Due to the fact that my gym is without a power rack, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to try any blast isometrics or other fun stuff CT has been talking about, but tonight I realized that you can put a flat bench in a typical squat rack, and bench from a complete standstill (no stretch reflex, momentum, nothing). You don’t do it with the ‘pins’ that you would usually walk the bar back into when squatting, but instead use the two large supports that typically balance the bar when someone’s doing their curls there.
It’s actually hard as hell if you’re not used to it, but great to just focus on blasting a heavy weight up as fast as you can. I had a great pump going afterward, and true to Thibs’ writing, I left still feeling like I could have done more, definitely still all fired up. Good stuff.
Nice Stu, Ive been doin the same thing, albeit in a power rack, for floor presses. From a dead start with no eccentric and no SSC, it gives me a mad pump and Im only doin 6-8 reps for it!
If you’ve you got more than one of those types of squat racks (im thinking like half cages) then just steal the pins from another rack and you can do your blast iso’s and twitch reps.
[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
plateau wrote:
I tried to do the same but the supports are too low or the bench is too high.
add plates under the bench to raise it an adequate height?[/quote]
umm, based on what he said you need to do the opposite. An option may be to use stacked aerobic steps rather than a bench although the dimensions may not be great.
Since I train solo, my Band DL’s, Bench and squats are performed in the squat rack. This also enables me to adjust the safety pins to simulate board presses since I am too cheap to go buy some wood and stick the boards under my shirt.
I am able to do all sorts of bottom position squats as a starting point, bottom position bench. I have found that training alone has made me more creative and how I train.
Good luck on this journey Stu and don’t be afraid to use the power rack for all of your big lifts; except curls:) Thanks again for the advise a while ago concerning fat loss.
I actually haven’t had access to a powerrack in years, so after getting all these new ideas to try from CT, obviously I’m looking to see what I can make use of. While I can’t adjust the height of the supports in the squat rack, I definitely plan to keep this exercise, as I can’t recall the last time I felt my chest so engorged with blood after a workout (and this was done after fast turnaround/explosive incline work, so I was really feeling it this morning!).
Plateau- Is it a standard squat rack? The one I made use of looks like any other you would expect to see in a gym, so maybe it’s just lower than you would ideally want, but still fo some use? The whole point of dead-stop training is to eliminate the stretch reflex (or so I’m under the impression -lol). You’re still starting off with the bar positioned so your muscles are in the stretched position, but you have to really muscle it to get it going with any acceleration.
Man, my friend and I have been wanting to do this for a while now, but the damn benches are JUST too high. I think I will be buying my own bench at the right height and donating it to the gym.
Hey Stu, When you tried this type of bench, Where was your starting point? I’m guess you would be limited considering the supports are spaced out every 3-4 inches.
Tried these for the first time last week. What drop off are you guys seeing in lifts? I worked up to a single and it was 50 pounds less than my normal bench press. This was a bit worse than I was expecting.
[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
TheDudeAbides wrote:
plateau wrote:
I tried to do the same but the supports are too low or the bench is too high.
add plates under the bench to raise it an adequate height?
umm, based on what he said you need to do the opposite. An option may be to use stacked aerobic steps rather than a bench although the dimensions may not be great.[/quote]
yeah but I was thinking he could use the next level up of supports, not the same
I did something similar for doing dead stop CGBPs off the safety bars on my last chest/tri day after waylander recommended them. So much harder than regular CGBPs and hit the tris way better too.
I tried these yesterday and matched my regular bench numbers. You’d think I’d be weaker on this than on regular bench but I guess everyone’s different.
[quote]tokyopop wrote:
Man, my friend and I have been wanting to do this for a while now, but the damn benches are JUST too high. I think I will be buying my own bench at the right height and donating it to the gym.
[/quote]
Just brain storming here, but another idea would be to use pieces of 2x4 (1,2,3 whatever is needed), cut out a half inch on the bottom to “mold” it to the rack. Since squat rack supports are usually rectangular this may work. You’d just need to attach a strap to the board to secure it around the support. You’d need to play around with it a bit, but it’s something you could carry in your gym bag.
[quote]AzCats wrote:
Hey Stu, When you tried this type of bench, Where was your starting point? I’m guess you would be limited considering the supports are spaced out every 3-4 inches. [/quote]
I wasn’t using the ‘supports’ that you walk the weight back into when squatting, I was making use of the “I’m not getting back up from this set of rock bottom squat” supports, the ones that are actually part of the ‘base’ of the rack (they protrude about 3 ft out from the back of the rack). They allowed me to start about 4" off of my chest, and just focus on moving that bar as fast as I could each time.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
AzCats wrote:
Hey Stu, When you tried this type of bench, Where was your starting point? I’m guess you would be limited considering the supports are spaced out every 3-4 inches.
I wasn’t using the ‘supports’ that you walk the weight back into when squatting, I was making use of the “I’m not getting back up from this set of rock bottom squat” supports, the ones that are actually part of the ‘base’ of the rack (they protrude about 3 ft out from the back of the rack). They allowed me to start about 4" off of my chest, and just focus on moving that bar as fast as I could each time.
S
[/quote]
I don’t think they understand what type of rack you are talking about.
So you prefer doing your regular bench first, then doing the dead stop work? Or are you just playing around at the minute and not felt exactly which is best yet?
Well, I’m still trying to incorporate all the new concepts that CT has been writing about. If you asked me what I was going to do last night 4 weeks ago, I would have said Inc BB, then low Inc DB, then flat DBs. As I was getting through my incline work (I focus on upper chest one day a week), my training partner suggested I try some dead stop work. I had already warmed up with a few sets of twitch reps, then ramped up to some impressive weights, so seeing as how all of Thib’s advice seemed dead on (it always is -lol), we reasoned that the deadstop work would be a nice alternative to just doing more quick turnaround/explosive ramping (albeit at a different angle). Obviously I was a bit fatigued because I didn’t break any PRs with the flat work (although for a guy who really never does flat BB work, I did have a whole lotta weight on there by my last set), but instead of feeling completed wasted at the end of my session, I was still all raring to go (again, just like Thibs said -lol). Am I gonna keep this? I would say a definite yes. Of course I’ll probably still keep rotating my exercise selection every few weeks, but I definitely like this one
