Guest Squat More Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Most people who know me know that I am a thinker. I always think about things, and one of them is grip training. I am always looking for ways to improve efficiency in my training and even others training. Doing this has helped me reach feats in grip in short periods of time, but never without advice from much stronger men than myself as well. I just utilized their advice, like Laine Snook on volume work with the Rolling Thunder being an example, or David Horne and Kody Burns' advice on high frequency training in regards to the two hand Europinch with variances in total volume a session. I lifted the blob after a few weeks of focused training with only a band deloader, ramp drags and doing cleans with a 32# hex block. I am not too far away from 100 kilos on the Europinch (currently at 99 kilos) with two hands and not too far away from 50 kilos in 1hp (48.30 kilos) in maybe 40 days of owning a euro, not having done much focused pinch training previously aside from the aforementioned blob.I chalk this up to (no pun intended) really thinking about my training, paying attention to technique and set up, eliminating things I find useless and optimizing the useful methods, exercises and equipment I have at my disposal. Now before you roll your eyes and think I am some blowhard trying to toot his own horn, that isn't what this post is about. It is actually about the Rolling Thunder / FBBC Crusher / Arne Persson's 60mm Rolling handle or any kind of rolling one arm deadlift habndle and a lifting technique employed by Alexey "Tank" Tyukalov - who to my knowledge is a man who does not have abnormally large / long hands like many other former record holders in the Rolling Thunder, or other guys who are also just plain strong in it.I may or may not have made mention of this in the past in previous replies to threads but I always noticed that when Alexey trains he employs a drop squat lift technique that includes a slightly bent arm - of course this does require strong, trained biceps as well as thickbar grip strength. Anyone who has watched videos of him lifting on the Rolling Thunder or other rolling handles will know what I am talking about. With that said, I also noticed the and have tested this technique out - Alexey's wrist and hand position, specifically the fingers at the point he attempts to break the weight he is lifting off the floor is optimized - his fingers are much more "underneath" the handle than many others. For the average sized handed person, thickbar could easily be considered a medium width pinch lift, but Alexey has obviously found a technique that allows him total body power (legs, back, hips, arms (biceps), grip and lats) to lift the kind of weight he lifts. Videos of this can be view HERE, HERE (Robert Baraban rolling handle) and HERE (Current RT world record) Now a few days ago I tested out this "technique" where I drop my hips down into a half squat, keep my arm slightly bent and curl my wrist a tiny bit to get my fingers under the handle a bit more, for optimal leverage. I did this because Martin Arildsson sent me a gift from Sweden, it is a 60mm diameter Rolling Handle made by Arne Persson, also from Sweden. I loaded up three 45# plates along with my Iron Mind Olympic loading pin on December 9th, the weight was a hair over 140# total (my cast iron plates are not actually 45# but between 45.5 and 47#) - I easily lited this weight on the Rolling thunder, while the stainless steel rolling handle from Martin kept the weight glued to the ground. It spins on ball bearings, far more challenging than the Rolling Thunder or the FBBC Crusher - this is NOT a knock on either piece of equipment I must point out.The next day (December 10th) I wanted "revenge" on this handle and wanted to break 150 pounds from the ground, I utilized the technique I have seen Alexey use in the past and even with a somewhat sore forearm from the day before failing multiple times on the Swedish handle, I lifted 151 pounds on it, I attribute this to "the technique" I mention in this post. I followed it up with 146# lifts with both hands with a competition quality lockout at the top.In Summary, I don't think this technique negates the spin of the handle as much as it optimizes the average hand sized persons leverages by allowing the fingers to get under the handle better at lift off, before the weight causes the hand/wrist/arm to straighten out slightly. Now, of course this technique would be considered dangerous for both the wrist and the bicep if one attempted it on a regular basis with near max or max weight but I believe like with anything, building technique up from the ground and a strong base, with a bit of extra thickbar curls for bicep and wrist strength, guys who have been stuck at certain weights in these types of lifts could see gains in the future. I am always for optimizing technique, Russians have always been famous for this too - in almost any strength sport. I discussed this with Chris Rice in a good long hour chat about training, equipment, life, trapping etc yesterday. It was a damn good chat... Anyway, just an observation and long winded post before I eat something and get ready for today's Europinch training. Thanks for reading... if anyone got this far. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Massey Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Sounds like great advise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstagripp Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Thanks for putting this up Bro! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_wigren Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Interesting observation Jon! But you can't use that technique in competition with the LGC-60mm handle, Arne's rules are against it, knuckles have to be pointing straight forward during the entire lift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Squat More Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 (edited) Good to know David, thing is: I don't plan to compete in the LGC with this handle - I just plan to use it to improve strength as it spins more than any other handle I've ever come across, so I am not too concerned about it.EDIT: Arne also showed me those nice (pvc?) coated loading pins he makes. I gotta get one of those, not just for this handle but the rolling thunder, a plastic coated metal core loading pin is an ingenious idea for protecting the handles of things like this, the RT and so on. Edited December 14, 2013 by Squat More Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IROC-Z Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 That Swedish revolving handle sounds interesting. Any chance you could post a picture? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Squat More Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Let me know if these pics work Todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IROC-Z Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Jon, that's a great looking deadlift handle. I can easily understand why you'd be worried about letting it smash into the side of a loading pin. I always put a piece of foam pipe insulation over the loading pin once the plates are on, and that seems to do a pretty decent job of protecting the handle. Would you happen to know if those handles are available for sale someplace on the net? I did a Google search, but didn't really find anything. Would love to have one of those beauties! Thanks for sharing the pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Squat More Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 ToddI asked Arne if he had a website for his equipment and he said he does not, though you can look him up on Facebook (Arne Persson) or maybe contact Martin Arildsson here on the gripboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electron Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 After reading a thread about this topic a year ago, I decided to kick off my training in thickbar by using this technique exclusively. I use it every single rep on the RT, and when my thumbs get tired on the Axle, as well. Although I can't say my numbers for either are great, I can say that this technique helps you compensate for a weak link by using other body parts. For most people, the thumb is the weak link in thickbar. When setting up bent, the bicep and especially the wrist flexion keeps your hand from spinning out. Because the whole arm is bent, the wrist appears neutral too, giving you more leeway in keeping more surface area near the center of gravity. As my attempts get heavier I don't see any problems it would pose for the arm, unless jerking movements are used the stress involved is less than in Armwrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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