Im pretty sure most people have seen them. The progressive resistance lifting chains? Whats the deal with these things, i understand the concept of the weight increasing as the bar raises, what is this doing for you? Are these things worth it? Are they used primarily for squat n bench?
[quote]Minnesota82 wrote:
Im pretty sure most people have seen them. The progressive resistance lifting chains? Whats the deal with these things, i understand the concept of the weight increasing as the bar raises, what is this doing for you? Are these things worth it? Are they used primarily for squat n bench? [/quote]
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i never understood what they are used for, are they simular to resistance bands when used on bench or squat???
[quote]mrl179 wrote:
i never understood what they are used for, are they simular to resistance bands when used on bench or squat???[/quote]
They are somewhat similar to bands, but they stress the joints a bit less. Bands actively pull you down on the eccentric while chains will simply deload.
[quote]PublickStews wrote:
mrl179 wrote:
i never understood what they are used for, are they simular to resistance bands when used on bench or squat???
They are somewhat similar to bands, but they stress the joints a bit less. Bands actively pull you down on the eccentric while chains will simply deload.[/quote]
How so? The tension is variant just as with chains isn’t it? I’ve heard this a lot, but I don’t understand the concept of bands stressing joints more than chains. Isn’t it that once the downward force is applied to the bar (by chain/band) it’s all the same physiologically? Unless of course chains have a different rate of deload per distance moved, but then so do different strength bands…
Anyone care to explain?
They’re used in powerlifting.
It’s an idea called Accomodating Resistance.
Which half of the movement are you the strongest in? Top half, especially if you’re powerlifting.
So the weight that will stress the bottom half will be insufficient to stress the top half enough. So you add bands and chains, which are basically the same thing, stop arguing.
The addition of bands and chains not only allows you to more properly stress the top half of these movements, but it’ll teach you how to blast through the top half.
Bar speed is essiential for powerlifting.
Bands and chains are both used for dynamic effort mostly, there’s other techniques but don’t worry about them yet.
You load the bar with 50%ish of your 1RM, load appropriate band/chain and do something like 8 sets of 3 with a very fast tempo.
Bands and chains are good for everyone, but are normally employed by strength athletes.
[quote]Son of Man wrote:
PublickStews wrote:
mrl179 wrote:
i never understood what they are used for, are they simular to resistance bands when used on bench or squat???
They are somewhat similar to bands, but they stress the joints a bit less. Bands actively pull you down on the eccentric while chains will simply deload.
How so? The tension is variant just as with chains isn’t it? I’ve heard this a lot, but I don’t understand the concept of bands stressing joints more than chains. Isn’t it that once the downward force is applied to the bar (by chain/band) it’s all the same physiologically? Unless of course chains have a different rate of deload per distance moved, but then so do different strength bands…
Anyone care to explain?[/quote]
If you?d let the bar fall down with band tension it would drop faster than with chains because the tension of the bands is pulling it down not only gravity. With chains it just falls down because of gravity as fast as a bar with no chains.
[quote]Ghost22 wrote:
They’re used in powerlifting.
It’s an idea called Accomodating Resistance.
Which half of the movement are you the strongest in? Top half, especially if you’re powerlifting.
So the weight that will stress the bottom half will be insufficient to stress the top half enough. So you add bands and chains, which are basically the same thing, stop arguing.
The addition of bands and chains not only allows you to more properly stress the top half of these movements, but it’ll teach you how to blast through the top half.
Bar speed is essiential for powerlifting.
Bands and chains are both used for dynamic effort mostly, there’s other techniques but don’t worry about them yet.
You load the bar with 50%ish of your 1RM, load appropriate band/chain and do something like 8 sets of 3 with a very fast tempo.
Bands and chains are good for everyone, but are normally employed by strength athletes.[/quote]
Great post.
I’ve also found that chains in particular require a great amount of tightness and stabiliy to control.
[quote]Son of Man wrote:
PublickStews wrote:
mrl179 wrote:
i never understood what they are used for, are they simular to resistance bands when used on bench or squat???
They are somewhat similar to bands, but they stress the joints a bit less. Bands actively pull you down on the eccentric while chains will simply deload.
How so? The tension is variant just as with chains isn’t it? I’ve heard this a lot, but I don’t understand the concept of bands stressing joints more than chains. Isn’t it that once the downward force is applied to the bar (by chain/band) it’s all the same physiologically? Unless of course chains have a different rate of deload per distance moved, but then so do different strength bands…
Anyone care to explain?[/quote]
Your joints will tell you the difference when you train consistently with large amounts of band tension and then contrast it with large amounts of chain tension. I know that’s not very satisfying but it has been my experience as well that the bands beat the hell out of my joints after a while and the chains don’t do it nearly as much. I’ll leave the why to more qualified people.
This article by Dave Tate does a pretty good job of explaining it, in my opinion.
To me the biggest difference between chains and bands is how much they beat you up. Heavy band tension with heavy weight wears you out like nothing else. If you do it for week after week after, it will fuck you up. I find that after two weeks of squatting with bands, I start to regress. While the top end loading you get with chains is still taxing, it is nothing like what you get with bands. I find I can squat with chains for week after week without feeling beat up.
[quote]hms wrote:
with band tension it would drop faster than with chains because the tension of the bands is pulling it down not only gravity. [/quote]
Got it, thanks hms