I used, DO 1st, then DU 2nd, and also reverse. The same was for the 5" grade 2, these things are like butter!

So I decided it was time for the 60D, I wanted to try reverse style on these puppies first just to remember how tough they were. I got it in about 30 seconds in reverse style, also about 30 DU style, and just around 10 secs DO style. I noticed right away that I am still much stronger using DO but I just dont want to burn my shoulders up to quickly. After hitting these few nails, I decided to cut some 60D's down to size, took 2 of them to 5.5" and cut 2 of the to 5". I bent one 5.5 with reverse style, felt about the same as a 6" to me. I bent the other 5.5 DO style and it also felt about the same as 6". So I went to the 5" ones and I couldnt quite get it to the crush down width with the reverse style, that extra 1/2" seems to do a good bit. But I did take both of the 5" ones down all the way with DO. After six 60D's and 2 grade 2 bolts I called it enough. Ironically I felt great, not pain in either shoulder. I actually felt real good there afterwards, this kinda scares me a bit because I know I will want to keep going and going. I had to fight off the urge to goto the hardware store and buy me some Grade 5 bolts. I will keep it at this pace and not bend no more than 8 nails in a sitting at least untill a few weeks go by. It will be hard to limit myself to just 1 day of bending but I am going to take it slow. Maybe in the first week of December I will grabe me some Grade 5's and see where I stand with these babies!!!

[bencrush]

Nice work Troy! You're going to thank yourself for getting back into it slowly. Very wise choice. I'm sure you'll kill the G5s too. Then on to the G8 again.

[Slider454]

Nice work Troy! You're going to thank yourself for getting back into it slowly. Very wise choice. I'm sure you'll kill the G5s too. Then on to the G8 again.

Thanks Ben, Its just a matter of not picking up my pads and bending more stuff than I need to right now! I hope to get my cert fot the red by my 30th Bday which will be June 6th so that will be my goal for now!!! And hopefully I wont get hurt in the process!

[bencrush]

Nice work Troy! You're going to thank yourself for getting back into it slowly. Very wise choice. I'm sure you'll kill the G5s too. Then on to the G8 again.

Thanks Ben, Its just a matter of not picking up my pads and bending more stuff than I need to right now! I hope to get my cert fot the red by my 30th Bday which will be June 6th so that will be my goal for now!!! And hopefully I wont get hurt in the process!

Do you care which style you cert in, or are you targeting one style over the others?

[Slider454]

Nice work Troy! You're going to thank yourself for getting back into it slowly. Very wise choice. I'm sure you'll kill the G5s too. Then on to the G8 again.

Thanks Ben, Its just a matter of not picking up my pads and bending more stuff than I need to right now! I hope to get my cert fot the red by my 30th Bday which will be June 6th so that will be my goal for now!!! And hopefully I wont get hurt in the process!

Do you care which style you cert in, or are you targeting one style over the others?

Right now I just want to shoot for the cert. After doing a bit of diggin and watching other ppls DO form, I have come to the conclusion that my form is what hurt my shoulder. I was holding the bar high like everyone else, but instead of having my thumbs face my body, my thumbs stayed facing up toward my head, and inturn I was pushing down with my shoulders. Instead of out away from my body. I will try to keep my form better and see how this feels, maybe it wont put so much strain on my shoulders and kinda put some of the weight on my back muscles!! If you dont care Ben, watch the video that I have in my gallery and u can see what I mean about my placement of my hands, and the direction in which I move my arms and give me some pointers.

[Slider454]

Brought out the Ole Heavy Hammer II tonight and blew the dust off it lol. Decided to do something tonight to pass the time, and this is a great tool to have beside the couch and just hammer out some reps during commercials HA!

But heres how it goes!!

Did 3 sets of 10 on each hand in all directions with 7 1/2 pounds on the bar, with the 5 pound plate being the farthest out, meaning the 2 1/2 plate was closer to my hand which makes it a bit tougher without adding more plates.

Started off righty, which is much stronger than my lefty.

Started with the front levers, man do these burn, and are quite tough with a modest 7 1/2 pounds on this thing.

10 reps x 3 right

10 reps x 3 left

Then went to reverse lever. These are much easier than the front lever, and I could have added more weight, but couldnt round up the plates, the wifey must have "put them up somewhere"

10 reps x 3 right

10 reps x 3 left

Now comes the hard ones, the sideways rotations, man these are killer! I started off with the 7 1/2 and musterd out a set of 10 with each. Then had to lower down to just 5 pounds to finish the other 2 sets.

10 reps x 1 with 7 1/2#'s right

10 reps x 1 with 7 1/2#'s left

10 reps x 2 with 5 pounds right

10 reps x 2 with 5 pounds left.

I will be incorporating alot of wrist work into this log, and much more grip work once I break down and buy the stuff that I need. I have a few hex block weights that need some use, maybe I will get to those on friday. I know so far this is slow and not much work, but I am getting back into this slowly, and focusing more on form, and staying healthy this time around!!

[Slider454]

Finally got back into a little bending after the Holidays. Just didnt have no time for bending when you have all that eatin to do!!! Well Went down to the Hardware store and picked me up another box of Grip Rite 60D bright commons. Surprisenly these are a good bit tougher than my older box of the same brand, which is cool to me. Also picked up ten 6"x1/4 Grade 5's and ten 6"x1/4 Grade 8's.

Started off with some mild stretching, and shoulder rotations and wraped up a few 60's

Got em all with DO in little time, bout 10 sec's. Was feeling pretty good, no tension in the shoulders or pain(which is great).

Decided that I should try the ole grade 5. Was pumping myself up for this, remebering that these are kinda tough. So I slammed into it, and was surprised but the kink on these was about the same as my 60's, although the crush was much tougher!!! Did 2 of these and took a good 5 minute break.

Came back and just thought maybe I have the grade 8's in me. I wrapped one up, and was basically preparing myself for failure. But I still hit it with intensity, and I felt it move a good bit, hit it again and got it to the Crush down, and then I rememberd just how hard these springy bastards are to crush, but I got the bitch down to under 2"s in less than a minute and I was thrilled. It took quite a bit out of me which was expected. So I hit 2 more 60's and felt myself wearing out. So I called it quits there for the day!!

Then I was surfing the Gripboard here and found a thread about shoulder dislocation stretches. Someone saying that it really helpd a friend of theirs get rid of some nagging pain from injuries when all else failed. While reading this I did notice just some mild pain in my shoulders, and thought I would give these a try with the ole broomstick. Man I didnt realize how tight my shoulders were, I barely got the stick over my head and behind my back. When I did I heard some poping and grinding and brought the stick back up and did this 3 or 4 good times and almost immediately the pain in my shoulders went away, and they have not felt this good EVER!!! I will be incorporateing this into my bending before and after each workout!!!! These are great, if you have never tried them, I suggest trying it! Coming from a guy that has had major shoulder surgery, these are awesome!!!

[bencrush]

Good job Troy! G8 after a long layoff and you've hammered it home already! Excellent work man.

[Slider454]

Good job Troy! G8 after a long layoff and you've hammered it home already! Excellent work man.

Thanks Ben, it feels great. Today after bending the G8 I have some muscle soreness, this is a great feeling to me. The fact that my muscle are sore and i am not hurting from injury means I will be getting stronger. Now if I can just lay off the bending for the rest of the week and work on other stuff!!!! I am glad to say that I am getting real good at closing the #3 with the MM set, maybe I will get the MM0 cert and shoot for doing a double IM cert on the red and the #3 before my June 6th Bday!!!

[bencrush]

A double Ironmind cert is a heck of a goal man. Best of luck/strength on that.

[Slider454]

Havent bent much in the past few days, as the only wraps I have are some old Blue Jeans cut up and they are wearing out. Although that makes for some tough hands, but also makes for longer recoveries in the bending sessions!!! I have been hitting the grippers and levering quite hard though. Other day at the shop I hit the 10# sledge for a few levers from vertical to the forehead, this makes for a good show of the ppl at work!!! Have worked back up to 6 full reps on the supermaster with the right hand. Getting better at hitting the #3 with a MM set almost anytime I pick it up!!! Tonight I hit the heavy hammer II pretty hard, I am up to 10 pounds on this beast with forward lever and rear lever on each hand with 3 sets of 10. I will be looking at hitting 12.5 pounds soon!! Still only at 7.5 pounds with the side to side levers on each hand!! Well I will add more to this probably on Tuesday for my next Bending session!!

[Slider454]

Alright guys, I went against my word that I wouldnt bend untill tuesday. I was feeling good and strong today, and hit a few of my tough 60's, then nailed a grade 5 6x1/4, and thought about trying to hit the 6x5/16 grade 2, and my buddy at work said dont think about it just do it ya pu**y so I wrapped it up and hit it and the bitch went, and went well with in the 1 minute time limit!!! I am real Stoked!!! I dont know for sure where the Grade 2's calibrate to the reds, but I dont think its very far from it!!!

[Slider454]

Havent posted on this in a few, but Its not cause I havent been training lol!!

Been hitting the heavy hammer II alot, Got the wrist strength up pretty well. I find this is helping my bending tremendously!!

Been working the pinch grip. Giving that 37 pound block weight a few rides. Doing a lot of passing back an forth. Some cleans with the right hand, cant quite clean it with the lefty, but its coming up!!

Got me a 1.5 CoC for the left hand as My BB master proved to be just a bit to much for me lefty. Can get 10 nice closes with it. Been attemping the CC set close of my #3. Can get it to within a credit card width almost anytime I pick it up!! I can MM set close this thing everytime I pick it up. I can see my certs in the near future!!!! I will get back on track with this log, and my training!