May 11, 2011

Bending a steel bar

On Monday night the basketball team Bakken Bears celebrated a great season with a sponsor banquet. As the teams strength coach I motivate the team by doing a feat of strength every time I introduce a new strength program. Monday night I did a strongman show on stage in front of 200 Bakken Bears sponsors. After the show I donated a 20 minutes show for the auction and the end bid was 10.000 kroner (aprox 2,000 $).All the money will go to supporting the team next season.

I put this video from the show on Youtube - I'll upload more high lights from the show later, so keep an eye on my Youtube channel: youtube.com/SimonStrongman

This Sunday I will be performing at the Classic Race in Aarhus.

May 8, 2011

The Nutcracker

Long time since christmas when I was in my best walnut cracking shape but I found 3 left over nuts to show you how I do it.
If you want to crack a walnut with your bare hands like I show it in the video: with two fingers, you need a simple finger-workout-tool: a spring clamp.

This is the spring clamp I use - other designs will work as well.


To crack the walnut all you need to do is place it between the tongs and the walnut will crack... Well of course this is not the way to do it for a real man... Use every spare second you have to pinch the clamp. I do it when I watch TV, travel or I'm sitting through one of my girlfriends long speeches about feelings and what not. When your finger muscles get strong enough you can start practicing on the walnuts.

Start by squeezing two walnuts together, so the pressure of the one walnut will crush the other. Then I worked my way up to crush the walnut between my thumb and first finger.

So what are you waiting for? Get cracking!

May 2, 2011

I am a very proud Danish Open Champion - Left Arm

It was an awesome day arm wrestling! I went in with a plan, goal and a strong arm.



What made this championship so special was the quality of my opponents.

Weight in
I headed down stairs for the weight in. In jeans and t shirt I weighted 109.1 kg which put me right where I planned to be: competing in the 100-110 kg class.

Mental warm up
All the adrenaline in my body made me strong but I felt weak. I said to myself: "remember the plan: stick to the warm up plan, it will make you ready. You have done these warm ups 100 times and it always gets you ready".

Warm up
I had no idea how long it would be before my first match so I decided it was better to be ready and wait than to go in cold.

For warm up I used:
  • Indian clubs: 5 minutes of swinging. I focused on my breath and movements and put myself in the "Zone".
  • Chest expander: 100 pull apart with one green band
  • Bar bender: 10 easy bends with an overhand grip close to the body, then 10 with an underhand grip, finally 5 reps with straight arms over hand grip in front.
  • Ironmind Captains of Crush #2.5 gripper: 5 reps easy with the right hand and 3 with the left.
I was ready.

My friend and coach for the day Kristian Kofoed was assisting. He reminded me to stay calm and focused. Kristian gave my forearms a massage and told me: You can do it. You are strong. You’re the man...

Strategy
Before the match I focused on getting the right position at the table: hips low and elbow straight in front of me, the “death grip” on the opponents thumb, right hand tight on the peg, big breath of air. On the go I relied on my chin up and wrist power and exploded back and to the right corner.

I knew better than to get into any technical matches because my lack of experience on the table, so I just used my best move and gave it all I had.

The competition
First match I was up against my training partner and friend Jackie Christensen. On the go I pulled but nothing happened. Jackie’s wrist did not budge but I pulled back with my lat (latissimus dorsi) and his arm opened a little bit, just enough. I pulled harder, rolled my shoulder and lowered his arm to the pad. It felt great to start with a win.

My next round opponent was Jesper Nielsen. I knew Jesper had been arm wrestling for 2 years and is very tough. I was nervous because I had built him up in my mind. As we gripped up I felt that my fingers were stronger than his. On the go I ripped back as hard as I could and explosively turned my fingers over the top of his as I pulled and draged his arm down to the pad. Second win. I pulled so quickly and hard I surprised myself. My confidence was growing.

In the end I won my weight class and moved on to the open.

In the open I wrestled against and won over Lasse Kickbusch and Tonni Christensen and took home the gold cup.


Thanks to everyone.


Read article where I am mentioned in Ekstra Bladet.
Watch more videos from the championship on my Youtube channel.