Out like a lion!

Okay, that's supposed to be March, but April went out like a lion with this pinch workout. My dear friend Greg Griffin will be sad to hear that, in a vulgar display of power, I dominated 2x35s tonight! We were quietly racing to complete the lift. Thanks for the motivation, Greg!

PINCH

• 2HP warmup, 75 x5
• 2x35s attempts x6. Hovered attempts 1, 3, and 5, locked out attempt 4 and had a nice hold at the top. Only got the full lift with my left, which has always been stronger on pinch.
  
• 2HP, 125, 145. The 125 lift really tore my thumbs. It must have slipped or something.
• Pinch block, 45 x3, 55x1
• Pinch block, ~10sec holds, 55x1, 55x1
• Pony Thumbs x5

I hit the pony clamp harder than usual because I did cut the rest of the pinch workout short because of my torn thumbs. Big time pump on the thumb pad. Enough to make my wife say, "Your thumbs make me want to vomit."

Heavy Hammer

Kids are tubbin:

• 2.5# x10 side-to-side
• 2.5# x10 to the front
• 5# x10 side-to-side
• 5# x10 to the front
• 5# x10 side-to-side
• 5# x10 to the front

Great Gripper Gain

Today was one of those days! I wasn't even planning a grip workout, but both kids were napping at the same time so I decided to give it a go. My initial motivation was to get any sort of coin hold with my 155# BBGM, which I have never closed.

• HG150 x15, x10
• #1 x5
• #2 x1, 1, 1
• 155# BBGM xMiss, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
• BBGM coin hold x6 seconds, x3 seconds
• #2 x6, 8, 10, 8

Overall a fantastic workout. Here are the videos I took. I could feel knurling touch on all three attempts that I took video.

Attempt 1
Attempt 2
Attempt 3
Coin Hold

Also, here is a still from Attempt #2. I am freaking THROUGH THE ROOF about this.

Totally Forgot

I did Heavy Hammer on Sunday!

• 2.5# x10 side-to-side
• 2.5# x10 to the front
• 5# x10 side-to-side
• 5# x10 to the front
• 5# x10 to the front
• 5# x10 to the rear
• 7.5# x1 to the front, wasn't able to do this before!
• 7.5# x10 to the rear

Pretty happy with being able to control 7.5# for the front lever. This dropped like a rock last time I tried.

Schlitz and blood

Schlitz is good.

My index finger split open during this workout. Blood everywhere. Such is life!

Grippers

• warm up
• #1 x4
• #2 x2
• BBGM x1, slammed shut
• BBGM, CCS, x5 all misses, but close and felt good
• Filed BBGM negs, x5

Overall, lots of energy to put into this workout, but I think I would have to take a total break for a week or more for my max strength to rebound. That ain't gonna happen.

Phone books

Well, I was kind of bored while the kids were napping, so I worked on my grip-n-rip phone book technique. Got some good, quick tears of phone books up to about 1-1/2" thick. Tore 4 books in all, but it was about 9 total rips because I had split the larger books into smaller ones.

And now I'm realizing that this will probably ruin my gripper workout tonight. Nerts! We'll see how that goes.

Pinch and RT

Tried Luke's workout. Umm, holy crap. I was fried by the time I got to RT, but gave it my best. After a warmup:

1HP
Attempts at 70# x4. Hovered the first one. Did a negative with the last one and held it at the top and controlled decent. Getting closer!

2HP
125, 145, 155, 155 miss.

Pinch Block
50 x1, 55, 60, 65

1HP negatives with plates
75 x3

1HP pinch block holds for ~10secs
60 x2, 55 x3

Rolling Thunder
95 x1, 120 x1, 95 x15

Pony Thumbs x3, added another rubber band.

I think I'll split up Pinch and RT again in the future. I didn't have much left for RT. 2x35s will happen soon!

Wrists Again

Just one dirty kid in the tub tonight, but that still means Heavy Hammer:

• 2.5# x10, side to side and to the front
• 5# x10, side to side
• 5# x10, to the front
• 5# x10, to the front
• 5# x10, to the rear
• 7.5# x10, to the rear
• 7.5# x10, to the rear

Pushed it a little harder this time. We'll see how that feels. I'm still weirded out by what happened last time when I pushed it a little and then my wrist hurt. Luke has advised, "Progess slowly." Indeed, Sir. I can think of a billion reasons why I don't want a wrist problem.

Grippers

I could have probably waited one more day on this:

• HG150 x bunch of no set closes
• #1 x bunch of no set closes
• #2 x 3 singles
• BBGM @ 1/4", CCS singles x5, all misses, but as close as last time
• Filed BBGM @ 1/4", negs x2

Not the best workout ever, but it's okay. I'm riding the high of my pinch and RT gains. Grippers will come around.

Kettlebell

Yesterday I did about 30mins of kettlebell stuff, but with lots of breaks. I was sucking wind! My kettlebell is pretty light, 20 pounds, but I'm just getting used to using one in the first place. Did a bunch of swings, cleans, snatch, clean and press, squats, curls, tricep extension, basically anything I could think of to practice. Between this and the RT workout, my forearms are SORE today.

Something is working.

Another huge gain tonight. It almost doesn't seem possible!

Rolling Thunder

• 45# x10 swings, like with a kettlebell, but not as high.
• 90# x1
• 115# x20, straight through, no breaks, and I decided to quit at 20 and do another set!
• 125# x10, some fatigue so the final reps were tough, but still no breaks.

Pony Thumbs x3 sets. Added another rubber band this time so it was harder.

So this is kind of crazy. Last time I had to take 3 breaks to get 15 reps on 115#. Now it was a breeze! I think I will need to try 130# next workout to make 15 reps challenging. If I had rested even 5 more minutes, I think I could have cranked 15 reps with the 125# tonight on the 2nd set. My thumbs is fried.