Twitter and Finger Walk with Me

I've finally crept into this century, that's right - I'm on Twitter. If you'll glance to the right you'll see my most recent tweets and you'll also be able to "follow me." For now I plan on keeping the twitter updates to just my "Best of" lists on Bestcovery, but as time goes on there may be a smattering of different info being tweeted.

Last night I tried something different, I did some finger walking on a sledge hammer. It is not the easiest exercise to explain and it's far from the easiest exercise to perform but it really taxes the hands. Grip Master Paul Knight had a great instructional video up on Youtube a few months back, if I can find it again I'll post it up for all to see - if not I may try to put a video of myself doing it to give you an idea (of course, the weight I'll be using will probably pale in comparison to Mr. Knight), but it is really one heck of a workout for those interested in training grip.

Sunday's Workout

Sunday's Workout focused on grip, but prior to digging in to that portion I started out with some super sets of close grip bench and rows. After warm-ups I did four super sets increasing weight with each in the 5-7 rep range. Weights were heavy enough that 7 reps was (or would have been) difficult to hit, but not so heavy that I was completely spent.

Grip work consisted of two hand and one hand pinch, rotating thick bar and some grippers - pinch felt solid but my grippers seemed weak, probably could have used one more day off from the gripper workout the other night. Been doing a bit of research on arm wrestling training and have found some pretty unique exercises that I may incorporate into some workouts later this week.

Impromptu Gripper Workout

Wife is out with the girls and the kids are in bed, so I decides I might as well get a little grip work in!

W/U

HG150 X 20 each hand
HG200 X 20 each hand

Work Sets

Vulcan
Lvl 5 X nr fail each hand
Lvl 6 X nr fail each hand
Lvl 7 X nr fail each hand

Strap Holds

Lvl 6 X fail 2 times each hand

May not look like much to those who don't have any experience with grippers (or probably to those who are seriously advanced gripsters), but this was a pretty intense grip workout - much forearm pumpage and some seriously tired hands by the finish.

Barefoot Shoes?

Damn Skippy -the benefits of walking and running barefoot are pretty vast: better running posture, higher efficiency, less chance of injury...

The problem is that due to environment and climate constraints, actually running without some protection isn't really the best idea for a lot of people. Thankfully, there are a few companies out there who've been working on footwear that mimics the movement of the foot when it isn't contained or restrained. This lets you run barefoot, without actually being barefoot - here are the best of the best...

Best Barefoot Running Shoe

Mint Condition...

Well, not yet - but working on it.

Tonight's workout consisted of about twenty-five minutes of intense interval conditioning work followed by about fifteen to twenty minutes of mobility work. I've been doing a lot of work on the computer lately - both at my day job and in the evenings while writing and it has been affecting how I feel.

Doing conditioning and mobility work really seems to help how I feel, and ultimately my mood, especially after a dozen hours of sitting with less than perfect posture in front of a computer. It's not as though I didn't know this already, but sometimes I want to push so hard into the strength workouts to reach goals there, that I end up neglecting the other half of the equation to end up feeling un-balanced and being out of balance is never a good thing.

Best Hand Gripper

This is a huge question among beginning grip strength enthusiasts - which grippers should I get? There are quite a few different brands to choose from and there are advocates (die hard advocates) of each. I've had, and still have, my fair share of grippers (I currently have about two dozen and have sold off quite a few others).

If you are looking for a top quality hand gripper to begin or add to your grip equipment selection, you certainly won't be disappointed by any of the following...

Best Hand Gripper

Part Two...

On thoughts of last evenings post, I figured I'd expound just a little bit with a lead in from the POD crew - it's not just the fitness aspect of many of our lives that need attention. We're nearly two months into 2010 and I'm sure that many of you have already abandoned your poorly thought out resolutions, but that doesn't meant that you should just give up entirely until next year's ill fated attempt.

Start making changes now to better yourself, think about what you wanted to accomplish this year and what kind of benefits following through would have on your life. Did you want to quit smoking, go back to school, spend more quality time with your kids, learn a foreign language or lose ten pounds? Who cares that you haven't accomplished it yet - that doesn't mean that you can't do it, it just means that your plan had some flaws. Sit down today and focus on the things that you need to do to make your life a better one and develop a plan to get there.

Just wishing positive things to happen won't help, and complaining about the fact that wishing didn't help will do even less. Formulate a sound plan, write it down for some form of accountability, then begin to take action on the necessary steps to achieve your goal.