Awesome product! I was skeptical at first, but after hitting a plateau with my bench press, I was up for trying something new.
A lot of people will say that a product like this is "cheating" but it's actually quite the opposite. During a normal bench press, your muscles are strongest when at the top of the lift, and weakest at the bottom of the lift when they are stretched out. So let's say you can bench 200 lbs x 5. At the top of your lift, you unrack the bar, and as the bar moves closer to your chest, you're feeling great. At the bottom of the lift, it starts to feel heavy, and you really have to push to get the bar back up. Halfway up, the weight seems much more manageable, and you finish out the rep easily. Pretty standard, right?
But let's look at this process more closely. How much of your range of motion was actually spent under heavy tension? 30%? 40%? 50%? At the top of your lift (both at the beginning and end or the rep), you are essentially at minimal muscle tension. That 200 lbs is not putting much stress on you, in fact you could probably half rep quite a bit more weight. Not until you get to the lower muscle range of your rep does the tension build up enough to cause tissue damage, and consequently muscular hypertrophy. So a rough non-scientific estimate puts most of us at minimal tension for at least half of the range of motion. That means, that about 50% of reach individual rep, you're not really getting any benefit. Your muscles are not being challenged enough at the top of your range!
So, we need to fix our approach. We need to add tension at the top of the rep (both at the beginning and end), while reducing tension at the bottom so we don't overload the bottom of the rep to the point of failure. That way, we can keep tension high enough throughout the range of motion that we are inducing muscular hypertrophy at or near 100% of the time (it's probably like 80-90%, but it's significantly better than 30-50%).
Instead of benching 200 x 5, add 10-15% more weight, put the Slingshot on, and now at the top of your bench you are resisting 225 lbs, while at the bottom you are still under the same 200 lbs of tension you were when benching 200 x 5 without the Slingshot. In reality, with the Slingshot you are doing MORE work than you would be doing benching less weight without the Slingshot! More work, more tension, more muscular tissue damage = more gains over a shorter period of time.
If you decide to buy this product, which I highly recommend (quality is top notch), and someone says "you're just cheating man", just keep in mind that some people are dumb as bricks, and there is nothing you or I or anyone can do about it.
| Item Package Dimensions L x W x H | 13.9 x 7 x 1.3 inches |
|---|---|
| Package Weight | 0.75 Pounds |
| Item Weight | 0.34 Kilograms |
| Brand Name | Sling Shot |
| Model Name | Sling Shot Original Power Lifting Band |
| Color | Red |
| Material | Polyester |
| Manufacturer | Super Training Products LLC |
| Part Number | ORIGINAL-SS-RED-3XL |
| Style | Resistance Band |
| Included Components | Sleeve-like bands for bench pressing, dips, and pushups |
| Size | 3X-Large |
| Sport Type | Weightlifting, Physiotherapy, Exercise and Fitness, Strength Training, Body Building |
