The 2025 U.S. Grip Sport Nationals was held in St. Clairsville, Ohio on May 31st. The events contest were: The Silver Bullet, 2" Saxon Bar Deadlift, 2" Country Crush, and Little Bighorn. The Women's Overall podium saw Sarah Chappelow take 1st Place, with Melissa Dingey 2nd, and Sara Saffell 3rd. For the Men's Overall podium Jason Dingey took 1st, Jedd Johnson 2nd, and Luke Raymond in 3rd. Jason Dingey and Sarah Chappelow after these performances are now the current National Champions as well as the North American Champions (which they won in Canada last year... with North Americans being held every 2yrs. etc.) This was one of the biggest turnouts numbers wise for a Grip Sport Nationals and probably the strongest in the organizations history. Thank you to Jason and Melissa Dingey and Mike and Sara Saffell for running such a great competition. Thank you to all the competitors that helped make this one of the most exciting, strongest, and competitive competitions of 2025.

Prior to his involvement in Grip Sport, Zach Staniewicz pursued a professional career in baseball. Through the highs and lows and decades of effort Zach's dream of playing in the Major Leagues came to an end but not due to a lack of effort. Zach had been introduced to grip through grippers and a few other training methods early on and always sought out strength training knowledge that would stay in the back of his mind. With baseball being over Zach refocused his drive to strength training and started to have more dedicated time to train his grip and continue to learn more about Grip Strength History and Organizations contesting grip. From his first competition, to achieving major grip milestones in training, Zach takes us on the encounters he's had with grip legends and regular everyday people alike that led him to pursue filling a void in the United States Grip Scene. With York Blobs being rare and costly and Inch Dumbbells of varying increments almost being non existent, Zach reached out to 20+ foundries and continued to dial in formulas and create patterns to make equipment for the grip community. Zach's current catalog under the Staniewicz Strength Equipment title offers several lighter weight Inch Dumbells, a Fatman Blob Replica, a lighter Blob, and an Anvil Trainer that was cast from a true anvil horn. SSE (Staniewicz Strength Equipment) continues to evolve and Zach has many future ideas and several projects in the works... Tune in to hear all the details! https://www.staniewiczstrengthequipment.com/home The Grip Show Discount Codes: "Gripshow20" for 20% off at https://dieselcrew.com/store/shop/ "Thegripshow" for 5% off at https://www.armassassinstrengthshop.com

Richard Sorin hauled a bunch of old, broken, and bent York dumbbells from the Columbia YMCA after completing some equipment/gym upgrades for them. Having possession of these older dumbbells eventually the broken heads of the dumbbells were getting in Richard's way as he worked on other projects. Picking these dumbbell heads up from the floor to move them wasn't too much of a challenge until Richard reached the Half 100 (What would be known today as a "Fatman Blob"/1st Generation Blob). Richard had done plate pinching for years and had even pinched 2x45lb York Deep Dish Plates together (among many other elite feats of Grip Strength), so this object not moving from the floor was somewhat of a shock. Richard went on to not only train and lift this broken dumbbell head that he titled "THE BLOB", he would increase the challenges by lifting it with less fingers, cleaning/snatching them, and adding weight to The Blob. Richard's personal best was 24lbs added to the "The Blob". The name "Fatman" was given to the original/first generation of York Roundhead Blobs due to the sides being wider and bulging out farther than the generations that followed. I'd like to thank Richard for his creativity of turning a broken dumbbell into a useful training method and historic feat of strength that is still being trained, contested, and sought after to this very day (over 40 years since his original challenge to himself.) I'd also like to thank Richard for taking the time to do a full interview with The Grip Show back in Oct. 2023. I reached out to 4 of the best Blob Lifters in our sport to discuss how they first found out about The Blob, how it challenged them, and how they have continued to evolve their training with Blobs. Jedd Johnson, Tim Butler, Jaland Worley, and Thomas Larsen join the show to give us their personal stories and experiences involving Blobs. "The Blob was not a broken dumbbell to me, it was an opportunity." -Richard Sorin https://dieselcrew.com/store/product/lift-the-blob/ The Grip Show Discount Codes: "Gripshow20" for 20% off at https://dieselcrew.com/store/shop/ "Thegripshow" for 5% off at https://www.armassassinstrengthshop.com