Archive for January, 2010

I had a serious attack at Iron Palm many years ago when I was in the army and doing a bit of kick boxing and stuff.

The years passed and I let the training slip only doing it sporadically. Back then I did manage to break a marble slab, these days I am just getting back into it so am not trying to break anything.

I feel its an excellent adjunct to grip and forearm training as most iron palm proponents do not possess great grip strength and most people with great forearm power are not iron palm.

There are lots of great sources of information online for iron palm these days. I prefer to train on concrete but just bought a bag and filled it with a 4 meter chain.

Concrete feels better – its solid and it vibrates. However the bag is better for the back of the hands.

I have also found a multitude of dit da jow formulas and suppliers. 10 years back all this was harder to come by.

So my present crush on the gripper is 250 lbs. In 3 months that may be 270 lbs. By then with daily practice I should have iron palm also. Then Its just a matter of continuation.

The dude at www.ironpalm.com can crack a coconut with the back of his hand. This for me I feel would take 2-3 years to accomplish if I combine it with a grip & forearm program also (and an inhuman dedication). Coconut breaking is quite an accomplishment.

His series of videos is available for about $20 us each. There are many Iron Palm courses now.

William Cheung & Brian Gray also offer programs as does Thomas Keen.

Popular Iron Palm Book

Heres a simple program:

Get some dit da jow off the net or from a Chinese Herbal Shop.

Find a waist high concrete wall or flat steel surface and simply slap the surface for several minutes with the liniment on your hands. Don’t slap hard just as hard as possible with no pain or discomfort.
Do the heel of the palm, knife edge and back hand also.

Do this for several minutes on each strike 3X per day using the liniment also.

Its actually quite relaxing to stand there slapping away although my neighbors think I am crazy.

I don’t train my knuckles & in the army they told us not to strike with them. You can however do fingertip pushup’s and everything involved in grip training. Backhand strikes will condition the knuckle also.

Another thing thats popular is hot and cold water dips for the hands. I have not tried stabbing my hands into a bucket of rice but Lee Hayward recommends this as part of his grip training so I may try that soon.

After a few months you will be able to break stuff. Its quite simple.

You gotta get this stuff if you are serious about grip & hand training – Its the secret liniment used in iron palm and iron fist.

Its not secret at all really and I got mine at the Chinese herb shop 3 minutes walk from home.

Its great for preventing or treating tendinitis and rheumatism.

I also picked up an Eagle Catcher for finger training – no where near as good as the super gripper but an excellent device anyway.

Its a shame they don’t come with varying spring strengths. I have a feeling the attachments on this would snap with stronger springs. This means it will be used for isometric timed holds.

I just got my Iron Woody Super Gripper in the mail today. It does not come with any information on the grip poundages of the spring positions but there is a free program online with this information.

There are applications for IVANKO, Iron Woody & Hammar sports :

http://www.angelfire.com/ar/mathgod/sg/supergripper.html

I have four extra springs & have no idea how much force is the maximum but the software will chart it up to over 400 lbs with 3 springs. Even just two springs can achieve 250 lbs.

Hers a pic of me & my new super grippers…

I also got a set of five heavy grips about a month back & can nearly mash 250 lbs. But that last 7 mm seems to be the problem – the super gripper can be used to do partial reps on that final squeeze and I suspect the final squeeze of a wrist curl works the same muscles & tendons.

Finally I went to the hardware store and bought some thumb clamps to work my thumbs and fingers.

My goal is to close 400 lbs and I am doing additional forearm training such as hammer curls, reverse curls, pinches and weighted pull ups in addition to my regular training program.

Man for all these years I neglected grip & hand strength. In the time since my last post I have been quite consumed by it. Well let me tell you it is the secret key that can give you a strength edge.

Most folks don’t do grip training – if you have 2-3x your present grip all your other weights can go up big time.

Yet because the muscles involved are small its easy to increase the weights and resistance.

There is also a bunch of different equipment you can use – get a set of quality hand grippers off ebay. You want from 150 lbs to 300 lbs or so.

I also ordered an ivanko super gripper which is still in the mail. These things go to over 400 lbs which is an awesomely strong grip.

I will be releasing a book on grip training real soon.