A Dopamineo Band Analysis

 

With the recent articles on these bad ass bands, let's take a look as to why they're top quality and the differences between these and other resistance bands on the market with my own spin on things and the research through trial and error.....

Right now there's about 5 different types of Bands on the market at the moment and all have their unique qualities and styles that are useful. Because of the variety, the choice to pick one isn't always easy and it can be confusing as to what to choose from. Most of my career in fitness when it comes to bands has been from Lifeline and I will always cherish those especially with what they've done to keep me in shape in all these years. That doesn't mean I'm now exclusive to them. Because of the Dopa Band recently, it has given me a new perspective on resistance band training and the type of training that keeps me fresh and interested.

I want to give you a hand in how to find not only the type of band for you but to give you tips and compare notes to these bands and the others. Some bands are traditional tubing, loop and power type bands (such as the lifeline format, X3 and others). These mostly target the muscle groups with workouts normally associated with gym type training where you can mimic almost any exercise in the gym just about about anywhere you want. With that said, in comparison to Dopa Training, although different, there's some lack in versatility with other bands. This band targets everything and can create any workout you want without needing different bands to choose from. You can of course but variety is more packed into the Dopa Bands than other bands that I've even used.

The material in the Dopa Band is a bit different than other bands, these are laced with silicone and pack a wild punch with their durability and lasting effects as you train with them. I've had the lifeline bands snap on me a time or two and it doesn't feel good trust me unless you got some S&M thing going on. With the Dopa Band, you can stretch it pretty damn long and its flexibility and time tested strength is just unbelievable. There's a podcast on Dopamineo's Youtube channel where wrestlers and other athletes test guests on the Blue Short Band (which is mainly used for stretching purposes) to see if they can snap this freaking thing. These men and women are freakishly strong and as far as I know, no one has been able to snap the band. Even shorter ones that are more likely to snap are still almost impossible to break. That's how crazy strong these bands are. Hell, I've even tested this and I can't do it and I've done some nutty strength feats. 

Now when it comes to cost effectiveness, I've always looked to saving a buck or two which isn't a bad thing but when bands snap on you and you have to replace them after a while, it can get steep depending on the type of bands you get but with the Dopa Band, the chances of it snapping especially if you use certain things to keep it flexible and strong are so freakishly slim it's jaw dropping. Some of the best wrestlers in the world use these frequently in their training and do all sorts of exercises and hook ups that should make it snap within months if not weeks like with other bands yet they don't. It's just awesome how bad ass these bands can take a beating. In the long run, the Dopa Band is more cost effective than even the lifeline bands I use. I can relax a bit and not worry about this band breaking on me as opposed to being cautious about using something like the TNT Cables or the Chest Expander, they're great in and of themselves no question and have used them for years but I always had to be extra careful to stretch them to the limits that is only just enough otherwise, I get a stinger in the arm, chest or leg. 

When it comes to providing videos, you would have to find videos for specific bands which isn't all that hard to find or figure out or buy specific videos either digitally or on DVD for that particular band like say videos for the X3 or the Chest Expanders. With the Dopa Band, you're given just about 300 Workout Videos and Exercises that provide every muscle group imaginable with just the one band. In comparison even coming from me, there's no contest in that. You can find lower body, upper body, core, flexibility, strength, endurance, conditioning and sports specific training all in one shot with this band. I can do quite a bit with the TNT Cables and Chest Expander but you can't utilize wrestling drills, jumping jacks, sprints, crawling, sprawling, kick throughs, jumping exercises or battle rope type exercises with them. That's just the tip of the iceberg with the Dopa Band. With that in mind, the Dopa band is that versatile and can give you a complete workout just about anywhere, if you used additional bands like the ones I just mentioned, you've got an arsenal that can give you a crazy strong and powerful physique, the type of conditioning that makes others' jaws drop and have a wealth of knowledge of exercises very few can possess. 

If you go with cheaper bands, that's awesome but either by itself or as an addition, the Dopa Band will take you to places in your training you didn't think existed and put not only a new stamp on the realistic functional training but have the opportunity to train (even moderately) what some of the greatest athletes in the world use to keep themselves healthy, in peak condition and developing a physique that can just as go as it does look good. I still use my other bands which I love and adding the Dopa Band is the cherry on top of the most bad ass cake you can imagine. If you think that was enough, I've got a cool Discount for you when you make an order, get 10% OFF  when you punch in POWERANDMIGHT at the checkout (which can also deduct price with discount bundles as well). These are the highest quality I've ever come across and I don't regret one bit getting this, it has been a game changer and it has helped me get in better shape than in the last few months with the already good shape I'm in. 

Be amazingly awesome and train with the best guys. It doesn't disappoint.    

The 1500 Rep Challenge For Leg Day

 For the second time ever, I went after the Double Decker Leg Challenge of 1000 Step Ups and 500 Hindu Squats with a Deck Of Cards and made it through. It was pure hell and it may even make the devil go "fuck that." This type of workout will make you sweat, you will tire and you will be tested mentally and physically; hell you may be seeing stuff that aren't there who knows but it's true that this will kick your ass.

I wanted to see if I could do this again since it has been a while and I've done the 500 Step Ups and 250 Squats workout a just a few times recently as well. Let's just say I've never felt so damn happy to jump into a shower and chug some water afterwards. It's freaking brutal and my shirt looked like I came out of a damn pool. I didn't time it because I didn't want to go Speedy Gonzales on it and just focus on technique and breathing while the speed came on its own. This is not an everyday thing unless you have some sick and twisted mindset for punishment or if you're going out for a sport like wrestling. 

This challenge is purely to test your mental toughness and physical conditioning. It makes you push through barriers that aren't your typical workout challenges. Doing 500 Squats in a row can be done almost daily if you have that mindset and within reason, 1000 Step Ups can be a chore but it's not impossible to do them 2-3x a week if you're working towards a goal and building some killer cardio but to do both in the same workout with your only rest is flipping a card is almost pure insanity. When you get to the jokers, you have to do 50 Step Ups and 25 Squats in a superset and you have to do this 4 times throughout the workout on top of the other cards. This workout for most people would be once in a while like every 10 days or so if you want to keep pursuing it but if you're a world class athlete like a Collegiate or World/Olympic Caliber Wrestler or Running Back/Linebacker or an aspiring MMA Fighter, you can attempt this on conditioning days or 2-4x a week if you're that sadistic like a Karl Gotch or Kurt Angle in his Olympic Training. 

Leg Day is one of those days where you find out a little more about what you're capable of but never go to the point where you have to crawl back home and sleep for 10-12 hours a day for the next week. Always have something in the tank. I did say you'll get tired but don't quit. It is really tough and it's not for the average trainee. Hell, 99.9999% of people won't even try to attempt this; it's nasty, your legs will feel like jello and it forces you to breathe with intensity. This won't however make you puke your guts out. I've never believed in that and if you have to throw up during a workout, that's getting to the point of destroying your organs. Never, ever train to the point of feeling sick, whoever came up with that is an asshole who just loves punishment.

If you're up to the challenge, I encourage you to build up your leg strength and cardio first and foremost. Don't do this if you have heart and organ issues and for my sake, have a towel and water on hand. Be smart about it but don't slack off either. Do the workout as best as you can, don't go for a world record on it. If you do it in multiple workouts, see how fast you can do it (within solid form and not having a heart attack). Also don't do this if you've never done step ups and/or Hindu Squats before, if you do, you're going to find out how hard it is to even walk the next day, let alone feel like an old man with legs ready to fall off. Train with intent and preparedness. This goes beyond just leg training, it's a full body workout and do your best to keep your body relaxed but not so loose you're like a worm. 

Best of luck and keep being amazingly awesome.  

Step Ups In The Most Unexpected Place

 Yesterday I ordered a series of videos from a pro wrestling website called RF Video where you can buy digital videos of classic matches, interviews, training sessions and events with more wrestlers than you can name. The series I got was from ECW Legend Taz showing various things from his Wrestling School. In this series, he doesn't show how to take bumps and running through the ropes and all that, believe it or not, he shows how to do takedowns like in the old school style that's also used in Amateur Wrestling, Judo, Greco-Roman and the Japanese Style; the next video is on Submissions which I found really interesting and shows both real and show holds ranging from Ankle Locks, Figure Fours, Arm Bars and a lot more. The last video is on Stretching, Mobility & Conditioning which was mostly very basic stuff.

Now for those who've lived under a rock, Taz in his prime was a backbone of ECW's heyday where Hardcore matches were in practically every match and was the underbelly of the Attitude Era that Paul Heyman ran for a number of years. Taz was one of the few wrestlers in that organization that actually had legit wrestling and judo under his belt and was the king of suplexes and various submissions. The closest to him in that time with technical knowledge was probably Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero and maybe Dean Malenko. If you ever watch highlights, you'll see that his character was a tough son of a bitch that could throw you as well as make you work using wrestling. 

I've seen training videos of various pro wrestling schools and almost all of them show some of the same stuff from working a match to some segments of conditioning; this however was closer to MMA and pure wrestling that can be used in real life, yes there are show holds in Taz's highlights throughout the series but his style is about as real as it gets down to what is right and wrong with a move especially on the takedowns. Taz was also one of those guys that wasn't a big dude in comparison to guys like the Dudley Boys, Stone Cold, The Rock or Undertaker; he was roughly 5'8 and no more than 235-240. What he lacked in size, he made up for intensity and using wrestling as a means to make matches look just badass. 

In the Conditioning series, he takes you and his students through various stretches and mobility drills. Some are a little fast for most to keep up with and is really vague on most of them but it still holds true regardless. The "drills" he puts them through most these days can figure out especially if you're an MMA fighter or an upcoming pro wrestler but the one exercise I didn't expect to see him put his students through was the Step Ups. Granted these are done on a high bench but it's interesting how he uses Step Ups to condition his guys. He talks about putting them through up to 45 min of Step Ups which at a decent clip in a row (depending on the height you use) is roughly around 1000 reps but he takes things a step further so do speak as the guys work the exercise, he'll blow a whistle while one guy goes in the ring and does other hard drills for a minute or more while the rest do Step Ups. Whistle blows for the next guy to come in and so on and so forth to really make them blow up. If a student starts to get lazy or is acting like a chump, Taz will have them hold a folded chair on their arms while their arms are straight out and have them do step ups with that chair until the exercise is done or have to go in the ring. 

That is some nasty training and if you're doing drills, squats, bumps, falls and running the ropes on top of that; it makes you think twice about training at that school. I don't think the school is around anymore and Taz had a podcast for a while and did commentary for AEW for a period. I didn't know much about him when he came to WWE at the Royal Rumble in 2001, I saw some matches he did for ECW but I wasn't into that stuff as much back then. Once I studied him and his matches, it changed my perspective and he was legitimately one of the toughest guys in the business in his time. Trained by Hall Of Famer Johnny Rodz in New York, he made an impact on the business from more of an underground stand point because he wasn't flashy and had some weird gimmick that made him millions, he was primitive, old school, tough, look like he can snap your bones in half and had some crazy strength for a guy his size. 

My respect for him amped up a bit more when I saw that he used Step Ups because if you pay attention to some of the stuff they do with Pro Wrestlers, Step Ups isn't one of those exercises that they use; you're talking more of the Japanese Style Karl Gotch perfected with the Hindu Squats, Push-ups, Bridges, Lunges, Ring Sprints and others. This was unique to see. So if someone like Taz uses that exercise to make students bust their ass, you know for sure this isn't some "Lazy's Man Leg Training" that some "Bodyweight Exercise Guru" likes to push on.  

Thought I'd share this little review and keep being amazingly awesome.