Over the last year or so one thing that has become increasingly apparent to me is that people don’t typically end up getting better when using bands for chin ups. It seems to me that the same athlete that is using a band to assist them with chin ups as a freshman is still using a band to assist them doing a chin up when they are seniors.

My question is; are the bands actually getting people stronger? I think my answer is no.

The solution? This year we have decided to have people perform eccentric reps instead. For example, if the training session calls for 3 sets of 5 chin ups, the athlete will do as many chin ups as they can and then perform eccentric reps to finish out the prescribed reps. Managed to get 3 chin ups – then you perform 3 eccentric reps to get a total of 5 reps.

Will this work? I don’t know, but I do think I know that bands aren’t helping people get better at chin ups and it can’t hurt to try and see what type of effect the change has on developing the ability to actually perform more chin ups.