Did I Set Up My Bands Right?

I ordered some light bands not too long ago and this was my first time using it. I thought I set them up right, but the way it felt didn’t feel right. I feel like there was slack at the bottom and it didn’t feel as hard as I thought it would. How should I set them up differently, or am I doing them right?

Yeah, I would say you could use a pivot point. I’m 6’4" and i have at least 12 inches between my anchor and pivot to get some good tension at the bottom.

Use two dumbbells side-by-side and choke the bands around them. You’ll get appreciably more tension that way. Also, maybe drop one of the risers underneath the box to make your squat a little lower.

[quote]undesired08 wrote:
Yeah, I would say you could use a pivot point. I’m 6’4" and i have at least 12 inches between my anchor and pivot to get some good tension at the bottom.[/quote]

How did you set up a pivot point? Would it be similar to the two dumbbell setup?

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! Those looked like some hellish goodmornings.

[quote]DjSm28 wrote:

[quote]undesired08 wrote:
Yeah, I would say you could use a pivot point. I’m 6’4" and i have at least 12 inches between my anchor and pivot to get some good tension at the bottom.[/quote]

How did you set up a pivot point? Would it be similar to the two dumbbell setup?[/quote]

The easiest way is to use two dumbbells, yes. I use a 100lb and 95lb hex dumbell with a 10lb plate between them. At max height, the tension is so high that if I don’t have the plate between, the weights roll. At the bottom, I am still getting about 10lbs per side, or so.

Here is a vid of me with so super-mini’s: RTS Week3 Squats.wmv - YouTube

Hope this helps.

That does help a lot. Thanks. I’m wondering, will the bands make the bar come flying off the rack when its racked? I feel like since theres a lot of tension, when I add weight, it will be a lot on one side, so it will come off. Is this probably not going to happen?

That is a good question. Since I put a LOT of tension on when I squat and bench, that is a feeling i get all the time, but I always have the bands set before i put weight on. Even with a 45 on one side or just one band with almost max tension, it does not flip (i have even pushed on the bar to make sure it wouldn’t). Now, that is with super-mini’s. I haven’t gotten strong enough to use blues and greens yet, like novaeer.

Alright. Sounds good. Another question, how would I set up my bands for the bench press?

[quote]DjSm28 wrote:
Alright. Sounds good. Another question, how would I set up my bands for the bench press?[/quote]

If you’re using the ‘old’ style mini bands, it’s best to double them up on a heavy dumbbell. A 90 pounder should work.

Something like this (just pretend the rack is a dumbbell handle): http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/default.asp?qid=10979&tid=101

Unfortunately I do not have the old style mini bands. I just have the light bands that you saw for my squat. Should I not use that for bench?

[quote]DjSm28 wrote:
Unfortunately I do not have the old style mini bands. I just have the light bands that you saw for my squat. Should I not use that for bench?[/quote]

Too much tension. Those puppies would murder you at your level. Stronger guys can get away with it though.

[quote]DjSm28 wrote:
Unfortunately I do not have the old style mini bands. I just have the light bands that you saw for my squat. Should I not use that for bench?[/quote]

I wouldn’t recommend using them for your bench at this point. Pick up a pair of mini bands and they will give you all the tension you need (~90 pounds) for the bench for a long time.

try running one band under the bench like this

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/2266/bandbench2.jpg

I think I did it right this time. I tried putting a 10lbs plate in between the dumbbells, but there was no way that was going to reach the bar. I took it out and just used the two dumbbells and it worked great. I really feel the tension at the top and the bottom. It feels good. However, should I set the dumbbells next to where I’d squat or next to the where I’d rack it? It’d make sense to me to put it where I squat, but it seemed like the bands wouldn’t stretch that far.

Maybe I’m not giving enough credit to the strength of the bands. How much abuse can they really take? And is where I lined up the bands okay? Is there a better way?

Wow, I see what you mean. From that angle, it looks like if you split the distance AND move the “box” a few inches closer to the rack, that may help.

The problem I see with how you have it set up now is that the bands are pulling you forward, when I compare the original vid with this one. That could be mostly due to you using more weight and the increased tension, but I would advise you to move it out a little more.

I would set the line of pull from the dumbbells right at the place where the midsole of your foot is going to be for squatting. Unless thee’s a good reason I would not try to change the force angle of the weight.

The tension looks good with the double dumbbell setup.