Hey this is for anyone working with the bands.
I have monster mini’s and purple bands.
Now I am starting off doing 6x3 with the bands but I have absolutely no clue how to set this up.
I have something to tie the bands around…but if I just put the monster mini around it there isn’t much tension…so I double wrapped it and there was quite a bit.
How am I supposed to know how much tension is on the top though? And how much weight to have on the bar?
My bar speed was pretty good…but any insight would be great.
And lastly anyone have some real good gains from doing them or it doesnèt much matter to use them for dynamic effort days.
Thanks guys.
What I do is wrap them around some 80# DB’s (and put 25lb plates on either side to stop it from moving) and wrap it around the OUTSIDE of the weights. Since band work isn’t for max effort stuff I would typically use roughly 60% of my 1RM and LESS (usually less) for 5-8 reps. So if my bench is 300lbs for example, I’d do a set with 95lbs, 135lbs, 155lbs and 180ish. I use bands when my speed off my chest is struggling and I don’t feel like pin-pressing.
Deadlift Use:
If you don’t have a jump/squat platform then I would suggest pulling in a squat rack and shimmying the bands underneath and having them double wrapped around the bar. I think another member on here ties the band to a heavy plate (100lbs or two 45’s) as well. And I use the same weight/rep scheme as with my bench. I use bands when my speed off the floor isn’t up to par.
What are your current numbers?
Monster mini bands are great for Benching, but squatting not so much. Well for me anyways. You might want to look into Micro Mini Band.
Dont worry about tension as long as the bands are not to far off the ground. Its never the same tension everytime. For bench with the Monster Mini Band, you want to double them up. For squating, stick with the purple bands
Perfect, thanks for that site man cleared a lot of things up.
Yeah I think it’s supposed to be you take 50% of your max and minus 30lbs from it, and then add the monster mini’s to get desired speed or something
I’m gonna play with it and see how it goes.
Thanks again!
[quote]rasturai wrote:
Perfect, thanks for that site man cleared a lot of things up.
Yeah I think it’s supposed to be you take 50% of your max and minus 30lbs from it, and then add the monster mini’s to get desired speed or something
I’m gonna play with it and see how it goes.
Thanks again![/quote]
for speed work I would just start with say 40% bar weight, add bands (minis for bench, regular for squat) and do the prescribed set/rep scheme. Once the weight is moving fast for all sets, up the weight by 10 on bench, 20 and squat.
I’m a little confused on what lengths to buy. At Elite Fitness they have “Short mini bands” that are 12" long then they have “Pro mini bands” that are 41" long. My max bench is not huge being at ~225lbs and was wondering what lengths/strength would be good for a starter like myself? I would like to use them for deadlifts, sqauts, and possibly seated barbell shoulder presses if it can be done.
Fuzzyapple- The short bands are relatively cheap, start with minis, monters and light bands and work up from there.
Also, here’s a video of Dave showing you how to setup short bands to bench and deadlift.
i believe that the short bands can’t be used to squat in a traditional sense, with the bands all the way at the bottom, under pegs. I won’t have access to band pegs to squat with in a month (moving) so I will have to be creative.
My idea is loop the short bands over the safety bar and set the safety bar at height that gives me the desired tension. I imagine you could use the same idea for seated shoulder press. I hope this works, I made a very crude drawing to explain what I mean.
Okay cool. I just ordered 2 pairs from Elite Fitness, short mini and pro mini. Didn’t know what to exactly buy so I decided to get two different lengths of the lightest ones. They are cheap bands unlike the ones that are $80 I’ve seen go for.
