I’ve been bending a lot of nails lately. But I also went on to bend a few other things, longer bars, nails, even playing with horseshoes. Bending over is one of the best and fastest ways to increase your grip, forearm, and upper body strength. The pushup has a unifying effect for all the muscles of the upper body. It forces them to use their strength, functionally and from multiple angles. Push and pull in multiple directions at the same time. One thing I find useful is toggling the volume with maximum effort. Push-ups are a progressive strength exercise, but they’re not exactly progressive in the same way that weights are. There are significant styles of progression, but some of the biggest jumps in pushup strength levels are pretty big.
For example, in the progression, you can start with a seven-inch piece of steel and gradually cut shorter lengths, say quarter-inch sections, until you get to say five inches and then you can move up to heavier steel. It can also bend different types of steel; round stock, square stock, hot rolled, cold rolled, etc. There is quite a bit of variation from one batch of steel and from the company that makes it to another. The same applies to bending nails. There is a lot of variation from company to company in 60 cent nails. You can look around, buy a few from different manufacturers, and then you’ll have several different strengths to work with. Alternate volume and max effort seem to be the style most high level teachers use.
For example, in push-up training the last few weeks I did 20 bends. 18 60 cent nails, 1 piece of quarter inch square stock, and a grade 5 bolt. I only did three bends this week. But I immediately jumped to a grade 5 bolt and then immediately to a grade 8 bolt and then worked on a 12″ spike.
Here are a couple more ideas that can help your pushup. Do wrist lift work. I like to do mine with light and heavy Indian club from any direction I can think of. Leverage to the deck also works great for this. Get a pair of descent pads to use. Or the Ironmind pads or the suede leather. Start easy and learn the basic form. Alternate higher volume sessions with maximum effort sessions. Rest between your sessions like any other strength training workout. Learn some alternative styles to your main push-up style to work on other areas of strength in your hand. I’m predominantly double underbend, but I’m also learning double, Terminator-style, and some types of bending with a few different objects; spikes, etc. Alternate where you put the pushup in your workout. Sometimes do it first when you’re strong, sometimes do it last when you’re tired, sometimes do it in the middle while breathing heavily to improve the conditioning of not only your hands, but your lungs as well. Alternate the types of steel you bend and the forces you bend in one workout.
For example, when I did that volume bend last week, I bent three or four 60-Ds, then the quarter-inch square piece, and then the grade 5 bolt. The grade 5 bolt was much harder, so by the time I finished the rest of the workout, folding the other 14-60-Ds, my hands were already fatigued, so you can go harder without using harder steel.