Results matching “Bird”

Diesel Crew ebook : Bending - Test articles

A handful of bent nails, courtesy Terry DutyThis is the fourth part of this month's series on books; a collaboration with Run to Win's Blaine Moore.



Diesel Crew Bending eBook
Jedd 'Napalm' Johnson

188 pages | Available from thegripauthority.com
Promo video [streaming, 3.33mb .flv download]

Ready to goIntroduction

Recently, courtesy of a shoulder injury (I got a little over-zealous in my quest for the One Armed Chin-up), I rediscovered grip training. For one reason or another, grip training - and the training of hand strength in general - was always left until last, and was anything but structured. Finally I had a bit of free time to address that.

Just as I started scouring the web for resources on all things hand strength, the Diesel Crew's Bending eBook appeared. As you'll see, this is a truly amazing work.

First up is the question 'Why in the hell would I want to bend nails?'
The answer - as Jedd details in the book - is more than just 'it's great fun'. There are a lot of specific strength benefits that will certainly help other areas of your lifting. This is far more than just training your hands.

The book details all of the areas vital to anyone new to the sport of bending, as well as a great deal of information that should keep even seasoned professionals off the streets. Covered are :

Vertical bendingTypes of Bending

The type of bending is largely defined by the length of the item being bent, and whether or not it is braced in the process. This book focuses on the unbraced bending of short (less than 8-10") bars and nails. This is certainly a challenging (and fun) area.


NailsGetting started

There are a couple of things that will make your life much, much easier if you are new to this uncommon pastime. After clarifying a number of the more opaque terms used in bending (such as CRS, DO and Driver Hand), the book addresses two key questions :

  • What factors determine how easy it will be to bend something?
  • What equipment will you need?

The answers to these are guaranteed to make your next visit to the hardware store a whole lot more fun.

Penny Farthing Championship - Test articles

Penny Farthing ChampionshipOne of the more unusual events on the cycling calendar - Evandale's Penny Farthing Championships - is a series of races held in February each year. As you can see from the photo, it's quite a sight.

Focus on Birds - History

Alfred Bird and familyA few recent emails have prompted me to focus on several members of the Bird family and their immediate connections. The first updates have been to :

Thomas Bird (1816 - ? )

Ephraim Bird (1842 - 1919)
Alfred Edward Bird (1876 - 1929)

Any further information on these members of the Bird family (and their wives, siblings and children) is very much appreciated.

Focus on Birds - Test Area

Alfred Bird and familyA few recent emails have prompted me to focus on several members of the Bird family and their immediate connections. The first updates have been to :

Thomas Bird (1816 - ? )

Ephraim Bird (1842 - 1919)
Alfred Edward Bird (1876 - 1929)

Any further information on these members of the Bird family (and their wives, siblings and children) is very much appreciated.

Rice digs - Test articles

Digging in Enter the DragonA recent question on Joe DeFranco's site reminded me of a great exercise for strengthing hands and wrists - as well as helping to relieve a little shoulder and elbow pain - Rice Digs. The exercise is an extremely simple one; pour some uncooked rice into a bucket and repeatedly burrow your hands into it. Make fists, rotate your wrists and generally move your hands around whilst they're surrounded by rice.

To make it more difficult, use sand or even lead shot instead of the rice. Nice and painful.

NB : All other things being equal, a finer material will feel more difficult. The shot just has less give, and will quickly prove challenging. Rice is a good starting point.

Further reading

Rice Digs are one of the excercises mentioned in Dave Tate's 7 Exercises for Rapid Strength.

Finger Extensor Training (Body Results) : notes the importance of training finger extensor movements (open your hands wide in the rice, rather than making a fist). As well as rice digs, it briefly discusses the use of heavy rubber bands and mason jars.


Uechi-Ryu Karate video
: The Jar Holds alone are worth watching.

20 sec workout girl - Test articles

Workout girlsVia Healthbolt : just in case you haven't got enough strange things on your desk and easily forget what the gym is like, grab a wind-up workout girl. Very, very cheesy.

Sumo deadlift roundtable - Test articles

Pulling sumoIf you've tried pulling sumo but something doesn't seem quite right, head over the to Sumo deadlift round table discussion on Elite FTS. Great stuff.

Back on the bar - Test articles

Fingertip push-upIt's a great feeling to be back on the chin-up bar again. This week I kept it to short sets (3-5 reps) of common-or-garden bodyweight chin-ups and pull-ups. These were interspersed with moderate (60-70kg) bent rows. Just enough to test the endurance.

I decided to re-evaluate my training for the one-armed chin-up (OAC). This doesn't mean abandoning the project by any means; simply doing things a little differently. There were two pieces of information that appeared during the week which proved particularly timely.

The first of these was the post on Rif's Blog regarding training of the kettlebell snatch for the SSST. A similar approach seems reasonable here; in particular the change up from several short to a couple of long sets.

The second was an email from Chris which mentioned a great-sounding routine in Ross Enamait's book Never Gymless. I've only skimmed the book so far, but it looks great (full review shortly).

I'll post an updated routine shortly, but it's essentially short, weighted sets (of chin-ups and pull-ups) on most days, with a couple dedicated to the one-armed stuff. There's also a small amount of kettlebell training in there, a healthy dose of rack pulling and some hand, grip and wrist work in various formats. Including the fingertip push-ups - love them.

Marília Coutinho - Test articles

Marília CoutinhoTake a wander over to the blog of Brazilian powerlifter Marília Coutinho.

Valery FedorenkoThe American Kettlebell Club Blog talks to kettlebell legend Valery Fedorenko. If you haven't already, go back and watch the kettlebell snatch videos and you'll see what I mean.

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