Depending on your gym, its culture and environment, that can be an obstacle to effectively training. Check out my other top rated bench press variations that will help you improve your strength and technique. Not everybody can afford to buy their own or have access to a gym that offers them as an option. In my early years of training powerlifting, I had to adjust my program to avoid using chains or drive an extra hour to go to a gym that had them. This is my favorite thing to see on social media — people posting about squatting or benching or deadlifting lbs when they add up the chain weight to the bar and the plates.
Some will even throw in elastic band tension on top of it to get an even bigger number. It means you squatted with lbs of chains. There are lots of ways to overload, work through sticking points, and train stability. You can also hurt yourself, which we can all agree is far worse. Learning a new training style or configuration takes time and expertise. Take the time to work with someone to help you get it right before you try to do too much with chains.
Rogue offers a few different kits depending on what you are looking for. You can get pairs with 10lb lengths of chain, 15lb lengths of chain, or you can get single lengths of chain to expand your set. For smaller lifters or beginners, adding 10lbs to each side of a barbell can add plenty of progressive resistance to help you break through a plateau or a sticking point. Resistance bands and reverse resistance bands are commonly used in the same lifting programs to get similar outcomes, but with added variation.
Take a look at my article on Banded Deadlifts , which offers a guide on how to replace chains with bands. Resistance bands are a great way to get similar effects of training with chains for less money, and easier to bring to and from the gym. When I do banded bench press, I use the 0. Every lifter runs into obstacles while trying to get stronger. Some of the most common ones are hitting a plateau in the amount of weight we can move, and discovering a sticking point in our lift. In both scenarios, incorporating chains is a fantastic solution.
When used properly, chains allow lifters to acclimate to heavier weights, target weak points of their lifts with deferred load, and increase the speed and power that accompanies their strength. Adam Gardner is a proud resident of Utah, where he lives with his wife and two kids.
A legendary strength coach has the answers. Lifting chains works for bodybuilders for three reasons: 1 They help match the resistance curve of an exercise with the strength curve of a muscle; 2 they prolong the time under tension of an exercise; and 3 they increase the intensity of an exercise.
Let's explore. A strength curve, or force curve, is a mathematical model that represents how much force an individual can produce at a specific joint angle. This is in contrast to a resistance curve, which is how difficult an exercise is at specific points of the exercise. There are three basic types of strength curves: ascending, descending, and ascending-descending. An ascending strength curve refers to being able to display more force when you extend a joint, a descending strength curve refers to being able to display more force as you flex a joint, and an ascending-descending strength curve means you can display more strength at the midrange position of a joint.
Lifting chains are best used for exercises that involve ascending strength curves so that the weight feels lighter as you get close to the end range of the exercise. Examples include squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and military presses. An example of an exercise that lifting chains would not be good for is the pullup—in fact, one reason so many boot camp programs use kipping pullups is to utilize momentum to complete the movement.
But just as doing cheat biceps curls doesn't necessarily enable you to do strict curls, kipping pullups done with a hip snap don't necessarily translate into strict pullups—plus consider the high levels of stress these Cirque du Soleil movements place on the shoulder joint. In effect, what lifting chains does is provide variable resistance so you can match the strength curve of a muscle with the resistance curve of the exercise. Before chains became popular, partial movements were often used as a practical way to match the resistance curve of an exercise.
For example, you will always be able to quarter squat a lot more than you can full squat, as the top end of the squat is significantly easier. By adding accommodating resistance in the form of chains, we can match the strength curve and allow maximal loading at every point of the range of motion.
When Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell first popularised chains, his main intention was to use them to improve bar speed. The chains will force you to lift hard and fast, in order to complete the rep. For speed training, performing sets of reps on variations of the squat, bench and deadlift works best. If we look at the deadlift, for example, the most vulnerable position for your lower back is the bottom. By adding chains, we can now minimise low back stress.
We also have a squat-ter at and a squatter at They all use chains and bands. When you are sitting on the box, slightly below parallel, half of the chain will be unloaded onto the floor. How much chain should you use? If you squat about pounds, use about 60 or 70 pounds of chain at the top. If you are doing sets wIth on the bar, you will be standing up with To use bands for squatting, if you squat or less, use green bands.
If you squat more than , use blue bands. Billy Masters and Dave Barno used a top weight of pounds and pounds of tension with blue bands. Billy did and Dave did a perfect Neither train at Westside, but they use our methods. Do mostly 8 sets of 2 reps with 45 seconds rest between sets. For max effort work, one can choose a bar weight of, say, or pounds. Do a single and then add a set of chains. Keep doing singles and adding a second and third set of chains until you break a PR or miss.
You can do the same with Flex bands. Good mornings are a great exercise to do with chains and bands. High pulls with the pink or green bands are also great. I have seen one of our lifters with a deadlift go to in 6 months by using bands on the deadlift.
Bob Young would use on the bar, with about pounds of tension from the bands.
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