? Re: Band Tension

[brianmincher]

Wednesday, I did full ROM bench with 2 doubled up mini's on each side of the bar. That is 4 mini bands each doubled around the base of my power rack and over the big part of the bar (don't know what you call it, but the first part of the bar between the part you grip and where the weights go).

I don't know how much band tension was on there, but was hoping someone on the board might be able to help me out. I did the bar X 10 with the doubled mini's and I swear, it felt more difficult than benching 225 times 10. I just got these in recently, and just modified my rack to allow the bands to go under the bottom bar, so this was a maiden voyage for me and I was absolutely shocked at how much tension the bands put on me.

I saw a picture of Halbert doing speed sets with 225 and a doubled up band. His band was the one between the mini's and the green band. I think I have read that this gives him 170 lbs of tension at the top? Not sure though.

Well long and short of it. I worked up to 225 on the bar plus the 2 doubled mini's and although I did not go to failure, there was not much left in the tank. I raw bench in the upper 300's near 400, and I estimated the bands to add well over 100 lbs, maybe 140 or 150 based just on feel, but was wondering if anyone knew for sure?

B.

 

[Screwball]

Hey Brian. I would say that a total of 4 mini-bands doubled would add about 70-85 lbs. of tension per side. So the overall tension on the bar would be about 140-170 lbs. of tension. What do others think?

 

[Deciever]

i would have to say it'd be close to 80 lbs on each side... it might feel harder than 225x 10 cause a lot more stabilizers are used to keep the bar steady

 

[Adam MacKinnon]

Thats one of my favorite ME lifts. Mine is about 150 extra at lockout, i have the bands doubled to only one dumbell a side.

 

[GRIMMER]

I think that one set doubled is about 40 - 50 lbs so two sets wuld be 80-100.

 

[bigokie]

I would say that there is a little more than that. In one of the videos I have it says that the doubled minis(just one per side) add about 100 pounds at the top. I must say that they don't feel that heavy for me but I don't know for sure. If that's true than two per side would be a little over 200# at the top of the lift. That's if they are very tight in the bottom with no slack in them whatsoever. Hope this help a little.

By the way, are we on for Sunday at noon?

 

[Screwball]

Hell yeah, it's on big man... See ya at the Dungeon.

 

[IrishPower]

Hey Brian:

I have spent a lot of time wondering about band tension and what it equals weight wise and i came to the following conclusion(s).

You do NOT do a meet with bands. it simply doesn't matter how much weight the band is equivalent to. It is a training aid ONLY. The only semi-important thing is to try and have tension on it from the start.

Do not try and equate this with real bar weight. Just use it as a training goal... set prs with it, etc. On speed day, make sure you are still speedy, even if you have to use zero real bar weight.

Don't get caught up in thinking along the following lines:

if i do a blue band, this is the same as doing +xxx lbs raw weight.

It isn't.

The bands are just another tool to fool your body into developing explosive power. Once you realize this, you wont pressure yourself into taking raw bar weight at more than you can handle.

peace and train hard.

/irish

 

[I'D RATHER BE DEADLIFTING]

Good post Irish!

I guess if you wanted to gauge if you were progressing, you could do that by adding more tension to the bar or more raw weight. As long as you know what bands you have on the bar and that your speed is good.

 

[Screwball]

I don't disagree with you, IrishPower. I do think that sometimes we get too wrapped up with band tension and chain weight. The real key is to overload and teach the body how to accelerate throughout a range of motion.