Record Of Strength

[Fedaykin01]

what would be a good size/guage/whatever to start with??

[danegarreau]

http://www.geocities.com/ltgodfrey/home.html

read everything on this website at least twice. It is a goldmine of information.

[foggymountainmuscle]

If you haven't bent before, start off with 3/16th CRS or HRS. That's for short bending. But I agree with the website, you need a good level of hand and wrist strength first. First time I went to do some serious short bending I could get anything 3/16th. But that doesn't mean I'm done with that thickness. There is more than one way to bend, and I want to develope my lower arms in every possible manner. If 3/16ths is too little on your first try, try bending it behind your back. Now that's fun!

For long bending I have this iron flat bars I got off some knocked over telephone poles. I can bend and rebend these forever.

03-20-04

Upper body gym workout with my brother

Normal bar bench

1 set of 5 at 135, 1 set of 5 at 185, 3 sets of 5 at 205, didn't make the last two on the last set. I thought I so had it, but then again I was suprised to be doing 205 as a working poundage!

bench lockouts, held for five seconds: triples at 225, 275, and singles at 315 and 335. Kinda felt it in my left wrist a bit too much. Nothing hurt though. I hope to be able to handle these lockouts at a 3 inch thick bar, but first with a 2".

Bent over dumbell rows. 1 set of 5 at 50, 1 set of 5 at 60, 2 sets of 5 at 65. Made them, move up!

Dumbell clean and press, I enjoyed showing these to my brother. 1 set of 5 at 55, 1 set of 5 at 65, 1 set of 3 at 65, 1 set of 2 (more like two singles) at 65. I nearly made one more rep on the last two sets, needed more air in my lungs. I'm not going to run out of gas next time.

Wanted to do bicept but we had to leave.

[Fedaykin01]

Thanks man that awsome. Exactly what I needed.

[danegarreau]

Hey those are some good bench poundages.

[foggymountainmuscle]

Thanks, I was kinda suprised myself when I noticed I was working with 205.

03-22-04

Lower Arm

Warmed up on some trainger closes

2 inch verticle bar lift, IM loadding pin

Warm up with triples at 45 and 90. 1 set of 3 at 115lbs. Maybe I did another set, but 115 got a bit too heavy so I dropped down to 100lbs. and handed the bar off left and right. Did a few more doubles and singles at 115lbs. and maxed out at 125lbs. Hands were pretty toasted.

Ten second holds with outer limits loops at 25lbs. 2 sets of 3 reps, 1 set of 3 reps alternating hands each rep, ended the exercise when I could not get the 25lbs. off the floor.

Wrist plate curls 1 set of 5 at 10lbs, 1 set of 5 at 15, 3 sets of five at 17.5lbs. (not the usual plates, I work with) Go for two 10lbs. plates next time.

Reverse wrist plate curls. 2 warm up sets and 3 sets of 5 at 10lbs. (two fives) Go for 1 ten pound plate next time.

Sledge hammer twist holds for 10 seconds: 3 sets of 3 reps each arm, both directions.

Single finger lifts: pinkies and rings max out at 45, indexes at 70, middle at 100! <-- goal for the training session! Singles held for 5 seconds. 100lbs held for about 3.

Cooled down by rowling up a towel one handed.

[foggymountainmuscle]

03-23-04

Snatch workout

I've decided to try triples instead of singles in my Olympic lifts. I need to hone my form, my pulls are asymmetric and maximum poundages aren't going to fix that. More pulls form the knees and hang snatches. Man I was pissed that I missed at 198lbs., after that I missed at 188, and at 178 which I did made earlier in the workout. My snatch won't get to 225 and my C&J won't get to 275lbs if I don't have good form.

Snatch squats, rock bottom from the rack. Triple at 135, triple at 165, and a double at 195lbs.

Snatch squat lockouts held for 5 seconds: got 345 off the rack, but 325 was the last one I could hold for 5 seconds. That's a 50 pound inprovement from two weeks ago!

I need to wrap my wrist for snatch work, I had to tape them up during the snatch squats.

[foggymountainmuscle]

Stone lifting.

They're some stones on campus that I lifted in various ways according to their size and shape. Did some one hand lifting and tossing with a small stone. Pinch gripped a thinner medium stone, from the top, not from the sides. Tried shouldering a few stones, didn't exactly get them confortably on my shoulder. One stone I tried to shoulder twice, no rest, what a battle. It's quite satisfing knowing that you just worked harder than some people ever will in their lives. I was laying on the ground after that one. Tried pressing some, succeeded with one, came so close with another. Attemped to lift one really big stone, but my hands were too shot to hold on to it.

I want to improve my open palm and finger strength. Going to have to hit the plate curls harder and do some one handed lifting with the ends of dumbells.

I realized I could have lifted more if the stones were not smothering me. I had a friend of mine who weighed 200+ stand on my chest while I took 10 breaths for 3 sets. I feel this exercise has great potential.

[foggymountainmuscle]

03-27-04

SATs in the mourning

Lower arm work at night

Did some light snatches. I think my main technique problem is leading with one foot laterally and/or forward and not the other. If I keep this in mind, I my pulls look much more symmetrical.

Very Thick bar wrist curls sets of 5 at 45, 65, and 85

Reverse curls, sets of 5 at 45, increasing the bar thickness over 3 sets.

Workout was cut short, had to leave.

Did some CoC work on the walk back to the dorm. A few sets of 4 with the number one. And a couple sets of a few number two attempts. Then I did some inverted closes. Went back to the room and did some finger tip pressing, static finger tip pushups, and weight stacked on the back of the fingers.

I planed to do more, but the muscles I did work got used up, so it's alright. Plus my workout was thrown off by outside forces which I had to obey. Good enough.

[foggymountainmuscle]

03-29-04

Clean & Jerk

started at 50Kg, working up to some singles at 60, 70, 80, did a double with 100Kg and made a PR at 110Kg. I did a few more singles at 110Kg. I felt very strong and could have done alot more. My jerk isn't the greatest, I can press it out which is just fine in strongman, but I need to get my jerk to be faster if I'll compete in weightlifting.

Wanted to do more but I had to leave. I had a friend stand on my chest while I breath, this guy was lighter and I was able to elivate him with my breaths instead of just trying to hold his weight.

[foggymountainmuscle]

03-30-04

Bending

Warmed up on some trainer and number one closes and rolled up a towl one handed.

Bent 2 1/4" 11" lengths of CRS. The second one was an epic battle, my chest has never pushed so hard for so long. Didn't brace. My hands were pretty fried.

After that I attempted to rip some cards I wrapped in duck tape. Made it a bit too hard but it was some good work. I hope to rip it in a few months.

Got 1/4" from a close on the #2 on the right, left is probably a little less than 1/2".

Finished up on some extensor work. Reverse hub lifted the roll of duck tap with 3 grippers on it.

[danegarreau]

Foggy, I recommend going into the movie gallery and watching David Horne's "how to bend a challenge bar''. It is a great technique, and once i started using it my bends went way up.

By the way, what style of bending do u use?

[foggymountainmuscle]

I kinda use a few. In practice, when I have weaker bars I try to do all styles but to get it going I use true over-under hand style.

A typical hard bend will start with a palm down right hand and palm up left hand. I bend the bar vertically. I then use bender's style, double overhand but the right hand turns up, or a "false" over-under style. I then go with a normal double overhand. Then I crush it down with my chest, then maybe I'll grip it shut if need be.

I guess it's a couple in one, but when the steel gets hard, I use every weapon in my arsenal.

My double underhand isn't that bad either, but I just can't depend on it to get the steel moving.

[foggymountainmuscle]

03-31-04

Dissapointing Lower body

Did squats

Planed on doing a 5 4 3 2 1

but ended up doing a 5 2 2 2 1 0

5 at 345, 2 at 365, for 3 sets, then did 385lbs. Tired 400lbs. but didn't have it in me. I was dissapointed with that max because I did it before... but it's actually a big improvement because I did it from the rack with no belt and the last time I did it it was with at belt and not from the rack.

I did 2 walkouts at 435 and one at 465? I think it was.... My traps were tenderized.

Tried to do some deads, but I had nothing left to give. I just did some singles at a moderate weight doing hook gripping to toughen my thumb.

Cooled down with rock bottom squats and good mournings.

I didn't get enough sleep and I didn't come in fresh for a long heavy workout. Progress yes, but I expect more.

[foggymountainmuscle]

04-02-05

Upper Body workout

I made sure I came in rested and nurished for this workout, and it paid off.

Chest Crush holds or in GMM chest press with weight

Few warmup sets, worked with 105lbs. first set I did five, second only 3, third only 2. I squeezed out some extra "rested" reps on the last two sets, but I couldn't break it off the ground when I was done.

In addition to the chest, any muscles and sinue near the elbow is stressed. Excellent support exercise for steel bending!

Thick grip pullups with an extra 20lbs.

2 sets of five and one set of 3.

Barbell clean & press, strict press

one warmup set, 1 set of 5, 1 set of 4, 1 set of 3, one "rested" rep on the last two sets at 154lbs.

Overhead lockouts

2 reps held about 4 seconds each, worked up to 275lbs.

Finished with dumbell curls at 40lbs.

1 set of five, 1 set of 4, 1 set of 3

First set felt easy, but work is needed on this lift, even if I did do hard pullups beforehand.

I assure you all any additional or specific tricept work would have been counter-productive.

[foggymountainmuscle]

04-03-04

Lower Arm/Grip Work

Face it, we all get off on this kinda stuff.

Warmed up with passing a 20Kg plate infront and behind me.

I started to do thickbar lifts but the Olympic pins couldn't hold the weights on the bar, so I did some V bar lifting with the IM Olympic loading pin.

Did a 5, 4, 3, 1 (intended to do a 54321) set sceam at 80, 90, 105, and 115. Left hand wasn't on par with the right. Dropped back down to 95 and just tried to hold on single handedly. Looked like I was pulling rope.

I then moved on to pinch, did 3 sets of 5 with 30Kg +25lbs. (91lbs.) and did two handed deadlifts, alternating sides each set. Fairly wide grip.

I dropped down to two handed pinch with just the ring and pinkie fingers, 3 sets of 5 moving up from 10Kg 15Kg, and 17.5Kg.

Did three sets of reverse finger levers with a 2.5lbs. plate. Very intense, first two sets were 8, last set was 6.

Did two sets of 6 negative 25lbs. plate curls.

2 Sets of thin thumbless grip reverse curls at 15lbs.

2 sets of 6 hub lift cleans. The let down is tough.

Wanted to do more, but I was running out of gas and was taking a long time. My wrist work poundages suffered from the heavy grip and finger work. But that was expected.

[foggymountainmuscle]

So I remember for future references, i.e. when I get some money. Here are the grippers I plan to get.

BB Elite

#3

BB Grand Elite

BB Pro

#4

[foggymountainmuscle]

I've recently learned how cheap it will be to buy cast dumbells for block weights and must get some over this weekend. This is a nice mental note OF GRAVE IMPORTANCE!

[JasonL]

where do you buy them?

JasonL

[foggymountainmuscle]

I've found hex weights at Wal-Mart before, yes, that easy to find. I just never payed attention to the prices until now.

[foggymountainmuscle]

03-09-04 That date is probably not correct

Strongman stuff, light

Filled a barrel half full with water. Dig a log type lift with it, wanted to press it up but it turned into how long can I keep it on my chest?

Tried to pick up my giant stone, needed more padding than what I had to work with.

3 sets of 10 tire flips as fast as possible. I'll have to add weight to it.

Carried 2 70lbs. sandbags across the yard, wasn't really training cause they had to be moved.

Wanted to do more but I need to doctor my farmers walks.

[danegarreau]

Foggy, what kind of barrel are you using, a keg?

Is your giant stone a natural stone or manmade?

What kind of tire do u have, how much does it weigh?

[foggymountainmuscle]

No the barrel is a plastic thing we usual put chicken feed in but my brother originally bought them to put all the dead fish we shoot with a bow. Farmers don't like to have rotten fish in their fields and motorist tend to swirve for dead fish on the road.

The barrel was leaking a bit, it was getting wet and slippery so I didn't stick with it as long as I intended to.

The stone is man made, big slab of concrete, I can't get it into position unless it is elivated on a stump or truck bed. I cannot walk far with it and I don't know how much it weights. 225lbs. stones are light compared to this monster.

I don't know what the tire weights, not that much, it has some water in it, which probably made it heavier. I've done a 350 tire before and it is definately easier than that. I'm thinking 250. Old tractor tire I found in a feild. What a bitch to get into the truck.

[foggymountainmuscle]

04-11-04

Lower arm work

Got some block weights. I got them from a 25lbs. dumbell, I like the thickness. I plan to doctor them with tape so they will be like the York block weights, doming outward.

Warmed up on some filed trainer closes. Had it filed down even more today.

3 sets of 5 on the #1. First set with the right, 4 closes and one attempt at 1/16th there, phenominal PR. Can't close it with my left, did a combination of negatives and attempted closes. Other two right sets were attempted closes. Oh yeah, they were all no sets.

Lots of block weight stuff. Did cleans and presses and snatches until I could not. Then I tossed from hand to hand, catching the weight with the hands on top. Did some overhead tosses, lots of dynamic tension on the thumb. Then I did 3 farmers walks with the ring and pinkie fingers only. 1st set no drops, 2nd set one drop, 3rd set 2 drops. Wrapped up with one finger deadlifts with them. 2 sets of 5 for index and middle. No regripping. (key to the exercise) Topped it off with a farmers walk back to the shed, all fingers, barely made it.

lever lifts with sledge.

3 sets of 6 head in front

2 sets of 6 head in back, 3rd set just wasn't sounding smart at the time

I thought I pulled a muscle or sprained a tendon, but it didn't feel like that. I think it was a circulation thing, so much latic acid and not enough circulation, burned like hell long after the set. A nice hot post workout hand wash fixed this problem.

2 sets of 5 hammer twist.

3 single set #2 attemps

Finger walked an ax all the way to the balance point

Reverse finger walked 1/3rd up the ax.

I kind you not I almost had an anurism in my left lower arm during the sledge levering.

Dangit, forgot to do extensor work!

Edited April 12, 2004 by foggymountainmuscle

[foggymountainmuscle]

04-13-04

Clean & Jerk

Worked up with doubles up to 107.5Kg

Caught the last on in a bad way and I was done.

Worked on some cleans from the waist, trying to get a better catch.

Did some hyper shrugs, 2 warmup sets and 3 sets of 5 at 80Kg.

My strength in the clean & jerk has gone through the roof, I just need to catch better.

Wanted to do more and left the gym flustered but I realized that it's better not to completely kill yourself when training fast movement, your body doesn't learn the speed then.

I need to go lighter on the O lifting workouts, strength is not in question at this point.