Bending, crushing, etc.

Here's a little update on my grip/wrist strength tomfoolery:

1) One recent evening saw me bend 5 60D nails.
2) I've bent 2/3rds of my "Yellow" barstock from the Ironmind "Bag of Nails", as well as one of the evil "Blue" nails. The red nails are somewhere far out in the future, they have thus spurned me with nary a slight deformation. No surprise there.
3) My "palms up" bending has been far more effective of late than my overhand folding technique. I'm not quite sure what that's all about. Still, the nails, they are 'a bendin'.
4) I bent two "white" barstock nails at the same time a few days back.
5) I can "thumbs forward" bend a 20 penny nail, as well as bending white nails behind my back and at arm's length.
6) I *almost* ripped a deck of cards, getting 2/3rds of the way through before hitting a stick point. I have to work on my pinch grip! It really hurt.
7) I successfully closed a Captains of Crush #2 with my right hand, maintaining the closure for several seconds. I'm a few 16ths of an inch away with my left hand. As soon as I can reliably close the #2s with both hands, I'll order the 2.5s. I'll have to EARN it.

...all of this has come to pass over about a month and a half, so I'm pretty happy with the progress. It hasn't come without some pain, though. My right hand at the middle knuckle and the top of the wrist has proven to be my weak spot, as well as one tendon beneath my left biceps. I've been fairly rational, and tried to throttle back when things get too painful. Still, this stuff is addictive.

I need to do more supporting work, more generalized exercise, but I've been in a situation where I have very limited time to do so, because of some family commitments.

Anyway, that's my report about bending things. I will try to post a picture of the nails I've bent for you some time in the near future.