Secret Weapon

[Malice]

My negative machine (secret weapon) just showed up from GSS and I got it put together. Only took about 2 minutes and no instructions needed My hands are smoked from a tough gripper and RT workout yesterday/last night so I loaded 60 lbs on the pin and gave it a try. 60 lbs was pretty heavy. I think it's a 2:1 ratio so it equals 120 lbs. The height of the machine is such that there's only a couple inches of travel which is perfect since it's pretty much designed to work the close anyway and not the sweep. I'm glad I don't have to modify it to reduce the range of motion like I thought I was going to have to. The removable handles are also great. It'll be easier to grind the top one down for BTR at work tonight. It doesn't take up quite as much room as I was anticipating either yet it's plenty big enough to keep stable.

First impression: a very well built piece that IMO is a great bang for the buck. I plan on using it for heavy negatives on my Friday workouts and I'll update this after I've actually used it in a workout. Bring on the pain

[Cannon]

If you want to reduce the ROM, there is no need to modify, just put a phone book under the weight stack

[Wade Gillingham]

If you want to reduce the ROM, there is no need to modify, just put a phone book under the weight stack

We set the chain length so you can have a short ROM or longer if you choke up a link or two. I jack the front up about 2 inches with a board to save my wrists. As far as weight 60 is a pretty good load to start with. I've been up over 100 for my last set. I usually start at 35 for a 10 second hold and add 10 pounds and keep doing holds and adding 10 pounds until it becomes a "negative". Good luck!

[Cannon]

Wade makes a good point. I think it's very important to do reps where the weight is heavy, but you're holding the handles shut to start.

[Malice]

If you want to reduce the ROM, there is no need to modify, just put a phone book under the weight stack

We set the chain length so you can have a short ROM or longer if you choke up a link or two. I jack the front up about 2 inches with a board to save my wrists. As far as weight 60 is a pretty good load to start with. I've been up over 100 for my last set. I usually start at 35 for a 10 second hold and add 10 pounds and keep doing holds and adding 10 pounds until it becomes a "negative". Good luck!

Thanks for the tip on the workout Wade! I was just going to load it up with a weight that I could only hold for a couple seconds and keep doing negatives until I couldn't hold it closed at all. Your way sounds better though cuz it'll give my hands a chance to warm up on the way to the heavy negs.

Thanks for a top notch piece of equipment!! I took it to work last night and ground the top handle down for BTR and I almost want to move my workout up from Friday to today so I can try it out but I'll hold out hahaha.

[Malice]

Well I just finished my first SW workout. I did like Wade said and started at 30 lbs holding for about 10 seconds. Increased weight 5 lbs each time as my hands warmed up and ended up at a working weight of 65 lbs. Initially I was able to hold the BTR'd handles closed for about 2 seconds before it started opening then at points was able to stop the opening. By the 5th negative it was a slow but steady open that took about 4 seconds or so. Does this sound like a decent SW workout? It worked the hell outta my hands but felt pretty good. By the way when I grip the handles I hold them open and wrap my fingers around the lower as I would with a gripper and then raise the lower handle. I tried raising it all the way then wrapping my hand around it but when I let go with the other hand it felt like my hand was going to explode. Besides I figure I would work this the same way a gripper would pull on the hand.

[Malice]

I jack the front up about 2 inches with a board to save my wrists.

I just did this and it made a HUGE difference!!

[maidenfan]

Nice job dude, I have one of the original SW's from Joe Kinney and its a total mental machine.