2012 August - World's Strongest Hands - Chez

[Chez]

Even though I'm not 100% I decided to compete in world's strongest hands Yesterday. He is a quick write up of the events.

Event 1 - Vulcan V2 with a 20mm block set: I started having trouble setting the higher levels with my tendons still sore. I ended up getting Level 16 on my last attempt but I had to give it everything because the set was wide. Kinda of pissed because I know I can get level 17 easy when healthy and I wanted to make a run at level 18 with contest adrenaline. oh well. Its more important to heal up.

Event 2 - wrist developer: This was the event that scared me the most. It creates a lot of torque on the arms and shoulders and right now I can't take that kind of stress. Every time I tried this device this week, my arms flared up and I had hours of pain. My arms starting to act up a little after the Vulcan, so I took more Ibuprofen and kept them warm. I decided to skip this event entirely. I didn't want to risk injury or be in pain for hours.

Event 3 - adjustable thick bar: First time I have tried this piece of equipment. I was going to skip it after the Vulcan because my arms acted up and I was worried of tearing something by putting heavy strain on my arm. I decided to give it a shot anyway since the Ibuprofen I took after the Vulcan started kicking in. I also used my right arm even though my left is stronger on thick bar. My left took most of the abuse on the vulcan from setting so I wanted to rest it. I ended up with 184+ using the second largest handle (about rolling thunder sized).

Event 4 - Stub: Been using my ghetto version in training. This was the event that scared me the least. Its pretty hard to get hurt on this since the device doesn't let you lift a lot of weight. I ended up lifting about 39.4 lbs on my third lift. I went up 2.5 lbs on my 4th attempt and missed. I should have made a smaller jump to break in the 40+ range. Oh well. At least I know how to do this lift now. I saw it in the medley at nationals and had no idea how to grab it.

Note: I was just happy I could compete and get experience on these events. The world of grip events aren't contested much in U.S. grip comps but they sometimes show up in medleys. I'm going to continue to heal up this week. I may do cardio and lower body lifting tomorrow. I'm going to continue to hold off on upper body lifting and grip for a couple days until my arm soreness is completely gone.

Once I get back into grip training, my focus is going to be certing on the IM red nail. Its time to accomplish this goal. No more messing around.