Number 3 has arrived

Man, I was just saying earlier how fried my hands were from recent workouts, then I arrive home and find a neatly packaged CoC #3 on my doorstep.

As many of you will probably know from experience - no true workout freak can resist trying out a new piece of equipment - no matter how sore you are, how tired you are or how hard you had just trained the day before.

So I gave one good attempt on my right straight out of the package (not even close), then I proceeded to choke it down to parallel and do a few sets of negatives with each hand.

I get the feeling I'll be working on this gripper for a while before I get a solid close in.

Last Night's Grippers

Well, I was going to do a hard gripper workout, but my hands felt beat. So I did as many overcrushes as I could muster on my BBSA and put the grippers up for the night.

Not satisfied that I had really done enough of a grip workout, I packed up the kids and ran to the drug store to bike up some playing cards.

I ripped three decks upon my arrival back at the homestead and finished off my workout with 3 X 10 plate curls with a 16lb plate, 3 X 12 hammer curls with a 35lb dumbbell and some levering with a 6lb sledge

It wasn't a ton of work, but it felt like quite enough.

Today's Workout - Pump up the Volume

Lot's of Lower back work today - nothing too heavy, but lots of volume

One Hand Lift

135 X 5 each hand
150 X 5 each hand
185 X 3 each hand
210 X 2 each hand

Conv. Deads

135 X 10
225 X 10
225 X 10
225 X 10

Bear Hug Deads

142 X 5
162 X 3
182 X 2
199 X 1
182 X 2
162 X 2
142 X 5

Kettlebell Hand to Hand Tosses

2 X 50

Good Workout Yesterday

Bear Hug Dead

142 X 3
192 X 1
212 X 1
212 X 1
222 X 1
142 X 5



Kettlebell hand to hand tosses

2 X 50

Blockweights

35lb X failure each hand

Then I did a little playing with the homemade Rolling Thunder...

Grippers

The last two nights have been gripper nights.

I spent about 35 minutes on Monday with the Vulcan repping from level three up to singles at level seven, then I finished up with one set each hand of max reps on my BBSA.

Tuesday was all torsion grippers - negatives on each hand with the BBGM then singles with the HG300 on the right hand and negatives on the left hand.

I actually think my recent lack of focus on grippers has got me a touch weaker than I was a few months ago - but I just ordered a new CoC #3 yesterday and I plan on focusing as much as it takes in the coming weeks/months in order to close it!

Sunday Workout

Had a good workout yesterday - did some Bear Hug Deads (idea courtesy of David Horne), lots of kettlebell swings and spent some quality time in the dungeon with my daughter.

Here's a video of 212 lb on the bear hug, I did manage a bit more weight on a later pull but the decent wasn't exactly what I would have called controlled...

Tonight in the Dungeon

Good Workout tonight

Deads
135 X 10
205 X 6
275 X 3
325 X 2
345 X 1
365 X 1
385 X 1
365 X 1
345 X 1
325 X 2
275 X 3
205 X 6

Bear Hug Deads (picked up this nifty move from studying David Horne's site)

110 X 1
135 X 1
155 X 1
175 X 1
185 X 1

Been a little while since I focused completely on Deads and my lower back - felt REALLY good!

Adding a New Focus

I normally don't take "off days" completely off - I tear a deck of cards, do a few bends or close a gripper here and there, but I normally do it with little or no planning or structure - I suppose that's what makes it an "off day" Last night I came up with a new plan that's going to change all of that a little bit - I've got another goal in mind and it has to so with smashing big grippers...





Pictured here is David Horne's Vulcan Gripper, I've mentioned it here before and I have a link to David's site on the right, but I'm sure some of you had little idea what I was talking about. In short it's an ultra high quality, completely adjustable gripper that has strengths ranging from below a CoC 1 to around a CoC 4 and everything in between.

I plan on changing what were my "off days", most of them anyway, and turning them into gripper days - which I feel will give me a lot more focus on the actual gripper training rather than it feeling like an afterthought to the rest of my workout. Last night I set the Vulcan to level 4 and did God knows how many reps on each hand. I just performed sets to failure switching back and forth between hands until I couldn't complete a full close.

I don't have a concrete plan of action just yet, but I plan on performing workouts like last nights every night during the work week that was previously an off night - then actually use the weekend as a pair of off nights for grippers. I also plan on increasing the resistance one level with each new week.

My Ultimate goal is CoC certification and hopefully this training plan will at least get me started toward that goal.

Easter Workout

Dang rain came through again to keep me indoors, but I think I made pretty good use of my time in the dungeon...

"Rolling Thunder"

90 X 5 each hand
115 X 3 each hand
125 X 1 each hand
135 X 1 each hand
145 X 1 each hand (though the left may have not quite reached lockout)
155 X 1 right

Plate pinches

4 dimes X 6 singles each hand
5 dimes attempts until I split the webbing on my right hand (actually broke ground on the left!)

Conventiional Deads

225 X 5 X 10

Feel good today, except for the tear in my right hand - but that even feels a heck of a lot better than it did last night - I'll be back at those f 5 dimes in no time!

Today's mini Workout

After skipping last night in favor of Wednesday, I felt like I should get a little moving in today - and finishing work early due to the upcoming Holiday made that easy...

Grippers

Vulcan
level 3 X 4 each hand
level 4 X 4 each hand
level 5 X 2 each hand
level 6 X 2 each hand
level 7 X 1 each hand

Rip two decks of cards

10 minutes of kettlebell juggling focusing on the basic moves

Not a ton, but my hands feel like they've done something!

Guest Piece on STTB

I put together another training article for one of my favorite places - Straight to the Bar, this one is about training for bettering the One Finger Lift...

Check it out here

Enjoy!

Tonight's Quick Workout

Thursday is usually one of my heavy days, but tomorrow is my daughter's first talent show for school, so I squeezed in a workout tonight...

One Finger Lift

90 X 3 each hand
125 X 3 each hand
155 X 1 each hand
185 X 1 each hand

Homemade Rolling Thunder

90 X 3 each hand
105 X 3 each hand
115 X 3 each hand
125 X 1 each hand
135 X 1 each hand
145 X 1 right X near miss left

Kettlebell Flat tosses hand to hand

2 X 50

Sunday's Workout

Good day yesterday - for the first section of my workout I focused on the one finger lift starting with light reps and holds on each hand before gradually progressing to heavier weights.

I managed to work up to 185 lbs on the left and 205 lbs on the right...



I tried to show the weights as clearly as possible, it's two 45's on the bottom, then two 35's in the middle and one 45 on top for a total of 205 (not including the loading pin itself)

After the one finger lifts it was out into the wild for about twenty minutes of kettlebell juggling.

Home-made "Rolling Thunder" attached to the Double Bastard

Yesterday things were a little slow at the day job, so I made a trip to round up the materials to make myself a home-made version of the rolling thunder handle.

Instead of pics, here's a video of some of my first few cracks at it attached to my brand new Double Bastard from FBBC...



This is a new movement for me, but it felt really good - gave me a good burn in my forearms. Last nights workout was just a bit of a trial - with the weather outside prohibiting any outdoor work - I'm sure I'll be down there again hitting it tonight.

Wooo-Hoooo the "Double Bastard" is Here

Last night my "double bastard" combo loading pin/finger lift from FBBC arrived on my doorstep.

Usually I don't do anything too heavy on Tuesdays, maybe just focus on some grippers, but I had to at least give this beast a try...

I warmed up a bit on each side before working up to 180 on my right with the finger lift, it's pretty different from my home made finger lift contraption and I have the feeling it's going to take me a few workouts to get used to.

I have to say that this (just like everything else I've gotten from John at FBBC) is one heck of a piece of equipment, and it's going to be put to good use in the dungeon. If you need to add any equipment to your arsenal for grip training I strongly recommend anything that comes from FBBC.

I'll try to get some pics up later tonight!