Making and Training with a plate loaded Sledgehammer

By Tom Black 

      I  have used various things for leverage lifting, including a long pipe with a string and weight on the end, a loading pin with weight, a Weaver stick and of course a sledgehammer.  Of all these things the sledgehammer is the most inconvenient for adding weight to the implement.   Nevertheless, I like training with sledgehammers and find them much more interesting to use compared to the bar with weight on the end.  Also, the visual effect of the hammers, and the history of leverage lifting with  hammers, motivates me to train with them.  I own quite a few hammers to eliminate some of the need to add weight.  I have two 6-pound hammers, a 10, an 11.5 and two 16-pounders.

Sledgehammer with weights attached

  For years I have added weight to all of these by slipping Olympic sized plates down the handle and securing them with an axe handle protector.  Seeing Slim the Hammer Man Farman at the Association of Oldtime Barbell and Strongman Dinner made me reconsider this idea.

       At the dinner I had the opportunity  to see the handles of Slim's hammers close up.  I even photographed just the handles and saw the large amount of tape that Slim uses to build up the size of the handles.  Having studied the pictures I wanted to try the heavy tape build-up but realized that I could not with the plates slid down the handle.  Slim has a pin welded onto one surface of each hammerhead but I don't have access to a welding machine.  To solve my problem decided to try to drill and tap the hammerhead.  This was an extremely bad idea! The head of the hammer is so hard the 5/16" drill barely made a dent after five minutes of drilling.

       Pondering my foolishness, I wondered  if there was another way.  I decided to drill down the center of the wooden shaft at the point that reaches through the hammerhead. I used a 5/16" drill bit and a 3/8" tap (that I bought as a single package at Lowe's).  I drilled down about 3" and then used the tap without a special wrench, just a pair of pliers to turn the tap.  I purchase 3/8" carriage bolts, washers and a wing nut for securing the plates.

       Before screwing the carriage bolt into the wood I considered putting in some glue, however, after I did a test placement of the bolt I realized that it fit in the wood very securely.  I think that the most weight that I ever would put on one of these bolts would be about 15-pounds, but most times it would only be 5-pounds since I decided to put a bolt on various sized hammers.  Once into the shaft of the hammer I simply cut the head of the bolt off leaving about 5" of threaded rod.  I'll eventually cut it shorter when I decide what a good length would be, probably around 3-inches.  I also had to file the edge of the rod down after cutting so that the wing nut fit without binding.

     The interesting thing about this idea is that the plates are actually mounted farther out from the handle, as opposed to the way Slim mounts the plates.  This should increase the torque by about 2-inch-pounds per pound over the other method (More on this below). I was very satisfied with the results and the combination of hammers and standard plate feels much more secure than my previous method with the axe handle protector.

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    While writing this article I also came up with yet another idea for securing weights that I have not implemented yet.  When Slim does his hammers to the front with 26-pounds per hammer the hammers are bolted together at the top and bottom. Obviously, the bolt through the handle does not significantly reduce the strength of the handle.  My idea would be to drill a 3/8" hole below the hammerhead and then put a small block or some washers to make the handle flush with the hammerhead.  A 3/8" bolt with washers could be used to secure the weights.  The advantage would be that the rod can't slip out or become loose, but the disadvantage would be that the matching plates probably would have to be loaded on each side to keep the hammer balanced.  This method could also be used in conjunction with bolting the two hammers together as Slim does with his lift out to the front.  The bolt holding the hammers would also be used to hold the plates.

Training ideas

    After creation of my new plate loading hammer I decided to modify my training somewhat.  Seeing Slim lever the hammers it was also abundantly clear that my arms are not as long as his and that when I lever the hammerhead to my nose the handle of the hammer is not parallel to the ground. For myself (and most people) in order for the handle to be parallel the hammerhead would actually extend beyond the head to the opposite side and the top of the handle about 5-inches from the hammerhead would be above my forehead.  This is simply a matter of arm length, and not a failing in strength to bring the hammer down this way.  Of course, bringing the hammer down  this way enables me to go truly to parallel and the weight I could do dropped accordingly.  Doing the lift this way also leaves no doubt that the hammer was parallel, and I feel now that at times myself and others have deluded themselves that the handle was parallel at the bottom of their lift.  

     The major benefit I have found with the plate loading hammer is that it can be micro-loaded with weight.  While I used 1/2-pound Olympic sized plates with my older method of securing plates I now could use 2-once washers.  

     As with grippers, I tended to do only singles with my Sledgehammer leverage lifting.  But with the plate loading hammer I started to do sets of five.  Reps can be fairly difficult even with a light weight and the plate loading design enables me to micro load the amount just at the edge of my 5-rep limit.  I find that doing the reps also helps to build better form by helping me find my "groove" with the hammer.  I usually do two sets of five, one with my warm-up and one with my maximum weight for 5-reps.  Once done with these I begin my singles training.   

     When I wasn't doing the reps first I started  with a warm-up 6-pound hammer and rather than do reps with it I held  it parallel to the ground for a long time, using the weight to warm-up and stretch the wrist a little.  Now I go right to a  medium heavy weight, around 8.5 or 9-pounds since the 2.5-pound plate or 3-pound plates are the most convenient. (3-pound plates aren't very common, but I'm lucky to have an old chrome set of them)    For the heavy set I switch to the 11.5-pound hammer or have found that I can load above 5-pounds onto my 6-pound hammer.

The 11.5-pound hammer loaded with an extra 5-pounds.

Thus, I only need two hammers with the bolt to create a progression without too many interchanges of weight during the workout.  I sometimes don't lever the weight back up, doing a timed hold till failure, at which point I grab the handle with my other hand.   

    I finish off with a non-strict lift with the 16-pound hammer.  With this I'm not quite to parallel, probably about 30-degrees from parallel.  I may eventually add a bolt to the 16-pound hammer for leverage lifts with my hands at waist level.  I still think there is a place for a non-strict lift of the hammer.  This helps to overload train the wrist, as well as the shoulder.  It helps to get used to the heavier weight on the shoulder before being able to do the same weight to parallel.  I sometimes do many singles with both the strict parallel lever and the 16-pound hammer, about 5 total one rep sets.

     Questions about frequency of training will invariably come up when speaking of sledgehammer levering.  I have switched my training quite a bit in the last few years.  I used to train many different exercises all in a once per week workout, and maybe do some light workouts between the weekly workout.  I've since discovered that I can focus on one or two exercises for a matter of weeks and then move on to another set of exercises.  My discovery was as long as I work related exercises hard that I would not lose strength on the exercises that I wasn't currently practicing.  Thus, if I didn't pinch for a month and did thick dumbbells instead, I found I could pinch grip my former best within a few (near daily) workouts.  The same holds true for the sledgehammer lift, as I focused on the Weaver stick for a few weeks and came back strong in the sledgehammer which I had not be practicing.   With the sledgehammer I found that I could train at least the two sets of 5-reps nearly every day, taking a one or two day rest every once in a while.  If the sets of 5 went well I would do the singles to parallel and if those went well would finish with 16-pounds or more but not to parallel.  This would not be done everyday, but 1 or 2 times per week.  

Torque with an Extended Hammer

    I have explained torque many times on this site, but even I was stymied a little about the torque while using one of these hammers.  They felt heavier right away, with a 5-pound plate loaded on the 6-pound hammerhead, the weight seemed heavier than my 11.5-pound non-modified hammer.  Obviously, the weight was farther away, but when 1-inch may add more than 30-inch pounds to the weight, accuracy in measurement is important.  In a related matter, I calculated that torque on a clubbell should be the total weight of the club times the distance from the center of gravity to the point that the hand contacts the club on the side of the hand towards the center of gravity (that's for when the club is parallel to the ground).  For a sledgehammer I never really bothered with such precision, head weight times handle length to the hand was enough.  But with the weight now centered in a different spot I think this is a more accurate representation.  Thus, I weigh the entire hammer, find the center of gravity, which for a 14-pound hammer was exactly at the bottom edge of the hammerhead.  Then I measured from this point to my hand and found it was 29-inches.  I had been using 27-inches in my calculations without the center of gravity, and as you can see this creates a 2-inch error on the extended hammer, too much in my opinion to be accurate.  Also, with the heavier hammer head the weight of the handle is lower in proportion to total weight and the center of gravity shifts farther from the hand, actually making the torque of a bigger hammer harder than the mere addition of weight would imply.

       Using the set up with the 6-pound hammer of the first picture in this article the torque when the handle is perpendicular to the ground is as follows:

        I've noticed that Slim always quotes the total hammer weight when speaking about torque.  I think he is correct to do this, but only if he measures from the center of gravity of the hammer to the base of his hand.  I don't think he does, however, because the numbers mentioned at the dinner used 34-inches as the length of the moment arm.  This seems a little long too me, Slim's weights are at the face of the hammerhead, not increasing the length to the center of gravity.  In the September 2002 AOBS newsletter the hammer was described as 17-pounds and "578 pounds of pressure on his wrists."  This should be 578-inch-pounds, and the 578/17 would give a moment arm of 34".  My 10-pound hammer is 35" total length and 34" from the end of the hammer to the center of the hammerhead, so that is probably where those numbers came from.  I feel, however, that the width of the hand needs to be subtracted off this length because the "fulcrum" is the base of the hand at the outside of the thumb.  Also, the center of gravity of a 17-pound hammer is not in the center of the head, but about an inch off the center, towards the handle end.  

My best estimate of Slim's 17-pounds hammer leverage feat at the 2002 dinner would be as follows:

      Still an awesome number, but not the 578 pounds as the newsletter stated.  Bottom line is, no matter what the torque number, no one else levers 17-pound hammers as strictly as Slim does at any age.  I should also note here that if Slim's total hammer weight is 17-pounds then the hammerhead must be 16-pounds (10-pound hammerhead plus plates), which is a standard size available (the handles being commonly about 1-pound).  I think the combination of the hammerhead and plates looks much cooler and provides for excellent progression between weights.

      I am happy to report that I levered the 14-pound total weight hammer to parallel recently and this represents my new personal record for a strict parallel hammer.  While I have levered a 16-pound hammer fairly easily to my nose, the handle was most decidedly not parallel to the ground, but more like 30-degrees.  Comparing the torque calculations as accurately as possible gives new perspective to the lifts. 

Copyright March 2003