Band Training Bench Failure

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

here is the scene.

picked up the red, blue, and green from Iron Woody.

did a bench workout once a week using them.

two weeks with red, around 2-6 reps, around ten sets for bench total.

one week just blue, same protocol.

follwing week (yesterday) blue and red.

all (workouts) bands are doubled and anchored by dbs.

well i got to benching yesterday and did about five sets of the blues. then two sets of the red and blues. again reps between two and six, just trying to maintain large amounts of acceleration. well i got cocky and tried to beat my old free weight max and was nearly crushed by it in the bottom portion. about the final two to three inches and it felt like i had no force output, despite trying to go as fast as possible. the top half never felt so light in my life and it was almost as if i had no weight in my hands at all. very empowering, that is until i hit rock bottom and missed the lift. i tried it again and did it for two reps. i was hoping like five at least. i would have thought progress would have come quicker than this.

suggestions? im assuming i just got overboard with this new style and what i should really do is something like a wave of tension rotations such as

week1 -bar weight
week2 - reds and bar weight
week3 - blues and bar weight
week4 - blues and reds and bar weight
week 5 - blues and bar weight
week6 - reds and bar weight

week7 - blow out old maxes

week8- repeat cycle. maybe even peak to greens!!!

again, all weeks maintaing a rep scheme from 8-2 reps depending on desired outcome.

im fairly new to the band training and one possibility may be overtraining. im not interested in westside. i think im overlooking something here and im looking for our intelligent collective thoughts to help me not get crushed by the bar again.

2

Take a look at the “Joe Average Strength System.” It’s a spin off of Westside, but they’re all about bands.

I bet Jim and some of the other guys can help you out.

3

I never heard of the reds?

4

reds are the super minis a little thicker than mini band jumpstretch makes

5

Ohhhh ok, thanks.

6

Both the Westside method and the variation that “Joe Average” uses revolves around the use of mini’s.

If your intent is to maximize your band tension, begin with a single mini per side. When you can reach 50% of your 1RM+mini per side, add another mini and reduce the weight. Train until you again hit 50% of 1RM and add more tension.

Seeing as you have a band pack, just tweek the band useage. When you reach 50% 1RM with the minis, replace the minis with the next larger size and drop the weight. Hit 50% then add the minis to that and work up.

You get the picture.

Joe Average does this so the ligaments and tendons really benefit from the tension of the bands without killing yourself with too much tension to soon.

In a Westside style, you would use only minis for the bench.

Hope this helps.

7

Do you warm up with straight weight? We normally go up to maybe 80% on warmups and then drop to 40-60% + bands. Or you could do like westside does and hit some medium heavy stuff at the end.

8

no i did a warmup with bar, then bar plus reds, and then blues, then to work sets of or either blues or red and blues. worksets were minimum additional weight.