Prostetics And Weight Lifting Options

[buttface96]

For those who do not know I was not born with a left hand (my arm stops right at the wrist). Im currently a sophmore this year in High school and have played football the past 2 years. My freshman year I was the starting right guard for that whole season (7-3 Overall). This past season I was the starting center (8-2, League Champs) (yes CENTER, it might sound weird to you all snapping the ball and getting up out of a stance with one hand, but it worked). I'm also not the biggest linemen ever (5'10, 180lbs)

Anyway I've been lifting hard the past two years, but certain lifts do not work out so well. For example I can bench 185lbs, and parallel squat 365lbs all without the need of my prostetic. However when it comes to Hexbar deadlift, and power cleans I runinto trouble, not having a hand on the left side, it seems impossible to lift, so I use my prostetic for my lifting on these 2 lifts. Hexbard seems to work fine, but power cleans are a completely different story.



For those who are unaware of a power clean, basically the bar with weight is on the ground. Your shins are are resting on the bar. You lift it straight up, right about to your stomache/chest. Then you jump to get underneath the bar where you rack the bar by "flicking" your wrists back. As you can see I cannot "flick" my wrist 90 degrees in order to rack on my left side, so my technique is really funky. However I had a dream the other night where i did power clean successfully and my prostetic was heavily modified, he is a rough stech of what it looked like



That V shape (not a rod, its going to be about 1-1.5inches wide for each side) is mounted to a bearing to it will swing up and down freely. The bar itself will be fitted into the V, and have an added steel bar or quick relase type pin going thru the V to keep the bar firmly in place. Since I need it to swing about 90 degrees back, a hydraulic system would seem to work. Basically as you see in the picture the hydraulic motor would sit under the V on one side, and when triggered explode out and flick the V 90 degrees. Added to that I was wondering if its possible to have a modified switch to the hydraulic motor, to where itskind of flat and i could put on the ground next to my foot and when I jump after pulling up the bar to get underneth it, as i land my feet, id make sure to step on the swtich, thus triggering the "flick" to where i can successfully rack the bar.


Here is my main questing here, I have no idea on what hydraulic systems work be best for this, or if there are any other options here. If anyone is good with hydraulic motors please reply or pm me, I'd really appreciate your help!


-Mike

[_iffy]

Hydraulics are slow. If you must use, mechanical moving parts, use pneumatics (compressed air).


Different Idea...


You would have a better idea of what kind of handle would work best, but the ball bearings would allow "wrist flick" rotation.

So long as you have a good lock on the handle, so it doesn't move, you should get the desired result.

Hardware stores sell those ball bearing sleeves. They might not be as long, but you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one that will fit over the bar.

If you go to your local metal working shop, you could probably get them to weld on a good handle for you.


Let me know what you end up doing.

[Rylinkus]

If it comes down to something needing to be fabricated, let me know. My company has a pretty decent machine shop. Im confident someone there would donate some time to a part if needed. Also, if you want a prettier draw up of that, let me know. I do sit at a computer all day long, drawing pictures of things in 3d.

[buttface96]

wow thanks for the help guys, I tottaly forgot I made this thread heh.

Anyway Im currently working with my prostecitcs docotor and with the help of another weightlifter we think we got a solution. Basically it is a standard hand, with a volutary opening of all 5 fingers. What Im planning to do is to do a half reversed clean (left hand palm facing up, right hand palm facing down (regular)) anyway for some reason that method works the best so far.

Currently the 2nd sample build should be done (should be at my doorstep only im stuck in washington dc untill saturday and its cold as fuck here) But once I get back Im going to test out this second build and if all is well, we'll send it back in for the final, much stronger build.

Thanks for all your help and input guys

[Rylinkus]

Well post some pics man. I'd love to see it.

[buttface96]

Hydraulics are slow. If you must use, mechanical moving parts, use pneumatics (compressed air).
Different Idea...


You would have a better idea of what kind of handle would work best, but the ball bearings would allow "wrist flick" rotation.

So long as you have a good lock on the handle, so it doesn't move, you should get the desired result.

Hardware stores sell those ball bearing sleeves. They might not be as long, but you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one that will fit over the bar.

If you go to your local metal working shop, you could probably get them to weld on a good handle for you.
Let me know what you end up doing.

Well I finally received the unit yesterday, tested it out on a light 135lbs power clean, and it is much better than my similar setup. I meant to take a picture (couldnt find my camera) but it is very similar to iffy's drawing, but without the ball bearing (I'd like to incorporate something similar to that to where the wrist unit can bend with force) Anyway I'll try to have pictures tomorrow, maybe even possibly a video, thanks again for all of your support

[_iffy]

No problem. This is one of the most interesting general chat topics right now.

I'm looking forward to the pics.

[buttface96]

well here are some pics:


















I'm currently editing a video and debating weather to release it online (was planning to keep it private between me and engineer im working with on this) But it does show the issues with this device and improvements needed. Maybe tomorrow you will see a vid


**EDIT forgot to resize the huge pics they should be good now

This post has been edited by buttface96: May 13 2007, 04:21 AM