chains ! not just an april fools joke

[GR8SCOT]

Heyas, after reading this portion of the BBS for a while now, i figured it was time to step up to the platform and to paraphrase 'unleash hell' heh

after a trip to my local Bunnings Hardware store (handy man warehouse here in Aus) im now the proud owner of some chains !

my plans are to use them on the dynamic day of my chest routine.

8 sets of 3 reps, 20X0 tempo (2 seconds lower, 0 pause, explode up and 0 pause again) with minimal rest between sets. 55-60% of 1rm with chains.

having never tried using chains before, and always wondering if it was one of those in jokes that is used to 'blood' the newbies (bit like a left handed allen key for mechanics) im curious if you have any tips and tricks for getting the most out of training with chains.

If anything im looking forward to walking past the rows of steppers and tredmills with a mass of gleaming steel chain in each hand heh.

thanks in advance

 

[natural-mike]

I may be the only guy to say this but be careful before you rush into chain work. I toasted joints from rushing into chains. I went from bodybuilder to Westsider and started with chains right away and for me personally I paid the price. Again this was probably just me but I say get accustomed to the 8 sets of 3 and lifting explosively then graduate to chains. Again just to make sure before everyone disagree's and shoots me down and chews me up, this is just me, just my opinion, there are guys here with amazing knowledge, but I can offer you injury knowledge, which is nothign to be proud about but hey.

 

[1-dawg]

I am extremely experienced with chains and bands. If you are going to use either for benching be careful. There is no need to jump right in with them. I olnly use them for 3 weeks at atime on the bench then I goto 3 weeks of straight bar weight. As for squatting, I use them all year round.

 

[The mann]

also 1 dawg,would you say that the bands are better on speed bench than using the chains?i like the feel of the mini's on speed better than chains.but when i do like board presses, i lke the chains better.

 

[natural-mike]

1 Dawg as usual, you always provide the good stuff.

Mann it would almost make sense that bands would be better for speed benching, the idea of pushing agaiunst a rubberband so to say almost seems better, but I heard you burn out quick on bands, so you alternate every few weeks.

What happened to me is I started powerlifting and immediately started doing Floor press with CHains for ME Bench day, but the problem is its not exactly a floor press more of a press of the pins. Let me explain. My f*cking GYM tossed out there Powerrack as it was falling apart. So we have squat racks with adjustable pins opnly low down. In other words there are pins to adjust but the only can go as high as the top of the knee or shin, so what I do is put the pins all the way down and put the barbell on the pins then slide under it when I start the lift my elbows are touching the groud so it is almost perfectly like a combination pin press and floor press and it is self spotting. The main problem is you have to start it from a bottom position to get the bar moving and as you know starting a bench from the bottom is freakin hard as shit. The strain of that plus chains did something to my arms. My injury is such that when I start benching or even squatting, I'm talking about just warm up weight, my arms (front bicep into elbow joint and even top of forearm start to pulsate and throb with extremme pain which gets progressive, it gets to a point where my arms go weak and I cannot even touch my face with my hands, its so freaky. It will throb for about an hour both arms, then totally disappear. So I laid off for a week,, no pain, not one single day. Came back to the GYM after a week, warmed up a little on bench, then second warm up set only 135 did 3 reps boom same thing , arms started throbbing, I left doubled over in pain holding my arms, iced them both down and the pain disppeared iona few hours.

Finally went back to the gym yesterday did my bench speed day no chains nothing , was OK except I felt that my arms were a little tender, border line between the pain starting again and not happening, did 1 set of JM press then figured I was pushing it so I stopped .

Anybody ever had shit like this before let me know its freaky. Have an MRI appointment the 15 of Oct.

Sorry for the novel,
Peace,
Mike

 

[The mann]

that sucks mike.let us know after you see the doc.yea,i use the chains and bands,i actually drop the bands nd just go with bar weight (4 weeks),then back to the mini's.i learned alot of shit from 1 dawg ......he lives in my neck of the woods.

 

[1-dawg]

Mr Mann... I really don't know which works better but I do know that the chains seem to be harder on me than the bands when benching. It's the other way around for squatting -- teh bands run me down and the chains are much eaiser.

 

[natural-mike]

Shit I need to move to your guys part of town. I'm the only powerlifter in my commercial GYM, when I pull out the chains they look at me like I'm a dick..

Mike

 

[The mann]

mike,most of us over here have home gyms along with our local gym.i just got lucky and got a nice set up myself so ican do most of my chain work there.i know what you mean though,when we would walk in the gym with the boards and my chains,it looked like we were gettin ready to do construction........how's evrything else mike?

 

[natural-mike]

Mann,

My arms injury , whatever the hell it is is still a little tender, I was able to do speed bench day yesterday but on the final 8th set of 3 a little pain was coming. I did a set of JM press for tri's then the pain really started coming so I stopped the pressing movements and did dumbell extensions etc. again this is really frustrating because the pain goes away after I leave the GYM and I am completely fine. But the injury is messing up my ME days as I cannot go heavy heavy. And I cannot curl anything, curling is out, incidently I don't see much about biceps and curling in powerlifting routines, just goes to show its really a pretty boy exercise, I mean yeah I do pull up and bent rows which stimulates the biceps but I was never a nut about bi's like most people are, you know the type the 5 daya week curler with his little 16 inchers.

Anyway enough of my bitchin, I am getting married soon and plan o buy a house ina year or two, then I will build a nice setup in my basement or garage, until then I suffer in the commercial GYM, but i still walk in like I own the place, I could care less about people staring at my chains, they could stare at my balls for all i care. Thats why I am going to wait a while to buy a bench shirt.

I'm over in New York city, my GYM is actually sort of close to the trade center, and there is like maybe 1 powerlifting meet a year in NY. I can just say NY is not a popular powerlifting place to be. But I'm hooked no matter what.

Mike