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Friday, May 25, 2012

Product Review - Liquid Grip @liquidgrip

As a competitive weightlifter, kettlebell athlete and grip specialist I go through some chalk. The other day a mat fell over in the gym and the resulting dust cloud was like a snow storm! The problem with normal chalk is that it does get everywhere and the smallest gust of window can carry particles to all corners of the world. Fine if you train in someone else's gym with a daily cleaner, not so good in your single garage with a swing door that needs to be closed so you can lift big weights and drop them!

"Hoover" I hear you shout! "Dyson" would be my reply and a very good one at that! Then arises the problem - try hoovering a gym that has nearly everything you need for performance with a hoover - even the extendable nozzle - not easy and doing it properly would require a removal team, just for it to get covered again within a few days. So rather than look to minimise the effect, we can now work on eliminating the cause - enter Liquid Grip.



I first bumped in to Liquid Grip at the Bodypower expo last weekend. It was not until I tried it on what was possibly the Sorinex anvil that I realised just how good this stuff really was. With normal hands, you grip tight and just slide right off. Add a small amount of Liquid Grip, rub the hands to spread it and then wave them about for it to dry - the weights flew up and felt stuck to your hand!

I do a lot of grip training as you can see from the link -
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150840683721412.474411.769336411&type=1
I also purchased a small bottle to try at home based on how impressed I was with the anvil lift before and after application. The Rolling Thunder deadlift handle easily added 5kg and again the hand felt clamped on to the handle rather than slowly beginning to slip when trying to lift. Liquid grip is also very effective for plate pinch training, block weight lifts, hub lifts and anything else requiring a grip of steel.

Next week I will attempt to snatch the 20kg weight being lifted below for a genuine "stick" test -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS0h2rrY8Ek

With a comparison on a 48kg kettlebell snatch I actually felt my grip was stronger compared to a normal chalk block and this is probably due to the way that the resin creates a suspension formula to stick to the hands. Compare the difference when clapping your hands and observing the nuclear fallout. Liquid grip remains, a normal chalk block will mostly have disappeared with the essential contact points now only marginally covered.

And so on to weightlifting... As well as Olympic weightlifting I also compete in all-round lifting and cannot wait to give Liquid grip a proper test on the one-arm barbell snatch. Based on the thumb lock potentially being a lot stronger I am hoping to come back in August with the record for the left hand at 70kg with 79kg bodyweight - quite a lift! For standard weightlifting the hook grip is paramount to performance. I have found that the hook has less movement with liquid grip than a chalk block and the contact between the finger tip pads and the outside of the thumb feels much stronger.

If you train grip, or grip is an important part of your sport you will want this product. Not only does it minimise mess, it is far more effective than normal chalk.

The real test will be the single arms championships where I also have my eye on the left hand deadlift of 150kg - time will tell.

Get some as The Strength Academy knows a bit about grip training!

Liquid grip can be purchased here - http://liquidgrip.com/

Liquid grip can be followed on twitter - @liquidgrip

Liquid grip are also on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/LiquidGrip

Overall verdict 10/10 I cannot fault this product and it has increased my numbers and decreased my hoover time - bonus!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Russian Kettlebell Elite World Champions Come To London

After many months of emails and visa enquiries I am very pleased to announce that I am hosting the first ever UK event for the IKSFA with 3 multiple world champions, record holders and masters of sport sharing their expertise on a 2 day kettlebell sport coach course level 1 in November. Sergey Rachinskiy, Sergey Rudnev and Sergey Merkulin really are the best of the best and elite athletes in their field.

We expect this to sell out very fast so take advantage of the early bird by registering below -