bencrush Posted November 28, 2010 Share Posted November 28, 2010 Someone else out there is no doubt doing these already and may be calling them something else. At my workplace there are square tube railings that go up 2 flights of stairs. The diameter in one particular area is 2 and 1/8". In another area that I work sometimes, the diameter is 1 and 5/8". I "drag" my hands up the railing in a "pinch grip" on the way up the stairs. And "drag" my hands down the railing in a "pinch grip" on the way down the stairs. I keep both hands lined up with my body (don't let them trail behind my body in other words) and vary the grip from moderately hard to almost max effort. The railings are painted so there isn't much abrasion on my fingertips no matter how hard I pinch them. I'm not using the palm in the pinch grip. Just the finger tips and approximately to the second joint of the fingers. Just to the point where my fingers aren't curled under the square tubing. I don't want to turn it into thick bar drags. I actually started doing these on November 24th. 3 days after my first grip workout after the long layoff. My plan is to re-test my Mouse Pinch max on or slightly before December 24th - the 4-week mark. My pinch workouts will consist solely of these bannister drags. As frequently as I want to do them. No set workout though. I won't do any other pinch training and see if these bannister drags have any carryover to the Mouse Pinch. And if so, how much carryover. The side effect of doing these is a nice pleasant low-level pump in my forearms that lasts throughout the night since I'm doing these bannister drags about every 30 minutes over a 6 to 8-hour period the two workouts I've had so far. It also feels similar to wearing a weighted vest when walking up the stairs - it hits the legs a bit. I think these will increase my Mouse Pinch possibly by up to 10lbs at the end of 4 weeks with no specific 2HP training. The reason I believe this is that the diameters I'm doing the bannister drags on is pretty close to the 48mm I use on the Mouse Pinch. Plus the time under tension is going to be much more than what I'm used to doing in my pinch workouts. I probably spent 3 seconds per single on my last Mouse Pinch max test workout. If I did 6 successful lifts that would only be 18 seconds of tension. Granted, it would be much nearer to max effort than what I'm doing on the bannister drags. But that'll be the interesting part of this test. Whether or not a large increase in time under tension at a much lower intensity will carry over to a max effort single in the Mouse Pinch. Well here are the workout specifics so far... 11-24-10, Wednesday -20 sets of 12-second Bannister Drags on a 2 and 1/8" surface. Both hands simultaneously. 11-28-10, Sunday -26 sets of 6-second Bannister Drags on a 1 and 5/8" surface. Both hands simultaneously. -26 sets of 6-second Bannister Drags on a 2 and 1/8" surface. Both hands simultaneously. I'm anxious to test out the results of this but I'll be sure and wait the entire 4 weeks or very close to it to not skew the results. Will keep everyone posted on this. Edit: My PR on the 47mm Mouse Pinch is 187lbs. Set on 11-21-10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorGrip Posted November 28, 2010 Share Posted November 28, 2010 Ben you have always been a mad scientist when it comes to anything strength related and you can't argue with the results because you have done some great things in the grip game over the years. I love your creativity and I will be monitoring your progress. As you know I am grip equipment poor due to losing all my stuff in a storage unit repossession but you make my creative juices flow trying to figure out what I can do with what I have in the yard or around the house. GOOD LUCK but I tend to believe you make most of your own luck through preperation and hard work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannon Posted November 29, 2010 Share Posted November 29, 2010 Interesting idea Ben! I'm curious to see how the test goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 Have since done Bannister Drags on 12-1-10, 12-5-10, 12-8-10, and am doing some now on the 13th that I'll actually put more detail on later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 12-13-10, Monday -16 sets of 12-second Bannister Drags on a 2 and 1/8" surface. Both hands simultaneously. Could even refer to this type of workout as "Fartlek Pinching". I vary the tension a bit throughout each drag but never go super easy or all-out effort. Total time under tension was 3 minutes and 12 seconds. Considering a once-normal 2HP workout for me consisted of at most 10 singles - probably 30 seconds total time under tension in that kind of workout for me - today's workout was about 6.5 times the total time under tension. Regardless of how the 2HP max test works out on or near Christmas Day, my forearms are responding by becoming slightly (but noticeably) larger than they were a few weeks ago. I've had several people comment on their appearance in the past week and I even noticed a slight difference in the mirror the other day. Not a bad side effect I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted December 16, 2010 Author Share Posted December 16, 2010 12-16-10, Thursday BANNISTER DRAGS -48 sets of 6-second Bannister Drags on a 1 and 5/8" surface. Both hands simultaneously. -16 sets of 6-second Bannister Drags on a 2 and 1/8" surface. Both hands simultaneously. *Notes: Switching things up as far as the width of the pinch drag surface goes. On most of the sets I tried to increase the tension smoothly until the very end of each 6-second drag. I'm kind of enjoying this experiment. If it works and my 2HP increases - it will be pretty cool. If it doesn't work and my 2HP is the same or actually decreases - then it's at least comical that I spent this much time on it to find out it didn't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geofiz Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 (edited) 12-16-10, Thursday BANNISTER DRAGS -48 sets of 6-second Bannister Drags on a 1 and 5/8" surface. Both hands simultaneously. -16 sets of 6-second Bannister Drags on a 2 and 1/8" surface. Both hands simultaneously. *Notes: Switching things up as far as the width of the pinch drag surface goes. On most of the sets I tried to increase the tension smoothly until the very end of each 6-second drag. I'm kind of enjoying this experiment. If it works and my 2HP increases - it will be pretty cool. If it doesn't work and my 2HP is the same or actually decreases - then it's at least comical that I spent this much time on it to find out it didn't work. Hey, if we all knew what worked and didn't experiment, there wouldn't be a point to having this board. Posting here is exactly what this board is made for. Keep up the good work and let us know how it goes... Edited December 16, 2010 by geofiz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted December 16, 2010 Author Share Posted December 16, 2010 Hey, if we all knew what worked and didn't experiment, there wouldn't be a point to having this board. Posting here is exactly what this board is made for. Keep up the good work and let us know how it goes... Thanks man! Exactly my thoughts. It's something to learn from one way or another. Either it works or it doesn't. I really have a feeling it's going to have at least a small positive carryover though. Could really be a breakthrough in training for people that don't have weights available to train with all the time. There are all kinds of variables too that come into play with the bannister drags. Skin toughness is one of them. If my pinch is very hard on the rails it tends to slightly friction burn my fingertips by the end of the 6-second sets. I can eventually counteract that by putting lotion on my hands before doing the bannister drags if it becomes a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odin Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 Great innovation Ben! I'm looking forward to your results on the mouse pinch. Love the "Fartlek Pinching" phrase, I remember that term from my running days. Another great opportunity for a video to make non-grip folks scratch their heads, throw up their hands and exclaim "what's the point?". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubthewonderscot Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 interesting Ben...I've been trying something unrelated but similar of late. I put up a doorway chinup bar in my office, a metolius rock climbing board in office, and a few other things. I set a timer and ever few mintues do a corresponding routine. aka. 15 minutes, do sets of 2 chins, hangs, pushups, etc...if i set the clock that day for 30 minutes, then it's 3 or 4, and on up to an hour apart is near is a sub max effort. trying to correspond my effort to the time between sets. my trips to the climbing wall have been getting better and better. looking forward to the end results....i know your bending negatives took me over the moon in my bending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rico300zx Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 Ben you have always been a mad scientist when it comes to anything strength related and you can't argue with the results because you have done some great things in the grip game over the years. I love your creativity and I will be monitoring your progress. As you know I am grip equipment poor due to losing all my stuff in a storage unit repossession but you make my creative juices flow trying to figure out what I can do with what I have in the yard or around the house. GOOD LUCK but I tend to believe you make most of your own luck through preperation and hard work. dude that blows, are you going to be able to get your stuff back? if anything show up at the auction and buy what u want? Parris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted December 21, 2010 Author Share Posted December 21, 2010 12-21-10, Tuesday BANNISTER DRAGS -18 sets of 6-second Bannister Drags on a 1 and 5/8" surface. Both hands simultaneously. -6 sets of 6-second Bannister Drags on a 2 and 1/8" surface. Both hands simultaneously. *Notes: Volume is down quite a bit from last workout but I pinched a good deal harder on most of these drags so it evens out I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted December 21, 2010 Author Share Posted December 21, 2010 Just realized that I won't have another Bannister Drags workout before testing my max on the Mouse Pinch again. Be nice to see what carryover I get to the 47mm Mouse Pinch setting that I prefer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Parker Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Looking forward to the results Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bencrush Posted December 22, 2010 Author Share Posted December 22, 2010 Looking forward to the results Ben Thanks Jeff! Now I really hope it's not going to be a letdown for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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