Braced Bending ?

[yohechris]

I am doing some braced bending lately and most of the techniques seem to make sense to me and I am about as good at them as I'd expect. However the one where you brace one end on your upper thigh and the other end is tucked under your armpit totally baffles me. I can't get anything out of it. I've tried to do searches and watched videos and I still can't seem to get it. It's getting really frustrating becasue at certain lengths I can get things almost to where I can get them to the thigh crush but I need a LITTLE bit more and I just can't get it. If anyone has any tips on how to make it work I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

[luuc]

Make sure you are wearing clothes that are not slippery; you need to place your lower hand on the side of your thigh, so your wrist is on top of it, and the hand is 'hanging' a little bit down from the thigh, and by flexing your leg a bit it should be like a rock.

Your other hand; the wrist is bend backwards, and it should be pressed against the chest right below the armpit.

Bend your elbow towards your tows, sideways.

What steel do you use for braced bending?

The longer the piece, the easier, but only if it has a good bend in it, when the ends are about 15" apart, you are most powerful with this technique.

(Some people might say something else, but this works for me)

[matthcarl]

When I use this techique, I keep a hand on each end of the bar, so I don't truly tuck the bar into my armpit. The upper end is braced high on the chest or the obliques. I lean forward and try to crush the bar between my chest and thigh.

[luuc]

Couldn't edit my post, but another thing that might help is, when you have positioned the bar, squat down; your whole weight will help crushing your upper body onto your thigh.

[foxyj75]

I have had luck with this technique in the past, and have showed some others how to do it.

I squat down like Luuc said with my legs in a wide stance. I then put the bar, with the bend facing the rear, on the top of my thigh, right there where it meets my pelvis. This creates a pocket to hold the bar in place. I hold the bottom of the bar with my hand(palm facing up) pulling into the pocket and holding it stable. I hold the top of the bar, wrist flexed back, elbow out, to where it will kind of lock into your armpit/obliques region. The bar should feel very stable and "locked in". I then just crash my torso down toward the bracing thigh while also pushing with the top hand. It helps sometimes to "bounce" your weight up and down on the bar to get it moving. Hope this helped!

[yohechris]

Thanks a lot. One thing I noticed you both said is elbow out. I think my elbow points back. When I think about it it seems like you could the bar tucked up under better with your elbow out so I will have to try that. When I do it it never feels locked in. I also think I was thinking of it as a push with the arm but it seems more like you lock it in place and crush with your torso.

Luuc- I use A36 HR that I get from a welding place. I use 1/2 inch and 5/8. I also am trying to do the FBBC 12"spike which I can kink no problem but then it gets to this point where I need just a bit more to get it between the legs. I actually thought about cutting it down to 10 inches and see if I can go straight from kink to thigh crush.

[Tim71]

One of your fellow Pennsylvanians, Steve Mcgranahan, a.k.a. "The world's Strongest Redneck", is EXTREMELY good at that style and shows in quite well in his 2 DVDs on hand strength. Very well priced too and he's a great guy.

I think his website for those vids is heaven bent ministries or something like that.

Tim

[Brad Manion]

One very key aspect to this technique involves the top (driver) hand/arm. Everybody else has made great points and I want to add that you should have the index finger on that hand as close as possible to the head of the spike. When crushing down, you should crank your index finger up and into the head of the spike as hard as possible. Without this, there is no way on earth I'd have ever bent the GripRite 8" x 3/8" spike. Hope this helps.

[yohechris]

I have been thinking about getting Big Steve's videos for a while now so I will definately do that. He seems like a good and very strong guy.

The placement of the driver hand is interesting. I have been doing the opposite basically and putting the bar all the way into my hand. The way you describe it it's almost like where you would put the bar for a DO bend. I will have to give it a shot. I wonder if it's the same for the thigh crush? There too I grab the bar with my whole hand on it. It does seem like it would help the leverage to be out on the ends, just like DO.

I have a couple 12"X 3/8" GripRite spikes that I can barely kink so an 8 incher would be a real beast.

Thanks for the ideas guys.

Chris

[Tim71]

For the thigh crush and the drive down technique I put the ends of the bar / spike in the hollow part of my hands. Same with wrenches, then you can torque your wrists put some more on it that way. On some of the hardest bends that I have to wrap more, it does affect the hand placement somewhat.

Tim

[timiacobucci]

One thing in addition to what has already been said, experiment with position and where you brace against and how you stand, or how much you squat down or bend your legs or even which side you place the upper and lower hands on.

I have seen Big Steve instructing people to put the lower hand opposite of the side you are bracing the upper against and coming down and across to crush. This is because this is the way he does it and the way that works for him. I can do it that way but I lose allot of power. I am much stronger going on the same side.

Also try positioning the bend in the bar forward and backwards. I can do it backwards but again I lose allot of power. Guys like Paul Knight seem to like it backwards though.

Most of braced bending and scrolling is just feeling around to find where you have the best leverage and BRACING. I can't stress that part of it enough, find the position and angles that give you the most STABILITY and bring the biggest muscles you can recruit into the equation in their strongest ranges of motion. Having your hand almost slipping off your shoulder or out to the side is a world apart from coming straight down into the bar solid against your lower chest.

I also can fully crush harder stuff this way than between my thighs. I just move the ends in more towards my hip as the gap closes. It is good to work both crush styles but don't assume going to between the thighs is what is always best, especially for the big stuff. With spikes and hearting shoes you get allot more leverage between the thighs but I'd say I can hang with most of the guys at 5/8" and up completely without it.

[yohechris]

Thanks a lot for the ideas. I think I need to work on using the wrist and finding the position where I'm stable and can use the biggest muscles. I'd like it if I could do a lot with the thigh post rather than between the legs becasue my wife, who thinks I'm nuts already for bending at all, thought I had totally lost my mind when she saw the bruises on my legs.

I'll see how it goes when I bend again later this week or weekend.

Chris

[timiacobucci]

becasue my wife, who thinks I'm nuts already for bending at all, thought I had totally lost my mind when she saw the bruises on my legs.

Well this ain't gonna help with the bruising. I look like I got jumped into a gang after scrolls like that 5/8" square, it's just the bruises are in more places than my legs. Hard shoes are the worst though. You will get tougher and the stuff that bruises you now will not in the future, but then the old hard stuff will be easy and the new hard stuff will bruise you just like the old. Not a whole lot you can do about it.

I understand the wife thing though, my girlfriend is the same way, she is mostly understanding by now though.