King Joes Barbell Club

POWER RACK TRAINING

Like the Squat Rack, the power rack is, for many weight-trainers, a forgotten or seldom used piece of equipment. It's incredible how many gym users don't know a Power Rack from a toast rack and even some intermediate and advanced trainees are blissfully unaware of the great and long-lasting benefits that correct Power Rack training can bring.

Firstly a brief description of the power rack; it is a four pillared cage-like apparatus with holes drilled in each pillar with normally 2-4 inch intervals into which are placed supportive rods. These rods are slotted through the pillars in such a way that a barbell can be comfortably supported at varying heights. This enables the athlete to work partial movements where heavier poundages can be handled than if the athlete was doing a full movement.

A Power Rack for a gym can serve many useful purposes, but one big advantage is that one can train in safety as the supportive bars will catch the weight in the event of one failing during the exercise. Most standard power racks come with J hooks and a pair of pins, but you will want to add some extra accessories. It is rare to see a power rack in a commercial gym that has an extra set of pins so you will need to get a pair of heavy duty metal pins that will fit the power rack you are using. I would also suggest visiting a hardware store or a plumbing supply warehouse and buy a couple of lengths of rubber insulation, the type that goes around water pipes. This insulation is used to wrap around the power rack pins to minimize the jarring effect of barbell when it is lowered onto the pins.

Benefits

Used correctly the Power Rack can produce stronger muscles, tendons, ligaments and sinews. Exercises in the Power Rack can help athlete's break through their individual sticking points in varying exercises. Take the bench press for instance; let's say our athlete regularly fails the bench press mid-way during the ascent of the bar. To overcome the problem the athlete can set the rods on the Power Rack so that the bench press is begun at the mid-way level. The athlete then trains this particular portion of the movement. Because the range of movement is less than a full bench press more weight can be used, thereby strengthening the muscles but also stimulating tendon and ligament strength. The athlete simply pushes the bar from the rods to the lockout position and then lowers it to the rods again. No bounce should be used - the bar is pushed from a dead stop position - this in itself will increase strength - with the added bonus that the athlete always works out in perfect safety. When doing partial movements, it is imperative that the partial movement is a duplicate of that portion of the full range movement. For example, if you are doing bench press lockouts, then the lockout must be exactly as if were performed at the end of a normal bench press. It is all too easy to put yourself into a biomechanically advantaged position to do the partial movement. This is why you should always do partial movements only after completing the full range movement as this helps you to duplicate the original groove when doing the partial movements.

Which exercises?

The Power Rack can be used very effectively on the big three; The Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift. These compound movements should always be the key movements in anyone's routine who wants to get bigger or stronger. Quarter squats, half squats, heavy lockouts in the bench press, partial deadlifts are all exercises that can be used. With two sets of rods one can push from a dead stop from one set of rods and then hold against another set of rods above the bar for an isometric hold. A little bit of ingenuity and one can find a variety of safe and effective movements within the Power Rack. Even shoulder presses, as Ian Duckett recommends, can be used with amazing results within a power rack.

The importance of performing power rack exercises.

Ditillo believed that the power rack was more than just a large squat rack, and much of his training focused on power rack exercises. Power rack training is another sticking-point blaster, whether you want to increase your squat proficiency or sport a pair of strong, muscular arms.

Workout frequency

Use the Power Rack as one would use spices in cooking; i.e. a little goes a long way. One of the main faults of trainees countrywide is that of over-training and because of the heavy poundage's involved in Power Rack training it is VERY easy to overtrain. Employ three to five sets at most and keep the reps low - we are trying to build strength here and not fitness. Use partial movements only once you have warmed up and preferably after you have performed the full movement. For example, once you have completed your desired sets of normal deadlifts, three sets of heavy lockouts would stimulate further your back and trap development. But just because three sets are good it does not mean six sets are twice as good. Stimulate don't annihilate! If there is anything that you remember from this article let it be the above words.

Poundages

Make sure you are warmed up, make sure that your lifting style is good and then slap those plates on. If you want to look strong then you actually have got to get strong. Development is inextricably tied in with the amount of poundage that you can shift. Have you ever seen a 500lb squatter (that is a below parallel squat and not a curtsy) with small legs? The answer is obvious. So formulate a workout plan, train hard and smart, supplement wisely, and use the Power Rack to shift those big numbers.

1. The power rack is your best friend. By setting the heights of the safety rails appropriately, you can stop the barbell at nearly any point in the range of motion of almost any barbell exercise.

2. Before you do a heavy partial rep, be sure to prepare yourself. Tighten up your muscles and prepare mentally. Partials are very different than full reps because of the far greater weights you’ll be able to use.

3. Set aside your preconceptions of how much weight you’re capable of lifting. You really will be amazed by how much more you can lift when you only work in your strongest range of motion.

4. Don’t forget about working in your weakest ranges of motion too. It may not be as glamorous but working the weak range is very important for building up maximum full-range strength.

5. Work your poundages up gradually but don’t be afraid to push yourself. Just because you can lift a ton more immediately doesn’t necessarily mean you should. For the first few sessions, only go about 10 to 20% over your full range one-rep max. You need to give your body a chance to adapt to this totally different type of stress.

6.Your progress should be steady after that. Increases of up to 50 pounds or more per session are not uncommon on some of the larger muscle exercises such as bench press or squats.

***********IMPORTANT **************

1. You should keep some full range movements in your program. Don’t do partial movements exclusively for too long. I would recommend alternating sessions of partial and full-range training.

2. Training with extremely heavy weights is extremely demanding on the body. You may find you need more time to recover from partial training sessions than regular training sessions.

3. Because this training strongly affects the connective tissue, it’s a good idea to supplement with nutrients that support the joints. These include Vitamin C (helps support collagen formation), calcium, glucosamine and chondroitin, MSM, and gelatin. These nutrients will help your body to recover faster from this heavy training.

4. Heavy partial training should not be done long term. I normally limit partial training to 6 weeks at a time, returning to full-range training for awhile. Taking time off partials not only allows your body time to recover from the extremely heavy weights but gives you a chance to put your newfound connective tissue strength to work in full-range training.

622 E.Drinker St. Dunmore PA 18512

POWER RACK TRAINING