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24.09.2022

How does the deadlift change when you attach elastic bands to the barbell?

Strength athletes can vary deadlifts by attaching elastic bands to the barbell. This has no effect on the muscles that the deadlift engages, but it does increase the force that the muscles develop during the movement in a subtle way. For rugby players and sprinters, these variations on the deadlift can be interesting.

Study
Vidar Andersen, a sports scientist from the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, had 16 young men who were used to weight training deadlift on 3 separate occasions with a weight that would allow just 2 reps.

On one occasion the men simply used a bar with weights [Free Weights]. On another occasion, Andersen had elastic bands attached to the bar in such a way that they eased the movement [Assisted]. On yet another occasion, the elastic bands were attached to the bar in such a way that they made the movement heavier [Resisted].

During the assisted deadlifts, Andersen had added some extra weight to the bar to compensate for the elastic bands. For the same reason, Andersen had just lightened the weight on the bar during the Resisted deadlifts.

Results
Andersen had put electrodes on the men's skin that measured how hard the men's muscles had to work during the deadlifts. Although there were small differences, they were not statistically significant.

However, the force that the men developed during the different versions of the deadlift was significantly different. This force was higher in both the Assisted and Resisted versions of the deadlift. In the Resisted deadlifts, the men produced more force in the upper part of the movement than in the lower part, while the force production in the Assisted version was more evenly distributed throughout the movement.

Conclusion
"Assisted deadlifts seems to produce an evenly high force output through the whole movement, which could be beneficial for many sport movements, for example in scrummages in rugby and American football", write the Norwegians.

"However, resisted deadlifts together with free weights, seem to favor more explosive factors such as maximal velocity which is important in other movements such as sprint and jumping."

Source:
Front Sports Act Living. 2020 Nov 5;2:598284.

More:
Bench presses with elastic band result in 32 percent more strength 02.07.2022
Meta-study | Strength training with weights equivalent to strength training with elastic bands 05.06.2022
Flyes and reverse flyes: an elastic band instead of dumbbells 09.05.2018

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