Hoover Leather
During the Great Depression people who had no shoes used what they could to protect their feet. Hoover Leather was a name given to using cardboard for shoes. Today, I was shoesless 🙂 for shame.
5 min snatch test
16K X 121 (25/25, 20/20,15/15,1/0)
I just wanted to try out a snatch test. This was a relatively easy pace to maintain, aerobically. I need to work on my grip. Suggestions for Kb grip, grip guys?
2H swing 32K
20, 15, 10, 5
Squat 32K
5 X 5
Anvil or Hammer 
on September 21, 2008 on 6:39 pm
Nike my grip issues were never really too much of a problem but since I got the AKC bells – it’s better – the handles are smaller and I can do the “hook” grip that they talk about. Learning to drop the bell little finger first around my hand sort of and then going between the legs at a kind of angle thumb first takes a lot of stress off the grip. I don’t quite have it down yet but it’s getting better as I do more with them. Of course as I go faster and longer it’s bound to get harder I’m sure. I’ve been using gloves on my swings also – that makes them harder on my grip and offers some additional work.
on September 22, 2008 on 9:12 pm
If your grip is a problem on 5 minutes with the 16k, I have to wonder if you are squeezing the bell hard the entire time, instead of just as you pull it.
I seem to have problems with skin tears before my grip goes, or rather, as my grip goes. I have yet to learn a good solution to it.
on September 23, 2008 on 9:49 am
Dang grip people and their infinite grip, almost makes me think that is I trained my grip it wouldn’t be a problem, but that’s madness :).
Alas, AKC bells are not in my plans for quite a while, think 5-10 year range. I have heard though that they can make quite a difference. Your swing rotation sounds interesting. I think we do the same thing at the top, the handle sits on the base of the thumb and the other end is almost down by the wrist. It sounds like at the bottom, you are rotating your hand so the pinky is forward and the thumb is to the back, I haven’t tried anything like that.
I don’t *think* I’m holding the bell too tight but I guess I’m not sure. I had the skin tear issues when I started with the 16, then eventually got past them. I’m not sure I did anything in particular but I got past them. Then I had them on the 24. Leading up to my time off, I wasn’t really seeing them on the 24 anymore. I assume I’ll see them again when I start back in on the 24 in a month or so.
I was able to do 25/25 with the 24K before my layoff so I assume I’ll just have to build back up to it. 16K isn’t really feeling like much of a challenge right now. I’m not comfortable with the idea of high rep snatches with the 24K and a 20K isn’t in the budget. So my solution to that and possibly my solution to the grip thing is to start doing high rep swings with the 24K bell. It lets me get some work in with the bell without putting it over my head. I noticed the wear on my grip doing 2H swings was substantial. I can only assume one handed swings will too. We’ll see.
My five fingers shipped today.
on September 23, 2008 on 2:37 pm
Mike – the slight turn of the hand to a 45 degree angle at the bottom (pinkie forward) does seem to help – nothing magical but it does help some. My 32 K swings are done with a PowerMax bell with the large handle – I usually wear leather gloves for the swings to work the grip more. My problem is that my hands are stronger than my puny a.. body – it happens on lots of things. I’m trying to follow the advice of Andrew and the AKC guys and stick with the lighter KBs until I reach certain numbers Cate Imes gave me but it’s hard – I’ve spent too many years trying to add weight whenever possible for this to seem right to me. It seems I can compete with either 16s or 24s right now at 60 years old so there may be some advantage to continuing with the 16s for a while – especially on double jerks. I’m not getting nearly as winded as I was now so that is some progress at least but I still can’t get any thing that resembles a rest in the double jerk and I wear out quick in it. The snatch with 16s isn’t bad at all at about 15 – 16 RPM and I feel positive 10 minutes is just a matter of doing it with one switch – any faster than that and I gas out. I don’t have the wind just yet to go 10 minutes snatching 24s with one switch. Still a ways to go with them. I hate to recommend any actual grip work but finger curls maybe.