Strength Built On Spikes

The Epic Power of Neuro-Grip Pushup Handles (Power T Push-Up Spikes)

In the realm of bodyweight training, where bad asses forge strength from simplicity, a device that lurked in the shadows and became a tool of Strength Enthusiasts has emerged: the Neuro-Grip Pushup Handles. These unassuming tools, crafted from aeronautics-grade aluminum, are not just equipment—they’re a challenge, a gauntlet thrown at the feet of anyone daring to push their limits. Championed by strongman and Neuro-Mass author Jon Bruney, Neuro-Grips are designed to transform the humble pushup into a crucible of strength, balance, and mental fortitude. The man that invented the tool was Gary Bowes, a Fireman by trade.

The Mythic Origin of Neuro-Grips

Picture a world where pushups, though mighty, have become the norm. The floor is familiar, the movement mastered. Enter Jon Bruney, a titan of strength, who envisioned a tool to shatter complacency. The Neuro-Grip Pushup Handles, introduced by Dragon Door, are no ordinary pushup bars. These solid, one-piece grips, with their anodized finish, are as unforgiving as they are elegant. They’re not here to coddle you—they’re here to test you, to demand precision, and to forge a vice-like grip, a core of steel, and forearms that could crush stone. As for Gary, who created the original design, wanted to take bodyweight training into another realm of strength using a basic element and turning it into a weapon of power that made the tendons and ligaments like steel and the muscles hardened like an iron shield.

Bruney’s philosophy, rooted in his Neuro-Sets—combinations of grinds, isometrics, and explosives—infuses these handles with purpose. They’re not just about doing pushups; they’re about doing them with such intensity that your entire system enters neural overdrive, unlocking strength you didn’t know you possessed. Trust me, just doing a few of these is no easy task, if it was, this tool wouldn't be legendary. See for yourself here.

Why Neuro-Grips Are the Ultimate Challenge

Unlike traditional pushup bars, Neuro-Grips are a beast of their own. Here’s why they stand alone in the pantheon of fitness tools:

Unrelenting Instability: Neuro-Grips are designed to be unforgiving. Their T-shaped design forces you to master balance, engaging your forearms, shoulders, and core in ways a flat floor never could. One wrong move, and you’re kissing the ground (And not like Katy Perry coming back from Space). This instability isn’t a flaw—it’s the point. It demands focus, turning every rep into a battle of mind and muscle.

Extended Range of Motion (ROM): With Neuro-Grips, you can lower your chest below the level of your hands, amplifying the stretch and contraction of your pecs, triceps, and deltoids. This increased ROM makes every pushup more intense, recruiting more muscle fibers and sparking greater gains.

Core and Grip Annihilation: These handles don’t just work your upper body—they obliterate your core and grip. Holding the grips requires constant tension, sculpting your forearms and strengthening your wrists. Your abs and glutes fire to maintain a plank-like stability, making Neuro-Grips a full-body crucible.

Portability and Durability: Crafted from lightweight, aeronautics-grade aluminum, Neuro-Grips are built to withstand the heaviest athletes and the toughest workouts. Toss them in a gym bag or take them to a park—they’re ready for battle anywhere.

A Humbling Experience: Even pushup veterans find themselves humbled. Users report dropping from 50 standard pushups to a mere handful with Neuro-Grips. This isn’t defeat—it’s rebirth. Each rep is a chance to rebuild stronger, sharper, and more disciplined.

The Epic Quest: Mastering Neuro-Grip Pushups

Embarking on the Neuro-Grip journey is not for the faint of heart. It’s a quest that demands preparation, progression, and respect for the tool. Here’s how to conquer it:

Step 1: The Initiation

Start slow. Neuro-Grips are not a toy—they’re a challenge that requires solid pushup form and wrist strength. Begin with planks on your knees, holding the grips for 30 seconds per set. Focus on wrist alignment and core engagement. Progress to full planks when you can hold for three sets without wobbling.

Pro Tip: Practice on a soft surface like a carpet or grass to master bailing out safely. Neuro-Grips don’t forgive sloppy form, and bloody knuckles are a harsh teacher. Happened to me in the beginning many many moons ago.

Step 2: The Grind

Once planks feel steady, move to knee pushups with the grips. Aim for 3 sets of 20 reps, keeping movements controlled. The instability will feel alien, but embrace it. Your forearms will burn, your core will scream, and your focus will sharpen. When knee pushups become manageable, transition to full pushups, starting with low reps (5-10 per set) and building slowly. As of right now, I've managed 15 in one set and 72 total in a workout at 12 sets of 6 reps.

Step 3: The Ascension

As you grow stronger, experiment with variations. Try slow-mo pushups (10 seconds down, 10 seconds up) to maximize time under tension. Incorporate feet-elevated pushups for added intensity or single-leg pushups to crank up the instability. For the bold, explore slow-mo mountain climbers—holding a plank and bringing knees to chest—to torch your midsection. Even I haven't hit step 3, so don't fret about trying to ascend quickly.

Step 4: The Legend

Mastered the basics? Dive into Jon Bruney’s The Neuro-Grip Challenge book for advanced progressions, from shoulder prehab exercises to gravity-defying stunts. Push the boundaries with ramp up the challenge with plyometric pushups or one-arm Neuro-Grip pushups. The only limit is your imagination—and your strength. This is where men become gods. 

Real Warriors, Real Results

Neuro-Grip users are unanimous: these handles are a game-changer. One user, a 280-pound strongman, went from one-minute knuckle pushups to struggling with just four slow Neuro-Grip pushups after four days. “What a challenge!” he exclaimed, praising their ability to humble even the confident. Another, battling osteoarthritis, found Neuro-Grips allowed pain-free strength training, unlike traditional calisthenics.

On forums like StrongFirst and Reddit, enthusiasts share tales of newfound core strength, grip power, and mental resilience. Adrienne Harvey of GiryaGirl.com calls them “unforgiving” yet transformative, urging users to respect their difficulty. Even skeptics admit the grips add variety and intensity, though some prefer rings for safety. It's that hardcore.

Why Neuro-Grips Reign As A Tool Among The Gods

Compared to traditional pushup bars or rings, Neuro-Grips are in a league of their own. Standard pushup bars reduce wrist strain but lack the instability that makes Neuro-Grips so potent. Rings offer similar stabilization work but are slightly less portable and don’t match the grip challenge. Parallettes, while versatile, are bulkier and less focused on pushup-specific intensity. Neuro-Grips are the perfect storm of portability, durability, and unrelenting challenge.

Are You Ready To Take Action?

The Neuro-Grip Pushup Handles are more than equipment—they’re crucible for forging strength, discipline, and resilience. They’re not for everyone, but for those who crave a challenge, they’re a ticket to Olympus. Grab a pair from Dragon Door (back in stock and shipping now!) and start your epic journey. Check out The Neuro-Grip Challenge book for expert guidance, and join the community of warriors pushing the limits of what’s possible.

Are you ready to rewrite your legend? Grip the handles, brace your core, and let the battle commence.

Disclaimer: Always consult a fitness professional before starting a new exercise program, especially with tools as demanding as Neuro-Grips. Start slow, prioritize form, and listen to your body to avoid injury.

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The Propeller Exercise From Dopamineo

 Always finding ways to train so I can get the most benefit out of a workout. Off and on with the Dopamineo Band, doing circuits and HIIT Workouts hits the spot in many ways to tackle my cardio, coordination, agility and explosiveness. One exercise in particular I held off on doing until recently was the Propeller exercise. I've seen several videos of people who own Dopamineo and other athletes do this exercise at various speeds and style and I figured it was time for me to learn it. 

The reason why I held off on it for a long time was because for one, it's a complex movement that hits muscles where I was having my sciatica and was afraid of getting hurt again because of the way the band moves and the way you have to move with it. The second reason was because I wanted to get good at some of the other exercises that were complex as well but not as difficult coordination wise. Once I felt I was good enough to where it felt automatic, I started putting effort into this crazy looking exercise.

The Propeller Exercise in itself is a workout just to not only get the movement right but it also hits many muscles and there's a reason many wrestlers use it to condition their bodies. It does like a Duck Under like move where you shift the body and can duck under an opponent for a takedown and/or utilize the Fireman Carry Technique. Take it slow to get an idea on how you unify the band and your body together to work in sync. Start speeding up little by little as you get better and before you know it, it makes you look like you're spinning. At a certain clip, it becomes quite the conditioning exercise and will get you breathing hard. 

Before I did a workout with it, I tested the waters and did what I could with it. It can be a bit of a brain teaser because there's many things coming into play with the arms, the shoulders, the slight squatting, the turning of the torso, working with the band instead of against it. Once I got going, it tested my breathing because of the intensity. You don't stretch the band to the point where you can barely move, you get it just long enough to where it creates resistance but also is in a "relaxed" type state yet not "loose". In the workout, I did a circuit of exercises of my usual 10 reps of 5 exercises and did this last. Did a total of 100 reps with the Propeller and out of all the exercises I did in that workout, that was the hardest one and the one that tested me the most. It is a fun exercise once you get the idea of the mechanics of it. It's not easy and I still need practice on it but it is getting better. 

In the video below, I took the band out on a windy day at a park behind a church down the block from the house. It took a few takes, not because of the wind or anything, I had a good set up with my phone and able to keep it steady with one of my bags, it was the movement itself along with angles, speed, not messing up smacking myself and doing reps to get the amount of time to show it for more than a few seconds, I really wanted to show the progress without making a blooper out of it. I hate messing up. After several takes and several minutes of doing the exercise, it turned into a mini workout cause it wore my ass out. This was the end result and like I said, it still needs work but in time, it's going to be a hell of an exercise to work with.

Some people do this movement with a twisting motion of the torso, some just twist the arms, I'm still figuring out which way to go on the up position at the end. It's all about experimenting and having fun. Don't forget to grab one yourself or for your athletes if you work with wrestlers, MMA Fighters, BJJ, Judo or other combat sports. These are also great for training and playing with Kids. There are bands for little ones as young as 4 years old. Great piece of equipment to get kids moving and playing. Play along with them to create bonding experiences. Get a cool discount when you punch in POWERANDMIGHT at checkout. 

A Full Body Exercise That Hits Just About Everything

Key words to remember "Just About Everything" but still, this exercise is one of the best for overall health but it also is tough to do at first and makes you focus on so many things it's not even funny. It's the Gymnastic Bridge or as it's called in Yoga, Chakarasana or the Wheel Pose. It truly is one of the GOATs in fitness and Physical Culture in general. 

When I first learned it many moons ago, it was just doing the Push-up version of it or as they were called Reverse Push-ups. They're tough to do when they're part of a routine in your arsenal but once you get the idea and hold the top position, you're going to feel one of the biggest stretches ever. Regardless of what size you are, it takes strength to get into and it takes even greater strength just to hold for a period of time. I remember the first time holding it and 10 seconds felt like an eternity. Have no idea what my longest time is in that thing but I do know that in my early 20's, I went to a party once for a cousin of mine at her house and kids were roaming around, so I decided in her living room to hold the Gymnastic Bridge and a number of kids were crawling under me back and forth for a period. Thought that was going to kill me LOL.

The Gymnastic Bridge is just another variation in a series of Bridging Exercises that target multiple muscle groups and forcing the body to work as a single unit. You see this exercise a lot in Yoga circles or in Gymnastics (obviously) and in Wrestling. Guys like Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson would teach this exercise to students to get them in amazing condition in addition to Hindu Squats, Push-Ups and the Wrestler's Bridges. It is a favorite that's for sure.

The idea of it as an Isometric Exercise is to hold it essentially with just the hands and feet on the ground. At first, having the heels up is a good starting point and as you progress, lower the heels until you're completely flat footed. Just the hands and feet alone would be enough but some have been strong enough to take away limbs and hold the exercise with one arm and both feet on the ground, one arm and one leg or do a sequence called Around The Clock which I learned from Logan Christopher. This is more of a skill than anything and yeah it's cool to do if you can do it but the point of the exercise is to feel the stretch, the full body concentration and breathing as naturally as possible.

Once you get the hang of it and can hold it, so many benefits are being thrown into the mix: Control Over Your Body, Strength that is functional, Spinal Health, Agility, Flexibility, The Opening Of The Lungs and hits the Core Muscles unlike any other exercise. Some powerful stuff comes out of doing this exercise. You can do the Reverse Push-ups and get benefits from them too but once you're able to hold it for even 30 seconds to a minute or more, you're getting far better benefit out of it in my opinion. 

I would consider this exercise for the most part a Yielding Isometric meaning that you're fighting gravity in order to hold it. Although I'm a bigger fan of Overcoming Isometrics, some Yielding ones are just awesome and this is one of them. I would sometimes use this exercise as a finisher or as part of my Isometric Training to hit the muscles from everywhere I can think of. Practice this with intent and do a little dynamic "warm up" to help with easing into the exercise like working the wrists, shoulders and hips. These areas are essential to getting into the position because if they're weak, you won't get very far and you'll just be stuck but hey, we all start somewhere. Here's a Demo of what the Gymnastic Bridge looks like.