Last weekend saw me going to my third Grip Competition at David Horne’s Grip Factory in Stafford, which is quite a drive for me from up here in Scarborough (350m round trip – I must like doing this).
The interesting thing about this comp was that Andy Bolton (Former deadlift WR holder) was competing in his first Grip comp.
The comp was in knockout format with competitors going head to head with each other after being drawn out of a hat. Events were also drawn from a hat. The events were as follows for thr 1st round
1. Dynamometer (Lafayette) – all R/H
Andy Bolton 99k
Rob Russell 78k
2. One Hand Pinch Lift (50mm) – all R/H
Andy Bolton 39.35k
Rob Russell 46.75k – British Rec
3. One Hand Deadlift, no hook grip [Uddeholm olympic bar] – all R/H
Andy Bolton 133.6k
Rob Russell 128.6k
I knew if I was going to have a chance at beating Andy I would need a wrist developer or gripper in the first event. The dynamometer is about the least technical event you could get – grip as hard as you can, no setting required just brute force. Andy did 99kg I managed 78kg.
The 2nd event was the one hand pinch, I assumed I would fair better on this one. Which I did and set a british record (right hand), the pinch felt very easy so decided to go upto 50kg. The jump was too much although I did get it moving. I’m pretty sure I’ll have that in the bag soon though along with a 2HP of over 100kg (in a comp)
3rd Event seemed like another good event for Andy, deadlift! I jumped in at 120kg, I think the rapid rotation of the bar took a few people by suprise before that which left only us two to battle it out. I managed 128kg to Andy’s 133kg. (That was me out!)
I have seen many big lifts on youtube over 200kg and only just realised that they were obviously with a hook grip (which we messed around with before lunch)
The second round threw up some events which would have been really good for me
Everyone in the 2nd round drew level on points after these events so they did baby Inch hold for time. Jason Horne beat Paul Wood and Andy Bolton beat Pete Kerr
Here’s a video of the 3rd and Final Round of the Atomgripz Cup
Had a superb day and got to meet some new guys, I thought Pete Kerr is a real good guy to watch in the future although he is already very good indeed. He recently broke the WR for the 2HP under 82.5kg BW – 91kg
I also learnt I need to work on my grippers a lot more to bring them in line with my other strengths.
Next comp will hopefully be the World Strongest Hands in August.
Though I have many grip related feats to scrub off the board before then.
You can check out full write up on David Horne’s site on the Atomgripz Cup Thread
I learnt a shed load of stuff doing these comps (my first grip comps ever actually) and have seriously enjoyed the progress I seem to have made in a short period. I do’nt think any of the progress was anything magic, just me adjusting to new things and the usual fast progress you often make when doing new stuff.
Most of all I enjoyed David’s Grip Topz and the 2 Hands Pinch work.
With my background in heavy kettlebelling especially BUP’s I have found the move over into grip fairly easy and not too harsh (I have been doing some grip training for a few years I must add) on my mitts.
The most fearsome of all grip/hand strength events I encountered was the Wrist developer, I have had one for a few years now and only really started using it properly for the BSH comps, I managed to do a full bend on level 9 Gold Spring. If I enter the WSH this is something I will spend some time training due to how harsh it seems to be on your forearm muscles.
Here are a couple of videos of some recent grip training
24kg Hub Lift using the Griptopz Shallow Hub (I did 18.4kg in the comp using 3 fingers – over the last couple of weeks I worked out how to do this properly)
90kg 2 Hands Pinch
With the 2HP I did 94 kg (with 64mm) in the comp and last week did 98kg in training, aim is to break 100kg before end of the year.
To round off here’s a video I put together about Kettlebell Training for Grip Strength, I figured I’ve been building a hand strength with kettlebells for a long time indirectly so got many of the exercises I do with them in one place
On a closing note, it has been a great experience doing grip competition (plenty more to come) and to meet David Horne (Grip legend) has been awesome as he is a fantastic ambassador for the sport of grip (as well as a proper allround great bloke with no end of information and help for everyone) and I’m sure he will inspire many more people to take up this superb sport.
