featsofalex Posted May 10 Author Share Posted May 10 Double Update! Pull Day yesterday and volume bending today!!! Pull Day 4x8 bent over rows on the elite fts angled cambered bar (forget exact name!) at around 175 pounds. Superset Holle 45k Inch gorilla rows and mega thick rope cable low rows. That was it … or so I thought!!! My 3 GripSport Latino setting blocks arrived so I had to give them a try! Did a fun little 20mm/38mm/cc/38mm/20km Volume Bending Day! Today was the last session before Horrido 6.5” 10.9 rematch, and it felt good! Did 10 179mm bastards and one 170mm shiny in 66 hits, which means I was able to repeat the same 6 hit cadence 11 times in a row!!! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted May 15 Author Share Posted May 15 I fell behind a little, but for good reason!!! Friday was a little squat workout with a couple quasi 20rep sets of single kb squats. My heaviest set was with a 32kg, and I was cleaning the bell, doing 5 reps switching the areas a sides and 5 more and repeat to get to 20 reps with only nominal switching the weight break. I thought it would do the trick to test some fortitude without causing any fatigue for a Monday. Monday was the rematch with the Horrido 6.5” 10.9! And what a rematch it was!!! I came out victorious in a fierce battle and moved up to 5th place on the Horrido main cert list!!! Tuesday - push day 4x5feet up bench with 225 4x8 single FatBell press with 32kg Superset lateral raises (18lb) and rolling skull crushers 35 Assorted wrist work with mini sledge hammer. I also started the process of breaking in the SteelBend Russia cordura since I’m now turning my attention to Secha-2024, their contest that just started a few days ago and goes through late June. I’m super excited to be competing again and rematching against some of the top ACE guys right away!!! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted May 17 Author Share Posted May 17 Wednesday was a pull day with rows upon rows!!! Used elite fts multi grip cambered bar, Holle 45kg inches, York Prostyle 150s and 2” crusher Thursday was normal volume bending day and breaking in the sbr cordura for the Secha-2024 contest by SteelBend Russia, so double volume lol!!! Did a bunch of easy drill rod and then tested them out with Px7” which was happily no problem!!! Should be a fun 6 weeks of hard bending ahead After working on the wraps I did a normal volume day of 2 bastards, 4 shinys, and 4 Online Metals hex with leather over the sbr cordura to give them a little extra bend time! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 (edited) Ahhhh too long between updates, but there was a big contest bend!!! Last Friday (squats & grip) - did some “20” rep squats with a kb in rack position where it was 10 on 1 side switch and 10 on the other. Worked up to a 70 pounder! Then into some grip and another tough blob session. Managed a janky Legacy 110 lift right handed but no real hope at Legacy 115 or Holle 24. Then onto some pinch and key pinch highlighted by a cool 50 pound key pinch of a badass padlock made even more fun because my 2 year old brought a phone book to tear just before the lift so of course we tore it then I did the lift and then she was there waiting for me with another phone book to tear haha so it was a key pinch bookended by daddy daughter phone book tears Monday (contest bending!) - this was my first session for the Steelbend Russia Cordura singles contest and it was a good one!!! It was only my second session with the SBR cordura, but they already felt good so I wasn’t really concerned about them being too new. The bar options I have are 180kg 8&9mm round, 190kg 9mm round, 210kg 8mm round, 220kg 8mm hex, 225kg 8.5mm round and I have 230 hex but I’ll have to check the specs if I get that far haha!!! Bends must be done in under a minute, but if you cut bar shorter you get a minute and a half. Other than scoring an official bend by the 24th to stay in the contest, the big issue was the jump from 190 to 210 since this is probably going to separate the top guys from the pack!!! Thus I was hoping to get to 190 so that I could really focus training on making thr jump the next session. So let’s get to it. After some light drill rods and a bastard (around 150kg) it was time to get to it! 180kg is about Px7” O-1 drill rod, a bend I can do in under 15 seconds in broken in benders battlefield Cordura. And boom great start, around 10 seconds maybe less. Onward to 190kg and another 10 second bend woooo!!! Given how well they felt and fast they bent, it was time to make the jump to 210 right now and put myself in a great position early in the contest (or at least have a sense of how hard the jump would be, 210 should be a around a horrido 8.8 which I’ve done in like 25 seconds in BB and 1:15 in imps, but also failed a dozen times at least lol). But alas there was no need to fret the jump, 22 seconds later I was a superstar, or at least in the leader group haha (215kg in 35ish seconds by Andrey Osipov was first place at this time and currently 220kg at 168mm, cut from 178, in 55 seconds by Alex Denisovsky is first place with me in third). Since I got to 210 in the first week I’ll prob skip doing a contest bend next Monday and instead use the week to strategize with Derek and prep for the harder bends to come. Tuesday (horseshoes and push day) - since I’m mostly focuses on Cordura bends during the contest, it’s the perfect time to take a run at some horseshoes as well since while the Cordura is hard on the hands it’s not the total body war that the huge double wrap bends are. So I’ll try and use this time to also move up the Kerckhaert list of Anton and also bend some shoes that Carl-August sent my way! I left off at an SX7-00 success and Meister D7 and SSP 3 both at 90ish degrees. So today’s lineup was a Diamond Classic 1, SX7-1, Sx7-00, and a SELLsport Profil 0 TC from Carl. In general the bends felt good. The kinks felt a tiny bit odd timing wise but pretty good still given the time away and I felt like I was able to use my torso more throughout the bends without having to muscle too much with my arms, the downside was I was having the hardest time fully finishing the shoes and only the SX7-1 was fully bent, but still a good starting point I think so I’m generally happy! Then some feet up bench for a 4x2 with 275 and single arm db benching with a 70 and some tricep work on cable machine. Wednesday (pull day) Lots and lots of rows and lat pull downs!!! Coolest set was Croc Row for 5 reps without reset with a 155 pound 2” knurled handle dumbbell (right handed haha, left could only do 4 reps with resets) And were caught up Edited May 23 by featsofalex 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 Volume Bending Day (and for once an update on the actual day it took place) Warmed up with some light E/F/G/H x 7” drill rod in sbr cordura and then onto 4 red nails (1 in sbr cordura only and 3 with leather over them) followed by 4 shinys (1 in sbr cordura and 3 with leather over them) and finished with two 6” hex from McMaster in sbr cordura and leather doubles. Was a good session overall even though was the the cordura singles volume a little lower than I’d like due aime skin tears. I’m wearinf four hydrocolloid bandages right now, but I’m only really worried about one of them right now, here’s hoping it’ll be all healed up stat!!! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Knowlton Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 KILLER BENDS 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted May 25 Author Share Posted May 25 Squats and Grippers (only yesterday!) 4x5 goblets squats with 124 pound goblet (kettlebell) 3x30 on reverse hyper with around 4 plate/ side then onto grippers and time to play with some new Grip Show setting blocks!!! Had grand dreams of doing my ghp 7 with the 38mm 3D block but despite a couple close calls couldn’t quite pull it off; but did manage a convincing ghp 6 (128 rec) close with the block!!! Plus I’m super excited to have expanded my grip podcast setting block collection!!! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted May 31 Author Share Posted May 31 (edited) Moar consolidated updates!!! Tuesday was a double bending day since I didn’t workout on Monday, started with my heavy session of DOH. I was using this week to prepare for another round of contest bends for the SteelBendRussia contest next week. I was really trying to walk the line all week at training hard for the contest and nursing/babying my skin tears so the actual cordura singles volume wasn’t crazy but the total bending was a little crazy haha. I did 4 easy drill rod (like D-J range) and a bastard in the sbr cordura then switched to sbr compliant double wraps (10cm wide, under 40mm thick, no additional crush pads) for: P Q R x 7” 3/8x7” CRS, 3/8x7” HRS Two 5/16x6” crs hex Then later in the day onto horseshoes since it was my actual horseshoe day. I’ve been working on a more athletic horseshoe style and although the timings and force placement arent fully dialed in, it did start to feel better and I think will raise my overall shoe bending ceiling. Fully bent a Diamond Classic 2 & 1 and St Croix Lite 3 & 2 and then finished off 2/3 shoes I had left just short of 180 degrees the week before! Hopefully laying a strong foundation for big shoe bends to come!!! Wednesday was bench and other pushing. Did feet up bench 4x5 at 235 and 4x5 feet up single FatBell bench for 4x5 at 88 pounds. Supersetted the single arm bench with some wrist work and then finished off outside with some light kettlebell pressing. Thursday was volume bending day and had one hiccup in 16 bends so of course completely forgot about the other 15 bends and felt the sky was falling plan was to do four easy drill rods and FBBC bastard/shiny/hex in the sbr cordura then add leather for 3 more of each. All was clicking through the shiny then I botched the hexabastard kink and after two hits decided to remember it was volume day not contest day so just added the leather and finished it off and then the next 9 bends without issue. My recent batch of FBBC hex is tough, especially at the kink, but I still should’ve gotten it, I def need to get over any hex in cordura brain drama stat!!! But alas onward to the contest bends next week and hopefully I set myself up for success … especially since the bends will be hard af!!! The final field is set (needed a successful bend by last week to be officially in contest) and with my 210kg first entry I’m in 3rd out of 17. But Sergey Kuznetsov has only done a placeholder bend so far and will be up at the top as well after his next attempt. Should be a fierce June of bending with almost all the top guys in top form right now!!! Alex Denisovsky (first with cut 220kg) and Andrey Osipov (second with 215kg) have been destroying huge bends in every kind of wraps right now as has Sergey who’s only in pretend fifth for the moment. Jan had taken some time off and also has a busy travel schedule this month but he’s still in fourth (190kg) and a great contest bender and great cordura bender!!! And let’s not forget our great host Dmitriy Anisimov who’s in sixth with 180kg as well and always bringing the perfect technique to every bend! Of course I want to win, but no matter what happens, it’s such a joy to get to slug it out with the best of the best, stay tuned for more my friends!!! Edited May 31 by featsofalex 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sid_arnes Posted May 31 Share Posted May 31 These "consolidated" log updates are great. The SBR contest got real real fast! Is the SBR cordura the Cadillac of singles? ? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted May 31 Author Share Posted May 31 26 minutes ago, sid_arnes said: These "consolidated" log updates are great. The SBR contest got real real fast! Is the SBR cordura the Cadillac of singles? ? Yes it definitely is in full swing already and with it ending June 25th there’ll probably be constant mega bends! SBR cordura is my favorite of the 7 corduras I’ve tried! It’s only been around a couple of years and can be hard to get, but if it isn’t already the Cadillac of singles it will be!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted June 8 Author Share Posted June 8 Ahhh over a week without update, but I have a good one!!! Last Friday was squats and grip, did most of the squat/good morning work with a 176 pound sandbag and did nominal grip work, just a few reps on the push pin, to keep my hands fresh for Mondays bending. Monday was the big day to see if I was going to be a player the rest of the way in the SteelBendRussia Secha 2024 cordura singles contest or just on the periphery of greatness (I was already in fourth place with a 210kg bend in 22 seconds so already doing pretty well). The next bend was to be 8mm x 178mm hex rated 220kg. Alex D had already done this bend at 168mm and Sergey K did it at 178mm in 40 seconds. Thankfully I hit all my spots and pulled off a great bend and got it done in 30 seconds, putting me in second place - where I still am now! It was a really special bend where I don’t even remember the bar bending I was just doing the hits as I’d planned and the bar followed along for the ride and to have done it in such a fiercely competitive competition setting makes it mean all the more!!! There’s still a little over two weeks left in the contest, and 2-3 more contest bending days for me, so the excitement has only begun!!! Tuesday was horseshoes and push day. Push was workmanlike feet up bench and accessories. For the horseshoes I was again having trouble finishing the shoes, but the session was saved by getting a bunch of movement on a Meister D7 that had been stuck at 90 degrees for eons. It was great to see progress on it! Wednesday was workmanlike rows for pull day and then I assembled my new Euro Pinch!!!! I’m super stoked to have a Euro setup now and look forward to getting some practice with it! I also tested it with all spacers and no added weight (still 85 pounds) a couple times since it was technically a pull Thursday was volume bending day. I limited the cordura bends to just 4 easy O-1 warmups and then did all the working volume in sbr compliant doubles. 4 bastards 4 shinys and 4 dukes and that was all she wrote!!! Friday (yesterday) was squats and grip. I did squats in the yard gym so it was just informal grabbing weights and squatting or good morning them. I did a few carry’s outside for grip and then came in and worked on the Euro Pinch! I had all the spacers in and kept the weight low just to get a feel for it - it’s its own kind of beast for sure!!! I’ll probably keep getting acclimated the next couple weeks then try and push the weight after the bending contest ends. I was also mixing in one hand flask with the two hand euro. It was a bit more grip intensive workout than I’ve been doing the first few weeks of the contest but my hands survived in good shape so hopefully I’ll still be primed for a big bend (or bends ) on Monday!!! I think it’s still too early to select bends based on the competition so I’ll go with my planned bend regardless of leaderboard changes over the weekend. Pretty much every bend now among the Top 4 will be freaking massive bends in cordura singles, but hopefully we all have massive successes and really push each other hard!!! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Knowlton Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 Nice work, I like those York collars 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted June 8 Author Share Posted June 8 30 minutes ago, John Knowlton said: Nice work, I like those York collars Thanks! Yeah they’re awesome and beefy!!! I’ve only ever used them sporadically so im psyched that they now have a forever home as the inside Euro Pinch collars! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted June 16 Author Share Posted June 16 Maybe I’ll plan to just do weekly updates each weekend and then I won’t be late when I wait until the weekend Monday - Heavy Bending Day I had my first stumble in the SteelBendRussia Secha 2024 (cordura singles) contest and failed the 225kg bar right at the kink. This is a massive cordura bend and at the time would’ve put me into first place but my bend was dead on arrival. My cordura kink is the weakest part of my cordura bend so I do think if I can get it kinked I can get through the bend even if 1 minute will be tight And as it goes, I promptly felt the consequences of my failure as Sergey K successfully bent this bar (with 2 seconds to spare!) only days later to move into first place and drop me to third. There’s 9 days left in the contest and probably 2 contest bending days for me, so I’ll have my rematch with this bar and hope to conquer it!!! I then finished the 225k in doubles and decided that bending a 6.5” square would make me feel better, but it was fairly off center and got stuck with a little under an inch to go. This one was from Midwest Steel, and a month ago I failed one from FBBC with half an inch to go so at some point I need to get the best of this bend before it becomes my nemesis!!! 0 for 2 what a day haha, but never fear, I had a 3/8”x6” brass hex from @Austin Seitter calling my name and I knew I wouldn’t let him down! I’ve done brass hex at 7” before but never shorter but still wasn’t too worried, and my unjustified confidence paid off and I got it bent in a little under a minute to save the day!!! Finished up with a Cx7” drill rod barehand attempt but failed to get a nice kink so threw on 1/3 imps for the kink and then finished it barehand. Cx7” was rated many years ago at 210 but I was convinced this was harder only to have the rating come back by @devinhooa couple days later as only 220. I guess I can’t keep pretending it’s actually really hard and instead need to work on that barehand kink Tuesday - Horseshoes and Push Day I’m in a nice rhythm on my Tuesdays Horseshoes in the morning and the Push in the afternoon with Feet up Bend as the main lift, single are dumbbell bend as the secondary lift and then tricep accessories and this was more of the same. Had trouble kinking a Meister D7 (what’s with my kinks this week) but did a good job finishing easier shoes with thigh crush! Wednesday - Pull Day Likewise I’m in a nice rhythm of rows with my multi grip camber bar as my primary pulling movement. From there I did various deadlifts and rows with 2-3/8” handle dumbbells to get some thick bar in since I planned to skip grip on Friday to be more prepared for the rematch on the 225kg bar! Highlight was getting 5 reps without reset on a 140 pound shot loaded Barker Bell with 2-3/8” rolling handle (right hand only for that )! Thursday - Volume Bending Decided to stick to only the SBR cordura singles as long as my skin held so that I could work on a new kinking style with them. Plan was 4 easy drill rods and 10 red nails and I bend 4 easy drill rods and 10 red nails got some good practice in and set a cordura volume pr as well!!! Friday - Squats and Grip Just stuck to “exercise squats” with a light kb and then hit a set of 30 on the reverse hyper, skipped grip and called it for the week with the hopes of being primed for a mega contest bend on Monday!!! Fingers crossed! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Knowlton Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 (edited) WAY CRAZY COOL Edited June 17 by John Knowlton 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted June 22 Author Share Posted June 22 Weekly Recap!!! Monday - Heavy Bending After warmups for right to it with the SBR 225kg rematch and I was able to get more movement on it, but not quite enough to be able to make it happen. A little bit more and I think I could’ve gotten through the rest of the bend, but it’s tough for me to kink hard bars in cordura singles and that’s a hard bar!!! That was my last 225kg bar, but I should be able to squeeze in one more contest session before Secha 2024 ends on Tuesday. I’m still in third place but no podium spot is safe til it’s all over!!! Then I decided to keep with the rematch theme and took on the 6.5” FBBC monster square and had a terrible kink on the flat, and used up all my energy getting it back to an edge. Threw in the towel with it just under 3”. I’ve gotten this bar to 2.5” before but victory has proven elusive, at least I officially have a nemesis bar!!! Next I decided to stick to 5/16 sq but this time at 7”. Went with a really hard one from Delmar that I hadn’t succeeded on yet (the only 5/16 sq to evade me at 7”!) and had a very nice bend on it but was pretty tired and beat up so the crush took eons and it got finished off as a time fail. At least I’ve gotten it bent now, next time with time to spare! Thus in desperate search of a win I turned to my three remaining 68kg white painted nails from Steel Shredder, taped them together and took it down without much resistance in DHWOG doubles. Always nice when a bend you have no idea how it will go works out perfect! Tuesday - Horseshoes and Push Day Shoe highlight was taking down a Kerckhaert SX7-2 in a little over 30 seconds without any leg pad!!! Otherwise just more focus on the thigh crush! Bench highlight was a double with 124 pound fatbells in my first time benching with them!!! Wednesday - Pull Day (secretly thick bar day) Did some light volume rows on the multi grip camber bar then off to the 2-3/8” dumbbells, technically pulls!!! These felt really good with both hands and I managed a cool 64kg righty / 60kg lefty combo lift as well as a lefty lift of my 64kg Holle Inch for the first time!!! Did a couple iffy full weight inch lifts righty as well which I was happy with since it’s been a while since I’d done any and the slightest inch breaks are historically very punitive to me!!! Thursday - Volume Bending Day In my usual leather over cordura doubles I did: Six 5/16x6” crs round 2 5/16x6” crs hex 1 5/16x6” 303 ss round (and decided that huge shiny equivalents were too hard for volume day lol!!! Friday - Squats and Grip Did a bunch of Hindu squats and a set of 30 on reverse hyper, the I got to have my first proper session on the Euro Pinch!!! I’m starting with all 10 spacers (3” exactly) and then going to take one out each week and at the end decide one or two widths to focus my training on. With all 10 spacers I worked up to 139 pounds for a good tough lift! I’m very excited to have my Euro Pinch setup in my life!!! Also, I declared it to be Short Bar Summer and issued an open challenge to the entire world that anybody who bends an authentic FBBC Bastard, Hexabastard, Shiny or Duke 1/2” or more shorter than I do will win $50/bar, so up to $200!!! Needless to say, I’ll be transitioning over to short bars for the summer as soon as I wrap up my bends for the SBR contest. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted July 1 Author Share Posted July 1 Weekly Recap! Monday - Last day of Secha 2024 bending contest!!! 230kg 8mm x 178mm hex in SBR cordura was my final bend for the @steelbendrussia Secha 2024 contest!!! This was the final day of the contest and my last bar rated 230 or lower - after bending the 220kg hex in 30 seconds three weeks ago I went on to fail my 225kg bar two weeks in a row, which brought us to the final day of the contest and 220 and 230 hex as my remaining bar options. I started out cutting a cm off the 220 bar, and had a good bend going but got stuck at around 3”. I was disappointed not to get it finished, but now was the time for a short memory as I still had two 230kg I could try. So I wrapped up the first one and gave it the bend of my life … only for it to be at 5.4cm and as fate would have it, at this very moment I saw that @sergey_soundartist had successfully bent the 230kg in 59 seconds!!! So never mind that I’d just finished two max bends, I still had another bar and a dream! At this point I couldn’t count on energy and strength but had to fall back on my training and competitiveness and managed to pull off the miracle and bend it in the exact same 59 seconds as Sergey did!!! What an end to an amazing competition and huge congratulations to @alex_san_den who bent the same bar in the final days but cut 1cm to whoop us both and achieve ultimate victory!!! Tuesday & Wednesday - took them off to recover from the mayhem of Monday! Thursday - Volume Bending Day Back to my usual leather over cordura wraps and the beginning of Short Bar Summer! I took down a fun 7”-4.5” ladder of 5/16” 1018 CRS from Fastenal. This was my first time bending steel from Fastenal and it was def on the easier side for 1018 but the last 1/4” of the 4.5 incher still had some fight to it! Friday - Grippers Worked up to a max CCS for the elitegripsociety contest being run on Instagram and realized I forgot how damn wide a cc is Still, despite being a big beat up and out of practice either cc I managed to tie my ccs or using my 140rgc CoC 3. I have a 146 Tetting grandmaster I was hoping to get to but 140 was already pushing my luck so I’ll take it down another time! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted July 7 Author Share Posted July 7 Fourth of July week wrap-up! Monday - Heavy Bending The start of Short Bar Summer and I wanted to waste no time in setting the bar for the four bars fairly high for those who want to beat me at my open challenge and win my cash! So I took down a huge shiny bastard (6”), magnificent bastard (5”), huge Duke (6”), and grand hexabastard (5.5”). The huge Duke felt hardest but all 4 went down in under a minute each! Since I was feeling good I also took this chance to have a go at a bend From the Vault and my buddy @tkovach724, a 3/8”x5” brass round! I’ve done it at 5.5” before and recently did a 6” brass hex easily enough but 5” is still getting awefully short on that bar! Fortunately the day was charmed and I conquered it in short order as well for a cool new PR!!! It was such a charmed training day that that afternoon while shirking on my landscaping duties I even nailed a sweet 130 lb Peter Wright anvil and double 50lb scale weight combo lift in the yard!!! Tuesday - Push and Finger Grip Implements Did a bench/incline bench session, mostly with 80 pound globe dumbbells, then skipped horseshoes because of some lingering raw finger skin right in the horseshoe zone. So instead I decided it would be fun to play around with thumb blasters and various other finger intensive implements. And it was a blast but the punishment for miscreant off program gripping was swift Wednesday - Pull and Thick Bar Got the business out of the way early with a bunch of rows on the multi grip camber bar, then onto the inch dumbbells! I was particularly looking forward to nailing some big inch/blob combos because it will be the fifth and final event at a contest I’m hosting in December, and I had just finalized the scoring system for it! 1 point/lb of inch weight and 3 points/lb of blob weight (2.75 points/lb for legacy’s under 130). When testing the system I realized all my friends have scored over 300 points (one partial human homie has scored 401!!!) and I wanted to joint them!!! So I proceeded to miss every lift of the session but better get it out of my system now than on contest day I suppose! Thursday - Volume Bending Volume Day, but I forgot about the part where I’d have to get a bunch of bars ready for short bar summer volume days so we went with an eclectic mix of previously mis-cut 5/16x5.75” 1018 CRS OM bars and a return to bolts for first time since 6.5” 10.9 with a 6.5” triangle edgin, 6” gold 8.8 and the infamous WK-10 6” Edgin! I used to use the wk-10’s to prepare for Nanook but was never actually able to bend one, so it’s nice to have finally vanquished my old foe!!! Friday - skipped for holiday! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Knowlton Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 way cool 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted July 14 Author Share Posted July 14 Week in Review Monday - Heavy Bending Day Sicko 5.5” session with 4 PR’s!!! Did pay a bit of a price the rest of the week but these sessions don’t come around often so had to hang on for the ride!!! My first ever: FBBC Grand Shiny in a smooth 1:15 as well!!! 15 years late, but I’m going on the assumption there was no end date to Wiggy’s Grand Shiny race FBBC Grand Duke, felt tougher than the grand shiny and took a little longer too - 1:50. I think it’s just harder and not because I did it second but who knows 3/8”x5.5” galvanized g2 bolt - the easier of my g2 coatings and went down without much troubke 3/8”x5.5” zinc coated g2 bolt - the “traditional” coating was definitely harder but the bend was never in doubt!!! Looked at a 5.5” edging and decided to quit a winner Tuesday - skipped push day and used the time to cut the bars for NovACE of O-1 Wednesday - Inch/Blob combos/anvil/RT Hang Supposed to be a pull day but I’d already skipped push day to doubled down on the shirking! Started formal training for the Feat Meet Invitatial with a bunch of inch/blob combos. Ideally I’d like to lift a heavy inch righty and a heavy’ish blob lefty but lefty wasn’t having it with the blob so had to switch it up. Managed a Next Gen hundo and 60kg bolt on inch and just missed it with a 64kg Holle Inch. Then went outside to rip some anvil horn lifts because I only have 5 events I need to be training for so why not do one that isn’t on the list I was using a 130 pound anvil and worked up to 145 pounds with added dumbbells but couldn’t quite get it with 150 using 20 pound chain. Was close though so next time!!! Then continued to blow off all required training and did a double rolling thunder hang for max time and made it 37 seconds!!! Felt longer lol Thursday - not volume bending day and reverse bending Planned to do some volume with 70ds cut to 5” but crush was too hard for volume day especially after Monday so abandoned ship and got to work on reverse bending of 7” drill rod in imps (also an event at the Feat Meet Invitational!). Made it through J drill rod but got foiled by K. I’d like to be a little past K at the contest so I got some work to do!!! Friday - Grippers/Euro/Thumb MMS mash monster ladder is the contest event, so MMS sets it was! Grippers felt okay’ish and I either just closed or just missed the MM1 but didn’t get very close on MM2 (I’ve been a whisker away before!). Next was 2.25” Euro Pinch (another contest event!) and felt pretty good but stalled out at 150, I’ll need to see a lot of improvement if I want to finish anywhere but last place!!! Then my thumber trifecta from Nemesis Grips showed up so played around with them for a bit and on first impression the Psycho Thumber is my favorite! And that’s all she wrote 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Knowlton Posted July 15 Share Posted July 15 nice stuff 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted July 21 Author Share Posted July 21 Weekly Wrap-Up! Monday - Heavy Bending Day and Tasting GripBoard Immortality I was bending 5” this week and all the warmups went well, then just as I was about to wrap up a mag hexabastard a kiddo awoke from his nap early! This led to an extended physical rest and mental distraction before trying the mag hex (in hindsight I should’ve done another warmup here!) and it was an off-center battle the whole way with me surrendering with only 1/4” to go. Despite the stumble, the show must go on! And the show was a FBBC Magnificent Shiny Bastard 5/16”x5” ss! Short shinys have upwards of 20 years of history on The GripBoard and I can think of under 10 people to have bent one under cert conditions and nobody since Derek 4 years ago! Thus, on a bar that requires nothing less, I came through with a perfect bend and took it down in under 2 minutes for a little taste of GripBoard immortality!!! Tuesday - Push Day and Reverse Volume Solid workmanlike push day with bench, pullovers and tricep accessories. Then finished up with 8 reverse bend bright 60d nails in imps. My reverse needs a lot of work and there’s not a lot of time since I’ll be competing at it on Sep 14, so no time like the present!!! 8 60ds was hard for me but I got through it and came out the other side a little tougher for the cause! Wednesday - Pull Day Mostly did 2-3/8” dumbbell lifts and combos under a loose interpretation of pull. I didn’t hit any stellar inch/blob combos but lifted two of my bolt on inches for the first time (158 & 162lbs) and got closest I’ve ever been with a full weight combo (still not that close and blob was only a half 55 but it’s a step in the right direction)! Thursday - Volume Bending 4.5” volume, crazy haha but gotta get ready for a special insane bastard attempt on Monday! Did 2 1/4” g8’s and 3 5/16 hrs then for some reason tried to sneak in a 4.5” 12L14 hex on volume day, needless to say it didn’t go well but still got 5 good bends in which is pretty good at 4.5”!!! Friday - Grippers, Euro & Hub Did ok on grippers, warmups went well and likely closed the MM1 but still convincingly missing MM2, gotta get that sucker dialed in!!! The a little rep work with a filed 127 platinum which was fun. On to 2.25@ Euro and added cross bar this week. Made it to 155 but still need a lot of improvement!!! Finished up with hub lifting a Marcy 45 - made it to 60 pounds before being stapled by 62.5! And now we rest for meeting with the Insane Bastard!!! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 Weekly Wrap Up Monday - Heavy Bending Day Insane Edition 4.5” day started with an insane bastard sent to me by my buddy Todd that he got from his bro Kovachio that got it from Wiggy and not only was the pedigree amazing but these brutal bastards were rated 510 lbs at 7”!!! I gave it hell but came up just short of glory, still it was a great to get to have a crack at it! I then followed it up with another insane bastard, this one from January this year and took it down in just under 2 mins for my first authentic FBBC insane bastard bend under cert conditions! Then finished off the session with an insane shiny attempt and got it under 3” but was generally outsmarted by the bar and confused most of the bend. Despite being under an inch from completion it really wasn’t close and I’ll need to do some studying and practice to take it down, but that one can wait til my next run through the short stuff!! Tuesday - pushing accessories Didn’t have much time to workout so just ran through some accessories and called it a day! Wednesday - pulling and miscreant pinching Started off working on apollons axle and got up to 341 which might be a pr but didn’t film until my failed 352 attempt still pretty good result! After some accessories, highlighted by rows with my York 150 pro style dumbbells I then went outside and did a climber pinch duck walk medley for random fun!!! Thursday - volume bending day Started reasonable enough with a couple 1/4” G5’s and 5/16 G2’s in imps, then instead of switching to doubles for cut 70ds I decided to have a go at it in 16” long cordura (they come in a little under 1.25” barrel diameter and are battle washer compliant). Was a pretty tough bend but I more or less finished it depending if you’re a sticker for measuring to the point or the theoretical inside edge Then for some reason instead of being happy’ish and doing more cut 70ds in doubles I decided to have a go at a stout 5/16” crs with these wraps. Was a very tough but good bend, but just missed it and for heaven sakes I didn’t even know I wanted to do a mag bastard in cordura but now am obsessed, send help … or easy bastards Friday - Grippers, Euro, Hub Workers multiple Feat Meet Invitational events starting with grippers. They mostly sucked so I punished myself with a 10 second hold or a filed standard platinum (127rgc) which was hard but fun! Onto the Euro and worked il to around 150 then switched to rows with 111 pounds. Another hard but fun one! Finished off with hub lifts on my Marcy 45 and hit 62.5”lbs to beat a longstanding 60lb PR!!! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 Weekly Wrap Up!!! Monday - Heavy Bending Following last weeks trip to insanity it was back up to a magnificent 5” and vindicated two bends and had a new foe emerge! Two weeks prior I had just missed a mag hex on a very poor bend, but today came correct and took down that magnificent hexabastard in 1:35!!! I also vindicated my failed mag bastard in 4x16” cordura singles from the week before. This was a tough bend but I claimed victory in a hard fought 2:20. Last on the hit parade was my maiden voyage with a magnificent Duke of All Bastards and The Duke survived with an inch of his life Tuesday - Pressing Was pretty tight on time and worked up to a couple 315 singles on bench and a couple hustled accessories. Wednesday - Pulling Appolon’s Axle milestone FOUR YEARS in the making!!! Hoisted 352 pounds / 160kg for my first time breaking the 350 barrier, a barrier that has felt so close for four straight years but always evaded me until now!!! I then doubled down on my barrier breaking and lifted my 130 pound Peter Wright anvil with a thick 20 pound chain wrapped around it for the first time (with a bit of an assist from the mega humidity ) Thursday - Volume Bending It’s time to start breaking in the 12.9 wraps!!! Plan is for leather doubles using a thin leather to 5”x18” inners and 5”x12” outers for a barrel a little over 1.5” / a little under 40mm. In the past I haven’t liked 5” wraps but they felt better this time and I hope they work since I want to wrap the 12.9 pretty deep to minimize thread snapping risk. So onward to breaking in all that leather haha. 16 bends were on the docket and my 16th bend was a 5/16”x7” silver 8.8 in 13 seconds for a nice strong finish!!! Victims were: 4 Bastard Equivalents 4 Shiny Equivalents 4 Hex Equivalents 4 7” silver 8.8s Friday - Squats, Grippers and Holle HD3 Few sets of Marrs Bar box squats and then underperformed on grippers (how I remember it) but in hindsight I did get a very solid close on a tough RB gripper with a 144 rgc and a triple on a filed standard platinum (128 rgc) for a rep pr so the gripper session probably was better than I gave it credit for at the time Then it was time to break in the Holle HD3 dumbbell that just arrived the day before. After a bit of fussing I found a great plate setup using my Ivanko 5kg chromes and some Ivanko collars on the main dumbbell and then uesaka kg change plates on the thumb loading pin - basically 55kg of plate/collar weight on the dumbbell at all times then adjustments to the thumb side weight was the order of the day. Started out with 5kg on the thumbside and it just laughed at me maniacally so I had to begin weight reduction of shame dance before being able to work up to 3kg thumb side right handed!!! Also drove myself crazy failing to do a level lift with 1kg thumb side balancing a Coconut Water tallboy can but was then able to do it just fine balancing a fat grip 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
featsofalex Posted August 11 Author Share Posted August 11 Week in Review Monday - Heavy Bending Day Strange docket for the day since I was wrapping up some of my final Short Bar Summer attempts but also was transitioning back to the 7” range. Started off with a GBI 210kg bar 9mm x 180mm SS in double Horrido wraps and succeeded in getting the cert even though the bar surprised me some at how hard it was! Still I think I adjusted well and it was good to go. Then onto the last of the short stuff with a 4” Fantastic Bastard and a 4.5” Insane Hexabastard!!! The 4” bastard felt so odd and really there was no hope in just randomly getting it on the first try, that thing will take some work!!! The Insane Hex felt doable with some focused training, this attempt was off center and ended at 2.75”. Of all the short bar summer fails (4” bastard, 4.5” hex, 4.5” shiny, 5”) the insane hex felt the closest! Then on a bit of a lark and because I thought it would make a good story to go from a 4” to 9” bend I tried the EatChalk Get Big 3/8”x9” O-1 drill rod, but the length jump was just too much to be able to put a good bend on such a hard bar. Then back to 7” to finish up the session with a 11/32”x 7” 303 SS Shiny Duke Équivalent from Midwest Steel. I loved this bend, it was a super hard war but victory was mine and hopefully I can follow it up with an authentic shiny Duke to make it FBBC official. Tuesday - Push Day Light benching and accessories ruled the day! Wednesday - Pull Day I convinced myself that blobs were pulls so I had at them and managed to lift my Holle 24kg for the first time, only took 21 months Thursday - Volume Bending Continued working on breaking in my 12.9 wraps (double leathers) so skewed it a bit to the bolts. Final tally was: 2 Bastard Equivalents 2 Shiny Equivalents 4 Edgins 4 8.8s 4 3/8”x7” G2’s Friday - Squats and Grip Focused on Euro Pinch and got some good work in plus a 3 lb PR of 258.2 on 2.25” euro. Grippers and thumb implements paid the price for the Euro’centric start of the session, but was prolly worth it! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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