Rob Russell - Part 2

Grip Strength Training

by robrussell on May 9, 2011

I’ve upped my grip strength training of late after my 4th place in David Horne’s ‘Britain’s Strongest Hands’

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.

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My Top 10 Youtube Kettlebell Videos

by robrussell on April 12, 2011

I added a page a while back to my Kettlebell Blog about my top 10 Kettlebell Videos on youtube, many because they had a lot of views and some because they were my favourite feats of strength.

I have most likely put most of my time on these feats of strength too, especially the Bottoms Up Kettlebell Press (BUP) and I also spent a helluva lot of time trying to flip 2 42.5kg kettlebells at the same time (video suggests they are 40kg but actual weight is 42.5kg) although this doesn’t appear on my TOP 10 it probably should have

Here are my BUP and Flips and also a link to the page Youtube Kettlebell Videos

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Great River Race – On the Thames London 2010

by robrussell on September 30, 2010

I spent last weekend in London for the Great River Race, in which my wife Rache competed in a four person crew in a ‘Scarborough Gig’ coastal rowing boat.

She spent all her University years rowing on the Ouse for Ripon & York St John uni and has recently made the transition to Scarborough ARC to Coastal rowing, which is much different than river rowing. The main difference being that with coastal rowing the boats are bigger, the water is rougher and the seats are fixed, which in turn means more back and upper body usage (I’m planning my entrance to coastal rowing next April)

Here’s the video for Rache’s crew (distance was 22m from Ham to Richmond time:3 hrs 10 mins – result!)