Using towels instead of board safe alternative? help tonight if possible

[brownstown89]

ok well im doing westide i did 3 weeks of chain benching and now im rotating out to "Towell Press" basically instead of using a 2,3,4,5,6 board i rolled up towels to my stick point. i stick the towels under my shirt and touch and go reps on there.

reason being if i get stuck i can roll it off and the towels not going to hurt being pressed into my body the board will..


i dont see any way that this is not a safe alternative thoughts?

[pmiller383]

if you dont have a spotter I would highly suggest doing a floor press instead of boards. The rolled up towels are a nice variation to use, but they are not going to keep you safer if pressing alone. With the towel all of the weight will still be distributed into one point on your body, where a board would distribute the way more evenly hence reducing the risk of crushing something. The towels are also going to give you a lot different feel than the boards, first they are going to compress which will change the actual ROM, next you have to stay a lot tighter with the towel than you do with a higher board, and finally the towel is going to dampen your stretch reflex during the press therefore making the making the concentric portion of the press a little more difficult.

[brownstown89]

^ u know ur **** man im gonna just floor press today thanks for the quick reply bro!

[Chubbie]

Foam Rolls can be used for an alternative too. I find these are great for working sticking points nearly better than boards.

[Jmaths]

Some people have been using foam and stuff instead of boards.

Towels should be fine, I don't see why it wouldn't be safe. Take into account the compression of the material.

[brownstown89]

thanks guys any suggestions on where to buy foam rolls?!

[pmiller383]

thanks guys any suggestions on where to buy foam rolls?!

http://www.performbetter.com/SearchR...tegoryID_E_487

They have free shipping going right now so thats probably your best bet. Elitefts.com also sells the rollers but I believe they are a bit more expensive.

[brownstown89]

which one should i buy pmiller?

[pmiller383]

If you want to bench into one I would get the 1ft white one at the bottom of the page for like $10.00. The black ones are a lot more durable but I don't think they will compress enough and I really don't think you need need a 3 foot long piece for benching either. If I were going to do it I would buy two of the cheap rollers and cut one of them in half so that you have a 6' thick one and two 3' half circle ones. With that you can use one of the half ones for low end work, a half one glued to a 1 board for a low/midrange press and finally the full six inch one for like a 3-4 board press.

[Chubbie]

thanks guys any suggestions on where to buy foam rolls?!

I bought mine from power-systems.com. I bought two long rolls, one 6inch and one 3inch. I cut them in half then wrapped them in duct tape. They work great.

[brownstown89]

If you want to bench into one I would get the 1ft white one at the bottom of the page for like $10.00. The black ones are a lot more durable but I don't think they will compress enough and I really don't think you need need a 3 foot long piece for benching either. If I were going to do it I would buy two of the cheap rollers and cut one of them in half so that you have a 6' thick one and two 3' half circle ones. With that you can use one of the half ones for low end work, a half one glued to a 1 board for a low/midrange press and finally the full six inch one for like a 3-4 board press.

thanks a bunch man im trying to give u reps it wnt let me tho... im at work now gonna go home and order those.. but any suggestions for my westide ME upper body ive done

week 1-3 chain bench
week 4-6 floor presss ( 5th floor press will be sunday)
week 7-8 foam press 3-4 board press range
week 9 deload
week 10 max?

that way i did chain bench which is full rom then floor press works bottom and mid and then foam press is like mid and lockout then a realxed week then max? hows that sound.

[pmiller383]

thanks a bunch man im trying to give u reps it wnt let me tho... im at work now gonna go home and order those.. but any suggestions for my westide ME upper body ive done

week 1-3 chain bench
week 4-6 floor presss ( 5th floor press will be sunday)
week 7-8 foam press 3-4 board press range
week 9 deload
week 10 max?

that way i did chain bench which is full rom then floor press works bottom and mid and then foam press is like mid and lockout then a realxed week then max? hows that sound.

We have never really set our ME training up that way, for us a training cycle might look more like this:
Week 1 - Chain Press to a max triple, 4 board press for 2 sets of 5
Week 2 - Floor Press to a max triple, dumbbell bench for sets of 8-10
Week 3 - Foam Press to a max triple, 5 board for sets of 5
Week 4 Deload - Illegal wides for sets of 6
Week 5 - Chain Press to a max double, 4 board press for 2 sets of 5
Week 6 - Floor Press to double, db bench sets of 8-10
Week 7 - Foam press to double, 5 board for fives
week 8 Deload Illegal Wides for sets of 8
Week 9 - Chain to a single, 4 board for sets of 5
week 10 - Floor Press to single , db sets of 8
Week 11- Foam Press to single , 5 boards for 5s
Week 12- Deload Illegal wides for 10
Start new cycle of exercises.

We will keep our assistance exercises the same for weeks 1-3, then switch for 4-7, and than switch again for 8-11. At week 12 you would do the assistance work for the next three weeks. We also set our assistance work for dynamic days the same way, but with dynamic days we keep the first two exercises the same for three weeks in a row, so it would be like this:
Weeks 1,2,3 - 8x3 @ 40-60% with doubled minis, Incline presses for 8's
Week 4 - No pressing for Dynamic day
Weeks 5,6,7 - 8x3 @ 40-60% with bar weight only, 4 board with chains for 5's
Week 8 - Same as week 4
Weeks 9,10,11 - 8x3 @ 40-60% with chains , Tricep death

[brownstown89]

so u never actually max out?

[pmiller383]

The weeks we are going to singles we are taking our maxes.I should have put max doubles and max singles instead of just writing doubles and singles. Every max effort session we try and break a PR, sometimes we do and other times we don't be we are always hitting a coupe sets above 90%
Actually we usually go to singles every week but I think you will need a little more volume than that to help kick your strength up. Personally I think doubles tend to be the roughest number to shoot for but they always seem to yield good results for us.

[brownstown89]

Got ya so basically you do max triple in foam,chain,floor press deolad then max double in those two then max singles..

[pmiller383]

Got ya so basically you do max triple in foam,chain,floor press deolad then max double in those two then max singles..

Yeah, thats one way to do it that has always been successful for us. We have been playing around with some different ideals lately though to see if we can't maximize our results. For example for our speed work right now instead of doing a traditional 50/55/60% cycle we are doing a 50/75/100% cycle to combine the effects of the repeated effort and dynamic methods.

[brownstown89]

got ya sounds good but pmiller can you check out my thread its titled "i will finally bench 270" in the workout log... just want some feed back on my routine.. i use a westside template but i do added more lifts then the template shows ex. lat pulldowns seated rows, cable flyes.. but i use weight that i can hit for 10-25 reps... ive been using it for like a month or close to it no over training.

deadlift went 420-430
Floor Press (255-265) after one week of floor press
Squat- NA yet max is 365

[brownstown89]

btw pmiller i dont see why i would do a upper back movement on max effort bench day? like if i pick deadlifts for max effort lower body wouldnt that be a waste to do a back movement the day b4?

[pmiller383]

btw pmiller i dont see why i would do a upper back movement on max effort bench day? like if i pick deadlifts for max effort lower body wouldnt that be a waste to do a back movement the day b4?

1.) Your max effort workouts should be spaced out a couple days so that you don't over tax yourself
2.) By upper back I am referring to rear delts, scapulars, and traps. Although deadlift hits these areas, it does not stimulate them adequately enough to effect your pressing once you start to get use to deadlifting more often.
3.) You should be deadlifting for a max often enough for this to make any difference. At most you want to do a max pull once a month, that is why exercises like low box squats and good mornings are commonly used for the max work in the Westside program.
4.) If you don't develop these muscles properly you are setting your self up for an injury in bench pressing. The Upper back is one of the main supporters in your bench press, and if its not adequately strong your never going to have a good press and you risk causing shoulder and pec strains while pressing.
5.) The muscles should recover within 48 hours therefore hitting them directly on your upper body days should not effect your lower body days.
6.) A person will only ever be as strong as their back, its one of the most important muscle groups in lifting and has carry over to just about every lift you do.
7.) Its a max effort upper day, I wouldn't consider your upper back to be your lower body. Think of it this way, your lower days should work everything from your sternum down. So for lower days you are working your abs, lower back, glutes, hams, quads, calves, and inner/outer thighs. On upper days you are working everything above the sternum, so you want to target your chest, lats, delts, triceps, biceps, traps, scaps, and neck. Now on upper days it is alright to throw in some ab work as well but that doesn't mean to neglect it during your lower days. The same applies for any other muscle group, you may get some work in on it on one day, but you don't want to neglect it on its main days.
8.) Sorry I like making lists and being long winded now I guess.

[AE14]

if you dont have a spotter I would highly suggest doing a floor press instead of boards. The rolled up towels are a nice variation to use, but they are not going to keep you safer if pressing alone. With the towel all of the weight will still be distributed into one point on your body, where a board would distribute the way more evenly hence reducing the risk of crushing something. The towels are also going to give you a lot different feel than the boards, first they are going to compress which will change the actual ROM, next you have to stay a lot tighter with the towel than you do with a higher board, and finally the towel is going to dampen your stretch reflex during the press therefore making the making the concentric portion of the press a little more difficult.

I gotta agree, floor press is an easier safer way to go in this instance