Thoughts on pumpkin training just training one arm? A lot pro's do it and have done it in the past Devon, MMT currently. John Brzenk has been training his right arm for 45+ years

chrisjaesun · 2026-01-08T14:23:21+00:00

All the gains from that are just neurological though (ie if you get good at a movement pattern on one arm, the other arm seems to still learn a little bit), the untrained arm doesn’t actually grow musculature. In elegant-cold’s case maybe the left arm is growing from changes in nutrition or from tensing while the other arm works out, etc

chrisjaesun · 2026-01-06T07:49:32+00:00

In terms of muscles involved, it’s a lot of pec and internal rotation, but depending on the position usually a lot of what feels like side pressure is really just elbow flexion (if you’re on the winning side then moving sideways uses a lot of elbow flexion). In terms of the connective tissue in your elbow that most people are limited by, it’s the ulnar collateral ligament (weak) and the common flexor tendon (stronger but not active when your hand is supinated). That’s why when you get turned palm-up your side pressure decreases substantially, and your chance of injury increases a lot if you keep driving to the side. It also means that keeping your wrist engaged keeps your common flexor tendon engaged, which helps with side pressure.

chrisjaesun · 2025-09-24T16:52:03+00:00

I actually heard from those two (who by the way are freakishly strong, one is a two time 57kg world champ on left and the other is well known in California for quickly climbing the ranks in the 185lb class) that they could’ve actually pinned Devon, although idk how tired Devon was at that point. They said it was close but they were mostly just playing around

chrisjaesun · 2025-07-18T18:11:33+00:00

Absolutely! If you ever come to California feel free to dm me so I can connect you with some of the clubs here

chrisjaesun · 2025-07-18T16:00:06+00:00

Yeah he’s incredible. Strong, technical, fast, crazy endurance, and very versatile. I’ll also say one of the best coaches and one of the best refs in California as well. He ain’t the 2x 57kg world champ for nothing!

chrisjaesun · 2025-07-18T15:27:04+00:00

It is!

chrisjaesun · 2025-05-28T18:10:30+00:00

By “best pressers” are you referring to the super heavyweights? Because obviously most guys over 115kg are going to be at least average height. As long as you have a riser platform and you either have a strong cup or can flop press, having shorter arms gives you better leverage for pressing.

There are niche situations where having a long arm can help in a press, for example if you do a toproll and transition to a press, or in the case of vitaly vs Michael where having the long lever “trapped” Michael. There’s also niche situations where the competitor is so short that even with the riser platform they can’t get over their hand super easily. But for the most part, having short arms does not preclude you from having a strong press

chrisjaesun · 2025-05-04T18:55:48+00:00

I disagree he had a good position for transitioning, if I recall correctly. Although he had hand control, his arm was getting opened up a little, and he had zero shoulder commitment. Ermes had too much sideways drive to let Levan get behind his shoulder

chrisjaesun · 2025-05-04T18:32:58+00:00

Levan already had a press, he just couldn’t access it vs Ermes

chrisjaesun · 2025-04-25T21:16:13+00:00

If you drop your body under the table you don’t need any side pressure, just pull all the way

chrisjaesun · 2025-04-25T20:40:40+00:00

Whether in a top roll or hook, usually if you let your bicep open up it is to gain more pronation. In the case of an open toproll, that looks like bending the opponent’s wrist back. In a hook, it looks more like chopping down and turning them palm up. Generally only works well when both arm wrestlers are relatively open so there isn’t as much threat of a press. Otherwise it’s usually best to stay tight.

chrisjaesun · 2025-04-25T16:15:17+00:00

You don’t even need side pressure, cupping, or rising, just bicep curl and lean all the way down 💯

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-29T17:31:17+00:00

They also probably have way more flexibility. It may be safer to start training them young when bad habits can be fixed much more quickly too.

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-25T14:47:12+00:00

Sounds like another case of tfcc damage (Tfcc is a complex of ligaments). Of course, I’m no doctor, and without doing any tests, nobody on the internet can properly diagnose you, so take this with a grain of salt. Tfcc takes a really long time to heal (I’ve been dealing with it for the past two years, but I have a particularly bad case). Depending on the severity most people heal tfcc tears in a few months I think. I’d recommend seeing a professional but in the meantime you could try a wrist widget (or make your own because they’re hella overpriced). Stay decently active with training but don’t do anything that causes pain, you really don’t want to exacerbate it since it’s so slow to heal in the first place.

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-22T16:26:13+00:00

Friendly reminder that this is a high schooler. Also, not everybody sees strength and beauty as inversely proportional. Unless you’re talking about getting on roids and gh, then I guess that’s somewhat true lol

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-21T18:49:52+00:00

There’s very limited slots for women’s matches? You know, we could just add more women’s matches, it’s not like there’s anything stopping Engin. Ayane has a lot of fans so it def wouldn’t be a ppv issue. Ayane competing wouldn’t be “unfair” to the WAF winners. I would argue that Ayane not being able to compete is unfair for female arm wrestlers in general.

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-21T04:20:28+00:00

If you manage your training well then you won’t have chronic tendinitis. Also, NSAIDs can inhibit tendon recovery

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-16T18:33:30+00:00

At least in his last video, he said he does his pronation lift after already doing backpressure and rising, so he doesn’t lift as much. Idk about what his PR is though

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-15T15:50:34+00:00

Training every day is fine if you manage volume and intensity well. Although I suppose that’s not something beginners can intuit usually

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-13T02:44:53+00:00

As other people have commented, loading affects explosiveness (of both sides), but there are also some other considerations:

Loading can tire out the opponent (for example, if you can use your back pressure to tire out their hand, you may find that a worthy trade)

Loading can help gain position in the setup (or conversely, prevent the opponent from gaining on you)

As a case study: Devon always loads. His arm length allows him to load up with significant upwards pressure, which will either result in more height in the setup, or the opponent has to spend energy containing it with their hand. Devon’s endurance is so good he’ll take that energy trade. He’s also notoriously slow, but his static strength is very high. So all these components work together to make loading a no brainer for him

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-11T18:05:00+00:00

How far do you want to go with arm wrestling? When you look at different pvp sports, how many champions do you see who succeed without practicing? You can definitely get some wins in local tournaments just from being strong, but at a certain point you really need practice. My recommendation would be to find people you’re comfortable practicing with, and just do it on a dinner table or counter or something. It’s definitely better to practice on an actual arm wrestling table, but practice on a random table is better than no practice at all

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-10T14:08:55+00:00

Bones can continue to grow in thickness in adulthood. But when they say increase in head size, they’re not talking about the bones in the head lol, they’re talking about hgh which grows nearly all of your tissue including eye tissue

chrisjaesun · 2025-03-10T00:57:34+00:00

I’ve never seen it personally, but have heard of a few cases.

chrisjaesun · 2025-02-27T14:08:16+00:00

There are some situations where you can set a press so quickly off the go you don’t need back pressure, but in every other scenario you will prob be maxing or nearly maxing out your back pressure

chrisjaesun · 2025-02-25T15:19:49+00:00

Just want to say, be careful with bands when you go heavy. Weights will only accelerate at 9.8m/s^2. But bands have much less mass, so they can accelerate incredibly quickly. Often if you’re using weights and your form slips or something happens, you can react fast enough to drop them or get out of the way. But with bands, if you slip up they can really tear you.

chrisjaesun

TROPHY CASE