Would these bands suffice in place of the more costly light/medium/heavy jump stretch bands? I ask this because my lifts are very light,they are give or take 5 pounds, 170 on bench, 240 on squat, and 300 trap bar deadlift. It seems that I really wouldn’t need even the light flex band, because my lifts are so low currently, and that these bands could suffice(sorry but I’m broke, and 20 bucks is a lot of money to me.)
The mini’s are fine to start with. You will eventually want more, especially for squatting, but the minis are a low cost way to start working with bands.
For squatting the minis will be on the light side. My squat is 275 and I use the light bands with squats, and the bar + light bands is easy. The resistance curve is way different, but it’s not difficult. You could use the minis and increase the tension by wrapping them around the power rack, or whatever you use to anchor them, a couple extra times.
You might also consider getting the light bands and anchoring them differently for the bench. The by-the-book westside/eliteFTS bench setup anchors the middle of the mini band and has both ends on the bar, so the band is doubled-up on itself. I suspect this is largely for convenience because the high point of the bench is near the low point of the squat, and the low point of the bench is too low to keep tension in a single loop of band. It’s not because they don’t want more tension, as I’ve seen pics of them benching with 2 and 3 mini bands on each side.
One thing you might consider about investing in bands, that I didn’t realize until I got mine (and read the band training manual Elite threw in) is that they are also useful for for assistance excercises. For me, the light band is just about right for doing band-gms and pull-throughs, and it’s cool that I can use them at home.
Nick
If you are going to get bands then I highly recommend getting both mini’s and lights. But if you really can only pick one then get the lights for your squat and just use straight weight for your bench right now. Like previously stated there are alot of good exercises you can do with the bands: gm’s, pullthroughs, pushdowns, ab pulldowns…these can be down at home or inbetween sets to increase your gpp/strength, but I would go with bands for squat before getting them for bench…also check out iron woody bands. They are cheaper then the jumpstretch at elite. Check at ebay or iron woody’s website. Just save up!