You will need these materials
-A roll of carpet padding (at least, that’s what I used. The firmer/harder the material, the better. I think a rubber horse stall mat would probably be more ideal.
-A lot of zip ties
-2 large rolls of gorilla tape
Cut the roll of carpet padding into strips lengthwise. You want them to be wide enough to go around the circumference of the log at the point where it will make contest with your body. If you get ambitious, you can cover the entire length of the log with the material and just cut out holes for the hand holds, but I am a cheap bastard and only covered the center.
Use gorilla tape to tape the material to the log at the start. You want half the strip on the carpet padding and half on the log. Gorilla tape will stick to the log, and it will stick decent enough to the carpet padding for our purposes.
Once you’ve affixed the tape, roll the carpet padding tautly around the log. Once you’ve got all the way around the log, use the zip ties to bind the carpet to the log.
Use gorilla tape on the edges of the carpet padding to seal it to the log. Once you’ve done this, grab another strip of padding and tape it to the gorilla tape on the edges of the log (it won’t stick to the carpet padding very well, but it grabs the tape with no issue). Now just repeat what you did before, roll the carpet around the log until you run out of space and zip tie it to the log.
This is one strip of carpet padding, with daisy chained zipties. Note the gorilla tape on the sides of the padding, sealing it to the log.
2 strips of carpet padding. Here, I haven't sealed the sides with gorilla tape yet, nor have I cut the excess off the zip ties.
3 strips, sides unsealed, excess uncut.
I ended up using 3 strips of padding, repeating the process as necessary, but your needs will vary depending on your material/starting diameter. Just remember to factor in the point of contact for the log and where the roll of carpet padding will end. You don’t want it to be uneven where you will be cleaning it.
Once the log diameter is what you want it to be, it’s time to seal the log with gorilla tape.
Oh so much gorilla tape.
It's like duct tape that actually lives up to the hipe
You want to have the edges taped down to the log again, because you need the tape to grab something. Once the edges are taped down, you’re going to apply gorilla tape horizontally to the log, from end to end. When possible, loop the excess tape into the handhold area of the log, just to the tape has something really sturdy to grip to. Otherwise, it grabs itself pretty well.
You basically want to overlap every strip of tape at the halfway point in order to ensure the tape holds up to abuse and that the material is properly secured. This will also have the benefit of preventing the zip ties from stabbing you whenever you clean the log.
About halfway done here.
Don’t be stingy with the tape, it’s going to take a lot, but once it’s done, your log should be able to take some abuse.
The end result.
Some things to factor in once you start training with your newly modified log is that, if you used a soft material like I did, your leg drive is pretty much going to be absorbed by the padding. This will make training harder, which hopefully makes competition easier.
I’ve included a video of me using my log for clean and pressing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BBvIxE0qdY
Please ignore how terrible I am, but do focus on my Legend of Zelda tanktop.
Though in this instance I used an already made log, I think this method would be a viable means to create your own ghetto log as well. Starting out with a swiss bar, one could just add in log center using this method. I'm imagining that someone out there could get creative with some plumbing parts or wood as well. The sky is the limit, as long as you don't mind looking stupid and taking your life into your own hands with shoddily manufactured equipment assembled by amateurs.
Happy training!
No comments:
Post a Comment