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Diesel Crew Strength and Fitness Tips

From Jedd Johnson

 

Hello ,

As I said earlier in the week, I was lucky enough to set another record in the Two Hands Pinch at Grip Sport Nationals over the weekend.

 

If you haven't seen the video, there are two angles up on the site right now.  In the second one, you can really get a good look at the implement and how I set up on it for the lift = > New 2HP Record.

 

However, I wanted to write you about a few things I learned over the weekend about my performance and I think they are things that you can benefit from as well, whether you compete at Grip, Strongman, Powerlifting, or even if you don't compete at all.

 

 

Going into the contest, my best Gripper close was a 149-lb rated #3 Gripper and my best lift was less than 217-lbs.  I was honestly not expecting that much at the comp.  My impression was that I still had some lingering injury in my fingers that was keeping me from getting my best Gripper Closes and limiting my Pinching.

 

However, I think I was just simply over-trained.  I hurt my back the Monday before the comp and in an effort to give it as much time as possible to recover, I did no training from Monday on.  As a result, my hands felt better at this competition than they ever have and I PR'd on Grippers with a Block Set and on the Two Hands Pinch.

 

So, my suggestion to you, , is if you are gearing up for a contest or a PR and you are seeing your numbers flatten out, don't let it alarm you.  You may just need some rest in order to give your body that super-compensation effect.  I normally train until Tuesday before a comp, get a hand massage the Wednesday before a comp and take the rest of the week off to recuperate, but I may have found a new strategy with a full week off of Grip Training.

 

 

As I mentioned, I hurt my back the Monday before the comp.  I was able to try out an inversion table at the competition venue in order to traction it, and it did absolutely nothing.  I got no good movement out of it and it actually made it feel a bit worse, I thought.

 

However, when I tried some single and double leg traction, while lying prone on the floor, it made my back feel much better.  In fact, after a week that saw 2 chiropractic adjustments, a massage, countless hours of icing and heating, the inversion table, and the manual leg traction, the leg traction was the thing that made the biggest  difference in how my back felt.

 

My suggestion to you, , is if you get an injury, try every possible avenue toward feeling better you can. Chiro, massage, ART, wrapping, stretching, compression, R.I.C.E., traction and more - try it all and see what you respond to the best.

 

3.  Sometimes You Need to Challenge Your Own Deepest Belief Systems

 

In all my years of Grip and Strongman competition, I never quit early in an event with a time limit and I never took a zero due to injury.  I was taught as a kid never to quit and so I would often play baseball and basketball with bag back pain, knee pain, twisted ankles, etc, eating ibuprofen until the pain went away long enough to pitch or run up and down the court.  Later on this led to lifting stones and flipping tires while my lower back screamed the entire time, most likely making my condition much worse.

 

In the last event at Nationals, the One Hand Deadlift, my back hurt so bad I could not  lift 260-lbs.  In training, my best was 430.  When that happened, I was faced with a decision.  Do I "plow through the pain" like I had done so many times before, or do I bow out andrisk taking a zero in the event? 

 

I chose the zero,  , because I had already had enough of the pain.  I could not risk making things worse. It was very hard to go against what I had been taught my entire childhood, but there was no other choice.  My suggestion to you is to challenge your most deep-seated belief systems from time to time, especially in regard to competing while injured.  I feel WAY better about making the right decision regarding that last event than I would of if I would have"just gone for it," and gotten even more injured.

 

, these are just a few things I learned about training and myself at Grip Nationals.  I hope they can serve you somehow in your training as well.

 

I hope you have a killer week and continue to just mash the PR's in your training.

 

All the best,

 

P.S.  Don't forget to check out the video clip:  http://www.dieselcrew.com