All kinds of weightlifting variations I have traced back to competitive weight lifting, and powerlifting training methods. Read Supertraining by Mell Siff.
Weightlifting variations are used to prevent you from going stale, it prevents boredom, and it offers a new type of stimulation to the body.
Also, just to get this off my chest, I get upset when I hear people criticize lifters that they “cheated” because they bounced the weight, because, no.1, so what?!, and no.2 the people who criticize probably could not even UNRACK the weight themselves.
There is cheating to increase intensity, such as cheat curls, assisted lifts, etc. Then there is cheating to stroke the ego. This type of cheating usually devalues the lift for the sake of a few more pounds. It is pointless and simply ego stroking. Cheating, done properly, can add intensity to a lift and can be beneficial, if done properly.
Used occasionally as a supplement, cheats are OK. But not all cheats actually increase strength, they just allow you to use more weight. You are not using more strength, you are just cheating to add weight to the bar. You need to honestly ask yourself why you are straying from standard form, and if it has anything to with the number (lbs. or kilos) you probably shouldn’t do it.
Some Good Cheats
-Board press
-Floor press
-Straight Bar curls with slight bump at bottom
-High Band Box Squats
-Your buddy giving you a slight touch through your sticking point
Some Bad Cheats
Using you ribcage as a trampoline so you can add 10lbs. to your “1RM” on benchpress
Straight Bar curls with a huge swing at bottom and a back bend at the top so you can curl 5 more lbs.
Tag-team curls where your spotter actually curls more weight than you do
Your buddy having to perform a Max Effort deadlift enroute to you setting a PR on the benchpress
You see that last one a lot in those college football weight room videos… offensive linemen benching 650 with 3 of his buddies givin him “a little help”…
This one is so common at my gym that I have trouble finding me someone who will give a good spot. I tell them not to help me, and that they are there for safety only in case I can’t finish the last rep. Somehow they think this means they should do some deadlifts with my bar at the same time I’m benching. Some of them will start “helping me” when I’m about half way through a set (that I usually can finish myself with no help). They are so used to lifting significant amounts when spotting and/or needing significant help themselves, they just don’t even think about it.
I tell them to NOT help me until the bar starts moving back down to my chest. If I’m stuck and the bar isn’t moving, DON’T touch it, wait till it starts back down, and then help me rack it QUICKLY, don’t let me struggle till I pass out.
There is a difference between literally bouncing the bar off your chest for a 1RM, which is dangerous to the sternum/internal organs/ribcage, and doing speed benches where the weight is lowered at a faster than normal rate, the stretch reflex is engaged, and the bar is explosively pushed out and away. it is a plyometric movement. it is not used to set new 1RM.
How are you engaging the stretch reflex when your body, or a pillow, is absorbing the force? Abruptly reversing directions will load plyometrically, but when you bounce the weight you are unloading the muscle and tendons, reducing the plyometric effect. Why not just quickly reverse the weight, letting your muscles, tendons and ligaments absorb the eccentric overload which can then be released concentrically?
I believe someone earlier asked if there are benefits in this for sprinters. I also would like to know. My old coach used to recommend clap push-ups which are similiar but not the same. He was a firm believer that this was a great way to prepare the upper body for sprinting when starting to taper. He emphasized the elastic response it generated for sprints. Thoughts…?
In the CFTS when moving towards taper and competition all numbers of stimuli providing an elastic response possibly competing with sprinting were gradually scaled down,an upper body strength stimulus (relatively heavy bp) being used as the very last primer.
In a different training approach such as Allan Wells’ training the speedball was extensively used as a tool to prepare the body (not only the upper part!) for the demands of sprinting while a solid base of general fitness and strength was put into place at the same time,with high volumes of basic body weight exercises among which the classical push up.
If I were asked if rebound bench press modalities can provide benefits to sprinters I would answer yes,provided their training does not contains…sprinting itself as a main stimulus. Not many athletes’ choice nowadays.
