Finishing my second cycle with the bands and still no obvious improvement (squat or clean).
I squat Olympic style with tension through the entire range (+40 - 50 up top). I’ve been waving 8x2 and maxing every fortnight (my adaptation of Westside). Still stuck at 160k.
No! They were substandard bands…basically the surgical tubing type. Certainly I did not mean to condemn bands. Many men/women who are smarter and stronger than I am have used them to great effect. Chains just work for me because we’re both simple and easy.
David, I have just got access to bands and hope to be using them soon. Many coaches and athletes I have talked to are very happy with their results.
I have no experience, but maybe we could get Lumberjack2051 to give some impressions???
I’ve had success with chains. Cheap, noisy, and they rarely break. I had a band break once and it lowered my I.Q. Ouch!
bohersch, what type of bands were you using? The jumpstretch ones used by Westside?
Originally posted by David W
Finishing my second cycle with the bands and still no obvious improvement (squat or clean).I squat Olympic style with tension through the entire range (+40 - 50 up top). I’ve been waving 8x2 and maxing every fortnight (my adaptation of Westside). Still stuck at 160k.
Your not using them properly or your not recovering or something,
I’m about to complete an 8 week training cycle, first 4 weeks without bands, squatting twice a week - percentage squatting on day 1 - Sets of 1 to 3 reps with 70% up to 85%, sometimes 90% done for 24 total reps.
With a explosive squat day in day 2 - 40-60% 1RM. Again with sets of 3 reps done for 18-24 total reps.
The last 4 weeks with bands - Day 1 Heavier sets as per above with top half band tension (light bands - 50lbs at most)
Day 2 - full range band tension (10-20lbs bottom and 160lbs up top) with 40-60%. Reps of 3 and done super fast and explosively both up and down - 1.5 secs per rep for full Oly squats. I basicly free fall down and abruptly brake at the bottom - no bounce and slam the weights up trying to force the bar to the ceiling. The bands keep the bar in check.
0.7 secs is typical for the concentric time.
The eccentric forces are incredible! It feels like I have 4 times the bar weight on my legs right where I have to reverse the squat. Partly due to the slingshotting of the bands.
I’ll be maxing out next week, but I had a session this week without bands, I did some sets of 3 with 70% and 3 sec pause squats 78% of 1RM and couldn’t believe how light they felt, felt like what my 60% used to feel like! I’m betting my full oly squat will jump from 325lbs to 345+lbs. 365 would be nice 
But these are not the only variables - I’ve been blasting the hell out of my hams, erectors and abs with my shotgun approach. I get a lot of criticism of my approach to strength/power training, proof is in the pudding as they say 
Stay tuned:cool:
Thanks Colin!
We won´t be using them right away, it will be a while, but I keep you posted as well.
Well I full squatted 345lbs yesterday for a new PR! Concentric took 2 secs to lock out - prefer it to be under 1.5 secs.
That’s a gain of 30lbs in 8 weeks, 10% gain. My last confirmed max was 315lbs 8 weeks ago, 325 estimated max 6 weeks ago. Not bad for a general strength program - ie not a squat specialisation one like some Soviet style programs are 
Do bands help? I think they did in my case.
Without a belt I might add - pretty much a limit max for me, I saw stars, I wobbled through the sticking point
Form wasn’t my best, but I stuck it.
Nice Testosterone boost!! 
405 here I come…
Clemson,
there´s at least two ways to think about it. I am thinking along the lines of trying Charlie´s idea of having all components present to some degree all the time. As you know, Westside seems to do this with their speed day and max day each week.
I wouldn´t use the chains and bands all the time, but I would always have some `quick´ concentric movements in the strength program. I haven´t used bands yet, but am leaning to using them in differing degrees alot.
One problem is that most users say they really tax the CNS.
Another approach could be the traditional hypertrophy - max strength - power conversion, using them in the power phase. I have used this alot in the past with decent results (without bands and chains), but am leaning more in the direction of what I wrote above.
I am starting to think more and more that even in other sports where max strength is more(?) important than in pure sprinting, you can´t switch on´ speed whenever you want in the program. I think this may apply in the weight room as well, and that quick concentric stuff needs to more around all the time, or at least very much in any power´ type of sport.
I am hoping to soon play around with supramaximal eccentric loads and then instantly flipping to a light concentric load (with free standing squats in a customized power rack with a cable/roller/pulley system). We´ll see if we conquer the technical problems, and then see how the training works.
Louis Simmons (in the elite site articles) writes about eccentric training with bands, and CoolColJ mentions the eccentric forces as well.
The Norwegians have done (and I believe still do) alot of eccentric squat work, but it took them a while to realize that they needed the concentric contraction that followed to be quick. They (I´m relying on memory here) worked eccentrically with about 110% - 150% of 1RM, and then found about 50% of 1RM best for the concentric part of the lift.
Alot of people have found that they feel after working with bands they can get out of the hole alot quicker and better.
I´d like to hear more from David and CoolColJ and their reactions/thoughts to the bands. IF you´re around Lumberjack2051, I´d like to drag you into this discussion as well!
Clemson - I´m eagerly awaiting your report from the Westside seminar. I´d say 95% of what I´ve heard is positive, not a bad grade!
Well when your vertical jump and general explosiveness/quickness go up - something good is happening with power generation
It’s just another tool, a different stimulus for the CNS to contend with. You can accomodate your changing leverages in any exercise, especially pressing ones.
It’s interesting that if you bench press with the bands in, and then remove them for the next set, your CNS thinks the bands are still there, and so what happens is that explode a lot harder than is needed
It just shows how much reserve we do have.
Good job Colin!
Another athlete told me he went up 40 lbs in 6 weeks with bands, but I don´t know what the maxes were.
nice job colin! as i recall from when i use to lurk on drsquat.com, havent you been in the weight room just over a year?
i really have to bring a camera to the gym sometime…
CCJ,
When I tried to watch your 405 squat - I did not actually see you squat the weight - it stopped just as you were getting under the weight.
Can you post the full video?
Nice job
You may get the odd (probably more) U2U from me - hope you don’t mind.
Thanks guys - I feel on top of the world at the moment, will be even higher when I hit 405 :sing:
I haven’t been deadlifting much, but the first pulls of power cleans feel a lot lighter right now.
Originally posted by nightmare4d
nice job colin! as i recall from when i use to lurk on drsquat.com, havent you been in the weight room just over a year?
I’ve been training for 13-14 months now.
Originally posted by OorWullie
When I tried to watch your 405 squat - I did not actually see you squat the weight - it stopped just as you were getting under the weight.Can you post the full video?
what 405? Only did a 345
Let me guess you didn’t right click on the link and saved it before trying to view it… You must do this!
Mediaplayer does that with all my mpegs for some reason.