Gripmas Carol Grip Contest Write-up

It was a great contest. I have a ton of videos of the after-contest feats. It will take me some time to get them all posted, just hang tight. First one up is Bob Sundin's Two 45's Pinch.

My crush was off for the contest and only managed a 177, putting me in third place right off the bat, so I had to play catch up the whole rest of the contest.

For the pinch, I think my attempts were 230, 240, 246, and 254. So my third was an attempt at the US record and my 4th was an attempt at the world's record. I told Eaton on the way down in the snow and ice that I was going to squeeze the pinch set-up so hard that I was going to snap it in half. And that is what i did every attempt. I squeezed every single attempt so hard my entire torso shook. There was no way an attempt was going to slip out of my hands. So the 246 was no problem. I lined up everything real nice for the 254 but it only barely came off the floor. Not sure what happened there. I think at that point I was .5 or .8 points behind Dave.



Here is the video of my new US Record, 246.49 pounds in the Two Hands Pinch.



The one hand deadlift was next. I felt good about the event because I was consistently hitting 295 in training lefty on a bar with no knurling. However, when it came time to pull on the platform, I just couldn't put it together. Couldn't quite line it up right when I grabbed the bar. I lost some more ground to Dave.

Next was the weaver stick. I hated training for this event, I dreaded having to do it at the contest, worried about the weird feeling I got in my wrist and pinky pad during the event, but ended up loving it in the end because I was able to gain a bunch more ground on Dave with a 13+ pound lift. Going into the final event I was behind by like .3 points.

There were 20 challenges in the medley. I hit 19, which included John Eaton's Inch Dumbbell. The handle on that thing is like glass. I was just too wasted to get the inch up onto the platform, but everything else was pretty easy. That was enough for me to pull ahead, but only a slim margin. Dave and I are closely matched and we seem to just barely edge on another out at most contests. Always a pleasure to compete with him.

Here is a video for my buddy, Bob Sundin. He hita lot of great feats after the contest, including pinching two 45's, in the video below.



It was great meeting Tim, Mr. Carr, Clayton, etc. Keep up the great work guys.

As far as some of the feats that I remember hitting after the contest... I hit the 53lb 10 oz blob - maybe the heaviest blob around??? - with about 7.5-lbs added to it. However, the texture is so rough that it is a very easy blob. I cleaned it and did a double backwards blob lift with it and another fat boy blob. By backwards, I am talking about putting the thumb on the handle side, which is quite a bit harder to do. In fact, I have a blob that I left outside all winter one year and it is as smooth as glass and I have some serious trouble lifting it backwards, but I got the two fat boys pretty easy backwards. I think a lot of the difficulty in blobs is dependent on how smooth the blob is.

Some other things: I snatched the Dragondoor 106-lb kettlebell, the Beast, with a wool glove on. Here is the video clip.



I lifted the 182-lb Gracie bell of Chris Mathison's with a mobster tilt. I think I could lift it level fresh but couldn't pull it up after the show without giving it a huge tilt. By the end of the night, the skin on my fingers and palms was extremely sore. My pinky and thumb pad on my right hand, the hand I used for the weaver, were pretty sore the next day, but after a John Eaton hand massage on the ride back from Ohio, I was good to go and had a really nice workout Monday night. Next contest is right around the corner at Metroflex, so there's no time to rest.

Thanks to Chris and T for letting me stay at their house. To Maryanne for keeping score. You have no idea how much of a contribution that is. To Shawn for managing the electronic spreadsheet, and anyone else who took care of an administrative aspect of the contest, thanks so much! And thanks to my road buddy, John Eaton, who never denies me a trip to a truck stop.

I'll have more videos soon. Been swamped with holiday prep and work. Check back soon everybody.

-Jedd-