Another Look at a Stronger Grip Favorite, An Unconventional Strength Challenge Partner Workout, and More “Tone and Drone” Antics

After an eagle-eyed Instagram follower asked if the little hook ball items on my home pull up bar were Stronger Grip GripBalls, I remembered that I hadn’t talked about them in a while and did a short video about how they can be used for a variety of grip strength and coordination challenges.  In addition to the pull up variations in the video below, many people use them to pull sleds, etc. Always be sure to do some extensor work after grip training–especially if it is this intense!

This past weekend a friend came over for one of my infamous challenges. She’s recently learned the joy of tire flipping. We were both looking for a nice strength and power-based workout that would challenge us, so I wrote up the following open-ended monstrosity:

Joint mobility warm up

Convict Conditioning Vol2 Trifecta (bridge, l-sit, twist)

100 swings with a moderate kettlebell (the goal is to do them in one uninterrupted set, which we did. It’s funny how even a 16kg kettlebell can become a super grip challenge starting around rep 70!!)

We did a short “crow practice” to stretch our hands back out before preparing to do the following partially “I Go You Go” Partner workout:

• Partner 1 grabs two heavy kettlebells (I brought out many choices: 32kg, 36kg, 40kg, 48kg) and goes for a short walk out and back. While Partner 2 practices crow variations and handstand variations.  Partners switch and repeat.
• Partner 1 aims to do between 2-10 reps of solid tire flips while Partner 2 does 5 on each side moderately heavy kettlebell thrusters (aka “long press”). When Partner 2 is done with all 10 total reps the partners switch and repeat
• Both partners do 10 push ups together (with regression/progression options available – hands up on tire = easier, feet up on tire = more difficult)

We managed a good solid 4 total rounds which is harder than it might sound!  And of course cooled down with joint mobility and putting all of this stuff back into the storage area!

Here’s another completely unedited livestream of a “tone and drone” hahahahah session…