Overloading

Got my power rack from Gym Direct today, and wasted no time putting it to good use. I have looked for a suitable rack for PTC, and short of having one custom made, there was simply nothing out there.

Adrian contacted me and showed me one he is selling. Its absolutely perfect, easy to assemble, weighs over 200kg, it will easily handle what I have planned.

Tonight we did squats with overhead bands. The first 6" of travel there is no help, then the bar catches the bands and gives assistance. The idea is to allow the lifter to use more weight in the part of the lift he is stronger in, as with squats you are limited with what you can get out of the hole, for the most part.

This creates problems, as I have lifters who fail very high up, plus it allows a lifter to feel a heavy weight on his back, as you still need to unrack the weight and walk back......unassisted.

These are full sit down box squats we are doing.

Max managed the most weight tonight with a 220kg x 1 squat and 210kg x 3 ( triple bodyweight)...he just missed 230kg. A few others got 210kg, 200kg, 180kg down to 160kg.

By sitting down, the glutes and hamstrings fire first. Doing these box squats with deload bands is going to get these lifters squats soaring.

I will be experimenting with rack pulls and deload bench pressing.

I'll post up some pics and improvements in conventional lifts via these overload principles.



Max making 220kg @ 70kg


Max attempting 230kg

Dim making 180kg @ 70kg

That looks awesome. I think I am getting to a point where box squats and this type of stuff would be very beneficial for me. :-(

The best part about these squats is, when you fail, you will be on the box, like Max with his 230kg effort. Its like failing with whatever your 1RM box squat is, the bands dont come into it.

So on his 220kg effort, which he made, he was using 60kg more than his 1RM on a regular squat, and he trained his glutes, hams, quads and erectors with a massively overloaded weight that he is a year away from squatting.

I have been waiting to use these for 2 years.

I can't wait until I buy my own house. I am going to get my own setup and charge mates to come and use it.

10K at Aus Kettlebells should get things moving. I wish!

dude this setup is sick as, i would love to load that **** on my shoulders and go nuts, very nice Markos!

If this rack had been available when I set PTC up, it wouldve been the first thing I wouldve bought.

You need to experience it to see how well built it is, like I said, it weighs over 200kg.

I'll post up more pics of other things I'll use it for.

The guys did Ladder Chins on it tonight, it has about 7-8 different grips, they use a different grip each set, allows them to go for longer...that doesnt sound right lol

nah we know what u mean i do that for my sets of pull ups, chins, wide grips and hammer up it does make it easier to do another set because of varied grips and such and ya working different areas too

The new rack looks good Markos.
Good to see it put to use right away.

However, did you intentionally set up the chin up bar at the back end of the rack instead of at the front?

Huge mother trucker of a rack!! looks solid as.. ill one day have to try squats like that. i got access to the bands and all that now.

Thanks heaps for looking after me Adrian.

Yes, I set the chin bar at the rear with the intention of the band squats and bench.

I needed the bands directly over the lifter and having the chin bar at the front of the rack would have meant a long walkout with the weight.

When you consider that on the first night Max used 330% of his bodyweight on box squats, walking out was the toughest part. And the weights are only going to get heavier.

The same goes for bench press, which we will do a similar thing with.

The chin bar has very aggresive knurling, which I love, but could also damage the bands. Thankfully there is enough smooth area on the bar to tie the bands too, its perfect.

I forgot to mention that an earlier group also did heavy rack pulls in the rack, going over 200kg. In fact I had 2 groups (9 lifters) train exclusively in the rack for their entire sessions.

I really cant stress how well built this rack is, its something you need to experience.

Anyone interested in setting up a home gym, this is the only rack you will ever need, just add a bar and weights, it really is that good, and cheaper than 2 years health spa membership.

I can now see why Apollo gym has 4 of them.

I will actually film lifters using the rack for exercises you guys may never had heard of. This really is a multi purpose rack, heck, I may even film Max curling in it lol.

Wednesday night will see heavy deload bench press and assorted lockouts from the pins on one group and rack pulls on another, with some bottom up squats, just to truly f u c k them up.

I love my job

No worries Markos.
If the chin up bar knurling is too rough, you could always rub it down a bit with some emery cloth.

Also, can you not connect the bands to the top rails?
Or, maybe put a couple of pins/arms onto the top rails?

Whatever works for you is the important thing.

The bands got in the way when the boys tried to re rack the bar with them hanging off the side rails, was a pain in the neck.

I love the knurling, not an issue, plenty of smooth surface on the chin bar.

yer if ur worried about the knurling hurting the bands u could always wrap the knurling before u put the bands, does that sound right im not entirely sure of the position of the chin bars?

other then that i think i know wat im saving up for.... first i need a room to put it in...

The knurling is a non issue on the bands, like I stated, the bar has plenty of smooth surface to tie the bands to.

Got great use out of the rack again last night. Dave was doing pin presses with up to 125kg, the girls were doing rack pulls with 150kg (not a typo) and deload benches with 80kg.

I also had the girls do bottom up squats. It was very interesting to see the strongest of the squatters do the least weight. She relies too much on bounce at the bottom, something bottom up squats totally eliminates.

There are so many uses with this rack that I'm considering doing my next training DVD exclusively out the rack. My first DVD "How we roll" has sold out 10 times, and I still get orders.

My next one was going to be a home training one, helping guys set up a training area at home with the least ammount of equipment.

I'm going to simply use "THIS" rack and a bar. It would be ideal if I also had an incline bench, would add stacks of exercises. Cant press standing up inside this rack, and I'm only 178cm, you can press outside, and do seated presses inside.

With another set of pins I could also do another exercise I used to bench 165kg...static holds on a pin with a heavy weight, it makes your bones ache, but you need 4 pins in total for safety, the bar has pins above AND beneath. Also works on squats and deadlifts. Pulling or pushing hard AGAINST a set of pins with heavy weight is torture.