The Best Wraps to Use for Bending Steel

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by: kylesmilsnap
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Word Count: 448
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2011 Time: 3:33 PM
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When it comes to wrapping steel for bending, there are two schools of thought, the Purist Camp and the Fat Pad Group.

The Purist Camp says that bending with anything more than IronMind Pads (IMPs) is cheating. They feel you should strive to bend in the least possible amount of padding that you can, including the Holy Grail: bare hand bending.

Bending with minimal wraps will show you what you can really bend without the assistance of thicker wraps for leverage and will toughen your hands in the process.

The Fat Pad Group uses thicker wraps, up to double layered suede. They feel that the goal is to bend the absolute biggest steel possible, ake the pain of thin IMPs out of the equation, use the extra leverage, and destroy huge steel.

So what is better? It is very confusing. Are they supposed to just bend in minimal padding or should they wrap up bigger bars in doubles and have at it.

In the author's opinion, if you want to become the best short steel bender possible, you need to incorporate both types of bending wraps in your workouts.

I believe the goal of bending is to bend the hardest piece of steel you can in the least amount of protection. This would tend to put me in the purist camp. However, I have successfully incorporated fat pad bending into my training and it has made me a much stronger bender.

Bottom Line: if you only bend in one style of pads or another, you are creating a weak link. If you only bend in fat pads, your hands will not toughen up and you will not get used to the pain that comes with IMP (or less) bending.

This will limit what you can bend at some point in your career. If all you bend in is IMPs or less, you are foregoing a lot of the top end strength you will need to power through bigger bars in any wraps.

Top end strength is key for two reasons. One: a bar you can blow through because of greater strength hurts a lot less in any wraps, and two: when you know you can bend a bar, the biggest hurdle in bending is overcome (the mental one).

A technique I have used with great success is to first bend a bar in thicker wraps, then progressively lower the amount of protection until I can kill it in IMPs. Then move to the next harder bar and repeat. Try it out, and watch your bending abilities explode!

About the Author

For more information on bending check out the following resources: Nail Bending eBook- Steel Progression Lists, Wrapping Information, Bending Techniques, Strength Training Exercises. Nail Bending Newsletter: Free Information on how to begin bending safely and enjoy the challenge for years to come.