Question: Jason, how do you use chains and bands with your athletes? Do you use them on dynamic effort days only or maximal effort days as well? What are the loading parameters?
Answer: The answer to your question is I don’t. About 10 years ago I got caught up using chains and bands with almost everyone I trained. We used them as a form of accommodating resistance on dynamic effort days and some max effort days on our big, basic barbell lifts like squats, deads and presses.
After doing this for a while I noticed that nobody was making progress any faster than they were before. Not only that but some guys were getting beat up from the bands. I quickly realized that this was overkill and kept the chains and bands reserved for only my strongest guys. Now I don’t use them at all (or at least in that sense).
You see, there is no need to use bands or chains unless you are extremely strong AND will be competing with the use of assistance gear like a squat suit and bench shirt. If you can only squat 315, doing box squats with chains and bands isn’t going to do much for you. Guys have gotten incredibly strong for years and years without bands or chains and continue to do so today.
In my opinion, unless you are capable of doing a picture perfect back squat to parallel with with 500lbs there is absolutely no need for bands and chains. These are advanced tools to pull out of the toolbox when you really need them. For the first several years of training all most people need is a hammer and nail. There is no need to dig deeper than that for a long time. If you get to 545lbs and are stuck there for a while then maybe it’s time to pull out the chains and bands… then again maybe not. Who knows? But until then most people won’t need them. When you start using advanced methods before you need them you miss out on the potential big gains you could have gotten from them down the road when you hit a real plateau.
I understand that in this day and age of overly complicated, high tech training programs everyone wants to use advanced methods and trickery as soon as possible. But doing so usually just ends up being detrimental to your long term progress.
Most athletes and recreational lifters will never need to use bands or chains. These are tools that work exceptionally well for advanced powerlifters who compete in gear. However, most athletes will never be at a point where they need them, simply because there is an optimal strength level needed for every sport that can easily be achieved without the use of bands or chains. Going beyond that point and continuing to strive for maximal strength will yield no further performance increases but can lead to injury and overtraining.
Having said that I should note that I do like to use chains for pushups, dips, chins, curls, extensions and a variety of other exercises; just not in the traditional powerlifting sense. Rather we drape the chains over someone’s back for resistance in place of a weight vest or attach handles to them and use them to curl (as seen in the video below) or press with just for variety. Bands are great for traction work, assisted chins, resisted running, stretching, etc. You can order bands for those purposes HERE.
