Hot Off the Presses

Dear Friend,

I have been fascinated by hand strength ever since I received my first plastic sporting good store gripper when I was twelve years old. In the years since then, this interest has allowed me to build some brutally strong hands which enabled me to excel in every sport that I played.

As many of you might know, (or maybe don't) my Dad, Kim Wood, was an NFL strength coach for nearly 30 years. His belief that “you play football from the elbows down” enabled me to translate my grip training into football success. I give much of the credit to him for my current strength abilities and training knowledge.

Throughout the years I have been lucky enough to have many other great teachers as well. I have learned from the best. Men such as Vic Boff, Arthur Jones, Mike Gittleson, Dave Guidigli, Brooks Kubik, Tim Krumrie, Slim Farman, ElLington Darden, Matt Furey, Karl Gotch Jan Dellinger, Reg Park and many others have shared their vast training knowledge and experiences with me. I was able take this knowledge and develop a systematic approach to developing stronger hands. I will now pass that knowledge on to you…

My approach to training is unlike any other training method that you have ever experienced. I am not here to simply tell you what to do and then have you blindly follow.

Any fool can do that.

Instead, my job as a teacher and as a coach is to help you understand every aspect of your training and then be able to apply that knowledge (whether grip training or otherwise) into whatever you are trying to accomplish. In other words, to help you see the big picture and understand how it ALL fits together. This is one of the keys to ultimate development.

Functional Hand Strength is devoted to helping YOU develop the strongest hands possible.

I can see that we have many different types of athletes on the list. GREAT! From rock climbers to football players, stronger hands WILL improve your performance. For those who only interested in making their hands stronger and healthier than they are right now, outstanding! We've got you covered there too.

And competitive lifters? Stronger hands mean more weight on the bar, plain and simple.

For those who want to train for world class grip feats such as closing heavy hand grippers or lifting the Inch Dumbbell, we will have plenty of training information for those types of things too.

We will also cover tips and techniques for developing hand dexterity and flexibility which will be a tremendous asset to individuals who must perform very fine motor skills such as musicians or card manipulators.

Don't think that this information is just for guys either, it is every bit as important (and applicable!) for women. And since women have been found to be 300% more likely to develop Carpal Tunnel Syndrome than men, hand heath is of the utmost importance.

Just to let you know, I can get very excited about these topics so I will be sending out emails frequently, possibly as often as once a day. Don't worry, it will all be, as Reg Park likes to say, *dynamite*, man!

I am sure many of you will have questions, go ahead and send em' on in as everyone will benefit from this information. As the old saying goes, “school is never out for the pro.” The day you think you have learned all there is to know is the day you stop making progress.

The focus of this Newsletter series will be on hand strength, no doubt, but if I see a cool movie, hear a great new CD or have some crazy adventure, you bet you are going to be hearing about it. As I see it, I am going on a great journey, and all of you are going along with me. Hang on to your hats because it is going to be a wild ride and I can't wait to get started…

Functional Hand Strength: It has begun…

Train hard.

Sincerely,

John Wood signature

John Wood