chains

[ixoyc]

i finally get a few days away from USAFA and I want to buy some chains for lifting
(i'm trying to do the west side barbell routine),
so i was thinking about stopping at home depot or something.

what kind/size chains should i buy?

Also my bands just came in, so i can't wait to use them

[F_Mac]

Have you done westside before?

If not I'd recommend not using bands and chains until you get a better idea of how westside works for you.

I'm not sure what level of lifter you are (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) but you shouldn't need to use band or chains until you get to the advanced level.........varying exercises and rep ranges should provide more than enough stimulus for the beginner and intermediate lifter.

[ixoyc]

Before I left for the Academy i used bands for squatting and worked with a guy that did strongman training. He told me that bands and chains helped him a lot and i should try it sometime/ change things up.

Then i found out that my friends, girlfriend's dad did west side and actually won a powerlifting tournament in his age class (nice trophy), i think the tourny was in Atlanta, not sure though. I talked to him about it and he let me borrow the dvds for west side. he also said that for a long time his bench was stuck at about 400 and when he switched to west side, in a about a year he could bench 500

I don't know how you could try west side with out bands and chains though. alot of the core lifts require them.

But yes, besides that one time with the strongman guy i haven't used them before. But the cadet gym i have to use sucks. there is nothing there. actually they have two platforms that you can olympic/deadlift on. but that's about it.

[Firehawk]

The core lifts dont require bands and chains. Besides, those things are more for training upper ends of your lifts so that you can use powerlifting equipment. They do help on weak areas in lifts too but you should never neglect the full range for long if you're training raw.

You can just as easily change your core lifts around by switching bars, hand placement, incline/decline, box or no box, box height, rep range from 1 to 3...etc.

I agree that I don't think you really need bands until you get to a more experienced level.

If you are adament about using chains though, you can probably find a chart somewhere that bases the weight of chains you need depending on the strength of your lifts. For instance, i think 50lbs of chains are recommended for people that bench up to 250lbs, then it goes to 80-100lbs of chains for people benching 250-315lbs or something like that.