SOME MORE ADVANCED EXERCISES
Weaver lift
Starting with the hammer on the floor you're going to try and deadlift it off the floor while keeping it horizontal, the further from the head of the hammer the harder it is to keep it level. Lift slowly and under control, using the muscles of the forearm to control the hammer and keep it flat. hold for a second at the top and the lower. This lift can not only be done for max weight or reps, but can also be turned into a timed event, just keep the hammer horizontal as long as you can.
This lift should be done both ways round (with the hammer head on the thumb side of the hand and with it on the pinky side) and as a variation you can try lifting two hammers at once.
Weaver walks
A variation of the previous exercise (sorry no pictures) where on lifting the hammer to the end position, instead of returing the hammer to the floor, you try to walk as far as possible before the hammer can no longer be kept horizontal. This is a rather nice cross between levering and a farmer's walk that not only requires a great deal of muscular endurance but also forces the lifter to fight the hammer's tendency to bob up and down and wobble side-to-side as they walk.
This lift is fun done with a single hammer but is much better if you have access to two matching hammers.
Hammer pull over
This is effectively a form of cheat reverse lever. The hammer starts out hanging vertically behind the lifter and the lifter uses the muscles of the tricep, shoulder and forearm to bring it overhead to a vertical position. Because the other muscles assisst the wrist with the lift, a much larger weight can be used and the wrist is taxed in a different manner. Try to make this one smooth controlled motion with the whole arm working together to pull the hammer over and into position.
A variation of the previous lift I didn't film because I'm still not allowed to hit things uses the same motion, but the hammer does not finish in a vertical position. Instead the hammer is swung downwards into a tyre, not only does the wrist have to continue applying force to the hammer to accelerate it into the target, but it also has to struggle to regain control of the hammer after it bounces off the tyre.
Hammer press
Again this is an exercise where the whole arm lifts the hammer and the wrist has to work to control the weight. Starting out with the hammer at shoulder height and held flat and level the lifter has to press the hammer overhead while keeping it in a horizontal position. As pictured this exercise can be done with the hammer in both orientations. Shouting 'By the power of greyskull' at the top of each rep is entirely optional, but reccomended.
DU lever
Forgot to tape this one, but it's one of my favourite variations and has a great deal of carryover to double underhanded steel bending. This is a normal reverse lever but in this case the forearm is held vertical with the palm facing the lifter (mimicing the handposition in DU style bending). It may seem like a small change, but by changing the orientation of the hand the stress through the shoulder changes considerably and this can really make for some rapid gains in steel bending strength.
