Arnold Classic Update

Hey now!

Well, one day of the Arnold Expo is down. The Mighty Mitts competition has proven to be very stout, both in terms of the competitors and the events as well.

The first event today was the Anvil Carry. We had to pick the 173-lb anvil up by its horn and carry it for distance.

The horn was very smooth. I thought I had a pretty good grip on it, but I must have been mistaken because I took like two steps with the thing and it shot out of my hand like a greased goose turd.

That stunk, because I expected way better of a performance.

The next event was the Sorin Monster Deadlift. Richard Sorin got a freakin' huge monster axle deadlift apparatus designed that weighed 500-lbs and it has huge globes on it.

Having never fully deadlifted 400-lbs in the double overhand style on an axle, I was extremely happy with being able to pull the bar to just below knee height. Again, my best axle deadlift in competition (double overhand) is 396-lb, so pulling on 500-lb was crazy!

Tomorrow, we will do the Double Inch Replica Dumbbell Farmer's Walk and then the Mark Henry Dumbbell Challenge Dumbbell.

In case you're not familiar with those two implements, I'll tell you a bit about them. The Inch Dumbbell Replica is 172-lb cast iron dumbbell with a 2 3/8 handle on it. To deadlift one is an elite feat of grip strength. There's less than a dozen people in the world that have ever walked with one in each hand. All ten of us are going to try to do that tomorrow.

The Mark Henry Dumbbell event is even more thunderous. It is also a dumbbell in one solid piece and it weighs about 300-lb one a 2 3/8 handle. It is in a wooden box and it must be lifted up out of the box without touching the sides. This one is gonna be big!

Now, if you're planning on coming tomorrow, make sure you check out my Arnold Classic Survival Guide. I posted it the other day so you know what you need to bring to enjoy yourself to the fullest extent.

You can get it right here = = > Arnold Expo Survival Guide

Hope you're having as much fun this weekend as I am!

-Jedd-

http://www.CardTearing.com < = = Monster Sale This Weekend

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Heavy Club Swinging

I recently showed everybody the Demolition Club on the Diesel site. You can check it out here: Demolition Club.

My efforts were recognized today by Kevin Wikse in his latest video. Check it out:



Thanks Kevin! I appreciate the recognition and keep up the good work and awesome video clips.

All the best in your training.

-Jedd-

Weekend Update = TGA & Arnold Classic

My weekend has been pretty busy.

On Friday, I shoveled my butt off. I have a driveway that is about 120 feet long and we were expecting company so as soon as I got home Friday I started shoveling. I cleared the whole driveway off in less than two hours. My back was locked up like Fort Knox afterwards, but I went down and trained for the Mighty Mitts contest anyway.

I worked all thick bar because all the events in the contest are thick bar. It was a great workout and I actually set a couple of PR's despite my hands feeling like grizzle after all of the shoveling.

In case you haven't heard, I am competing in Mighty Mitts next weekend - it is the first ever Grip Contest on the Arnold Classic stage, so if you are planning on coming to the Arnold, give me a holler when you see me on stage.

On Saturday, I hit another workout in the morning. I decided my back didn't get a good enough throttling during the marathon shoveling session, so I did a bunch of work on my glute ham raise, just doing back extensions. I also did belt squats, but instead of just having my hands passive out in front of me, I put on rubber bands and did static extensor holds during my 20-rep sets. Talk about a forearm pump.

I strongly suggest you try that out. It's important to train the extensors for balance in the hands, and i plan on doing that more in the future.

The rest of the day, I worked on the site, including the post about swinging my giant home made Demolition Club. If you didn't see it, it's right here: Demolition Club Update

Saturday night was the first Saturday night I have taken off since December. We had a diaper party. In case you don't know what that is, let me tell you. My fiancee and I have a baby on the way, so I invited a bunch of my buddies down for cards and all the food and drink they could handle. The price of admission? A package of diapers. It's like a baby shower for the dad that gives us an excuse to hang out all night. So now I have a huge stack of diapers of various sizes for when the little bundle of joy comes.

So far today, I posted all the new March videos and workout PDF's on the Grip Authority. This month's feature is Rolling Thunder Training, and I shot a 30-minute video on how to train with it effectively and how to increase your numbers on it. I also put together a video for the Workout of the Month, along with the downloadable print-off of the workout. So if you're a member, log in and check it out. To join, go to TheGripAuthority.com.

At 1 PM I am meeting with the Rod and Gun Club to vote on something that has to do with mineral rights. In this area of Pennsylvania there is a lot going on with underground mining of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale and we have to figure out what the group wants to do along these lines. Exciting.

After the meeting, it'll be time to come back and hit another big workout to set the tone for the week. It's upper body day and I think I'll get the log out and do some overhead work.

These are the kinds of weekends I like. Lots of stuff going on means I can look back when the weekend is done and be glad I accomplished so much.

Next weekend is going to be a different kind of busy though because I'll be traveling to Columbus and staying there all weekend for the Mighty Mitts competition and just general Arnold Classic Weekend excitement. I'll try to get as much video as possible of the Mighty Mitts. It is going to be awesome. Like I said, give me a shout on the stage if you're at the Arnold, and tap me on the shoulder if we end up walking by one another.

Hey, that's all for now. Have a great day and weekend!

-Jedd-

The Grip Authority - Let Me Show You How to Do Feats of Grip Strength