The
Science Behind Bands and Chains
By Rob Haan
EliteFTS.com
A lot has been written as to how to set up the bands and chains and how to include
them in your training but not much has been written about how they work and how
they change the barbell or their effect on the muscles. To my knowledge their
have only been three studies that have looked at the use of bands and only one
that looked at chains that have been published to this point. I know that
several are being worked on now. This is kind of surprising to me because
Eugene Sandow was selling a home exercise device in the early 1900’s that used
rubber tubing for resistance. In the 1970’s elastic bands were promoted and
sold by one company as a cheap method of accomplishing the same things as
isokinetic machines.
Yuri Verkhoshansky included a little bit about elastic bands in his 1977 book
{Fundamentals of Special Strength-Training in Sport}, which at times can be
difficult to read but is a incredible resource. Dick Hartzell invented Jump
Stretch bands in the 1970’s and recommended them for stretching, rehab and to
be used as the resistance in strength training. Louie Simmons started using
them and writing about them in addition to the barbell in the early 1990’s.
This has lead to their increase in popularity due to his articles, videos and
the success of the lifters at Westside barbell. Chains have also been around
since the early 1900’s, they were draped over the bar during deadlifts. Arthur
Jones welded a hook on to the bar and hung chains from it in his first step of
perfecting the barbell in 1939 and he later added them to his Nautilus machines
(Szmanski 2003). Their are at least 4 different brands of bands that are being
sold and 3 different companies selling chains specifically for lifting and
another that sells a collar that chains can be attached to.
I do not know why there have been so few studies on the use of chains and
bands. It could be that exercise scientists see no reason to do studies because
the results speak for themselves. The more likely answer is that the serious
strength training is light years ahead of exercise science. Most sports are all
about speed and power. Numerous studies have been done in an attempt to figure
out what the best training method is. Some coaches say high speed is best.
Others believe low speed and some say heavy weights. There are plenty of
studies that support each coaches idea. Behm and
There is also a big disparity in studies that attempt to figure out at which
percent of a maximum lift that maximum power output occurs at. If you were to
just quickly read through the abstracts of various studies you would find some
say as low as 30% and others will say high as 80%. The reason for the
difference is that different exercises and different subjects were used and the
measurements were taken at different spots in the range of motion. Maximum
power output in the snatch increased up to 66% and than dropped off. In the
jump squat it is 30%, bench press in the 40-60% range, and squat 80%. Power
output of various weight classes is different. 82.5 kg lifters had the highest
power output, followed by the 60 kg lifters and than the heavy weights. Baker
(2001) found the athletes with the highest level of absolute strength had the
highest power output in the bench press in the 46-49% range of their maximum,
the not so strong lifters had the highest power output in 64-69% range. This
backs up the stronger bench pressers training with a lower percent than the
weaker lifters.
Siegal et al. (2002) used the squat on a smith machine with from 30- 90% of
maximum and looked at power output at three spots along the movement. The
highest power outputs were with 60% at the first marker and with 80% at the
third marker. Power output with 30% was double what it was with 90% at the
first marker but it was higher at the 2nd and 3rd spots with 90% than 30%.
Think about this for a bit, if your objective is to improve speed strength and
the highest power output occur with light weights at the start of the lift and
heavy weights at the top, and it is best to
train as close as possible to the performance. Bands will allow you to do this,
you could start with less than 50% in the bottom of the lift and finish with
100% at the top of the lift and be working at close to maximal power output
through the entire range of motion. The power output wound not be quit as high
as with the bands because the velocity is slower.
The strength curve is a graph of force production at various points along the
range of motion. It changes because of changes in the joint angle, muscle
length, and the involvement of other muscles. Elliot et al 1989 studied the
strength curve of the bench press. When using maximal weights they found the
bar is accelerated of the chest till it reached the sticking point at about 40%
completion of the lift. After the sticking point the bar then accelerates again
reaching peak force at 60% of the lift and slows down until lockout. With 80%
of maximum the bar speeds up for 48.3% of the movement and slows down for 51.7%
of the movement. Thus, the lighter the weight the longer the deceleration
period. Everyone knows that they can lift much more weight at the top than off
the chest. But the upper part of the range of motion is the bar slowing down.
This means less force is being applied to the bar. In the bench press you have
to do this because your arm is only so long and the bar must return to zero
velocity.
Claxton 2001 compared the bench press, bench press throws and the bench press with
bands kinematically. The subjects used 30% of there maximum plus mini bands. He
found peak power output was highest in the bench press throw, than the bench
press and lowest in bench press with bands. The bench press throw peaked before
50% of the
lift was completed, the bench press reached peak power output at 60% and than
fell off. The bench press with bands reached its peak at 80% and than had very
little fall off until lockout. This shows that if your objective was to
demonstrate power you would use the bench press throw. But in training you are
trying to increase power and with the bands the muscle is working harder for a
longer period of time and the longer the muscle works maximumally the greater
the strength gains. Lander et al 1985 found force output was greater at slower
speeds on the isokinetic bench press. Rosentsweig et al 1975 found muscle
activation and strength gains were greater when the concentric portion of the
bench press on an isokinteic machine was performed at 3.5 seconds as compared
to 2.0 and 1.5 seconds. This could be called time under maximal tension.
Ballistic movements have very little time under tension meaning although the
load on the muscle is high it only occurs for a very short period of time like
the bench press throws and bench press with light weight from the Claxton
Study. I am not talking about Arthur Jones recommendation of doing reps to
failure or the Super Slow Guilds concept of performing each repetition at a
cadence to ensure the muscle is being worked for 50-70 seconds in order to
become stronger. This go back to Behm and Sales (1993) conclusion that it is
the effort and the intent to move fast and not the actual movement speed that
determines strength gains.
The maximal effort for the increased time period can lead to increased muscle
fatigue. Rosentsweig et al 1975 reported the subjects that worked at the slower
speed complained of being tired and sore more often towards the end of the
study than the other subjects. This is why it is important to decrease training
volume and make changes
in your training at least every 3-4 weeks when you use bands.
Berry et al 2001 showed the effect bands have on the deceleration at the top.
They compared 2 groups that did 4 weeks of lifting with bands and 4 weeks of
compensatory acceleration. The group that did bands second had significantly
greater increases in their squat, bench press and vertical jump over the bands
first group. The important
test here was the seated medicine ball throw. The bands second group improved
by 17.4 inches, 15.4 of these inches from the bands. The bands first group had
a net loss of 2 inches after a gain of 8 inches following the bands. Why? The
seated medicine ball throw is an explosive movement and to throw it for
distance the ball must be accelerated through the entire movement. In
compensatory acceleration the movement starts off explosively but must slow
down and than stop when the end of the arm is reached. When the bands are used
the bar is slowed by the increasing
load and the lifter can accelerate thought the entire movement and it only
comes to a stop because of running out of arm. The medicine ball is the same as
sports movements. How effective would a boxer be if they purposely slowed the
punch or if the football player decelerated prior to making contact. The effect
is not as big on the squat or vertical jump because the acceleration can
continue. The lifter can come up on his toes or the bar can come off the back.
But the lifter can not come off the bench and letting the bar fly upward at the
end of the bench press would only be an injury waiting to happen.
Eccentric movements have shown to involve a lower number of muscle fibers than
the concentric movement with the same weight. Brandenberg and Docherty (2002)
found strength gains were greater when 110-120% of concentric maximum was
lowered and 75% lifted as compared to just lifting 75% of concentric maximum
which was in agreement with previous research. Doan et al. (2002) found that
the average bench press of the their subjects
increased from 97.44 to 100.57 kg with the addition of 5% on the weight
releaser. Their conclusion was that the increased eccentric load increased the
muscle activation and the stretch of the connective tissue and was what was
responsible for the increased bench presses. Louie Simmons has stated in
articles and on the Reactive Method
video that bands pull you down faster than gravity, which means an increased
eccentric load and leads to gains in strength. Anybody that has ever squatted
with heavy band tension can tell you that as soon as you start the decent it
feels as if you are being pulled to the floor. Eccentric work has been
associated with muscle soreness so this is another reason why decreasing
training volume when bands are used is important.
Chains simply serve as a form of accommodating resistance to the strength
curve. As the bar is elevated more links of chain come off the floor increasing
the load and forcing the lifter the push harder to keep the bar moving. The
only study that looked at the effects of chains is Ebben and Jensen (2002) who
also looked at bands. They had their subjects perform a 5 RM set and the
measured the power output and electrical activity in the muscle on the third
repetition. They replaced 10% of the bar weight with bands or chains without
saying how much band tension or chain was added. They found their were no
significant differences in EMG or ground reaction forces between
the three lifts but the chains did have a slightly greater EMG readings and
lower ground reaction forces than the bands or the regular lift. Their subjects
did say the bands and chains made the squat feel different. Their conclusion
was that bands and chains offer no benefit and they are hard to set up. What is
hard about anchoring the bands with a heavy dumbbell and slipping the other end
of the band over the end of the bar? The chains only require a loop of light
chain around the bar and another loop on the floor with the heavy chain lying
through it. This does not seem hard to figure out for me. Bands and chains are
not used for repetition maximum work in major lifts, they are used for speed or
maximum effort work which is done for sets of 1-3 repetitions. If they had
really been interested in making comparisons they would have set them up like
those that use them.
To sum it up bands increase the time of maximal or near maximal force and
increase the eccentric load which lead to increased strength. They also
decrease deceleration so the movements are more like the movements in sports
and allow you to work at close to maximum power output throughout the entire
range of motion.
Is the use of bands and chains some magical tool that will create supermen? No,
the process of getting stronger is slow and takes years of hard work, bands
make the work harder not easier. The bands and chains are just a way of
stimulating the muscle in a different way and changing the strength curve and
the force velocity curve.