Alexander Karelin - Resistance Bands?

It's in the article. Her coaching team addressed it and we have another athlete that she arrived with that performed well.

You have. You went from initially saying emotions are fake and it's purely physical, to now you need to not let emotions impact your physical performance.
That's a completely different position inline with what we were saying.

There is no physical reason she should have performed any worse. She still had an adequate time to do her usual thing, she just entered from a different gate and had extra mental stress applied prior. A good coach could have known the athlete enough to get her back into the right frame of mind by making an adjustment if needed to her usual routine. AI would have told her to do the exact same thing and it didn't work for her that day.

We see it all the time with coaches in MMA with the corners. Eric Nicksick is a great example of this with Dan Ige. He was cracking jokes to break the tension in a recent fight, talking about his moustache. He has said in interviews he does this to get Ige into the right head space. It works with him, but he has to corner other fighters differently. AI would say he needs to do a specific set of actions to win the fight based of what his opponent was doing, but Eric knows that it's more important to get his fighter into the right headspace to do what he needs to do.

Nobody is saying anything about sport psychologists helping every aspect of an athlete's performance throughout the performance by guiding them through emotional struggles. Of course that's ridiculous.
I wouldn't dispute the mental aspect, although the hassle of needing to walk an extra 1000 m is a somewhat mild example - it may affect you if you're already on edge, but it's not that bad in the general picture. On the other hand, we once had a team competition where everyone expected my training partner - tough guy, national vice champ in Combat SAMBO, hard wrestler (we pretty much always left bloodstains on the mat, and I can't recall how often he had kicked me in the balls with that Sumi gaeshi of his), but otherwise really quiet and always super polite - to fill his spot, but he didn't show. My coach then took the hard step (possibly the only time I think I would have done things differently if I had been coaching that day) and decided to come out with it: "As you have noticed, X isn't here today. He went to prison for attempted murder and hung himself there." Well... we were beaten 36-4 that day if I recall, most of the people expected to win lost. I think my pin were the only points we got. Still took me a while to get over it, it was a couple of years until I could look in the mirror without remembering him (he started my cauliflower ear).

As for cornermen, I found I need two things: first, I need to be able to hear the guy. I get strong tunnel vision in matches, I usually hear zero of the crowd, and the referee is a blur. I only hear voices I know and recognize, so ideally, I need a coach that is vocal and that shouts instructions to me in regular training so I get used to it. And second, I need to like my coach. In my mind, I am out there bleeding for him (I always had a much stronger connection to my coaches than to my teammates - my teammates I might have to destroy in a tournament, so I can't like them too much, my coaches will be on my side forever), and made weight for him (miserable process, especially if you have to cut 10 kg on short notice like I sometimes did), so I need to know we have each other's back, or the outcome will be suboptimal. I'm used to chatting with my coaches for hours - Zwei Idioten, ein Gedanke - would often hang out with them and their families on the weekends etc.
In the former Eastern Block - most of my coaches either are from there or were strongly influenced by their methodology - if a coach takes you in, it's almost a form of adoption. There's a thing Amit Elor once said in an interview about her coach, Valentin Kalika. When he took her in as a teenager, first thing he did was to give her his number, saying: "Call me 24/7, 365 days of the year. If you have a problem, I will make it go away." That sums up pretty nicely what it's like, and anything less than that just doesn't do it for me. And of course, it has to run both ways.
 
I wouldn't dispute the mental aspect, although the hassle of needing to walk an extra 1000 m is a somewhat mild example - it may affect you if you're already on edge, but it's not that bad in the general picture. On the other hand, we once had a team competition where everyone expected my training partner - tough guy, national vice champ in Combat SAMBO, hard wrestler (we pretty much always left bloodstains on the mat, and I can't recall how often he had kicked me in the balls with that Sumi gaeshi of his), but otherwise really quiet and always super polite - to fill his spot, but he didn't show. My coach then took the hard step (possibly the only time I think I would have done things differently if I had been coaching that day) and decided to come out with it: "As you have noticed, X isn't here today. He went to prison for attempted murder and hung himself there." Well... we were beaten 36-4 that day if I recall, most of the people expected to win lost. I think my pin were the only points we got. Still took me a while to get over it, it was a couple of years until I could look in the mirror without remembering him (he started my cauliflower ear).

As for cornermen, I found I need two things: first, I need to be able to hear the guy. I get strong tunnel vision in matches, I usually hear zero of the crowd, and the referee is a blur. I only hear voices I know and recognize, so ideally, I need a coach that is vocal and that shouts instructions to me in regular training so I get used to it. And second, I need to like my coach. In my mind, I am out there bleeding for him (I always had a much stronger connection to my coaches than to my teammates - my teammates I might have to destroy in a tournament, so I can't like them too much, my coaches will be on my side forever), and made weight for him (miserable process, especially if you have to cut 10 kg on short notice like I sometimes did), so I need to know we have each other's back, or the outcome will be suboptimal. I'm used to chatting with my coaches for hours - Zwei Idioten, ein Gedanke - would often hang out with them and their families on the weekends etc.
In the former Eastern Block - most of my coaches either are from there or were strongly influenced by their methodology - if a coach takes you in, it's almost a form of adoption. There's a thing Amit Elor once said in an interview about her coach, Valentin Kalika. When he took her in as a teenager, first thing he did was to give her his number, saying: "Call me 24/7, 365 days of the year. If you have a problem, I will make it go away." That sums up pretty nicely what it's like, and anything less than that just doesn't do it for me. And of course, it has to run both ways.
When you are learning a sport or doing it to form bonds and fitting in with a community the bottom is how it is really supposed to go I would think. Sorry you had that experience though geez.

Ive had teammates break arms in basketball, and actually die in baseball(on the field hit to the back of the head without a helmet on running bases), football kind of went without saying there would be bad injuries and I have personally seen some sick ones like guys getting the entire row of teeth knocked out. You really have to love what you are doing to be out there in most instances.

Sports brings out the best but also the worst in people unfortunately and when you add in money it changes everything and bad people will always be involved in something like that.

MMA promoters especially in small organizations dont even really care about the competitors.

My father friends with bubba buschme the boxer and after he killed a guy in the ring he couldn't live with himself and he was never the same fighter after that moment.

It is partly why I have grown an affinity in my age to solo sports like lifting sports or track style stuff to try to avoid the bad side of sports. Some coaches are not good people either of course in any sport.
 
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I wouldn't dispute the mental aspect, although the hassle of needing to walk an extra 1000 m is a somewhat mild example - it may affect you if you're already on edge, but it's not that bad in the general picture. On the other hand, we once had a team competition where everyone expected my training partner - tough guy, national vice champ in Combat SAMBO, hard wrestler (we pretty much always left bloodstains on the mat, and I can't recall how often he had kicked me in the balls with that Sumi gaeshi of his), but otherwise really quiet and always super polite - to fill his spot, but he didn't show. My coach then took the hard step (possibly the only time I think I would have done things differently if I had been coaching that day) and decided to come out with it: "As you have noticed, X isn't here today. He went to prison for attempted murder and hung himself there." Well... we were beaten 36-4 that day if I recall, most of the people expected to win lost. I think my pin were the only points we got. Still took me a while to get over it, it was a couple of years until I could look in the mirror without remembering him (he started my cauliflower ear).

As for cornermen, I found I need two things: first, I need to be able to hear the guy. I get strong tunnel vision in matches, I usually hear zero of the crowd, and the referee is a blur. I only hear voices I know and recognize, so ideally, I need a coach that is vocal and that shouts instructions to me in regular training so I get used to it. And second, I need to like my coach. In my mind, I am out there bleeding for him (I always had a much stronger connection to my coaches than to my teammates - my teammates I might have to destroy in a tournament, so I can't like them too much, my coaches will be on my side forever), and made weight for him (miserable process, especially if you have to cut 10 kg on short notice like I sometimes did), so I need to know we have each other's back, or the outcome will be suboptimal. I'm used to chatting with my coaches for hours - Zwei Idioten, ein Gedanke - would often hang out with them and their families on the weekends etc.
In the former Eastern Block - most of my coaches either are from there or were strongly influenced by their methodology - if a coach takes you in, it's almost a form of adoption. There's a thing Amit Elor once said in an interview about her coach, Valentin Kalika. When he took her in as a teenager, first thing he did was to give her his number, saying: "Call me 24/7, 365 days of the year. If you have a problem, I will make it go away." That sums up pretty nicely what it's like, and anything less than that just doesn't do it for me. And of course, it has to run both ways.

100% I think the whole thing affected her, but the reality is 1km shouldn't physically affect any healthy person, let alone a track based Olympic athlete. My sprint warm up involves a 400m walk/jog at the minimum before I even actually warm up, add to that some sort of run in the 1-3 km range depending on the session. I run further for repeat 100m's than I do for 1km intervals because you need to be warmed up thoroughly for the sprints. People have this mistaken belief that a 100m runner only does short distances. She would be doing more kms than your average 10km runner does a week in most sessions just doing the intervals.

Sucks to lose a team mate. Especially bvefore a big comp. It could motivate people or have the effect it had in your situation.

Good to see you found what works for you. I have the opposite issue in that I am aware of everything around me. I can see what other people are doing, coaches are saying and the refs position. Similar thing in the training room where I will adjust techniques and give up position based off other peoples position on the mat. It's good in some ways, but I have issues switching it off in comp style settings.
 
100% I think the whole thing affected her, but the reality is 1km shouldn't physically affect any healthy person, let alone a track based Olympic athlete. My sprint warm up involves a 400m walk/jog at the minimum before I even actually warm up, add to that some sort of run in the 1-3 km range depending on the session. I run further for repeat 100m's than I do for 1km intervals because you need to be warmed up thoroughly for the sprints. People have this mistaken belief that a 100m runner only does short distances. She would be doing more kms than your average 10km runner does a week in most sessions just doing the intervals.

Sucks to lose a team mate. Especially bvefore a big comp. It could motivate people or have the effect it had in your situation.

Good to see you found what works for you. I have the opposite issue in that I am aware of everything around me. I can see what other people are doing, coaches are saying and the refs position. Similar thing in the training room where I will adjust techniques and give up position based off other peoples position on the mat. It's good in some ways, but I have issues switching it off in comp style settings.
So in your opinion Maximus is that latest video I just posted a load of crap? Is it childish like rawdawg was saying? or are you glossing over it and backpedaling now?
 
So in your opinion Maximus is that latest video I just posted a load of crap? Is it childish like rawdawg was saying? or are you glossing over it and backpedaling now?
I didn't watch it. It's irrelevant to the discussion because you will just change your position again.

You said you were done, so I just left it. I responded to @period because he quoted me in a post.
We can post videos back and forth and it proves nothing. Why would it matter what Chael Sonnen says in a video ?

Isn't it like 5am in Texas right now?
 
I didn't watch it. It's irrelevant to the discussion because you will just change your position again.

You said you were done, so I just left it. I responded to @period because he quoted me in a post.
We can post videos back and forth and it proves nothing. Why would it matter what Chael Sonnen says in a video ?

Isn't it like 5am in Texas right now?
yea just woke up. You wont watch it because you are afraid of what it will say. nearly the exact quotes that used to begin this whole discussion are what he uses in that video. That video is one month old. I guess the algorithm popped up on my YouTube account. My position never once changed. I cant make you stop typing that but it basically just hot air now,
 
When you are learning a sport or doing it to form bonds and fitting in with a community the bottom is how it is really supposed to go I would think. Sorry you had that experience though geez.

Sports brings out the best but also the worst in people unfortunately and when you add in money it changes everything and bad people will always be involved in something like that.

My father friends with bubba buschme the boxer and after he killed a guy in the ring he couldn't live with himself and he was never the same fighter after that moment.

Some coaches are not good people either of course in any sport.
Thanks. This wasn't contract work (which we have sadly kind of gotten used to over the years around here - I had matches where my planned opponent didn't show up because of that, a match where my opponent was fresh out of prison for injuring someone during an armed robbery, training partners who I later found out ran protection rackets, and one who got bitten by a police dog after leaving his piece in a stolen car). Rather, this was highly personal, and I know he regretted it - which is why he took to the noose. The guy was a vet (not entirely sure which war, we never talked about it, but my guess is Chechnya), which liekly contributed to him snapping. It's ok, the experiences have become part of me and may even have prevented me from making some bad decisions over the years.

Yeah, what you do to an opponent in the ring can leave mental scars. In some ways, it's similar to PTSD. It will affect everyone differently, with me, the result is that I often find it exhausting to hang out in my free time with people who aren't fighters. Normal people are so strange sometimes, they will get loud and adopt threatening body language for no real reason, fully expecting social constraints to prevent anyone from calling them out. If they were fighters, someone would have wiped the floor with them long ago. That's the one thing I always appreciated about the guys with a record (not talking about sports here) - if they know you are likely to call them out, they are always exquisitely polite, because nobody wants to make a mess for no reason.

And of course, there are bad people everywhere, including among coaches - there have been enough high-profile cases, fortunately I never had to encounter one of those. I would argue because I consider trust between athlete and coach to be absolutely essential, a breach of that trust is even more fatal.
 
Maybe if I just think about lifting the weights during my morning routine right now I'll have a great workout later. I just thought about running a 1 km run to. The mental image was so vivid that I dont even have to actually train today.
 
yea just woke up. You wont watch it because you are afraid of what it will say. nearly the exact quotes that used to begin this whole discussion are what he uses in that video. That video is one month old. I guess the algorithm popped up on my YouTube account. My position never once changed. I cant make you stop typing that but it basically just hot air now,

No you didn't. You have been in this specific thread responding for hours. The posts are there and timestamped. You stopped for less than 3 hours when I stopped responding after you said you were finished.

Why would I be afraid of what it says? It's just a video from 1 person, who had a history of failing in big fights from mental issues.You don;t even know your own position on this, so you reach for someone else to speak for you.

1 person's Youtube video doesn't prove anything.If I post two people agreeing with my position do I win?
Whatever about the entire scientific literature that you said was fake before with Sports Psychology? If I have more people say what i think, am I right?

Defend your own position, if you can actually articulate what it is.
 
100% I think the whole thing affected her, but the reality is 1km shouldn't physically affect any healthy person, let alone a track based Olympic athlete. My sprint warm up involves a 400m walk/jog at the minimum before I even actually warm up, add to that some sort of run in the 1-3 km range depending on the session. I run further for repeat 100m's than I do for 1km intervals because you need to be warmed up thoroughly for the sprints. People have this mistaken belief that a 100m runner only does short distances. She would be doing more kms than your average 10km runner does a week in most sessions just doing the intervals.

Sucks to lose a team mate. Especially bvefore a big comp. It could motivate people or have the effect it had in your situation.

Good to see you found what works for you. I have the opposite issue in that I am aware of everything around me. I can see what other people are doing, coaches are saying and the refs position. Similar thing in the training room where I will adjust techniques and give up position based off other peoples position on the mat. It's good in some ways, but I have issues switching it off in comp style settings.
I used to run track in high school, for a very high profile team. Our sprinters did VERY limited kilometers, usually something like a total of 1000 m (including hops, high knees etc.) and almost never more than a 1000 m total of intervals... and usually only three times per week, about 10 k total at most. On the other hand, me running the 800, 1500 and 3000, I did 60-80 k depending on the season.

This wasn't a big comp, I was still in the small leagues back then. Thing is, one of the things I learned from that guy is that when you get kicked in the balls, you have a certain amount of time where you can still pull yourself together before the pain hits - but it WILL hit - which you can exploit to get your shit done. And that's what I did then. But the thing with adversity is, you need to have some experience dealing with it in order to do so effectively; on the other hand, if you had to face too much of it, you might snap for no apparent reason.

Yeah, your problem does sound like the polar opposite of mine. I currently have to force myself to be more aware of the surroundings in the BJJ gym, because we have 6 or 7 pairs rolling on a fairly small mat. In wrestling, Sambo and Judo, there was only ever one pair on the mat when sparring, only for drilling there were more (and we drilled 90+% of the time). Still, that may contribute to how one sees things. I generally find I need to tone things down, because I am used to a fairly harsh sparring culture (lots of Porrada), and if you do that in BJJ, people will think you intend to kill them, not react to taps etc.
Anyway, probably you need to find some preparation ritual that helps you focus more, especially in competition. Put on headphones, watch highlight reels, something like that. And a tip from my Dagestani coach would be to get accustomed to napping an hour before training. If you get used to that, you can eventually do that in competition, too. Unnerves the hell out of the other competitors.
 
No you didn't. You have been in this specific thread responding for hours. The posts are there and timestamped. You stopped for less than 3 hours when I stopped responding after you said you were finished.

Why would I be afraid of what it says? It's just a video from 1 person, who had a history of failing in big fights from mental issues.You don;t even know your own position on this, so you reach for someone else to speak for you.

1 person's Youtube video doesn't prove anything.If I post two people agreeing with my position do I win?
Whatever about the entire scientific literature that you said was fake before with Sports Psychology? If I have more people say what i think, am I right?

Defend your own position, if you can actually articulate what it is.
Failed In championship matches against arguably a top 3 mma fighter of all time and it took a Hail Mary to beat him. I said earlier that winning and performing well are two different things. Chael outperformed Anderson. Anderson won but he didnt perform well in those fights. Those guys made each other.

My position to be perfectly clear is that sports and training are 100% physical. There is absolutely nothing you can say to change my position on that.

I posted the video to an obvious currently very popular influencer who has been involved in his particular sport for decades now and is popular because of his involvement in sport.

The hilarious thing now is you posted your own video of that same person saying things that you thought were agreeing with your position and now when I post another video of that same person speaking on this exact topic it is just somehow doesn't count now?

You are acting like a complete clown because years ago I said that I could total a given weight in my back yard and then never did it on video. You have the right to not believe something when you have no proof of something so I will give you that but these two topics have absolutely nothing to do with each other regardless.
 
I used to run track in high school, for a very high profile team. Our sprinters did VERY limited kilometers, usually something like a total of 1000 m (including hops, high knees etc.) and almost never more than a 1000 m total of intervals... and usually only three times per week, about 10 k total at most. On the other hand, me running the 800, 1500 and 3000, I did 60-80 k depending on the season.

This wasn't a big comp, I was still in the small leagues back then. Thing is, one of the things I learned from that guy is that when you get kicked in the balls, you have a certain amount of time where you can still pull yourself together before the pain hits - but it WILL hit - which you can exploit to get your shit done. And that's what I did then. But the thing with adversity is, you need to have some experience dealing with it in order to do so effectively; on the other hand, if you had to face too much of it, you might snap for no apparent reason.

Yeah, your problem does sound like the polar opposite of mine. I currently have to force myself to be more aware of the surroundings in the BJJ gym, because we have 6 or 7 pairs rolling on a fairly small mat. In wrestling, Sambo and Judo, there was only ever one pair on the mat when sparring, only for drilling there were more (and we drilled 90+% of the time). Still, that may contribute to how one sees things. I generally find I need to tone things down, because I am used to a fairly harsh sparring culture (lots of Porrada), and if you do that in BJJ, people will think you intend to kill them, not react to taps etc.
Anyway, probably you need to find some preparation ritual that helps you focus more, especially in competition. Put on headphones, watch highlight reels, something like that. And a tip from my Dagestani coach would be to get accustomed to napping an hour before training. If you get used to that, you can eventually do that in competition, too. Unnerves the hell out of the other competitors.
That's the old school way of doing it, but most modern systems of track having you running much more than that and go that lighter style leading into the race as a peak block. Obviously different coaches have different approaches but the volume is higher in most track programs these days. It's around building tendon strength and preventing injuries. It's harder to blow out a hamstring if you are correctly warmed up and go into those sprints a tiny bit fatigued. The pace naturally drops off and then you can save that 100% high risk injury inducing effort for when it counts.

Yeah I did Sambo back in the day. The ruleset is fun. I had to train with a 6'8 basketball player who threw me so high my feet touched the roof before I came down on puzzle mats... I was the only one able to pick him up for the drills at that time.

Nah I have it worked out. I am still fully in it but don't go full tunnel vision. I struggle to go that 100% pace that people do when they go full flight or flight, but it means I am still fully aware when I compete. It usually means I roll over people later as the match progresses or basically leave them with nothing for the next event. 100% I am the guy napping or chilling out whilst everyone listens to pump up music and tries to pump themself up. Even when I train I am pretty chill until I do the reps.
 
Failed In championship matches against arguably a top 3 mma fighter of all time and it took a Hail Mary to beat him. I said earlier that winning and performing well are two different things. Chael outperformed Anderson. Anderson won but he didnt perform well in those fights. Those guys made each other.

My position to be perfectly clear is that sports and training are 100% physical. There is absolutely nothing you can say to change my position on that.

I posted the video to an obvious currently very popular influencer who has been involved in his particular sport for decades now and is popular because of his involvement in sport.

The hilarious thing now is you posted your own video of that same person saying things that you thought were agreeing with your position and now when I post another video of that same person speaking on this exact topic it is just somehow doesn't count now?

You are acting like a complete clown because years ago I said that I could total a given weight in my back yard and then never did it on video. You have the right to not believe something when you have no proof of something so I will give you that but these two topics have absolutely nothing to do with each other regardless.

Watch the Anderson Silva documentary Like Water. It wasn't a hail mary. Anderson called that he would sub Chael to his coaches and was working off his back in that fight. They tried to talk him out of it. He even went into that fight with a broken rib. Don;t get me wrong Chael put him there, but Anderson was fully prepared for that method of victory.

Chael has failed in every title fight he ever had and lost multiple number 1 contenders matches. His record is 29-15-1. He was definitely a good fighter, but he has failed due to mental issues from his own admission multiple times. It sucks because the one time he nearly won a title his opponent missed weight. The guy even posted him the belt after apparently.

Sweet now clarify what you mean by 100% physical. Let's lock that psotion in before we continue.

Chael is popular because he makes fun of himself and was good on the mic. Fans acknowledge he wasn't that level fighting wise.His joke about tapping because he thought it just meant he lost the round is what made him. He got so in his head in the next fight he threw a spinning backfist and quit instantly.

I posted my video in response to yours only. So now we have your first video of Chael saying what you said, another of Chael agreeing with me and now you have another one that probably agrees with what you said. Do I now post another from him saying my position and that makes me right?

No you are acting like a complete clown because you get upset the second anyone disagrees with you, refuse to ever back down when you know you are wrong. You get so upset you start thinking people are saying things they don;t even say.
 
Watch the Anderson Silva documentary Like Water. It wasn't a hail mary. Anderson called that he would sub Chael to his coaches and was working off his back in that fight. They tried to talk him out of it. He even went into that fight with a broken rib. Don;t get me wrong Chael put him there, but Anderson was fully prepared for that method of victory.

Chael has failed in every title fight he ever had and lost multiple number 1 contenders matches. His record is 29-15-1. He was definitely a good fighter, but he has failed due to mental issues from his own admission multiple times. It sucks because the one time he nearly won a title his opponent missed weight. The guy even posted him the belt after apparently.

Sweet now clarify what you mean by 100% physical. Let's lock that psotion in before we continue.

Chael is popular because he makes fun of himself and was good on the mic. Fans acknowledge he wasn't that level fighting wise.His joke about tapping because he thought it just meant he lost the round is what made him. He got so in his head in the next fight he threw a spinning backfist and quit instantly.

I posted my video in response to yours only. So now we have your first video of Chael saying what you said, another of Chael agreeing with me and now you have another one that probably agrees with what you said. Do I now post another from him saying my position and that makes me right?

No you are acting like a complete clown because you get upset the second anyone disagrees with you, refuse to ever back down when you know you are wrong. You get so upset you start thinking people are saying things they don;t even say.
You are accusing me of doing the same thing you do with your last two sentences. The video I just posted twice will tell you verbatim what I have said to start this entire discussion. There is no backing down because the video and myself are saying the exact same thing.

Im not going to keep clarifying what I said over and over again. At least with you I am done with this topic.
 
Back to resistance bands: Here we can see Georgian Greco wrestler Tengiz Dalakishvili perform some higher intensity resistance band exercises for Karelin's signature move, the reverse lift. Note that he chooses to uses quadruple resistance bands (that's a Dopa Lightweight and a Dopa Middleweight he's using there), depsite the fact that he has a power rack and Olympic bars at his disposal. If anyone attempts to recreate this exercise, I would advise to use a webbing loop as an anchor though, threading bands through the holes of the power rack will cause undue band wear.
 
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Back to resistance bands: Here we can see Georgian Greco wrestler Tengiz Dalakishvili perform some higher intensity resistance band exercises for Karelin's signature move, the reverse lift. Note that he chooses to uses quadruple resistance bands (that's a Dopa Lightweight and a Dopa Middleweight he's using there), depsite the fact that he has a power rack and Olympic bars at his disposal. If anyone attempts to recreate this exercise, I would advise to use a webbing loop as an anchor though, threading bands through the holes of the power rack will cause undue band wear.

I use mine mostly for neck and bicep work.

You can use them for the same thing you would use an iron neck for.
The only difference is you don;t have a big harness.

The bicep work is usually for iso holds midway through the movement.

I have used a sandbag for movements like that though
 
I use mine mostly for neck and bicep work.

You can use them for the same thing you would use an iron neck for.
The only difference is you don;t have a big harness.

The bicep work is usually for iso holds midway through the movement.

I have used a sandbag for movements like that though
I tried them for neck work, but I prefer bridging overall by far. I don't do much biceps work because pull-ups, rows, rope climbing and cleans have made my arms as big as they can be for my weight class, although I am contemplating to do more of the Swiss Steinheben in training, some of the Swiss wrestlers swear by it. It's basically lifting a 22.5 kg block weight on the palm from the floor to overhead for reps (the top guys manage around 40 reps per arm). It's surprisingly applicable to things like outside singles etc.



In general, I think the biggest advantage of bands is the ability to use them with a wall anchor or pole for horizontal and rotational work, they are like very smooth pullies in that regard. In wrestling, probably the widest uses for them are shots, nsapdowns and pummeling, in Judo it's Uchikomi.
 
I tried them for neck work, but I prefer bridging overall by far. I don't do much biceps work because pull-ups, rows, rope climbing and cleans have made my arms as big as they can be for my weight class, although I am contemplating to do more of the Swiss Steinheben in training, some of the Swiss wrestlers swear by it. It's basically lifting a 22.5 kg block weight on the palm from the floor to overhead for reps (the top guys manage around 40 reps per arm). It's surprisingly applicable to things like outside singles etc.



In general, I think the biggest advantage of bands is the ability to use them with a wall anchor or pole for horizontal and rotational work, they are like very smooth pullies in that regard. In wrestling, probably the widest uses for them are shots, nsapdowns and pummeling, in Judo it's Uchikomi.


I have never been a fan of bridges outside of the actual wrestling/jj practice. I already use my head a lot in those practices, so i use the bands to mix up the movements and practice rotations etc. I like the bands better because it's a constant tension with no compression. I had a neck injury in the past and still have some ongoing nerve stuff, so compression isn't great for me.

I use the bands for bicep work in a similar way. It's a different movment to all my rows, pullups etc. I usually use it for short maximal contractions at a stretched range. I have some forearm tendonitis issues and it really helps with that.

I do like rotational stuff with bands. I had forgotten about that. Also facepulls. I really do like facepulls.
 
I have never been a fan of bridges outside of the actual wrestling/jj practice. I already use my head a lot in those practices, so i use the bands to mix up the movements and practice rotations etc. I like the bands better because it's a constant tension with no compression. I had a neck injury in the past and still have some ongoing nerve stuff, so compression isn't great for me.
With me it's the opposite, my neck and traps start acting up when I DON'T bridge ;)
 
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