Thanks for the prayer and a Grip Tip!

Greetings Friends,

I want to thank you all for the outpouring of support we’ve had for my family and father since his stroke. Thank you ALL for your thoughts emails and prayers. It’s extremely gratifying to know that when you send out these emails that you’re not simply talking blankly into cyber-space and that we have a rather large community of genuinely caring, spiritually interested as well physically strong people.

My father is home and definitely getting stronger. I believe from all the prayers, possibly mixed with a fairly heavy dose of Bud-Therapy. It’s interesting to see the overwhelming response of friends and the underwhelming response of the medical community. Don’t take that as a blanket statement against a medical professional. I know many of you are involved in it and do a wonderful job. It’s like any other activity. It depends heavily on the individual doing it. It’s also interesting how so many of the principles that we train by are useful for rebuilding of physical ability even at the most basic “learn to crawl again” level.

The further I go in life, the further I see that focused determination is one of the most important attributes you can have. Refusing to quit under any circumstances. The will to keep hammering at your goal no matter the set back, no matter what, is one of the biggest steps in building your own successful life. Resolve to grit your teeth and refuse to settle for less than what you want. There may be some pain along the way, but no body said that life would be easy, at least nobody telling you the truth.

If you want a great life, you have to earn it. You want great training? Great results? You have to earn them as well. You can’t earn grace, or salvation, but they’re free for the asking, which is greatness beyond anything we can accomplish. Life guided by faith in Christ still has tough times, but it has the strength and peace necessary to get through them. Putting one foot in front of the other even when you can barely stand is easier when you know that in the end you’ll win.


A QUICK GRIP TIP

Here’s an exercise that will drive your grip and conditioning over the top all at the same time and with a special twist on it for you martial artists that will help you really kick some butt.

Towel grip sled-dragging

Everybody and their brother is working on dragging sleds these days. Why? Because it flat out works! It will sky-rocket your conditioning, drive your muscular and aerobic endurance up with very little damage to the body and soreness. It also helps to build and preserve muscle while increasing your work capacity. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You can buy or make a sled or drag just about anything that will give you some descent resistance.

To kick it up a notch try subbing a towel for the regular handle. By doing this you force your grip to work overtime to pull whatever load you happen to be moving. It’s super simple and very versatile. You can twist both ends of the towel together to give yourself a very thick grip or split it in half and grab each end to give yourself a moderately thick grip. Either way will cook your forearms as well as drive your conditioning way up.

But you say that’s not enough for you?
You say you need to dominate someone so thoroughly on the grappling mat, football field or combat arena that they surrender to you just from a stern look? Try these towel grip sled drags, holding the towel like a gi. Instead of folding or rolling the towel up and pulling it like a rope handle, spread the ends of the towel out and grab the material as though you were grabbing a judo jacket or a football jersey. Then start dragging away. Don’t come crying to me if your fingers cramp permanently into the towel and you have to light a signal fire to call for help by rubbing the soles of your shoes together really fast as your forearms cramp in agony.

But… do drop me a line if after working this exercise for a while you’re suddenly flinging your opponents about the mat or field of combat as if they suddenly lost the ability to be held down by gravity. Which you will be because this will turn you fingers into steel claws and make you stronger and more enduring at the same time.


If you want more interesting sled dragging exercises as well as the top exercises to drive your routines and combat ability into a downright frightening level, be sure to check out Super Strength & Endurance for Martial Arts as well as the rest of our training products for extraordinary people.

Find it at http://strongerman.com/storefront.html