[Lingster]

Check out IronMind.com – they specialize in forearm and grip strength. 

There are really two issues here, muscular strength of the hands and forearms, and also joint strength.  The muscular strength will grow as you do the work, but by doing exercises to increase that strength independently, you may accelerate your overall progress.

Joint strength is another matter. I have extremely slender bone structure, so when my bench started to exceed my bodyweight, for example, I could feel the wrist joints grinding whenever I hefted the weight.  Very painful and scary – I was honestly afraid that I would break them, which would cause me to drop the bar, which isn't good.  Ditto for barbell curls – my wrists would swell up and ache – bone ache – for days after a workout. 

In my experience, the joint strength will increase with time, but it's a slower process than increasing muscular strength.  So I settled on a weight I could do without injuring my joints, and just increased reps and sets instead of weight, until the joints could handle more weight load.  Where bones and joints are concerned, pain is a bad thing, and should be avoided.  If a weight pains your joints, lower it, or the best case scenario is you wind up in physical therapy ten years down the line.  Worst case is joint replacement surgery, which happens to a lot of serious weightlifters who overdo it or don't watch their form.

There's a really good guy who's involved in our little community who, the last time I spoke with him, was getting ready for double shoulder joint replacement.  He's a former competitive weightlifter.  Joint replacement is no kind of fun. 

I think the physiological process of bones getting stronger is called "bone modeling", and I recall Krista has written about it.  Any doctors, med students or other pros want to take a crack at this?  We know you're out there.

[Lingster]

The original stylesheet allowed complete flexibility between 750 and 1050 pixels wide.  The addition of a central ad banner interferes in this, to some extent, but I've narrowed the left-side menu column to mitigate that interference.    So the site displays best from about 975 pixels up, but I think it's manageable for people with an 800 pixel monitor, because all the critical menu elements are on the top and left, and the forum element is extremely flexible.

[Lingster]

Holy Mary Mother of God.

[Lingster]

It's not mine – I think Spicer is very likely correct.

[Lingster]

I was not impressed with the art.

[Lingster]

DC.

[Lingster]

I'm cancelling this contest, sorry.  I came up with a new icon set as part of a redesign I'm working on.

[Lingster]

I like that second one.  It's got some depth, like the globe image and the IM bubble.

[Lingster]

I just want all parties to be reasonable.  I don't want fanfic authors to assume they have an absolute right to publish stories using other people's characters, and I don't want character owners to come storming in here with cease and desist letters, either.  If a license holder complains to me, I'll take it down because ultimately it's the owner's decision.  And I expect fanfic writers to make it clear that their work is fan fiction.

[Lingster]

Wasn't there a WWE game that let you make beefy female wrestlers?

[Author]

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