Resistance Bands 101: Why You Need Them And Where To Start Out – Aaptiv
You’ve likely crossed paths with a resistance band or two alongside your health journey. While they look like simple gym equipment, they arrive jam-filled with a full vary of advantages.
So, we turned to two Aaptiv trainers to inform us extra about resistance bands and how to make use of them in our training.
How do resistance bands work?
Aaptiv trainer Candice Cunningham says, “Resistance bands work by including an external resistance power that can be applied with out having to carry extra weight per se.” They’re flat, generally looped bands that vary from thin sizes to thick.
Aaptiv coach and proprietor of Trainers in Transit, Jennifer Giamo, further explains, “They present resistance at various levels of problem (light, medium, heavy, further heavy) when offering the opposing power with your individual physique weight. When they are anchored in place, you can push, pull, curl, and so on. towards the rubber resistance.”
What are some benefits of resistance bands?
Travel-pleasant
There are a number of advantages to using resistance bands, which makes them so standard amongst gym goers and trainers alike. “They are portable [and] cheap,” Giamo says.
Resistance bands can be utilized anyplace-the gym, at the park, in your home. They’re compact and gentle so they don’t take up much house or add weight. Basically, they’re good for fitting in workouts on-the-go.
Just pop one of these bands in your luggage, and you may arrange your individual dwelling gym in the midst of your hotel room.
Multi-level
You could have noticed that resistance bands are available various colours and thickness. Each dimension and shade usually correlates with a certain resistance degree.
So, you’ll be able to choose which band to make use of primarily based on your ability and the exercise you’re doing. It makes this multi-degree health instrument great for all ranges, says Giamo.
Variety
“They’re great for activating muscle groups previous to heavy lifting or cardio train to ensure correct muscle groups are working and doing their jobs,” Cunningham adds. “They’re additionally nice for toning smaller muscle areas.”
But you don’t have to be taught new workouts or movements to make use of the bands. Take workout routines you’re already conversant in, and make them extra difficult by adding additional resistance. Alternatively, you possibly can truly make some strikes simpler through the use of the bands as leverage and offsetting a few of your bodyweight.
“They provide variety to a routine workout and also allow for muscles to work concentrically and eccentrically-providing resistance during the ‘work phase’ and the ‘rest phase,’” says Giamo. “[Resistance bands] are also fairly easy to use when figuring out by yourself. They’re secure and efficient.”
What exercises can I do with resistance bands?
You should use resistance bands as a part of quite a lot of health routines and workouts. In case you have virtually any inquiries relating to where by in addition to how to utilize Elastic webbing [www.dailystrength.org], you can e mail us from our website. But they’re notably helpful in relation to power and toning workouts.
“The advantages of using resistance bands for power training are infinite,” Giamo says. “You can perform workout routines for every major muscle group, problem your existing routine ([for instance], add them to push-ups for elevated issue). You may as well improve your vary of movement, flexibility and muscular endurance.”
There is a spread of exercises you should use them with resembling assisted pull-ups, chest press, bicep curls, and tricep extensions.
“Some [different] nice workout routines are scapular retraction pulls and pull ups for higher body, for decrease physique glute bridges, lateral kicks or walks, and clams,” says Cunningham.
Are resistance bands higher than free weights and gym machines?
While resistance bands are great, it doesn’t imply that you’ll want to shun the free weights and gym machines fully.
“I think they’re a very good complement to weights and machines,” Giamo explains. “They help add a different ingredient to power training and are especially great when weights and machines should not obtainable. You can mimic almost all workout routines and work the same muscle groups using resistance bands.”
In fact, research show the consequences of combining elastic and free weight resistance on power and energy in athletes. A combination of the bands and free weights, for example, reveals significantly greater outcomes in contrast to only utilizing free weights alone.
Ultimately, to improve your overall body composition, don’t just depend on one or the opposite. Use a mixture of resistance bands, free weights, and machines to give yourself an excellent workout – yow will discover this and more inside the Aaptiv app.
