With dumbbells and barbell weights, the level of tension we place on the muscle varies greatly during exercise. Let’s take a look at the biceps curl as an example: when we move the weight to the shoulder, we notice that the tension in the upper part of the muscle disappears. This is because our biceps, in this position, stop lifting the dumbbell against gravity. However, when we do the bicep curl with an elastic tensioner, there is tension throughout the movement, because the resistance comes from the fitness bands and not from the weight of the dumbbell.
Unlimited movement possibilities
It’s possible to use fitness bands in many more ways than with using weights. This is also primarily because they do not rely on gravity to provide resistance. Regardless of the position in which we perform the exercise, there will always be resistance, and this allows us to be very creative! Think for example of lateral movements, kicks and punches, it does not matter if you do them standing or lying down. The possibilities are almost endless.
Progressive resistance
When doing exercises with fitness bands, the resistance level increases progressively. In the previous example of the bicep curl, the effect of the elastic bands causes the resistance to accumulate as we bend the arm. The more we stretch, the more resistance the elastic offers, and this reproduces the muscle power curve better than free weights.
You can't cheat!
Exercises with weights allow us to use other muscles that differ from the one we want to exercise to gain momentum and be able to lift the weight more easily. But this is not at all convenient since it favors injuries and slows down the development of the muscle that we want to strengthen. When we do exercises with fitness bands we can avoid this effect. At the beginning of the exercise there is less resistance, which allows us to adopt a correct posture and then gradually increase the intensity. In this way we favor the correct use of muscles.
Exercises with resistance bands
Below, I propose a series of exercises enabling you to start exercising with resistance bands:
1. Squat
Place one end of each turnbuckle under each of your feet and hold the other end with your hands at waist height. Then coordinate the squat with a front lift of your arms.
2. Press above the head
Hold one end of the turnbuckles with your feet and the other with your hands, with your elbows flexed. Stretch your arms to raise your hands as much as you can. Return to the starting position.
3. Triceps Extension
We position ourselves with the resistance band held by one of our feet, we raise the arm behind the head with our elbow flexed. We stretch and flex the elbow doing a full extension.
4. Walk with resistance bands in X
Hold the fitness bands with your left foot and right hand and vice versa so that they intersect, forming an X. Walk laterally with the resistance offered by the crossed resistance bands. With this exercise you will achieve a great activation of the buttocks, something fundamental for runners.
5. Push-pull (chest)
We fix the turnbuckles to a wall bar, column or wall behind us. We hold each end with one hand making sure that we have a straight back and shoulders down and back. We put both hands together and repeat.
Have you ever tried our GXR Booty class? We use resistance bands in many different ways! Also remember that if you don’t have any resistance bands yet, you can buy them in the Basic-Fit online store.
This blog is written by one of our Personal Trainers, Joyce Mohringer.
