What Do I Do with Blast Straps?

Hi,

Two-three years ago I had Blast Straps given to me as a gift. I took them to the gym a total of two or three times and then gave up on them because I couldn’t figure out a way to fit them into my routine.

About me and my goals; I play amateur indoor soccer. I have one game per week, and I do soccer specific training, mostly for skill and quickness once a week, because we’re in the middle of a season right now.

Additionally, I hit the gym twice a week doing hypertrophy training for my upper body, as well as core training (some Pilates moves, planks, woodchops, etc). I don’t train my legs at the gym (right now) as they won’t have any time to recover between my game and the soccer training session.

My goal is to drop between 10 to 15lbs of body fat right now while retaining all muscle that I can. I keep an Excel spreadsheet of all my nutrition, so that part of fitness is on lockdown.

On my gym days I do 16 sets per workout, my routine is as follows:

Day 1: Chest/Back
Flat bench or Incline DB press 8x8
Pullups/Lat pulldowns 4x8
DB Rows 4x8
CORE

Day 2: Shoulders/Arms
Standing military press 48
Upright row/lateral DB raise 4
8
BB Curls 4*8
Hammer Curls/Negative Chins/Forearms 4 sets
CORE

So the question is; how do I implement Blast Sraps, or should I at all? They seem like a wonderful piece of equipment for developing an integrated type of whole body strength, something I could certainly benefit from for my soccer playing.

My big constraint in terms of training is my recovery ability; I am 30 years old with a full time job and school, so I can’t have restorative naps during the day no matter how good they look on paper…

Any ideas would be appreciated, ideas with specific exercises would be appreciated even more.

Thanks

You can use blast straps for all sorts…

-Push-ups, ring dips, pull-ups, flys, inverted rows, single leg squats, supported sissy squats, scarecrows, tricep-centric movements, hamstrings etc…the list is pretty much as long as your imagination.

Should you use them? Well…maybe…, I find they work best in relation to push-up variations, dips + core work etc.

You should defintely train your legs though, even if only once a week.

[quote]GorillaMon wrote:
You can use blast straps for all sorts…

-Push-ups, ring dips, pull-ups, flys, inverted rows, single leg squats, supported sissy squats, scarecrows, tricep-centric movements, hamstrings etc…the list is pretty much as long as your imagination.

Should you use them? Well…maybe…, I find they work best in relation to push-up variations, dips + core work etc.

You should defintely train your legs though, even if only once a week.

[/quote]

So would you say blast straps are more useful during the conditioning phase, vs hypertrophy or strength development?

Regarding leg training; I would love to train them; but I just don’t see how that is possible as I need fresh legs for both the game and the training session. You can’t perform well in soccer with sore or rubbery legs. Do you have a particular method or suggestion in mind? I was just going to wait until the season is over and start training them then.

[quote]NYWanderer1982 wrote:
Regarding leg training; I would love to train them; but I just don’t see how that is possible as I need fresh legs for both the game and the training session. You can’t perform well in soccer with sore or rubbery legs. Do you have a particular method or suggestion in mind? I was just going to wait until the season is over and start training them then.

[/quote]

Westside for skinny bastards, Volume 1 - the one with a single leg day. place the leg training far away from practice and games. Just don’t go crazy with the intensity and you’ll be fine; this particular template was written for athletes who have to run a lot.

[quote]NYWanderer1982 wrote:

[quote]GorillaMon wrote:
You can use blast straps for all sorts…

-Push-ups, ring dips, pull-ups, flys, inverted rows, single leg squats, supported sissy squats, scarecrows, tricep-centric movements, hamstrings etc…the list is pretty much as long as your imagination.

Should you use them? Well…maybe…, I find they work best in relation to push-up variations, dips + core work etc.

You should defintely train your legs though, even if only once a week.

[/quote]

So would you say blast straps are more useful during the conditioning phase, vs hypertrophy or strength development?

I’d say (aside from much harder variations like pull-ups, dips etc), use them at the end of your work-out as a finisher, ie: 2-3 sets of about 10-20 reps.

[quote]NYWanderer1982 wrote:
So would you say blast straps are more useful during the conditioning phase, vs hypertrophy or strength development?[/quote]

not really. ring dips and ring flyes are a bitch ( = really hard and good for strength&hypertrophy), inverted rows can be very good for some people… The trick is to pick exercise variations that are tough for you.

[quote]nighthawkz wrote:

[quote]NYWanderer1982 wrote:
Regarding leg training; I would love to train them; but I just don’t see how that is possible as I need fresh legs for both the game and the training session. You can’t perform well in soccer with sore or rubbery legs. Do you have a particular method or suggestion in mind? I was just going to wait until the season is over and start training them then.

[/quote]

Westside for skinny bastards, Volume 1 - the one with a single leg day. place the leg training far away from practice and games. Just don’t go crazy with the intensity and you’ll be fine; this particular template was written for athletes who have to run a lot.[/quote]

Thanks, I checked out the program, it looks great. I am weary about introducing a lot of new variables during the season, but I think doing this program for 16 weeks after the season is over is going to give me some excellent results in terms of strength and muscle. Plus, I’ll be a real skinny bastard by then, so even the title will fit hahah.