Evan's Grip Strength And Bodyweight Training

[Evan Raftopoulos]

this is a challenge by three ball climbing, so far I think I'm no 1, the challenge ends next week and the winner gets $250 worth of their products 

 

[Evan Raftopoulos]

from today's training the ultimate cliffhanger 

 

[Evan Raftopoulos]

some more one arm chin-up action from yesterday's training

 

[Evan Raftopoulos]

I put some of my vids on instagram and made my profile public initially for the threeballclimbing challenges. So far I'm no 1 for the one hand deadhang challenge on the slippery Gumball (43 sec) and it ends tonight! the prize is $250 cash or gear

https://www.instagram.com/evanraft/

Edited March 6, 2016 by Evan Raftopoulos

[vickg]

Hopefully you get it! That's some more grip gear lol. 

[Evan Raftopoulos]

thanks man, yea I think I won, not officially posted yet but no body came close to 43 sec. 

 

from today's training after obstacle course comp 

 

Edited March 7, 2016 by Evan Raftopoulos

[Evan Raftopoulos]

So I won that challenge

and I also won this one

 

[Evan Raftopoulos]

from training today

 

[David_wigren]

Dude! Those 15 one arm pullups was BEAST! You're a damn animal my friend!

[Evan Raftopoulos]

 

16 hours ago, David_wigren said:

Dude! Those 15 one arm pullups was BEAST! You're a damn animal my friend!

thank you David, that's the max I ever did alternating L and R. It was also after an obstacle course competition and after I've done a few one arm chin ups already until I decided to test my max.  The rest you get on one arm while the other is working makes a big difference vs doing consecutive one arm pullups with only one arm. Consecutive one arm my max is 6 on the eagle loops. 

hope you destroy that MM2 bro! 

Edited March 12, 2016 by Evan Raftopoulos

[Evan Raftopoulos]

 

 

small part of today's training

Edited March 13, 2016 by Evan Raftopoulos

[Evan Raftopoulos]

this is from training yesterday:

So I got a call last week and was invited to compete in American Ninja Warrior season 8. I'm competing in LA the beginning of April! Today an ANW producer called me and asked me more details about my application including some questions about Grip Sport! I tried to explain to him a few things about it, I talked about the gripboard and also referred him to gripsport.org 

Edited March 15, 2016 by Evan Raftopoulos

[Jeff Parker]

Wow Evan your on a roll!  Impressive stuff everyday!  Congrats on the threeball challenge win and more importantly getting the invite for ANW.  Keep rocking!

[Evan Raftopoulos]

4 hours ago, Jeff Parker said:

Wow Evan your on a roll!  Impressive stuff everyday!  Congrats on the threeball challenge win and more importantly getting the invite for ANW.  Keep rocking!

thank you brother! 

[Evan Raftopoulos]

from today's training. Really happy I was able to hang and do some pullups on the 2" block. Also tested max muscle-ups after bouldering. 

 

 

 

 

 

[patrickmeniru]

Awesome job with the training, inspirational stuff - and congrats on ANW! Looking forward to seeing you take it on.

[Evan Raftopoulos]

some clips from training this week

here's the link for the muscle-ups, goal is to get close to the world record this year, which I believe is ~26 with relatively good form and no rest

work with choked grippers, after having a minor injury at the base of my right middle finger I couldn't close gripers full range of motion and haven't trained for couple of months but training with choked grippers felt great, no pain 

 

I tried this before and I didn't think I could do thumbless 1h chin on RT but it happened today

tomorrow I'm competing at a local ninja comp with many other west coast ninja warrior competitors and veterans.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Evan Raftopoulos

[Evan Raftopoulos]

On 3/18/2016 at 8:46 AM, patrickmeniru said:

Awesome job with the training, inspirational stuff - and congrats on ANW! Looking forward to seeing you take it on.

thank you brother! 

[David_wigren]

Good luck at the local comp Evan!

[Evan Raftopoulos]

7 minutes ago, David_wigren said:

Good luck at the local comp Evan!

thank you David! I'll try to take some vids and post here. 

[Evan Raftopoulos]

haven't updated this in a while. Ninja warrior didn't work out for me this year, I competed in LA qualifiers but didn't make it to the finals, no need to say it wasn't because of my grip, just missed the dismount by couple inches on a weird new obstacle. I trained based on the last years course and also I haven't practiced as much dynamic/parkour stuff. People tell me to do less one arm pullups or grip and practice that stuff more but that's not really what I enjoy doing. For now my focus is getting ready for competing in grip, continue with arm wrestling, and some goals I have for pullups/muscle ups.  

I competed this past weekend at Patterson Ca and was undefeated both hands 0-165 amateur division (I'm at about 150lb). Luke Kindt mentioned that it might be a good idea to drop to 65k and compete pro. I'd like to do that also do compete in 66k for King Kong. My goal with that is to set the class WR for the V bar and 2.5 crusher. I'm also going after the WR for consecutive strict muscle-ups. I've done 20 and the current record is 25. I believe dropping a few pounds will help with that as well. 

anyway, here some vids I have put up on my youtube, first one from Patterson arm wrestling tournament, the other from the SJ fit expo two weeks ago, third one is a gripper workout from last month.

 

[Sam Radford]

You're looking very strong Evan! 

[David_wigren]

Damn you dominated that AW tournament! I think dropping to 65 k and going pro is a great idea! 

[Evan Raftopoulos]

11 hours ago, Sam Radford said:

You're looking very strong Evan! 

thanks bro!

8 hours ago, David_wigren said:

Damn you dominated that AW tournament! I think dropping to 65 k and going pro is a great idea! 

thanks David! Some of the people in the amateur have been competing in pro for a few years too, but some of the 0-165 in the open/pro division look pretty strong and don't know how I'll be against them. A lot of guys usually drop right to 165 before the comps so they are 15 lb heavier.  

[David_wigren]

39 minutes ago, Evan Raftopoulos said:

thanks bro!

thanks David! Some of the people in the amateur have been competing in pro for a few years too, but some of the 0-165 in the open/pro division look pretty strong and don't know how I'll be against them. A lot of guys usually drop right to 165 before the comps so they are 15 lb heavier.  

The way I see it, the harder the competition is the faster you progress. I went pro after my first amateur contest where I ran through everyone just like you did. After that I entered the pro division and got steam rolled! Two quick losses and I was out, ended up dead last. But you know what? It just motivated me to train harder for the next contest where I won one match before I got out, ended up around the middle of the pack. My next contest is next month and I plan to win at least two matches before I'm eliminated.