newbie ? about band squats

[sean34]

EF,

I used (light) bands for the first time tonight squatin' and have a couple questions.

I noticed a lot of stress on my lower back while locked out. This would happen at the top of the squat and while unracking and reracking the weights. Im walkin around pretty gimpy now Anybody else experience this? It could from the fact this is a new exercise throw in the fix or it could be a flaw in my form. Next time I do em, Im going to set the pin lower so its easier to unrack/rerack the weights. I also think that not locking out at the top should help but do PLs "lock out" while training with bands?

also, if your using bands to assist your squatin', how often do you use the bands? Im thinking I should use em everytime but Im completely new to this.

Thanks in advance,

Sean

 

[coolcolj]

How much tension you running? - Your pretty tall from memory 6'3" right?

How have you set the bands up?

It maybe that the bands are pulling at an angle etc, which they will a bit. Your probably not standing straight. I dunno. I don't feel much stress there.


That is the idea with bands, allow you explode hard all the way to lockout. Normally you have to slow down without the bands, but with them on you can push hard all the way to top, with the bar staying on your back. This trains your nueral system for speed and power. Obviously your vertical jump is gonna benefit big time.

As you know with squats, it gets easy up top. Then bands allow you to load the top half.

There are many ways to use the bands I have found. I'm not from the Westside school of band usage so my applications differ. But here is what I have used them for so far -

firstly I'm 5'9" so my band tension setup will differ

For lighter (50 to 60% of 1RM) speed power sets I setup up the bands to kick in within one inch of the bottom of the squat. I squat rock bottom. Bands are a must for these speed sets. You have to drive the bar as hard as you can to full lockout, the bands keep the bar on your back.
To get the right tension for my height I loop the bands through a 25lb plate and cinch it tight, then put a 45lb plate ontop, the bands running through its hole and then looped around the barbell (around the thick end bits, either in front or after the plates, between the collars)

I will also use the same bands for heavier sets, but I cinch the band around a 70lb dumbell with a 245lb plat butted against it to stop it rolling around. This way the band only kicks in halfway up. It actually goes slack at the bottom of my full squat.
The idea being that the weight will be heavy as per usual, but with the bands adding extra pull to make sure you keep the push going up the top and to minimise bar bounce. You can pretty much use the weight you normally use as your much stronger up top.

Be careful where you anchor the bands in relation to where the bar is sitting. I try to keep the anchor point fairly close to the rack, so I don't get pulled backwards when I unrack.

You can try contrast sets - I did these for a few weeks lately.

A heavy set of 3 reps without bands
rest 3mins
then a speed set with bands as per above for 5 reps.
then back to heavy for 4 or 6 total sets.

You can either use lots of bar weight with minimal band tension or lots of band tension and less weight. Different training effects

Since I've used bands, I don't think I'll ever go back to a session without any band tension of some sort in at least one set with squats and bench anyway.

Feel free to experiment however - tip of the iceberg

Do you work your lower back? Maybe its weak. Maybe your core is just working hard to stablise the band tension which is somewhat unstable anyway