Conditioning Hands Before Bending

[madknight]

I plan on starting bending in the fall but I figure that I could try to start preparing a bit for it now. One thing I've read is that it can be very tough on your hands (especially the palms). So I was wondering if there would be a way to help strengthen the tendons and such in this area before I started bending. One thing I was thinking about would be to crush grippers together with both hands (like when finishing off a nail) putting the ends of the handles on your palm. Could start with a weaker gripper (like the HG100) and work up to a stronger one over time. I don't know if this is a very good idea or not so let me know what you think about it and if you have any other suggestions, please share.

Thanks

[Vice]

I'm also interested in this question as well. A few years ago I had to give up bending due to a badly bruised palm that continued to give me increased pain after the bruise itself healed. Any difficult bends were extremely painful and I'd like to avoid that this time around. I ordered some stock from FBBC early this week so I'm ready to bend again soon.

Any help would be appreciated, I guess taking it slow and doing increased volume of easy bends at first could help it toughen up.

[judoboy]

sledgehammer work will toughen hands, condition wrists and get u fitter than ever

BUT to get better at bending, do more bending! volume work with 'easy' nails will help i'm sure

Edited August 15, 2009 by judoboy

[ewokhugo]

For me worked well doing some grippers(5 mn ) before any bend. Now i warm up doing "easy" bends.

Once u get involved into "serious" bending u are going to get hurted(just a few guys have the luck)but u can train smart to avoid the risk. (once i was not smart ..just Once..JK.. i was crusing one ss bar and my tendons started to scream ..hold on ...stop ...i refused to listen and i destroyed my rh ...couldnt close one coc#1 in weeks. after hands become better i used one cream to warm up my hands (give my hands one massage before any bend) it helped.

if i was starting now ... i would try to learn the DO,Du and reverse and practise them ,one in each training session(up to 30 mn).i would use double wraps to avoid the pain. One month after this i would try single or im wraps to improve hands power.

best of luck!

[Vice]

Thanks for the tips guys. I think I'll use thicker wraps for a while, and take it slow. I'm definitely interested in working all 3 bending styles more evenly than I did last time around.

[madknight]

Thanks for the tips guys. I think I'll use thicker wraps for a while, and take it slow. I'm definitely interested in working all 3 bending styles more evenly than I did last time around.

Agreed, thanks for the tips guys. Looks like some good advice here. I can't wait to get a sledge and start levering either. But yeah, it's probably just best to start slow with thicker wraps and gradually work your way down. I also plan on working all bending styles too.

[easyWeight]

Thanks for the tips guys. I think I'll use thicker wraps for a while, and take it slow. I'm definitely interested in working all 3 bending styles more evenly than I did last time around.

Agreed, thanks for the tips guys. Looks like some good advice here. I can't wait to get a sledge and start levering either. But yeah, it's probably just best to start slow with thicker wraps and gradually work your way down. I also plan on working all bending styles too.

For someone starting out, I would think chest crushing grippers is a good way to strengthen your hands (to an extent) and your crush. It's the same basic movement, plus you won't go through any steel doing it. However, once you start getting some steel in your hands you'll find the surface area is much less and it may still hurt a bit. I think you'll find you can crush a pretty good size gripper also.

As for the sledge, you'll save money buy building yourself a loadable one. Just an axe or sledge handle, a gator clip, and some standard weights. Refer to the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9led9fS76ZM...re=channel_page

I use 2.5lb plates in that video, but you can put any size on you want. This will give you a lot of flexibility for training leverage.

[madknight]

Thanks for the tips guys. I think I'll use thicker wraps for a while, and take it slow. I'm definitely interested in working all 3 bending styles more evenly than I did last time around.

Agreed, thanks for the tips guys. Looks like some good advice here. I can't wait to get a sledge and start levering either. But yeah, it's probably just best to start slow with thicker wraps and gradually work your way down. I also plan on working all bending styles too.

For someone starting out, I would think chest crushing grippers is a good way to strengthen your hands (to an extent) and your crush. It's the same basic movement, plus you won't go through any steel doing it. However, once you start getting some steel in your hands you'll find the surface area is much less and it may still hurt a bit. I think you'll find you can crush a pretty good size gripper also.

As for the sledge, you'll save money buy building yourself a loadable one. Just an axe or sledge handle, a gator clip, and some standard weights. Refer to the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9led9fS76ZM...re=channel_page

I use 2.5lb plates in that video, but you can put any size on you want. This will give you a lot of flexibility for training leverage.

I think I'll try chest crushing. It couldn't hurt anyway. It is true that the steel will be much harder on the hands but I may find it a little better if I tried the gripper idea than if I didn't. Either way I think I'll give it a shot.

That sounds like a great idea for a sledgehammer replacement. It will save money in the long run for sure.

[Darko]

Being an buildning constructor has it profits Get though hands working at large constructs.

[luuc]

I don't want to mess up this topic, but I have a different way of thinking about this:

probably just best to start slow with thicker wraps and gradually work your way down

- When bending for a month in thick wraps, and then going back to thinner wraps, you'll get a feeling that you are going backwards, which is negative especially for someone who just starts bending. Fun will be lost for a while.

- When bending for a month in thick wraps, your skin, nerves, bonestructure, .. will not be exposed to the extreme forces of bending steel. At the same time, your wrists, muscles, joints, etc.. will strengthen very fast (which is normal for the body that needs to addept to a certain challenging movement, MU's and such..). When you go back to thinner wraps your body will feel like it's not really working, you're not breaking sweat or anything, but the skin, nerves, bonestructure, .. will undergo a lot of stress, that you may not even notice untill it is too late. Causing injury's.

I'm not saying anyone's right or wrong, I'd like to hear from everybody how he or she thinks about it with some arguments.

[madknight]

I don't want to mess up this topic, but I have a different way of thinking about this:

probably just best to start slow with thicker wraps and gradually work your way down

- When bending for a month in thick wraps, and then going back to thinner wraps, you'll get a feeling that you are going backwards, which is negative especially for someone who just starts bending. Fun will be lost for a while.

- When bending for a month in thick wraps, your skin, nerves, bonestructure, .. will not be exposed to the extreme forces of bending steel. At the same time, your wrists, muscles, joints, etc.. will strengthen very fast (which is normal for the body that needs to addept to a certain challenging movement, MU's and such..). When you go back to thinner wraps your body will feel like it's not really working, you're not breaking sweat or anything, but the skin, nerves, bonestructure, .. will undergo a lot of stress, that you may not even notice untill it is too late. Causing injury's.

I'm not saying anyone's right or wrong, I'd like to hear from everybody how he or she thinks about it with some arguments.

Interesting way of looking at it and it looks like you have some good points. I'd also like to here more peoples opinion on this matter. Thanks for the input luuc.

[jpmmkrahling]

I don't want to mess up this topic, but I have a different way of thinking about this:

probably just best to start slow with thicker wraps and gradually work your way down

- When bending for a month in thick wraps, and then going back to thinner wraps, you'll get a feeling that you are going backwards, which is negative especially for someone who just starts bending. Fun will be lost for a while.

- When bending for a month in thick wraps, your skin, nerves, bonestructure, .. will not be exposed to the extreme forces of bending steel. At the same time, your wrists, muscles, joints, etc.. will strengthen very fast (which is normal for the body that needs to addept to a certain challenging movement, MU's and such..). When you go back to thinner wraps your body will feel like it's not really working, you're not breaking sweat or anything, but the skin, nerves, bonestructure, .. will undergo a lot of stress, that you may not even notice untill it is too late. Causing injury's.

I'm not saying anyone's right or wrong, I'd like to hear from everybody how he or she thinks about it with some arguments.

Luuc, i would have to agree with you 100%. I started bending last November and by March i cert'd on the red nail. right after that i jumped up to double wraps and i really progressed pretty fast. I actually got a Huge Shiny in double wraps. Then i started training for the Steel Slayer Showdown and i found that the best i could do in thinner wraps was still a red (and still is today). So it was very disapointing to be working on a grand shiny in double wraps and now back to trying for a bastard in thin wraps.

I think my hands were not ready for me to attack so much steel with smaller wraps. I stayed motivated because of the contest but one day i noticed i had some kind of a bruise on my palm (it felt like a bruise but you could not see it) so i had to back off for a couple of weeks. Then i was back at it full force again and now i have a lump on my other palm (it is right where the base of the grippers posts against your palm) it only hurts when i try grippers or bend wrenches, so i have to be carefull.

It is my opinion that if i would have stayed with single wraps and kept getting better with a slower progression, i may not have injured myself. The tendons were just not ready even though the rest of my body was. I think everyone will have their own opinion about this but now you have my two cents.

[Vice]

Sounds like some good information guys, I think it would be great to clarify what everyone considers thin and thick wraps. The wraps I was using were about 1" in diameter when wrapped around a 1/4" piece of steel, is that considered a standard size? Or is that more toward the thin or thick side? I see that for the steel slayers list it has to measure less than 1.25" so I'm assuming my wraps are a good size to keep using?

Any opinions on exactly how thick the wraps should be? Or at least a good range?

[luuc]

I think 1,25" to 1,5" is considered normal.

A good range is everything between 0" and 2", good is depending on the type of steel, your goal, ...

Don't worry about how thick they have to be exactly, it'll just be a burden for you to keep thinking about things like that.