PERFORMANCE TRAINING CENTRE
NEWSLETTER
ISSUE # 98
THE POWER RACK
The one piece of equipment that PTC lacked was a power
rack. The reason I had never got one was the quality of all domestic racks was
crap. Sure I could get a commercial grade one, they were slightly better, too
big and cost way too much for what they were.
If I was to get a rack for PTC, it had to be insanely
solid, compact and fairly priced. When Adrian from Gym Direct contacted me after
reading a post on a forum, I was initially sceptical. I knew the kind of weights
my clients would be using in this rack, and I was convinced what he had was good
enough.
I checked out the specs on his website, decided it looked
okay, so I took a gamble. If it wasn't what it was cracked up to be, I could
still get use out of it for my girls, and I would need somewhere else for
competitors to warm up during my comps.
Well I got the rack on Monday, came with everything
required, so I put it together alone in just over 90 minutes. Too say I was
impressed by the finished product would be an understatement. This thing is
easily capable of handling anything we can throw at it at PTC. We've already had
280kg rack pulls in it, 200kg partial squats, and many more exercises I will
discuss later on.
Remember, this rack gets used for 6-7 hours a day by up to
25 lifters per night. It easily fits in a domestic home gym, yet will handle
massive weights that are used at a commercial gym. It costs less than 2 years
membership at a health spa, and will last 3 lifetimes.
Okay, enough about how impressed I am with it, how is it
going to help my lifters. Now I'm going to discuss the virtues of this rack, if
the one you're using at home or your spa has the same features, you can
replicate.
The main thing I look for in a lifter when it comes to
improving their lifts is a weakness. I'll use Alen as an example first. Last
week Alen missed a 170kg squat so high, that I didn't need to bend over to spot
him. I had nearly turned to walk away thinking he was about to lock it out, when
he started to go back down.
So, second squat session on the Wednesday after I got the
rack, I wanted to test lifters at different heights. Max and Kelly usually fail
their squats low, as do most lifters. Ryan fails a bit higher and Alen fails
high. So I set the pins at a height that had a lifter squatting well below
parallel once the bar hit the pins, lower than most squat. Kelly managed 150kg,
as did Alen, Max got 130kg. These squats were performed from a dead stop. No
bounce was available. These figures are about what I expected, having spotted
the lifters on plenty of occasions.
Next I moved the pins to about half way up the squat, half
way between parallel and lock out. Kelly managed 200kg and Max 180kg, both
adding 50kg to their effort from below parallel. The surprise came next. On the
first round of ramping the weights up, Alen actually failed with 130kg, thats
20kg less than he squatted from real deep. I knew he would be weaker at this
height than the others, but this result really surprised me. After plenty of
shit stirring, he tried it again on the next round and made it, eventually
finishing with 160kg.
That's a 10kg increase while Kelly and Max managed 50kg
more. Can everyone see the benefits of the rack for finding a weakness? I can
set the pins and many different heights, allowing a lifter to work on his weak
spot. When Alen gets to this spot on a regular squat, the bar has momentum as
it's coming up from a deep spot with a bounce. It slows at this point, then he
powers through. His squat PB is 165kg, Max's is 160kg, yet Alen was able to
squat 20kg more than Max at the bottom. Once Alen develops strength at this
point, his squat will skyrocket to over 180kg. Max and Kelly both squat double
bodyweight, the only clients at PTC that can. Alen will join them shortly. Ryan
is in exactly the same position as Alen. He can squat 125kg x 20, yet only
manages 145kg x 1. The most he will ever squat is what he can get past his
sticking point. He could possibly squat 125kg x 30, but he still won't get past
his 145kg UNTIL he gets stronger at the point where his leverages and strength
can't overcome the weight.
While we're on the squat, another area where lifters need
help is their head. Most lifters fail a big one rep max attempt in their head,
well before they start their descent. I have spotted plenty of lifters who
actually fail on the way down. The best exercise I can think of to build
confidence here are band de load squats. In the past, without a rack, all I had
were miniscule lockouts and walk outs. It's the descent where I need to build
confidence. The courage to unlock your knees with a heavy weight on your back.
This cannot be overestimated.
In that pic at the top, Max has 220kg on his back, that's
over triple bodyweight. At the top of the lift, when the lifter is standing
erect, the bands are loose, offering no assistance. As the lifter descends onto
the 33cm box, the bands take up resistance, they offer help in allowing a lifter
to stand up from the sitting position with triple bodyweight on their back. As
you stand up further, the help lessens, forcing the lifter to lock the weight
out himself, a weight he won't be squatting for quite a while.
It's safe to say that next time Max has 170kg on his back,
it won't feel too daunting. Without a doubt, the squat is the exercise that
scares lifters most, understandably. This rack will help me alleviate most
lifters fears.
These principles are exactly the same with the bench
press. We can set the pins at numerous heights, to find out where a lifter needs
most help. We can strap the bands to the chin bar above and use the exact same
de load principle. Annie was repping 80kg in the bench press with these bands
the other day. It's also much easier to set up the bands for speed bench. Ryan
and Dave were using the blue bands the other night. We couldn't set up the blue
bands before when we hooked the bands up to DB's
When it comes to the deadlift, I love rack pulls. We were
already pulling off blocks, but this makes it far easier. Kelly pulled 280kg off
the pins. No wrist wraps or belt, just insane strength. He weighs 85kg. I think
Kelly will become the heaviest client to deadlift triple bodyweight. He missed
by 1kg at BATB3 when he managed 245kg @ 82kg. He now weighs 85kg, he will get
255kg soon.
Rack pulls build an incredible amount of muscle in the
upper back area. I've talked about pulling the trigger in previous newsletters.
With Kelly and Max pulling around 3 ½ times bodyweight in the rack, it's more
like firing off a bazooka.
I remember at BATB2, Simon deadlifted 240kg @ 79kg. He was
doing some incredibly heavy rack pulls at the time, and he had some of the best
trap development I've seen. I will also be able to set up the bands in the power
rack to de load deadlifts as well as load up the top of the lift by running the
bands the other way.
I haven't spoken about using bands in the rack to load a
lift. Altering the curve of the lift will reap great benefits to the lifter We
have done this with great success on the bench press before, but haven't been
able to do it on the deadlift and squat. Ryan and Alen will benefit greatly from
this, making the squat harder as they rise.
I haven't covered the safety afforded by the rack, at PTC
we always have plenty of spotters, and not one incident in training, two years
of maximum attempts with hundreds of lifters, and no issues.
Training alone isn't always the easiest place to test
yourself. In the past people have asked me about racks and I've told them I
don't like them. One used by a friend is so light that he flips it on its side
to dips in. This one weighs over 200kg, nobody will be flipping it on its
side.
Another great feature of this rack is the chinning
apparatus. It's really solid and offers up to 10 different grip options. It's so
solid that I have already supported 220kg from it with bands, with plans to go
much heavier. Not good news for the clients. I can imagine Nick using 250kg for
his squats.
Other features are 4 sets of hooks, so you can train
inside the rack or outside. It may not mean much to you, but it sure saves a lot
of hassles, plus allows more than one lifter at a time to squat. I have clients
of differing heights, this eliminates the need to reset the hooks for each
lifter.
The spotting pins also stick out a fair way, ideal as
hooks for floor presses. A hassle with floor pressing is you need someone to
deadlift the weight into position, and hold it while you get your grip right.
Now it's as simple as bench pressing. You can also do floor presses alone
now.
Throw in the pins to allow plate stacking, cleaning up the
gym area, and you have a very, very versatile piece of equipment.
You guys may sense some excitement here, let me tell you,
this rack, and the way I use it, is going to really accelerate the lifts of all
my clients.
I have sold out of my "How we roll" DVD around 10 times.
Even though it keeps selling, I may start a new instructional DVD. This one will
be for the home lifter. I want to demonstrate how much can be done with a bench,
a rack, some bands and a bar.
It won't be a boring bench, squat and deadlift inside the
cage DVD, but will illustrate the many other uses a lifter can reap great
benefits from.
In the last DVD, it was purely instructional. The next one
will show some pretty impressive lifts as well, just to spice it up a
bit.
STAY STRONG, STAY
RAW
Markos, Max and Nina
