March 14, 2004. The day started fine as I drove about an hour to Auburn to meet up with my witness. He was Coach Yoxall, the Auburn Foot Ball strength coach. Our meeting place was the main weight room, and it was beautiful. I can't help but think of my colleges weight room with 2 squat racks, 2 benches, and one spot for O-lifts. Below, I'm standing in the weight room, but there's still two more rows of lifting stations. Each with an O-bar, and power lifting bar, thick handled dumbells, and an assortment of IronMind grip goodies.
Soon enough, I met Coach Yoxall. He was a stout fellow with a passion for strength. Obviously. I guess that's how you get to be a strength coach for a huge college with a great team. We talked a bit about how I got started in grip, and about his own grip endevors. I also got a tour of the facility and some demos on the Eliko bars, glute-ham and reverse-hyper machines. Soon enough Coach stated he'd like to see me close the #3. Now here's where it gets funny...
The prior afternoon, I was doing over head work and did over head supports (Static contraction training?), where I held 275 in the shoulder-press about 2" from lock out until muscle failure. On set number two, I seriously thought I broke my arm! Some thing in my right fore arm, my gripper arm, I felt a deep penetraiting pain. I stopped and went home immediatly. I franticly tried to ice it, and I ate a huge meal, hopeing maybe it'd get better. After the pain dimmed down from the ice, I started to feel my arm, and felt an egg sized lump in the middle-back of my forearm. I started to think I was feeling bone. After more ice, and more ibuprofen, I came to realized it was muscle, so tried to rub it out. With some tiger balm and some muted screams of agony, I finally felt a twitch, and all of the pain flowed out of my arm. It was only a nasty cramp...
So he says "I'd like to see you close it".
In training I was closing the #3 a few times a day, some times for reps of 5 and 6. But some days I just didn't have the strength to do it. As I stood in the weight room with Coach watching me, all I could think about was "what if today was one of those bad days?". With the pressure and adrenaline, I chalked up, grabbed the gripper, used a slight set, and Blam-o! In the past the #3 had closed so easy that I thought it was a #2, but I checked this #3 out so many times before finally closing it, that I just felt a surge of confidence. I held it shut for a few seconds, said "Is that good?", and then started doing a few reps, getting up to 4 before stopping. My heart soared. After so long, I accomlished this goal, remembering back when I first tried my #3, thinking NOBODY could close that!
Coach Yoxall was surprised, and asked "Let me try that!". He gave it a squeeze and said "Yup. That's a #3.". We then talked for a while longer about how I trained for it (He had the full IronMind gripper set on his desk too!) and he asked again, "Let me see you do that again". This time it was a slow double.
That was it. I went to Perkins for breakfast, and had a wonderful ride back home. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
-How I Trained To Close The #3.
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