Bouncing Bench Press

[Dimitry]

Ulf Timmermann also used bounce and pad on chest in a bench that he called "power bench":


http://www.nasgaweb.com/forums/forum...s.asp?TID=5751

[martijn]

Yes Timmermann and the other East Germans were doing it with a pad really fast like Martinez at 0.55 and Kanter at 2.05 in the first clip in this thread.

That exercise was chosen as a plyo activity, fairly specific to throwing. The purpose was not to increase their BP max. so I don't think you should compare it with the aforementioned 'Westside' methods.

[sas809]

Arsi Harju,Olympic gold medalist in Sydney also used a pad for explosive bench pressing.

[Race Radio]

A great exercise for throwers.

Any benefit for sprinters? over an exercise like 10lb-20lb plate arm swings for explosive bursts?.

[hemann]

Question .. are they really reaping the benefits of increased bar speed? Or are they just dropping the weight and bouncing it, essentially just turning it into a regular board press? It looks to me like the bar speed slows down considerably when the bounce momentum slows

[speedcoach]

Isn't it based more on your perception of moving the bar fast versus actual bar speed? I guess in simple physics, F=MxA. I would think the A would have a finite limit, where theoretically the M is limitless. I tend to have my athletes use that type of method(no bounce) on 60% load. All about reversing motion explosively in an almost plyo fashion. I would be wary of doing this method under heavy loads (90%+).

[star61]

There is no plyometric component to this exercise. There is no stretch reflex. In fact the muslces are completely unloaded at the bottom.


If not intending to improve max strength, they may be artifically increasing bar velocity to be more speed specific, maybe to work on RFD rather than a max strength. Not like board presses at all if that is the intended goal. I still don't like it, and I think there is some ego stroking going on.

[speedcoach]

That is often the case. Ego leads to injury in my experience.

[rainy.here]

Isn't it based more on your perception of moving the bar fast versus actual bar speed? I guess in simple physics, F=MxA. I would think the A would have a finite limit, where theoretically the M is limitless. I tend to have my athletes use that type of method(no bounce) on 60% load. All about reversing motion explosively in an almost plyo fashion. I would be wary of doing this method under heavy loads (90%+).

Except that any acceleration force must be over and above the force of gravity.

[100m001]

These are some pictures taken from the training of some throwers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CETPQ...layer_embedded


Now I would like to know what is the coach who introduced these methods: use of the bounce and use of cushion.
What would be the purpose? do a kind of plyometric exercise? Do they use the pre-stretch, stretch shortening cycle? Do they want to turn out the II fibers ? What are the benefits? I'm doubtful of this efficacy.

All kinds of weightlifting variations I have traced back to competitive weight lifting, and powerlifting training methods. Read Supertraining by Mell Siff.

Weightlifting variations are used to prevent you from going stale, it prevents boredom, and it offers a new type of stimulation to the body.

Also, just to get this off my chest, I get upset when I hear people criticize lifters that they "cheated" because they bounced the weight, because, no.1, so what?!, and no.2 the people who criticize probably could not even UNRACK the weight themselves.