The Inch DB

[Alcoholiday]

for those not familiar with the story behind the inch, it's a dumbbell weighing 172lbs with a 2.38" handle.

There are a few people who have picked it up w/ one hand, Phil Phister, Bill Kaz (he did a continental clean with it plus a press), Corey St. Claire, Magnus (both picked it up, no press), and Marc Henry are a few. Mark Henry is the only lifter to do a full, straight clean and overhead press with it.



We should have a contest to see who can get as close as they can to picking up the inch dumbbell.

slater has a replica/trainer, but it's close to 300 bucks.

Of course, we could just use a fat dumbbell. Fat bastard barbell has fat bar dbs for 45 bucks a handle+shipping. My gym has a 2" one, i believe. If there was enough people that were interested in trying this, we could try something? Obviously we all can't afford the trainers for 300 bucks, but we could rig something up? It wouldn't be the same as the dumbbell, but it could be close.

[Frank.S]

rolling thunder is kind of the same deal?

I have half decent grip strenth (my hand span is well over 10 inches, that may help), and a couple of plates on that thing and i was have some problems. Id love to try the inch, i dont think i could do it, but that would be a great feat to pick up that sucker.

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by Frank.S

rolling thunder is kind of the same deal?

I have half decent grip strenth (my hand span is well over 10 inches, that may help), and a couple of plates on that thing and i was have some problems. Id love to try the inch, i dont think i could do it, but that would be a great feat to pick up that sucker.

i've never tried a rolling thunder. Chad has one, but i never found a loading pin, so never tried it.

But the rolling thunder revolves, where the dumbbell doesn't. I think i have a pretty decent grip. I picked up a 120lb 2" dumbbell, but i'd like to try a 2.5" one and a rolling thunder to see where i'm at.

[Frank.S]

its hard to compare grips ive found with different things. ive double overhand gripped a fatter style bar for 240kg x 10 reps rdls, which i feel is half decent grip strength.. yet the rolling thunder owns me pretty bad with a couple of plates. I think its because most of my grip strength is at the very tips of my fingers from rock climbing years back.

[kuri]

The guy I did a kb cert with, Valery Fedorenko, clocks in at about 180lbs and here he is cleaning and jerking the inch:



From the AKC blog:

Yes, that’s a Thomas Inch Dumbell (172lb.) in Valery’s hands, but he didn’t quite lock it out all the way. I missed the photo op, but he almost had it locked out. It’s ok… He Cleaned it and Jerked it to the surprise of many onlookers. “How can a skinny guy do that?” was the general look on peoples faces…

I've done enough fatbar work to know I couldn't get close to lifting the inch now. But it'd be fun to try.

[bigDman]

i love doing grip work... If i could ever lift the inch id be pretty happy

another problem with the inch is that the handle isnt wide enough to get a good grip especially if you have wide ass hands

[AFI82]

I'm confused. Is the 2.38" the width of the handle or the diameter of the handle? Or is it both?

[StuWard]

Diameter. The length is 4" which adds to the difficulty since most guys that have the strength, have hands that are too big to fit.

[RedLefty]

Width and diameter are the same thing. Did you mean circumference?

[StuWard]

The diameter of the handle is about 2 1/2 inches. The length of the handle (The distance between the ends) is 4". If you turn the dumbbell sideways, the length becomes the width. The circumfurence is PI x diameter, same as any other circle.

[RedLefty]

Got it; thanks. For a minute I thought it was like the old joke of the guys who couldn't figure out how tall a flagpole was. A woman came and took it down, laid it on the ground and measured it. "Fifteen feet", she said.

Their response: "Dumb woman, we weren't asking for length!"