The Michigan Chronicles part deux: The yin and yang of hand strength
Ladies and gentleman we have a special celebrity guest in today's entry. It is none other than Andrew Durniat. Andrew is not only an accomplished kettlebell lifter (he acheived CMS in traditional back in November and he was the first person in the US to go the whole ten minutes in the 32kg kettlebell snatch) he is also a world record-holding strongman. Andrew treated us to a grip strength clinic after the IKFF/NAKF meet last weekend. He did some pretty amazing stuff. What is even more amazing is the fact that he did all this after going ten minutes in jerks, snatches and long cycle with the 24s. The videos pretty much speak for themselves. One thing Andrew explained in detail but I failed to capture on the video is the fact that it is very easy to overtrain the grip. He pointed out that this type of work isn't so taxing on the muscles but it does stress the tendons and ligaments to the extreme, hence it is easy to overtrain. Thus if you strain a muscle you might be sore and tight for a day or a few days but if it is a tendon or ligament you are talking weeks or maybe in a bad case, months. Obviously you use your hands on a daily basis so you want them strong and injury free. If you wish to embark on such training do your homework and as Andrew says, "don't try this at home". If you are interested in this type of strength check out http://www.ironmind.com
They have a lot of books as well as equipment you will surely enjoy. There are several videos of Andrew on youtube as well. Footage from last weekend is below.
Andrew is in many ways a paradox. He is a male kettlebell lifter and strongman yet he has a full head of hair. He also fits in the category of "skinny strong" which is slightly mind-bending or at least quite rare in powerlifting circles. I also hear he is a huge fan of recording artist Cher.
Interestingly despite his obvious hand strength look at the gentleness with which he holds the glass for his Cosmopolitan.
They have a lot of books as well as equipment you will surely enjoy. There are several videos of Andrew on youtube as well. Footage from last weekend is below.
Andrew is in many ways a paradox. He is a male kettlebell lifter and strongman yet he has a full head of hair. He also fits in the category of "skinny strong" which is slightly mind-bending or at least quite rare in powerlifting circles. I also hear he is a huge fan of recording artist Cher.
Interestingly despite his obvious hand strength look at the gentleness with which he holds the glass for his Cosmopolitan.
For grip feats you cannot ignore The Gripboard at www.gripboard.com
That's a bare minimum. There are lots of other places to look too.
My buddy Bob Lipinski puts on hand strength contest 1-2x a year in Michigan that often draw a "who's who" of hand strength to them to compete and shoot the shit, and pay homage to the Godfather of Grip, Don Larkin. The P&B has a small grip section...often considered the "outlaws" of grip, due to the often at-odds position with many other grip enthusiasts.
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Shaf:
Thanks for the link. The outlaws of grip sound like a dangerous bunch.
Scott
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That description about Andrew is perhaps the most telling about anyone. He is definitely a walking paradox. To add he ran 50 miles non stop and broke a wide grip deadlift world record to boot.
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When did he run 50 miles nonstop? That is crazy! Speaking of paradoxes I think you could make a nice living by going to biker bars and challenging the big guys to overhead lift competitions. They might kill you eventually but you could die holding their money. Ooh another good idea for a blog entry.
Thanks,
Scott
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