SOME SPECIAL GOODIES

Advanced grip work for dinosaurs involves plenty of heavy, awkwardly shaped objects, such as beams, heavy bags, barrels and logs. No matter how hard you train your grip, you need to add some heavy bags, barrels, logs or what have you to your workouts. It doesn't really matter what you use, what it weighs or what you do with it. Anything you do with a heavy bag, barrel, or log is going to work your grip in ways that nothing else can even approach.

In his classic course, MOLDING A MIGHTY GRIP, George F. Jowett stated, “As I have remarked in this book, barrel lifting was very popular with the old-time strength athletes.” He added: “For developing the fingers, hands, wrists and arms, there is nothing any better.” “Apart from this,” Jowett added “barrel lifting is great for general body building.” Jowett concluded his discussion of barrel lifting with the following words:

“In conclusion, let me say. do not neglect any of these exercises or omit them from your

training schedule. They will repay you more quickly than any other form of grip exercise, with the exception of block weight and kettle bell juggling, which is nothing more or less than a contributory variation of what I have explained here. Barrel stunting is beyond a doubt the supreme test of your grip strength. It will build it for you to a marvelous degree. The power of your fingers, the forcep power of the thumb, the strength of the hands, wrists and forearms will increase almost from your first practice period. You will indeed get that grip of steel which we all so much admire and desire. Practice on these exercises will develop the forearm muscles which would not respond to any other form of exercise. From shoulder to finger tips you will be the proud owner of a mighty arm and will have in each hand the vice-like crushing grip of a steel bear-trap. It is not impossible. It is simply up to you - now you have been shown how...”

So get yourself an old 15.5 gallon barrel or a beer keg. Fill it with water, sand, lead shot or anything you like. A 15.5 gallon barrel or beer keg will weigh around 165 pounds when filled with water, 210 pounds when filled with sand, and 270 pounds when you fill it first with sand and then add as much water as possible. Start with 120-160 pounds. Be conservative - this is going to be MUCH more challenging than you imagine. Then lift the thing. Clean it if you can. Press it if you are able. Deadlift it. Walk with it. Curl it. Wrestle it. Bearhug the monster. Do singles or do reps. Anything you do with that big animal is going to work the devil out of your fingers, wrists and forearms. And you don't need to go real heavy either. Handling a 100 pound barrel or keg is no easy task. A 150-pounder is murder.

A man who can bench press 400 pounds or more is going to find it EXTREMELY difficult to clean and press a 150 pound barrel. I speak from personal experience in this regard. The first time I ever lifted a barrel was at Dick Connors' great gym in Evansville, Indiana - THE PIT. I had finished a bench press session where I worked up to 435 pounds from the chest for a single rep (using a bench shirt - something I used to use but no longer use or recommend). Then I tackled the 150 pound barrel, and, at Dick's urging, tried three reps in the clean and press, doing the reps consecutively (i.e., without lowering the barrel to the floor between reps), I managed two and a half, missing the clean on rep number three, and I was gasping for air like I had completed a ten mile run with a large anvil strapped on my back. The barrel was less than half of what I had bench pressed a few minutes earlier, but it almost killed me. Barrel lifting is brutal!

Sandbags are as bad as barrels. Again, you don't need a huge poundage. 100 pounds will work the heck out of even a strong dinosaur, and 150 pounds will humble almost anyone. If you can lift a 200 pound sandbag overhead, you are pretty good. If you can lift a 250 pound bag to your shoulder, you are pretty strong. Do whatever seems to be the thing to do. With a lighter bag, try some upright rowing, high pulls, cleans, snatches or curls. With a heavier bag, wrestle the thing to your shoulders and push it over head, or just bearhug it and walk as far as you can before you drop. Bearhugging a heavy bag is a very unique exercise - you have to crush the bag against your chest (using the biceps and the chest muscles in a way you never duplicate with regular equipment) - and you have to fight the downward pull of the weight with your shoulders and back - and your grip is working overtime just to hold onto the thing.

Another “fun” thing to do is to pick up a heavy bag and carry it with the arms hanging straight down (as though you were in the completed position of a deadlift). With 100 or 150 pounds, this becomes a very difficult movement almost immediately, and after 50 feet or so your fingers and forearms will be screaming for mercy.

For grip work, sandbag curls reign supreme. If you think you have strong arms, try curling a 100 to 130 pound sandbag. You won't believe the difference between curling a 130 pound barbell and a 130 pound bag of sand.

You also can do a static “hold” in the top position or mid-point of a “curl” with a sandbag, a log, a barrel or any similar object. In the August, 1986 issue of THE STEEL TIP (Volume 2, Number 8) Dr. Ken Leistner described a terrific biceps and forearm blaster using a 90 pound anvil:

contraction for thirty seconds, trying to squeeze the anvil higher and higher as his strength wanes and gravity threatens to bring the anvil onto his feet. Three “sets” of this are done, although each subsequent hold is done at a lower position than the preceding one, an unavoidable consequence of fatigue.”

My training partners and I use sandbags, barrels or one of our 180 pound I-beams to do this exercise, and believe me, it is a tremendously tough movement - one that would make being drawn and quartered seem like an act of charity by comparison. Don't blame me if this one almost kills you, blame Dr. Leistner.