When you visit most gyms up and down the country, there isn’t a great deal of variation in the equipment that they offer. Obviously, dependant on membership prices and the gym size you might get the addition of certain pieces of kit, but generally speaking you’ll have cardiovascular equipment, machine resistance and a free weights section. What often separates a great gym from a good gym is the kit that you sometimes overlook and quite possibly don’t even know is there. One piece of kit that fits this category perfectly is the weight lifting chains. Weight lifting chains as the name suggests are simply heavy duty chains which have the ability to be added to certain exercises, such as the chest bench press. They really are a phenomenal piece of kit that doesn’t often feature in your normal health and leisure style fitness clubs. So what makes this piece of kit so special and what benefits do they offer above that of normal resistance? This article considers these questions and more. We guarantee that by the end of this article you will be adding a card with the writing ‘purchase weight lifting chains’ into the suggestion box at your local gym. They really are that impressive!
The Benefits Of Weight Lifting Chains
First and foremost, weight lifting chains allow you to zone in and add resistance to certain parts of an exercise. Previous research has revealed that the strongest portion of any lift is that of the final, top third. If we use the chest bench press as an example, this would constitute the highest part of the movement as your arms reach full extension. Simply by adding chains you can enhance the resistance during this final third whilst not interfering with the rest of the movement. Ultimately, this will allow you to enhance your strength levels during this movement range and not be held back by your weakness at other sections of the lift. So far so good? Weight lifting chains also have to ability to enhance explosiveness of any given lift. Once again, using the example of a chest bench press, the initial press is lighter allowing you to enhance speed which carries through during that last final third. This method of training enhances the overall ability of your neural pathways at lifting lighter weight more rapidly and with a greater explosiveness. If the first two reasons just weren’t good enough for you then we have one more to well and truly win you over; achieving new personal bests. This last factor is a continuation of those above but is deserving of independent recognition. The use of chains during the strongest part of your movement leads to impressive strength gains in your chosen lift. It is for these reasons that weight lifting chains are a popular add on with athletes and body builders.
Final Word
Sold on the idea of adding weight lifting chains to your normal resistance yet? If you are lucky enough to have this piece of kit in your gym then make the most of them and reap the benefits they undoubtedly offer. For those less fortunate, it could be time to get writing on a suggestion card as soon as possible.
