In the past resistance bands were mostly used for injury recovery and mobility work. But for a couple of years now they were on the rise and now have the same appreciation as weight training – in our opinion resistance bands have even more to offer than weights.
So there’s a reason why many professional athletes use resistance bands frequently in their training. As we focus primarily on training with resistance bands we collected the main benefits for you to help you understand why training with resistance bands is more than an option.
To really get the most out of resistance band training there are some common mistakes to avoid. We collected the worst mistakes people do when starting out. Make sure you don’t do the same: Worst Mistakes With Resistance Bands
Main Benefits Of Resistance Bands
Here are the main benefits you will have by training with resistance bands.
#1 - Versatility
What’s your training goal? Is it building muscle, strength or do you want to lose body fat?
How you will reach your fitness goals is to move your body against resistance and therefore become fitter. Of course, you also have to take care of your diet and be consistent with your training.
Resistance bands are a simple and great tool to reach any fitness goal. You won’t need an expensive gym membership, and you will have the flexibility to train anywhere and anytime.
But it doesn’t end there besides burning fat, increase muscle mass and strength you can use resistance bands to increase stability, mobility and work on your flexibility.
Toning & Fat Burn
Use resistance bands for a HIIT or cardio workout and burn more fat compared to regular bodyweight exercises.
Muscle Building
Get a better peak contraction and more controlled reps with resistance bands and adjust the resistance during your set to get the optimal amount of reps.
Strength Building
Work on explosiveness in the concentric part of an exercise and overload your muscles in the eccentric part through resisting the pull of the band.
#2 - No Cheating
In the gym I used to see so many times that people simply cheat they way through a workout. When working out with weights it is easy to use momentum and sloppy form to make an exercise easier. Especially beginners have this problem, and usually they don’t even know they are doing anything wrong…until there is injury.
Resistance Bands on the other hand provide constant tension to your muscles, no matter what angle.
There’s no way to cheat or lock in, you’re forced to fully control the motion. This lets the muscle work harder than with weight training and provides the optimal muscle stimulus for your fitness goals.
#3 - Joint friendly
We all have different bodies. And therefore different positions we are strongest and weakest in. When training against the vertical force of gravity, with weights or your bodyweight, you are forced to repeat the same movement patterns over and over again with a constant stress on your joints. This is where risk of injury comes into the picture.
With resistance bands you add horizontal and rotational forces into the equation as well as dynamic stress that will help reduce joint compression where your joints are the weakest. This will make sure to keep you injury free long-term and will enable you to progress on a day-to-day basis.
#4 - Mobile
Don't Stuff Your Home With Gym Equipment
Bands are lightweight, take up little space, therefore you can store them anywhere - don't occupy your home with gym equipment. Grab the bands, turn your home into the gym, have a great workout and then simply put them away.
They Fit In Every Luggage
With the size of a small towel they can be stored in every luggage, no matter if you are on a business trip or vacation - simply take your set of resistance bands with you and still get your workout done in your hotel room or AirBnB.
Take Your Workout Outdoors
You like to work out outside? The beach, a park nearby or simply in your backyard. Take your resistance bands with you and do your workout wherever you enjoy it. No limits.
#5 - Multiplane Training
If you train with weights or machines you will always work against the one single force that adds force to the weight – gravity. This means you always have to get into a position that let you execute an exercise against the gravity force.
With resistance bands you can attach them anywhere and work against the resistance of the band itself instead of the path of gravity – exercises like chest flies or rowing can be done in any position that gives you more control and let you focus on the muscle group you’re training primarily.
The BIQ App
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#6 - Work Your Stabilising Muscles
With weights and especially with machines you will find yourself in a position where you will isolate single muscles or muscle groups in an exercise without paying any attention to stabilising muscles like your core.
An easy example here is a shoulder press where you not only push the band upwards – the band will also pull into all direction so you use all other stabilizing muscles in your shoulder and back as well. With chest flies you will start working against the vertical force of the band and work your obliques. I could go on and on with that list of examples, bottom line you will train important muscles with resistance bands as well that are not easy to train in isolation.
#7 - Resistance Follows The Natural Strength Curve
If you train with a weight you will have the same force at any position of the exercises because gravity is the same in every position. The thing is, your muscles don’t have a conistent strength curve through the full range of motion of an exercise and that’s the point where the resistance band works perfectly in.
The band gives you more resistance the longer you stretch it and that’s also how your muscles are designed to work where the biggest strength is in the spot of the biggest contraction – with resistance bands you do give the muscles the biggest resistance where they are strongest other than overworking them in a position where they would fatigue faster (e.g. beginning of a curl) although your muscle has power in the fully contracted area.
#8 - Eliminate Disbalances
When you do your exercises with bars double-handed you normally have a more dominant side that takes over work from the less-dominant side of your body without you even noticing. Just as an example, if your right side is your dominant side, you normally have developed slightly more muscles on the right side of your body.
Training with resistance bands is always like training one-handed (even with exercises that are done both-handed) as every side has to do the same work without any possibility of the other side helping out – this helps a lot to prevent disbalances to develop long-term.
#9 - Natural Grip
If you train with free weights or machines, your grip always needs to adapt to the bar or the machine and can give you a less healthy and natural hand position and put more stress on your wrists – this can lead to injuries, joint stress or also slower progression since your wrists may weaken before the muscle you#re training with a given exercise.
With resistance bands, you can always turn your wrist as freely as you want to and get your wrists into a more natural position without any limitation from the band.
#10 - No Spotter Needed
When you work out in the gym with free weights there are some exercises you simply need a spotter to make the exercise safe. Doing bench press with several hundred pounds on a barbell might be a bit scary doing it alone. With bands this is fear is not a reality. Bands don’t depend on gravity to create resistance – therefore if you drop a resistance band it simply can’t break your foot 😉
So working out with resistance is safer than training with free weights. And you can even do it without having a spotter.
Resistance Bands
Resistance Bands
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Lose Fat
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Build Muscle
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Build Strength
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Progressive Overload
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Free Movement Patter
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Multi Plane Training
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Variable Resistance
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Joint-Friendly
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Stabilization & Core
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Portable
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Cost Effective
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Lose Fat
-
Build Muscle
-
Build Strength
-
Progressive Overload
-
Free Movement Pattern
-
Multi Plane Training
-
Variable Resistance
-
Joint-Friendly
-
Stabilization & Core
-
Portable
-
Cost Effective
-
Lose Fat
-
Build Muscle
-
Build Strength
-
Progressive Overload
-
Free Movement Pattern
-
Multi Plane Training
-
Variable Resistance
-
Joint-Friendly
-
Stabilization & Core
-
Portable
-
Cost Effective
