@rossedgley: 400lbs (180kg) Bench Press: EXPLAINED! Over 20 years of training I’ve often used resistance bands to help breaking training plateaus. So I wanted to share with you a 180kg bench attempt (not strict/ powerlifting regulation so sorry to powerlifters reading this 🙏) as well as my thoughts on band training. Also sorry, there was a CrossFit class on and the bigger plates were being used, hence why I had to use the smaller ones (I know it looks weird 🙈) Arguably the most important training adaption when using bands is their ability to improve something called, “rate of force development” (ROFD). This is possibly one of the most underappreciated areas of applied science when it comes to strength training. Rate of force development is related to the speed at which the muscles can produce force, obviously the faster the ROFD the quicker and more explosive the movement. To use an example let’s consider the two athletes performing a 200kg deadlift. Now both Athlete A and Athlete B are capable of producing 200kg of force, but lifter A has a significantly faster rate of force development. What this means is it may take Athlete A just two seconds to produce the required force to get the bar moving and off the floor and four second to lock it out at the top of the lift. However Athlete B might have a slower rate of force development which means they take four seconds to get the bar moving and another four to lock it out. Ultimately what this means is Athlete B takes longer to complete the lift and might therefore fatigue before fully locking out. Interestingly, a study conducted at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA set out to examine how the use of elastic bands in resistance training can increase performance-related parameters such as rate of force development (RFD). Researchers concluded, “Results indicate that there may be benefits to performing squats with elastic bands in terms of rate of force development. Practitioners concerned with improving rate of force development may want to consider incorporating this easily implemented training variation.”

Ross Edgley

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Tuesday 04 February 2025 14:41:56 GMT