Adam Wheeler

Adam Wheeler

Adam Wheeler, an 8x USA wrestling All-American, wrestling Germany's Mirko Englich at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Wheeler went on to take the Bronze metal in the 96kg class in the Greco-Roman event. Adam's coach is our good friend Ivan Ivanov.

Sledge Hammer Training

Sledge Hammer Training

I was playing around with paint shop and created this image which I think is pretty nifty -- of course a sledge hammer is one of the most useful tools for building wrist and forearm strength. Just ask The Hammer Man...

Return of the Iron Suitcases

The farmers walk is a great exercises and has always been one of my favorites -- just grab a weight in each hand and start walking. How far you go is up to you, but one thing is always for sure: you can go a lot farther than you think you can since your mind will give out before your body does.

Needless to say, this is a great exercise for building hand strength AND mental toughness.

As far as the weights you can use, a pair of dumbbells is a good choice, as are sandbags, or even some specially made handles which some folks like to use.

If you got a chance to check out some of Brooks Kubiks old Dinosaur Training videos, you saw Brooks performing the Farmers walk with some highly unusual impliments: a pair of 180-pound iron suitcases made by Dr. Ken.

Imagine two pieces of metal each shaped like an " I " with handles welded on top and that's what we are dealing with.

Brooks, the madman that he is, decided to take these little monsters for a walk around the city block in his vid and if you've seen it, you know it is in-tense.

Well, this past weekend I decided to dust off the Suitcases and take em for a spin for the "Farmers Walk" portion of the training dvd we are currently in the middle of shooting.

Let me tell you, they sure havent gotten any lighter over the last 10 years.

Anyhow, give the farmers walk a try if you've never done so, and see how far you make it. Also be on the lookout for more details on the new video.

Train hard,
John Wood

P.S. If you want to learn more about the Farmers Walk and several other great grip exercises, theres two whole chapters on them in Dinosaur Training. If you STILL dont have a copy, do yourself a favor and sprint on over to this page asap: Dinosaur Training

Ironmind Handgrippers in Action

Where's Ivan?

Ivan Ivanov

Hope youve been enjoying the Olympics as much as I have. Something you may be interested in hearing is that our buddy Ivan Ivanov, who placed 5th back at the Atlanta games in 1996, is over in Beijing as we speak with two of his wrestlers.

Youll want to keep an eye on Adam Wheeler in the 96kg weight class and Spencer Mango in the 55kg class when they start up the Greco-Roman wrestling coverage which is coming up shortly.

Spencer is competing on Tuesday and Adam is competing on Thursday.

You may remember that last September the US Greco-Roman team, with Ivan as their coach, made history by winning their first World Title... and now its on to an even bigger stage.

If you have the DVD that comes with Ivans training bags you can see both these wrestlers in action during the team sequence.

And speaking of Ivans bags, with Ivan being away and all, the turn around time for recent orders is going to be delayed by a few days until Ivan gets back but you can still get em here: Bulgarian Training Bags

Good luck to everyone involved, we'll be watching.

Train hard,
John Wood

Isaac Hayes (1942-2008)

Isaac Hayes (1942-2008)
"One Bad Mutha"

8-8-08

Welcome to Friday, August 8th, 2008, or 8-8-08. From what I read the number 8 means wealth and prosperity for those who believe in Chinese numerology, so it's only fitting that some very important and amazing things are happening today.

Im sure youve heard that tonight marks the opening of the 2008 Olympics (at 8:08 pm!) and that should be quite a sight to see. One of the favorites to bring home all kinds of gold is Michael Phelps who did most of his preparation for the Olympics at the Canham Natatorium at UM which is not a stones throw from the track when I run.

Now, that's pretty cool...

And, of course, our buddy Ivan Ivanov is over in Beijing as well. I'll have some
more details on him and what hes doing over there very soon too.

Today also marks another milestone -- all of our NEW Trap Bar training guides are, as of 8:47 am, packed and in the mail so if you took action, you'll be seeing yours within a few days.

To reiterate, that the training booklet from Al Gerard, the training booklet from Dr. Ken, my "5 x 2" workout special report and a limited edition Strongman training card prototype -- did I say it was Sandow? I thought he would be a good one to start things off with.

It's quite a haul, and if you want in, heres the quickest way NEW Trap Bar Guides

or, if you wanted to talk to Shelby to place an order, here's her number:
1-800-978-0206.

I'll be out running a mile today after work and following it up with a quick 4-5 hard sets, maybe some muscle control during opening ceremonies -- should be another great one.

Train hard,
John Wood

P.S. "He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had tried and failed." ~ William James

NEW Trap Bar Training Guides Now Available

WIth great excitement I would like to announce that our brand new training guides are now available -- please visit this page and click on the picture or link: Watch This Page!

(If the page hasnt changed when you click through, keep hitting the refresh button until it does.)

Enjoy!

Train hard,
John Wood

Just Talked With Joe Kinney...

I've mentioned a couple times that we are hard at work on several "top secret" projects -- well let me give you a few details on one of these projects.

Joe Kinney

Joe Kinney, as you may or may not know, is the first man to close the Iron Mind #4 gripper -- and he didnt just close it, he mashed it like it was nothing more than a Trainer.

Well, it took some doing but I finally was able to contact Mr. Kinney and this morning, we talked for well over 90 minutes about all kinds of things "grippin," leg training, what it really takes to close the big grippers and even a few training techniques that he hasn't shared with many people...

I know you're curious... but it's going to have to wait until the time is right for more details on what we have cooked up.

In the meantime, theres who things you can do:

1. Tell the world.

and

2. Get a couple of your own IM hand grippers, cuz its about
time you started REALLY training your hands: Iron Mind Grippers

More to come...

Train hard,
John Wood