Hi all. I have started lifting again…numbers aren’t huge…275 squat, 385 dl, 245 paused bench, and 225 push press after about 5 yrs of being out of it after an acl reconstruction and another knee injury from spartan race in march. I don’t plan on doing any competitive powerlifting for a year or 2 (at least) but am just wondering about accomodating resistance. I have read that bands are for DE and reverse bands are for ME.
I don’t understand how the strength cure would be that different between the 2…with regular bands, the tension is lower at the bottom and higher at the top as it stretches, however reverse bands seem like it’d be the same because as the bar is lower(say at chest on bench or in the hole in squats) there is most tension on it, reducing the amount of weight that you’d be pushing out of the hole. It seems to me that both achieve the same thing. I’m not one to question whether or not they work if done right but I don’t understand the “how” they are different aspect of it.
It’ll be a year or so before I even think about getting into DE/ME. Right now I’m on 5/3/1 and love it…will be starting strongman in the summer but might do some strongman/pl meets in a couple years.
Thanks for the input!
Going against bands develops more power. It also ‘punishes’ you more if you get out of the groove. It’s also really hard on the joints and CNS and I personally can’t do more than 3 weeks in a row with them and I don’t do that very often.
Reverse bands will actually pull you back into the groove if your lift starts to become a little off. They’re also a great to overload a movement without causing a ton of stress on your body.
Does that make sense why the general recommendation is against bands for speed and reverse bands for DE?
However, with that being said it’s not a set in stone rule just a generality. Sometimes it’s good to shock the system with some against the bands for ME work or assistance and I like using reverse bands for DE work if my joints are feeling beat up.
In order of stress on the body, here’s my rating based on what I’ve read and my experience:
reverse band
chains
free weight
against bands
With free weight, I find the bottom of the movement to be the most precarious position for all 3 powerlifts so that’s why I rate reverse bands and chains as easier on the body than free weight.
edit: With your current lifts unless you’re a super light weight, I honestly wouldn’t worry about it that much unless you needed to deload the bottom of a squat because of your knee in which case you might wanna try reverse bands. Or if that ROM is totally a no go, doing partial ROM until you get fixed it up well enough.
Note: I’m not a scientist and all of the physics I’ve taken was about 10 years ago. So if any of you want to get all geeked up and prove me wrong go ahead and do it. These are just my observations:
Going against the bands is always tougher – even if the sum of the bar weight + band tension (or reverse band tension for that matter) is the same. The reason being that you don’t develop as much momentum with the lighter bar weight.
Let’s say you have 185lbs + 80lbs of band tension. If you wanted roughly the same “weight” in a reverse band scenario, you might have 345lbs of bar weight with the reverse bands “taking off” 80 lbs. In either case there is a “sum” of ~265lbs of resistance on the bar.
When trying to press the 185lb bar, as you press the bands resist you more. You have the momentum of a 185lb bar to try to break through the sticking point of the bands. Whereas in the other case, you have the momentum of a 345lb bar trying to push you through. Once you get the heavier barbell moving, it’s less likely to be affected by the added/removed resistance of the bands.
Also, going against bands will cause the bar to travel faster on the eccentric portion of the lift. The idea being that the faster you drop it, the faster the bar is going to come back up. Kind of like a basketball. For that reason, bands are used on DE day to develop speed and seldomly on ME day.
Thanks for the explanations…I’m still having trouble wrapping my mind around it logically but the momentum makes more sense. I’m not going to question since you guys actually have real world experience with it and I don’t…and as anybody knows, what you “think” might happen doesn’t always transfer to real world applications.
I’m definately not a lightweight as I’ve gained about 50 lbs since my last knee surgery. I do all my squats to ATG(which switching to a low bar, wide stance has helped me get a full ROM much more comfortabely than a high bar OLY squat, which is how I originally learned) so mobility is not an issue since I’m back into lifting weights.
My goal for the end of the year is 450 squat, 500 dl, 315 bench, 275 push press and getting my bodyweight back down to around 200 by the end of the year, which is feasible IMO…I started again in Oct and was @ 265 dl/245 squat right after my knee injury in oct and I think I’m looking @ a 315 squat and 405 dl in april since my 275 wasn’t fresh and I know I could have gone a little more.
I’m hoping to get to 600 lb dl by the end of next yr w/ a 500 lb squat and 315 push press before I consider competing in strongman(or powerlifting). Is there alot of carryover w/ accomodating resistance for strongman? I know its used mosltly for the big 3 for PL, but I was reading about power for LW/MW strongman and a few of the guys that I was reading(I believe Andy Deck? was one of them) said power is key for that weight class.
Maybe I should post some of this in the SM forum, but I’m sure alot of you are also knowledgeable about both.
Thanks again! So much info on this site!