The Open Hand Pull-Up
Wamup:
Purchase Metolius Simulator
Install
Simulator above door frame (picture to follow) with maybe not quite enough screws...
For Satisfaction:One four-finger open grip pull-up on the Simulator's medium depth grooves.
Cool-down:
Watch Bourne Ultimatum and think that I really, really, really need to do a lot more working out as I don't think I could do mortal hand-to-hand combat after getting knocked down by a concussion-shock wave from a bomb blast only meters away, running for 500m being chased by police, running 200m across roofs, hurdling party-walls lined with shards of glass, jumping (so cool) from building to building across alleyways (Tunisia was a brilliant setting) by jumping across mini-balconies for 100m and jumping down a story through a glass window to be confronted by a homicidal killing machine (almost) as good as you. In the middle of the fight scene there is a very nice Aikido joint-lock lock/throw and beautiful escape, btw.
Makes our workouts (well, maybe not Brian's as he has to face 'the hood' getting home from the gym) seem not too bad....
5 comments:
Awesome purchase! I love hangboards, it's a great way to build open-handed grip strength. Careful on those pockets and small edges though, it can be pretty stressful on connective tissue...
Did you just put this into drywall?
And yah, that movie has some pretty crazy action sequences.
I'm going to start slow. The Metolius information guide actually was implying that open-hand grips can be safer for strength building. Claiming that you were less likely to do damage to connective tissue than crimp grips. (Obviously the big jugs at the top are probably easiest on the body.)
As for mounting... well, I'll post the picture this evening, but I decided no to back it into plywood first as I didn't want to have a piece of ply on the wall or take off the existing drywall. So, I drilled some small pilot holes where I wanted to mount the board and determined that there was a stud behind at least one of them and I could get into wood with a couple. Then I just ran their long screws (3.5"+) in and all but two got decent purchase. Unfortunately, the board was missing two of its screws and I didn't have any as long--so I'm going to remove it later and use some toggle-bolts for the screws that didn't get any purchase. I feel that with vertical force being the primary load, so long as I have all nine points anchored decently well and at least some of them are into framing it will be fine. My empirical test (albeit only a few pull-ups) suggested that it was pretty solid.
Until I try to do that one-handed pull-up and the whole piece of drywall comes off...
Training open-handed grip strength is supposed to improve your closed-handed (crimp) strength, but not vice versa. In any case it's much easier on your connective tissues, so that's reason enough for me.
As long as you have a soft landing for that one-handed pullup, go for it (I have a bruise the size of a paperback book on my back, and another on my ass - since it's only come up in the past few days, must have been pretty deep)
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