A new series we will be doing ALL SUMMER is picking 1 piece of equipment each week to really dig deep into. With all the specialty bars, grip attachments, strongman/powerlifting gear, and athlete equipment we have, it's time to start showing exactly how/why we use them. My biggest goal for our equipment purchases is to build a facility that offers training that you won't find anywhere else and each year we just keep adding to the more "unique" atmosphere.
To kick this off I decided to go with the Bandbell RhinoFlex Bar. This bar has been a favorite of mine for Bench but I never really go into too many other lifts with it. I was surprised with how well it transfers over to other exercises, especially the Snatch. By not having a rotating sleeve, a much thicker grip, no knurling, and a large amount of vibration, this bar really made for some control building strength during the Snatch. Not the most weight driving version of a snatch I've ever done but it handled the movement really well and triggered a lot of areas in the body that I wasn't expecting it to.
Why we use it:
The Bandbell products are great for buillding stability and control in every movement but also the rehab/prehab aspect of these bars are incredible. Being able to make a movement difficult without putting a large amount of strain on the joints is really important when dealing with athletes who are repeatedly pounding the joints in the weight room and in their sport. It's obvious that a Shotputter should have strong powerful shoulders but when you see just how much impact their shoulders take during practice followed by heavy pressing it shouldn't be a shock that they end up with a lot of injuries in the shoulder, elbow, wrist with some of the injuries never fully going away. If you can take an athlete and reduce or eliminate the injury recovery time that will allow you months per year of additional training aka progressing.
This week's most shockingly hard exercise:
The Front Box Squats got me. It wasn't the weight but the way the weight wanted to flop back down as I was going up that really hit me. This wasn't so extreme that you could really see it or that it could become dangerous but it definitely triggered a need to keep driving up faster and faster to fight the drive of the weight bouncing back down.
